Part 30

'TO CANDIDUS. Friend Candidus, thou often doost demaund What humours men by gulling understand. Our English Martiall hath full pleasantly In his close nips describde a gull to thee: I'le follow him, and set downe my conceit What a gull is--oh, word of much receit! He is a gull whose indiscretion Cracks his purse-strings to be in fashion; He is a gull who is long in taking roote In barraine soyle where can be but small fruite; He is a gull who runnes himselfe in debt For twelue dayes' wonder, hoping so to get; He is a gull whose conscience is a block, Not to take interest, but wastes his stock; He is a gull who cannot haue a whore, But brags how much he spends upon her score; He is a gull that for commoditie Payes tenne times ten, and sells the same for three; He is a gull who, passing finicall, Peiseth each word to be rhetoricall; And, to conclude, who selfe-conceitedly Thinks al men guls, ther's none more gull then he.'

Guilpin's Skialetheia, &c. 1598, Epig. 20." --Dyce.

IN REFUM. III.

Rufus the courtier, at the theatre, Leaving the best and most conspicuous place, Doth either to the stage himself transfer, Or through a grate doth show his double face, For that the clamorous fry of Inns of Court Fill up the private rooms of greater price, And such a place where all may have resort He in his singularity doth despise. Yet doth not his particular humour shun The common stews and brothels of the town, 10 Though all the world in troops do thither run, Clean and unclean, the gentle and the clown: Then why should Rufus in his pride abhor A common seat, that loves a common whore?

FOOTNOTES:

It was a common practice for gallants to sit upon hired stools in the stage, especially at the private theatres. From the Induction to Marston's Malcontent it appears that the custom was not tolerated at some of the public theatres. The ordinary charge for the use of a stool was sixpence.

Malone was no doubt right in supposing that there is here an allusion to the "private boxes" placed at each side of the balcony at the back of the stage. They must have been very dark and uncomfortable. In the Gull's Horn-Book Dekker says that "much new Satin was there dampned by being smothered to death in darkness."

IN QUINTUM. IV.

Quintus the dancer useth evermore His feet in measure and in rule to move: Yet on a time he call'd his mistress whore, And thought with that sweet word to win her love. O, had his tongue like to his feet been taught, It never would have utter'd such a thought!

IN PLURIMOS. V.

Faustinus, Sextus, Cinna, Ponticus, With Gella, Lesbia, Thais, Rhodope, Rode all to Staines, for no cause serious, But for their mirth and for their lechery. Scarce were they settled in their lodging, when Wenches with wenches, men with men fell out, Men with their wenches, wenches with their men; Which straight dissolves this ill-assembled rout. But since the devil brought them thus together, To my discoursing thoughts it is a wonder, 10 Why presently as soon as they came thither, The self-same devil did them part asunder. Doubtless, it seems, it was a foolish devil, That thus did part them ere they did some evil.

FOOTNOTES:

MS. "In meritriculas Londinensis."

MS. "Ware."

MS. "dissolv'd"

IN TITUM. VI.

Titus, the brave and valorous young gallant, Three years together in his town hath been; Yet my Lord Chancellor's tomb he hath not seen, Nor the new water-work, nor the elephant. I cannot tell the cause without a smile,-- He hath been in the Counter all this while.

FOOTNOTES:

Sir Christopher Hatton's tomb. See Dugdale's History of St. Paul's Cathedral, ed. 1658, p. 83.

"The new water-work was at London Bridge. The elephant was an object of great wonder and long remembered. A curious illustration of this is found in the Metamorphosis of the Walnut Tree of Borestall, written about 1645, when the poet [William Basse] brings trees of all descriptions to the funeral, particularly a gigantic oak--

"The youth of these our times that did behold This motion strange of this unwieldy plant Now boldly brag with us that are men old, That of our age they no advantage want, Though in our youth we saw an elephant." --Cunningham.

IN FAUSTUM. VII.

Faustus, nor lord nor knight, nor wise nor old, To every place about the town doth ride; He rides into the fields plays to behold, He rides to take boat at the water-side, He rides to Paul's, he rides to th' ordinary, He rides unto the house of bawdry too,-- Thither his horse so often doth him carry, That shortly he will quite forget to go.

FOOTNOTES:

See the admirable account of "The Theatre and Curtain" in Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps' Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, ed. 3, pp. 385-433. It is there shown that the access to the Theatre play-house was through Finsbury Fields to the west of the western boundary-wall of the grounds of the dissolved Holywell Priory.

IN KATAM. VIII.

Kate, being pleas'd, wish'd that her pleasure could Endure as long as a buff-jerkin would. Content thee, Kate; although thy pleasure wasteth, Thy pleasure's place like a buff-jerkin lasteth, For no buff-jerkin hath been oftener worn, Nor hath more scrapings or more dressings borne.

FOOTNOTES: