Dramatis Personæ

• SIR ALEXANDER Wengrave, and NEATFOOT his man
• SIR ADAM Appleton
• SIR DAVY Dapper
• SIR BEAUTEOUS Ganymede
• [SIR THOMAS Long]
• LORD NOLAND
• Young [SEBASTIAN] Wengrave
• JACK Dapper, [son to Sir Davy,] and GULL his page
• GOSHAWK
• GREENWIT
• LAXTON
• TILTYARD [a feather-seller]
• [MISTRESS TILTYARD]
• OPENWORK [a sempster]
• [MISTRESS Rosamond OPENWORK]
• [Hippocrates] GALLIPOT [an apothecary]
• [MISTRESS Prudence GALLIPOT]
• MOLL, the Roaring Girl
• [Ralph] TRAPDOOR
• [TEARCAT]
• SIR GUY Fitzallard
• MARY Fitzallard, his daughter
• CURTILAX, a sergeant, and
• HANGER, his yeoman
• MINISTRI
• [COACHMAN]
• [PORTER]
• [TAILOR]
• [Gentlemen]
• [CUTPURSES]
• [FELLOW]

2. Prologus

14. Epilogus

FINIS

NOTES

The title of the play derives from the riotous gallants of London, known as ‘roaring boys,’ whose penchant for machismo quarreling was parodied by Middleton and Rowley in A Fair Quarrel , and by Jonson in The Alchemist . The title character is based upon Mary Frith, the real Moll Cutpurse, whose notorious exploits tested the patience of proper society and often brought her before the court. Accounts of these exploits were variously recorded, and they include wearing men's clothes, appearing on the stage, drinking, swearing, making ‘immodest and lascivious speeches,’ prostitution, pick-pocketing, forgery, and highway robbery. A full rap sheet indeed but as the prologue, epilogue, and epistle to the reader clearly demonstrate, Dekker and Middleton were sympathetic to her, and through Moll offer, if not an apologia, at least some well-needed positive public relations. T. S. Eliot observed that the character of Moll is the one exquisite jewel in the crown of a rather mediocre play; without a doubt, she is thoroughly engaging. The loose and episodic structure of the play, in fact, allows Dekker and Middleton to showcase her various talents: she sings, she fights, she rescues Jack Dapper from the clutches of the law; she is just as comfortable with lords and gentlemen as with the thieves whose cant she speaks and over whom she has some authority. Moll's character is also amazingly well-rounded in the Forsterian sense: Dekker and Middleton take her beyond a presentation of the mere spectacle and her iconic status in the contemporary culture. We not only learn the ‘facts’ of her past, but we also hear her heart and mind in many candid reactions to social prejudice and condemnation. It is certainly the best comic female role in the Middleton canon, and few comic female roles of the time are its equal.

[Note: Illustration: A portrait of Moll Frith from the prose tract The Life and Death of Mrs. Mary Frith, Commonly Called Moll Cutpurse, Exactly Collected and Now Published for the Delight and Recreation of All Merry-Disposed Persons (1662). Bullen gives a precise synopsis. ] [Note: My case is alter'd, I must work for my living. According to the Consistory of London Correction Book, Mary Frith appeared before the court on 27 January 1612 for misdemeanors and was subsequently incarcerated, a fact which Hoy believes informs this quotation that appears beside her picture on the quarto title-page: ‘At the time of the publication of the play, Mary Frith apparently was beating hemp in Bridewell, in the manner of the loose women Dekker had shown undergoing correction in that place some half-a-dozen years before, in the final scene of The Honest Whore, Part Two.’ As Gomme notes, the first half of the quotation is proverbial, and gave title to Jonson's comedy of 1597. ] [Note: Wengrave: Wentgraue (Q), here and elsewhere in the d.p. ] [Note: NEATFOOT: Neats-foot (Q); neat's foot is the foot of an ox, used as an article of food. ] [Note: Ganymede: in classical mythology, Jove's page ] [Note: GREENWIT: green = youthful, but also an emblem of lust; cf. The Revenger's Tragedy II.iii. ] [Note: LAXTON: As Sir Alexander's pun in I.ii makes clear, his name = ‘lacks stone,’ or testicle. Cf. ‘Singlestone’ in A Mad World, My Masters II.vi. ] [Note: TILTYARD: A tilt-yard is an enclosed space for tilts and tournaments; cf. Your Five Gallants II.i. The connection with his profession lies in the use of feathers for an archer's arrows. ] [Note: OPENWORK: A piece of cloth with a pattern of holes, like lace or crochet, that shows the material beneath. ] [Note: sempster: the masculine form of ‘seamstress,’ although then used for both genders (cf. Mary's disguise in I.i) ] [Note: [Hippocrates]: Greek physician (c. 460-357 BC) ] [Note: GALLIPOT: a small earthen glazed pot, especially one used by apothecaries for ointments and medicines, or, by extension, an apothecary ] [Note: TEARCAT: to tear a cat = to rant and bluster, to play a roistering hero; cf. A Midsummer Night's Dream ] [Note: CURTILAX: A curtal-ax is a short, broad-cutting sword, or a cutlass. ] [Note: HANGER: a loop or strap, fastened to the girdle, in which the rapier was suspended; cf. Your Five Gallants I.i. ] [Note: MINISTRI: servants ] [Note: FELLOW: a thief; cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One II.i, The Revenger's Tragedy III.v. ] [Note: Venery: good hunting or, more frequently, the pursuit of sexual pleasure; cf. The Witch I.i, The Second Maiden's Tragedy I.ii, The Family of Love IV.iv, A Trick to Catch the Old One I.ii, The Phoenix III.i, Northward Ho! III.i, Westward Ho! III.iv. ] [Note: crop-doublet: A richly padded, short doublet, which went out of fashion about thirty years earlier. ] [Note: bombasted: Bombast was cotton wool stuffing used to pad out clothes and make the wearer look muscular, but also took on this figurative and more familiar usage; cf. Your Five Gallants III.iii, Day's The Isle of Gulls Ind., Satiromastix V.ii. ] [Note: doublet fell: ‘Few garments underwent so many changes as did the doublet. From the straight-bodied, full, long-skirted doublet of the reign of Henry VIII evolved the 'Peas-cod' or Dutch 'doublets with great belly and small skirt', so familiar from the seventies...The peas-cod front...disappeared by 1610, and the doublet became form-fitting--but was worn over a stiff lining--with a small waist decorated by points’ (Linthicum, Costume in the Drama of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, as cited by Hoy). ] [Note: single plots: not characteristic of contemporary plays; as Gomme suggests, Middleton is probably being ironic. ] [Note: quaint: ingenious ] [Note: conceits: witty devices ] [Note: termers: dissolute persons who frequented London during term-time (cf. introductory notes for Michaelmas Term , The Family of Love Pref., The Witch I.i). The law courts were in session during four terms: Hilary Term, Easter Term, Trinity Term, and Michaelmas Term. For various remarks about term-time, cf. The Family of Love I.ii, A Trick to Catch the Old One I.iv & II.i, Anything for a Quiet Life I.i, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside I.i, The Puritan I.i, The Revenger's Tragedy IV.ii. ] [Note: sixpence: the price of a printed play ] [Note: well couched: richly embroidered, and therefore not immediately apparent ] [Note: and: if (used frequently throughout the play) ] [Note: statute: Although there was no specific statute that forbade women from wearing men's clothing, the issue seems to have been covered in a general sumptuary law, i.e., a law meant to curtail extravagance. ] [Note: codpiece point: the lace which fastened the cod-piece, a bagged appendage to the front of the close-fitting hose or breeches; cf. The Puritan I.iii. ] [Note: galley room: The tiring room at the Fortune Theater was an extension of the upper gallery; Middleton's remark indicates copies of plays were stored there. ] [Note: mystical: secretive; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside III.i, Your Five Gallants V.i, The Bloody Banquet IV.iii, The Family of Love IV.iv, The Second Maiden's Tragedy II.ii. ] [Note: vent his private bottle-ale at midnight: Gomme explores the possible bawdy connotations: ‘'Bottle-ale' appears in 2 Henry IV , II.iv, 128, where the Arden editor suggests it means small beer; and this seems to be confirmed by a remark in Nashe's Fouleweather's Prognostications (Works, ed. Wilson, III, 392).... But it could also means simply windy rhetoric (see Marston, Histriomastix, III.i, 202); 'vent' can mean sniff out, uncover, or emit (urine, wind, etc.), and 'bottle' was one of innumerable words for the female pudenda (cf. Measure for Measure , III.ii, 174).’ ] [Note: ripped up: disclosed, brought out in the open ] [Note: mews: jeers by mewing like a cat ] [Note: vast theatre: The Fortune Theater on Golden Lane in Cripplegate (built 1600, burnt 1621, rebuilt 1623, finally destroyed 1662) was 53 feet square inside (80 outside), and had three tiers of galleries. To the right, the reconstruction, based on the surviving contract, is by W. H. Godfrey, and the engraving of the theater in its last days is by T. H. Shepherd (1811). It was occupied by the Lord Admiral's Men (which became Prince Henry's Men in 1603) under the management of Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn, his son-in-law and a leading acting of the Admiral's Men. ] [Note: covetous: eager ] [Note: gives braves: offers battle ] [Note: suburb roarers: i.e., the licentious lower classes of London's suburbs: ‘These suburb sinners have no land to live upon but their legs’ (Lanthorn and Candlelight ix). ] [Note: beside: besides (Q) ] [Note: state: estate, wealth ] [Note: iron grate: the bars of a debtor's prison ] [Note: bands: ruffs, collars; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.ii, The Changeling V.iii, Your Five Gallants I.i, The Family of Love IV.i. ] [Note: transcendent: Normally, the best possible definition would be ‘transcending or rising high above the ordinary rank of persons, i.e., given the privilege of meeting him privately even though she is ostensibly of the class of tradesmen.’ However, Gomme's inclination toward an obscure bawdy connotation is correct, because we ultimately learn that Neatfoot thinks she is Sebastian's whore. In his affected (and probably condescending and self-righteous) way, Neatfoot is saying she will rise, or become pregnant, a common Jacobean pun. ] [Note: fructify: become fruitful, with the bawdy innuendo; cf. The Family of Love III.iii, IV.ii, Westward Ho! II.i, Love's Labours Lost IV.ii. ] [Note: falling bands: ruffs falling flat around the neck, a new fashion at the time; cf. 1 The Honest Whore III.i. ] [Note: curl-pated: Curling the hair was much affected at this time. ] [Note: ingeniously: ingenuously ] [Note: [dined]: dyed (Q) ] [Note: Orleans: a favored wine from the Loire region ] [Note: buttery: liquor storeroom; cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's IV.ii. ] [Note: antic: grotesque; cf. I.ii ‘ape's tricks,’ The Revenger's Tragedy III.v, The Changeling IV.iii. ] [Note: [fire]: omitted in Q ] [Note: auricular confession: confession heard by a priest; ‘confession’ has bawdy innuendo ] [Note: needlewoman: slang for harlot ] [Note: bond: a common pun; cf. Blurt, Master Constable II.i. ] [Note: wolf's at door: ‘To keep the wolf from the door’ was proverbial. ] [Note: As a horse runs...one path still: i.e., like a horse turning a millstone that often stumbles but always keeps to the same path, Sebastian will often seem to be unfaithful but will remain constant; cf. Northward Ho! I.iii. ] [Note: marks: A mark was worth 13s.4d. ] [Note: grey groat: A groat was fourpence. ‘Not worth a grey groat’ was proverbial. ] [Note: galleries: ‘Sir Alexander's collection suggests a parody of the great collections which began to be made in Elizabeth's reign, and of which Lord Lunley's at Nonesuch Palace, Surrey, was an already famous example. Pictures were sometimes fixed to the wall so close together as to make a mosaic covering the wall entirely. The display hints at the kind of spectacular stage effects which were then becoming popular in masques and is a kind of visual diagram of the action of the play’ (Gomme). ] [Note: plaudities: applause; cf. The Revenger's Tragedy II.i, Dekker's The Noble Spanish Soldier V.iv. ] [Note: obsequious: dutiful ] [Note: floating island: ‘A trompe-l'oeil effect must be in mind here, intended to draw the audience more completely into the spectacle’ (Gomme). ] [Note: comical: cheerful ] [Note: back friend: a backer or supporter ] [Note: stoop: the swoop of a hawk (a term from falconry); cf. The Family of Love I.ii. ] [Note: lure: a fake bird, usually made of pigeon's wings, with a hawk's foot attached ] [Note: stand: Laxton counters Sir Alexander's cruel pun with the common bawdy Elizabethan pun. ] [Note: mess: company eating together ] [Note: heartstrings: The heart was supposedly braced with strings (tendons or nerves) that could be broken with emotional stress. The concept was often likened to the strings of a musical instrument, where there was a handy pun on ‘fret’: 1) stress, worry, 2) a bar of gut, wood, or metal on the fingerboard used to regulate the fingering. Cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside I.ii, A Yorkshire Tragedy x, The Revenger's Tragedy I.i, Hamlet III.ii, Henry VIII III.ii, Chapman's Monsieur D'Olive. ] [Note: Fortune: A detail from the title-page of Robert Record's The Caste of Knowledge, 1556 showing the Wheel of Fortune. Click on the image for the complete title-page (266 KB), which illustrates the various concepts associated with the goddess Fortune, in contrast to Urania, or Wisdom, on the left. Fortune stands unstably upon a ball, while Wisdom stands firmly on a block. She is blindfolded and turns her wheel, which can as easily bring someone wealth one day as take it all away the next day, for ‘she is turning, and inconstant, and mutability, and variation’ ( Henry V III.vi); by contrast, Wisdom holds a compass (representing rational knowledge) and the Sphere of Destiny. Fortune is illuminated by the moon, a symbol of irrationality and changefulness, and Wisdom is illuminated by the sun, a symbol of reason and stability: the inscription ends, ‘Though earth do honour Fortune's ball,/And battles blind her wheel advance,/The heavens to Fortune are not thrall:/These spheres surmount all Fortune's chance.’ ] [Note: read o'er his cards: Bowers emends to ‘cares,’ but Gomme's gloss of ‘reckon up his position’ is correct: he looks at the cards Fortune has dealt him and realizes his situation is not all bad. ] [Note: that like: thats like (Q) ] [Note: by-blows: side-blows or glancing blows ] [Note: Adam Bell: the famous archer; cf. Romeo and Juliet II.i, Much Ado about Nothing I.i, Satiromastix IV.iii. ] [Note: more tongues in his head than some have teeth: ostensibly alluding to Sebastian's knowledge of languages, but double-tongued = deceitful (cf. II.ii ‘two-leav'd tongues’), and cf. the proverb ‘the tongue walks where the teeth speed not,’ quoted in Dekker's The Gull's Horn-Book. ] [Note: flesh-fly: blow-fly, which eats and lays eggs in dead flesh; cf. The Revenger's Tragedy V.i, Women Beware Women II.ii. ] [Note: It is a thing...than woman: This passage was lifted by Nathan Field for his Amends for Ladies (1612), for a scene in which Moll unsuccessfully attempts to corrupt the virtuous heroine. ] [Note: two shadows to one shape: i.e., a both a man's and woman's shadow, although Gomme suggests that ‘by witchcraft she has stolen a shadow and so would have power over another's soul. The devil was normally held to cast no shadow.’ ] [Note: blazing star: According to medieval astrology, the stars that controlled men's fate were fixed and incorruptible; on the other hand, meteors, which are sublunary, were corruptible and subject to change, and heralded or were provoked by evil events on earth. Gomme seems to support Bald's conjecture that this is a reference to Halley's comet, which had reached its perihelion in late November 1607, but allusions to this cosmology were quite frequent: cf. Mistress Gallipot's ‘fixed star’ of III.ii, as well as The Changeling V.iii, The Revenger's Tragedy V.i & V.iii, The Bloody Banquet V.ii, Julius Caesar I.iii & II.i. ] [Note: naughty pack: a term of approach, used for both males and females, almost always occurring in this compound form; cf. Westward Ho! II.i, Northward Ho! II.ii. ] [Note: naught: wicked, immoral; cf. The Revenger's Tragedy II.i, A Fair Quarrel V.i, 1 The Honest Whore IV.i. ] [Note: Their: there (Q, here as well as later in the line and throughout the play) ] [Note: baffle: publicly disgrace, originally a punishment on recreant knights, part of which was being hanged by the heels; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.ii ] [Note: [Wear]: cf. The Revenger's Tragedy II.i for the same emendation ] [Note: drab: whore, mistress; cf. The Phoenix I.ii, A Trick to Catch the Old One I.iii, The Witch II.iii, Your Five Gallants III.ii, The Revenger's Tragedy II.ii. ] [Note: quench out: Deleting ‘out’ would improve the scansion. ] [Note: I wash a negro: ‘To wash an Ethiop white’ was proverbial, deriving from classical times and reflecting the Elizabethan/Jacobean prejudice toward fair-haired paleness; cf. 2 The Honest Whore IV.iii. ] [Note: turn: deflect (a hunting term) ] [Note: ape's tricks: extravagant bowing ] [Note: To be a shifter...good bit upon't: A shifter is a cozener, or cheater, and Trapdoor promises that he can steal a full platter of food from under someone's nose. ] [Note: As two crafty attorneys plotting the undoing of their clients: cf. Michaelmas Term III.i. ] [Note: Simon and Jude's day: October 28th, the day before the Lord Mayor's Day on which the Liveries' pageants turned out; it was proverbially stormy. Cf. Anything for a Quiet Life I.ii, Westward Ho! II.i. ] [Note: watermen a' th' Bankside: boatmen paid for transporting people up and down the Thames; they were said at this time to number ‘no fewer than forty thousand.’ Cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside IV.ii, The Witch II.i. ] [Note: burnt: Sir Alexander fears that Trapdoor is a branded felon. ] [Note: mermaid: whore; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside IV.ii, A Fair Quarrel IV.iv, The Old Law IV.i, 2 The Honest Whore IV.iii. ] [Note: cut her comb: lower her pride; cutting a cock's comb usually accompanied gelding. Cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One IV.i. ] [Note: Cast out a line hung full of silver hooks: cf. A Fair Quarrel III.ii, Old Fortunatus I.ii. ] [Note: hobbyhorse: 1) a pantomime horse that was part of a morris dance, 2) slang for harlot ] [Note: morris: country dance, although sometimes used generally to refer to any wild dancing, such as here; cf. The Changeling IV.iii, Dekker's Patient Grissil II.i, All's Well that Ends Well II.ii, A Midsummer Night's Dream II.i, Henry V II.iv ] [Note: Zounds: ‘God's wounds,’ an oath; cf. The Puritan IV.iii, No Wit, No Help like a Woman's V.i. ] [Note: bencher: magistrate, judge ] [Note: goll: hand; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.ii, Blurt, Master Constable I.i, The Revenger's Tragedy V.i, Satiromastix I.ii. ] [Note: entertain: employ, hire; cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One IV.iv, The Phoenix III.i, The Old Law II.i. ] [Note: rank: row Like many market scenes of the time, this scene is highly visual and includes many sight gags; in an effort to bridge this gap, I've made explicit some implicit stage directions to give a sense of the action. ] [Note: what is't you lack: the standard cry of shopkeepers; cf. Anything for a Quiet Life II.ii, The Shoemakers' Holiday III.iv. ] [Note: lawns: fine linen or clothing made from it, so called because it was bleached on a lawn instead of the ordinary bleaching grounds; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside I.i, Your Five Gallants II.iii, The Witch II.i, The Revenger's Tragedy II.iii. ] [Note: cambrics: a kind of fine white linen, originally made at Cambray, France, or the clothing made from it; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside I.i. ] [Note: minces tobacco: Tobacco was sold in apothecaries' shops. Smoking was used widely for affection during James's reign; it was estimated that London had at least 7000 tobacco shops. Cf. The Witch II.i, The Phoenix I.ii, and Lazarillo in Blurt, Master Constable . There is an interesting article about the Elizabethans and tobacco at http://www.tobacco.org/History/Elizabethan_Smoking. ] [Note: Indian pot-herbs: ‘Pot-herbs are simply herbs boiled in a pot; perhaps a misunderstanding of how tobacco is prepared’ (Gomme). The statement is not so much a misunderstanding in Laxton's knowledge of tobacco as an inconsistency in the background of the wives, for it is Mistress Openwork who later claims to have been a lady's serving-woman, a ‘gentlewoman born.’ On the other hand, it's entirely possible that neither of them came from a higher social class, and that both merely make such a claim as psychological leverage against their husbands (i.e., marrying below their station) and to impress the gallants Laxton and Goshawk. ] [Note: bankrout: bankrupt ] [Note: pipes: with the bawdy pun on penis, and much sexual innuendo following; cf. Romeo and Juliet IV.v. ] [Note: May take up an ell of pure smock: An ell is a measure of length (in England, 45 inches), chiefly used in measuring cloth; cf. The Old Law IV.i, 2 Honest Whore II.ii, Anything for a Quiet Life II.ii. A smock was a woman's undergarment. ] [Note: closest: most secretive ] [Note: striker: fornicator ] [Note: smockster: bawd; cf. Your Five Gallants V.ii. ] [Note: naked boy in a vial: "Steeven's suggestion--‘I suppose he means an abortion preserved in spirits’--seems irrelevant and incredible; the point is presumably the visibility of nakedness seen through clear glass. Naked boys is a popular name for the meadow saffron which flowers after its leaves have withered; but the phrase also occurs in The Alchemist (III.iv.80-1) ‘in such a way as to suggest catamite [page]’ (Gomme). In this context, the ‘naked boy’ sounds like an allusion to Cupid, but this does not help to explain the relevance of ‘vial.’ Viol,which has its own sexual innuendo (cf. IV.i), is also spelled ‘vial>’ in Q, but this doesn't make the image any clearer. ] [Note: first day of his feather: newly fledged ] [Note: woo the hangings and glass windows: i.e., is a wallflower ] [Note: broken: i.e., already deflowered ] [Note: almanac: For the background on almanacs, cf. my notes to No Wit, No Help like a Woman's ; forecasts were provided for individual meridians as well as the nation in general. ] [Note: not to be us'd a' that fashion...I understand no French: An extension of the pipe/penis pun: Greenwit comments that ‘Laxton should not wish his pipe to be set on fire, i.e., suffer from venereal disease, which was commonly called ’the French disease. Cf. A Fair Quarrel IV.iv, Blurt, Master Constable I.ii, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside V.i, Your Five Gallants III.i, Anything for a Quiet Life II.iv, A Midsummer Night's Dream I.ii, The Revenger's Tragedy I.i. ] [Note: Jack: Not necessarily Goshawk's proper name, but a familiar form of address, i.e., chap or fellow. Later this is frequently used for Moll. ] [Note: strange: unfamiliar to me; cf. The Witch III.ii. ] [Note: Push: Middleton's favorite ejaculation (e.g., cf. The Changeling III.iv, A Trick to Catch the Old One II.i, Your Five Gallants II.i, The Revenger's Tragedy I.iii, The Old Law II.i), and one examined in contrast to Rowley's ‘Tush!’ in one of the earliest attribution studies (1897). ] [Note: manners: with the pun on manors ] [Note: ['im]: 'em (Q) ] [Note: stool: with the scatological pun ] [Note: preyeth: with the pun on prayeth ] [Note: pleasure: with the sexual innuendo ] [Note: Bear her in hand: delude her with false hopes; cf. Macbeth III.i, Cymbeline V.v, Much Ado about Nothing IV.i, 2 Henry IV I.ii. ] [Note: chincough: whooping-cough ] [Note: I dive down to your ankles: an example of the extravagant bowing of courtiers, emphasized by Greenwit's use of French ] [Note: he dispatches three at once: Apparently Jack has not bowed to each gallant individually as he should have done. ] [Note: drink: smoke; cf. The Shoemakers' Holiday III.ii. ] [Note: ordinary: eating-house; a tavern was primarily for drinking. Cf. Anything for a Quiet Life I.i., The Witch V.i, The Phoenix IV.ii, A Trick to Catch the Old One I.i, Your Five Gallants II.i & III.ii, No Wit, No Help like a Woman's II.iii. ] [Note: Paul's: St. Paul's. Men who had been turned out of service by their masters posted notices of their availability in St. Paul's nave; Gull eventually loses his position, as we learn in V.i. ] [Note: hal'p'orth: halfpenny worth ] [Note: small beer: weak or inferior beer; cf. The Witch I.i, The Old Law II.i. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's V.ii. ] [Note: cackl'd: gave away secrets ] [Note: angels: gold coins worth ten shillings each, with the figure of St. Michael defeating the dragon; for Middleton's frequent punning, cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One II.i, The Phoenix I.vi, Blurt, Master Constable II.i, A Yorkshire Tragedy ii, The Old Law IV.ii, No Wit, No Help like a Woman's I.ii, The Puritan III.iv, The Bloody Banquet II.i, The Revenger's Tragedy II.i. ] [Note: puts out a candle: cf. the Jeweller's Wife in The Phoenix IV.ii. ] [Note: arrant: errand ] [Note: puny: novice; cf. 1 Henry VI IV.vii, The Revenger's Tragedy I.iii, Westward Ho! I.ii. ] [Note: whoremaster: lecher; cf. Measure for Measure III.ii. ] [Note: Draw in a third man: Gomme edits to ‘draw in a thread, man’ and explains, ‘'Third' is occasionally found for 'thread', and 'thrid', for which 'third' could be a compositor's slip, quite commonly. But this is frankly a guess at a meaning which I cannot find in Q as it stands. I suggest that Laxton may be inviting Goshawk to draw in (= inhale) a thread of smoke; or 'thread' may be a measure of tobacco as of yarn. But 'draw in' can mean inveigle or take in, and also, it seems, to lay down a stake at dice (cf. Michaelmas Term II.i).’ It seems clear to me that Laxton, returning after his aside, has found Goshawk and Greenwit sharing a bowl--I assume the gallants have been sampling Gallipot's various tobaccos--and asks to be a third; Goshawk refuses, claiming that Laxton himself never shares. ] [Note: engross: monopolize or obtain exclusive possession of; cf. Anything for a Quiet Life III.i, Dekker's If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil Is in It II.i. ] [Note: beaver gallants: gallants who wear beavers, hats made of beaver fur; cf. Your Five Gallants I.i, Anything for a Quiet Life II.i, Westward Ho! V.iv. ] [Note: stone riders: those who ride stone horses, or stallions; there is possibly the stone/testicles pun that Laxton makes later in this scene, hence stone riders might = womanizers, as Gomme suggests ] [Note: private stage's audience: included in this list of the fashionable well-to-do because of the higher price of admission at the private theaters, which were established to circumvent the law that prohibited houses of public entertainment within the city ] [Note: twelvepenny-stool: twice the normal price for the use of a stool ] [Note: [hench]-boy: page; hinch (Q) ] [Note: [snail]: snake (Q) ] [Note: wants: i.e., wants finishing ] [Note: [Hoyda]: Haida (Q), cf. ‘Hoyda!’ in No Wit, No Help like a Woman's I.iii, ‘Heyday!’ in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside IV.ii. ] [Note: shepherd's holland: holland linen used for shepherds' smocks ] [Note: gear: stuff. The word also refers specifically to tobacco in 1 The Honest Whore II.i and Satiromastix I.ii; Middleton frequently uses the word with bawdy innuendo elsewhere. ] [Note: arrant's[t]: strictest ] [Note: frieze: coarse woolen cloth ] [Note: jerkin: a soldier's short coat; cf. Blurt, Master Constable I.i. The Puritan I.ii, No Wit, No Help like a Woman's II.i, Westward Ho! II.ii. ] [Note: safeguard: the outer petticoat worn over other clothes to protect them from dirt, the usual riding dress for women; cf. The Witch II.iii. ] [Note: [GOSHAWK, GREENWIT]: Both. (Q); I have preferred to be more specific here, and make a similar emendation in III.iii for lines shared between Sir Alexander and Sir Adam, and Curtilax and Hanger. ] [Note: Mile End milksops: a favorite recreation spot for city-dwellers, where apparently cakes and cream were available; the trained bands that guarded the city exercised here. Cf. The Shoemakers' Holiday I.i. ] [Note: marrow-bone: supposedly an aphrodisiac; cf. A Mad World, My Masters I.ii, Venus and Adonis , If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil Is in It I.iii. ] [Note: Italian: stereotyped as being extremely lecherous; cf. A Mad World, My Masters III.iii. ] [Note: bona roba: wanton, courtesan; Blurt, Master Constable II.ii, 2 The Honest Whore I.i. ] [Note: aqua fortis: nitric acid, a powerful solvent and corrosive ] [Note: shag: cloth having a velvet nap on one side ] [Note: fat eel between a Dutchman's fingers: The Dutch were supposedly fond of eels; cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's I.iii. ] [Note: i' th' low: ith the low (Q) ] [Note: I send you for hollands...I take nothing: Gomme's gloss is thorough: "A dazzling linguistic challenge. The first pun seems to derive in particular from the brilliant wordplay of 2 Henry IV II.ii, 21-2: 'the rest of thy low countries have made a shift to eat up thy holland': 'low countries' (the first half of the latter word was always suggestive: see Hamlet III.ii.120) meant both the lower parts of the body and the stews [brothels] (where Poins and supposedly Master Openwork beget bastards); hence, similarly, 'holland', as well as, literally, linen--which prompts 'shift' in the sense of chemise. And the seemingly innocent shopkeeping talk win the second sentence conceals a complex obscenity: 'ware' was in regular use for the privates of either sex, but especially of women (where it was commonly 'lady's ware') (cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.i) [also cf. The Family of Love II.i, No Wit, No Help Like a Woman's I.i & III.i, The Witch I.ii, Anything for a Quiet Life II.iv]. The burden, then, of Mistress Openwork's complaint is that by a trick (a shift) she is left to make what shift she can by handling her sexual parts (those next to her shift) herself: a barren ('dead') activity, but she may as well stop offering herself, for when she opens up her 'shop', nothing comes in. ] [Note: ringing: scolding ] [Note: warn: deny ] [Note: goody: goodwife, used for married women of a humble station ] [Note: skin-coat: a coat made of skins, with the explicit sexual pun ] [Note: spleen: The spleen was often regarded as the seat of passions and/or impulsive behavior: in Renaissance psychology, an individual had four basic ‘humours,’ or temperaments, which were determined by the amount of their corresponding bodily fluids secreted in the spleen. The four humours are choleric (anger) derived from bile (as in The Revenger's Tragedy II.iii and here), phlegmatic (cold torpor) from phlegm, sanguine (geniality) from blood, and melancholy from black bile (as in The Revenger's Tragedy IV.i, The Witch I.i). The spleen was also held responsible for sexual desire (as in The Old Law III.ii, Anything for a Quiet Life III.ii). ] [Note: tread upon a worm, they say 'twill turn tail: proverbial, meaning that even the lowliest of creatures will resent ill-treatment ] [Note: yard: 1) three feet, the tailor's yardstick, 2) slang for penis; cf. The Old Law IV.i, Anything for a Quiet Life passim, The Revenger's Tragedy II.i, 1 The Honest Whore V.ii, Love's Labours Lost V.ii. ] [Note: London measure: London drapers customarily gave a little more than the exact measure; cf. Anything for a Quiet Life III.ii. ] [Note: snaffle: bridle-bit; cf. A Yorkshire Tragedy ii, The Witch of Edmonton II.i. ] [Note: Tyburn: Tyburn was the place of public execution in London until 1783. Cf. Anything for a Quiet Life III.ii (illustration in notes section), No Wit, No Help like a Woman's I.ii, The Puritan IV.iii. ] [Note: Brainford: Brentford, eight miles upstream of Cheapside, was a place of resort for the citizenry and had numerous prostitutes. It is also spelled Brainford in The Merry Wives of Windsor IV.ii and Westward Ho! II.iii, but Branford in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.ii. ] [Note: Staines: on the north bank of the Thames in Middlesex seventeen miles west of London, also well-known as a place of assignation; cf. Massinger's The City Madam II.i. ] [Note: Ware: twenty miles north of London, a trysting place for lovers; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside III.iii, Northward Ho! I.i. ] [Note: coach: Coaches were popular places for love-making; cf. The Phoenix II.iii, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside III.iii, Your Five Gallants II.i, No Wit, No Help like a Woman's V.i, The Puritan II.i, The Revenger's Tragedy II.i. ] [Note: jade: 1) broken-down horse, 2) whore; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside V.iv, Much Ado about Nothing I.i, The Old Law III.ii. ] [Note: Holborn: The area to the north of the Strand and northwest of the old walled city, a place with an unsavory reputation, especially toward the west end; it takes its name from the Holbourne, a tributary of the Fleet. It was also the center of the legal profession, and contained the Inns of Court (Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, the Middle Temple, and the Inner Temple), as well as the Inns of Chancery; because of their frequent reference in this play, I feel compelled to cite Weinreb and Hibbert's The London Encyclopedia: ‘By the middle of the 15th century the Inns [of Chancery] had largely been taken over by resident students and solicitors and attorneys and had become preparatory schools for students wishing to be called to the Bar by the Inns of Court which had managed to secure a degree of control over the Inns of Chancery. By 1530 Furnival's and Thavies Inns had become affiliated to Lincoln's Inn, while Staple Inn and Barnard's Inn looked to Gray's Inn, and Clement's, Clifford's, and Lyon's Inns were affiliated to the Inner Temple. After the destruction of the Strand Inn in 1549, the Middle Temple had only one Inn of Chancery, namely New Inn. Each Inn of Chancery normally comprised a Principal, Ancients (Benchers) [magistrates] and Juniors or Companions (barristers and students). Unlike the Inns of Court, the Inns of Chancery--also styled 'Honourable Societies'--had no power to call students to the Bar but in most other respects their constitutions were similar to those of the Inns of Court. By 1600 eight Inns of Chancery were in existence but, with the decline in the educational role of these Inns, students were tending increasingly to enroll directly in the Inns of Court. At the same time the attorney and solicitors, who were being gradually excluded from the Inns of Court, took over the Inns of Chancery.’ For references to various Inns, also cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside I.i, The Puritan I.iii, Your Five Gallants IV.ii, A Trick to Catch the Old One I.iv. ] [Note: Gray's Inn Fields: open fields to the north of Gray's Inn, used as grounds for recreation but eventually frequented by petty thieves ] [Note: [heard]: hard (Q) ] [Note: Saint Antling's bell: St. Antlings was another name for the Puritan church of St. Antholin, on Watling Street on the north side of Budge Row. In 1599, the congregation of St. Antholin's began sermons at 5 a.m., heralded by the chapel bells, much to the frustration of the neighbors. Cf. the character Nicholas St. Tantlings in The Puritan (specifically II.i for the earliness of their sermons), Michaelmas Term V.i. ] [Note: liberties: the liberties of the city of London ] [Note: Kent, unconquered: It was a Kentish boast that it had never been conquered; there is a pun on Kent/cunt. ] [Note: wiles: with the pun on wilds, referring to the formerly heavily forested nature of Kent; cf. Michaelmas Term II.iii, 1 Henry IV II.i. ] [Note: queans: whores, strumpets; cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's I.ii, A Yorkshire Tragedy v, Your Five Gallants III.ii, The Witch III.ii, A Trick to Catch the Old One III.iv, The Family of Love IV.iii, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.ii. ] [Note: spital dealing: Spitals were originally houses for lepers and victims of other diseases, but the term came a hospital specifically for venereal disease; frequently alluded to in Middleton, e.g., A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.ii & V.i. ] [Note: [burr]: a broad ring of iron behind the handle of a tilting lance; burgh (Q) ] [Note: young flood: when the tide begins to flow up the river; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.ii, No Wit, No Help like a Woman's II.ii. ] [Note: put case: suppose (a legal term), with the sexual pun of case = vagina; cf. II.ii, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.i, Your Five Gallants III.ii, The Changeling II.ii, Women Beware Women IV.ii, Westward Ho! I.i. ] [Note: service: with the bawdy double meaning; cf. Anything for a Quiet Life II.i, The Witch I.i, Blurt, Master Constable II.ii. Trapdoor continues to quibble on the bawdy. ] [Note: high German's size: a reference to a famous German fencer of the time ] [Note: same wine: Bastard was a sweet Spanish wine. ] [Note: Parker's ordinary: not particularly identified ] [Note: duck: i.e., a decoy; the use of spaniels in duck-hunting was quite popular, and alluded to frequently by Dekker. Cf. The Witch of Edmonton IV.i, Match Me in London III.ii, The Noble Spanish Soldier II.ii, Marston's Histriomastix II. ] [Note: Hogsden: Hoxton, a northern suburb of London, a favorite place for afternoon jaunts by Londoners ] [Note: pigsney: pig's eye, a common form of endearment ] [Note: Spits in the dog's mouth: ‘The reason for this action is obscure. Mr. T. R. Henn suggests that it may have been a device to ensure that the dog memorized its master's scent; he also informs me that he has known groundskeepers to spit on a ferret after it has been muzzled to smooth down the fur ruffled by the muzzled. Possibly the dog was similarly muzzled’ (Gomme). Hoy replies, ‘Perhaps so; but other evidence suggests that the action betokens some odd sign of affection bestowed on a pet. Cf. Jonson, Discoveries, lines 309-311: 'what hath he done more, then a troublesome base curre? bark'd, and made a noyse a farre off: had a foole, or two to spit in his mouth, and cherish him with a musty bone?'’ I tend to agree with Hoy; cf. The Witch of Edmonton IV.ii. ] [Note: Parlous Pond: Parlous, or Perilous, Pond, so called because of the numerous accidents there, was in Hoxton and visited by many Londoners for both duck-hunting and swimming. ] [Note: two-leav'd: two leaud (Q); ‘the primary sense intended is the comparison of the tongue to the two hinged parts of a door or gate’ (Bowers) ] [Note: hog-rubber: a term of contempt, probably derived from ‘hog-grubber,’ a sneak; cf. Bartholomew Fair V.iv, The Devil's Law-Case IV.i. ] [Note: pageant-bearer: Porters were employed to carry pageants, or portable stages, for plays and other spectacles in the streets. ] [Note: at first: in the first place ] [Note: a chopping and changing: an exchange ] [Note: poor younger brothers...old cozening widows: i.e., one who has not benefited by inheritance and must therefore be more aggressive in marrying for money; cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's III.ii. ] [Note: sturgeon voyage: fishing-voyage for sturgeon; ‘The point here, and in what follows, seems to be: don't chose [sic] a wife as if you were going to be away from home and would never have to live with her, or as if you were going to a barbaric country where any female would do’ (Hoy). ] [Note: as if you were going to Virginia: cf. Women Beware Women I.ii. ] [Note: She is but cunning, gives him longer time in't: i.e., like a usurer who gives a debtor more time to repay, thus allowing the interest to mount ] [Note: so ho ho so ho: the falconer's cry, encouraging the bird to stoop to the lure; cf. Old Fortunatus I.i. ] [Note: There boy, there boy: a huntsman's cry to his dogs; cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One IV.iv, The Tempest IV.i. ] [Note: clout: a pincushion strapped to the wrist or finger for use in tailoring ] [Note: two trinkets: Apparently, small ornaments on the breeches, perhaps referring to the points (cf. gloss below), although Gomme's conjecture of ‘testicles’ is certainly valid. ] [Note: coats: petticoats ] [Note: great Dutch slop: wide breeches, like those worn by Moll in the title-page illustration; cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's I.iii, Blurt, Master Constable II.i, The Alchemist III.iii. ] [Note: lusty: full of healthy vigor (cf. the ‘Lusty Servant’ in A Yorkshire Tragedy ), as well as the sexual definition ] [Note: he that is sway'd...rusty clock: ‘A sardonic comment on the old man's incapacity--once he is old and impotent he cannot hope for sexual success, his spring is no longer taut, his action is rusty, his rhythm erratic and weak--with a warning that the young (those in their springtime) be not ruled by the dicta of the elderly’ (Gomme). ] [Note: Ludgate: one of the eight gates in the Roman wall of ancient London, built during the reign of King Lud in 66 BC and rebuilt in 1586. It had a flat leaded roof but no clock; Gomme conjectures Sebastian means St. Martin's Church. Ludgate is also mentioned in The Puritan I.iii. Illustration: 1) Aldgate, 2) Bishopsgate, 3) Moorgate, 4) Cripplegate, 5) Aldersgate, 6) Newgate, 7) Ludgate, 8) Temple Bar; all but the last were demolished before the end of the 18th century. ] [Note: lets off the hour...time is satisfied: i.e., tolls the hour, after which it stops ] [Note: stops: stop = mechanism which prevents the striker ] [Note: short prayer: i.e., before execution ] [Note: sessions-house: courtroom ] [Note: Keep the left hand: i.e., the sinister or perverse way; cf. The Spanish Tragedy I.i. ] [Note: [Marry]: Many (Q) ] [Note: suspect: suspicion, the accent on the last syllable ] [Note: a' th' good man's: ‘God is a good man’ was proverbial; cf. Much Ado about Nothing III.v. ] [Note: give but aim: give aim = stand by the target and inform the shooter how close his arrow came to the bull's eye in order for him to perfect his shot; cf. Westward Ho! II.ii. ] [Note: tester: sixpence, so called from the teston of Henry VIII and the image of his head (Old French teste) stamped on it; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside I.i, The Merry Wives of Windsor I.iii, 2 Henry IV III.ii. ] [Note: Marybone Park: ‘Until 1611 Marylebone Manor was crown property: the gardens (ultimately incorporated into Regent's Park) were said in A Fair Quarrel IV.iv to be suitable as a burial ground for whores and panders because it was near Tyburn. The point of Laxton's quip, however, is enriched by the linking of a pun on Marybone (= marrow-bone) and park in the sense of 'the female body as a domain where the lover may freely roam' (cf. Venus and Adonis 231ff.)’ (Gomme). ] [Note: [frampold]: phrampell (Q); fiery, mettlesome, spirited. Cf. Wit at Several Weapons III.i, The Merry Wives of Windsor II.ii. ] [Note: Smithfield: a horse-market outside Aldersgate; the reputation of its dealers was not very high; cf. 2 Henry IV I.ii. ] [Note: you: your (Q) ] [Note: [couch'd]: coacht (Q); embroidered with gold ] [Note: tufftaffety: Hoy cites Linthicum, p. 124: ‘Plain taffeta was not rich enough for Elizabethan taste. It must be 'tufted', i.e. woven with raised stripes of spots. These stripes, upon being cut, left a pile like velvet, and, since the tufted parts were always a different colour from the ground, beautiful colour combinations were possible.... Tuft-taffeta was used for hats for both men and women, and for men's hose, jerkins, cloaks, and jackets.’ Sir Godfrey has a ‘taffety’ hat in The Puritan III.vi. ] [Note: vild: vile ] [Note: highways are stopp'd with them: the nouveaux riches, who, by the sheer number of coaches and their incompetent driving, clogged up the highways ] [Note: Cerberus: watchdog, from the three-headed dog that watched the gates of Hades; cf. Blurt, Master Constable III.i. ] [Note: Savoy: the 13th-century palace reconstructed as a hospital for the poor in 1505; in the late 16th century there were complaints that criminals used it as a sanctuary from the law. Cf. The Shoemakers' Holiday IV.iv. The illustration is from an 18th-century engraving depicting the Savoy c. 1550. ] [Note: Islington: one of the northern suburbs of London, another favorite place of recreation ] [Note: mercers: Mercers dealt in costly fabrics. A Trick to Catch the Old One I.i, The Phoenix I.ii, ] [Note: catchpole: sheriff's officer who acted as tax gatherer; cf. Blurt, Master Constable II.i, The Puritan III.v, Westward Ho! III.ii. ] [Note: corruption: decomposition ] [Note: if they would keep...generation of a sergeant: if gallants were as prompt paying the mercers' bills as they were meeting their harlots, not even bankrupts would want to become sergeants, because, would you know, that's why men become sheriff's officers, i.e., they buy their way into a post in which they were likely to be bribed or be able to keep some of the money for themselves ] [Note: Three Pigeons: This inn in Brentford finally closed in 1916; I.ii of She Stoops to Conquer takes place here. Cf. The Alchemist V.iv. ] [Note: untruss a point: Untied one of the points that joined the breeches to the doublet; Laxton believes she is beginning to undress. ] [Note: There's the gold: the ten angels which Laxton gave Moll in II.i. ] [Note: hackney: 1) horse kept for hire, 2) prostitute; cf. 1 The Honest Whore II.i. ] [Note: pace: 1) speed of the horse, 2) training as a prostitute; cf. Pericles IV.v. ] [Note: racks: moves with the gait called a rack, in which the horse raises both hooves on the same side at the same time ] [Note: Win 'em and wear 'em!: a popular expression, a variation of which is ‘Win her and wear her,’ referring to a bride; cf. Much Ado about Nothing V.i, The Witch of Edmonton I.ii & II.ii. ] [Note: serve an execution on thee: 1) formally deliver a legal writ, 2) inflict corporal punishment, 3) Gomme sees sexual innuendo: ‘draw meant also to expose the penis (as a sword from a scabbard), and an execution a performance of the sexual act (see Troilus and Cressida III.ii.81, and cf. below, l. 118). Her threat therefore is that she will geld him.’ ] [Note: monkey: exotic pets such as monkeys (proverbially lascivious) were mentioned to indicate the decadence of court ladies; cf. Michaelmas Term I.i, The Puritan I.iii & IV.ii, The Bloody Banquet I.iv, Cynthia's Revels IV.i. ] [Note: cup and lip: sharing a loving-cup and kissing ] [Note: act: sexual act; cf. The Merchant of Venice I.iii. For a similar sentiment, cf. Shakespeare's Sonnet 121: ‘'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed....’ ] [Note: lay ledger: lie, rest, reside ] [Note: golden hook: ‘To angle with a golden hook’ is proverbial; cf. A Fair Quarrel III.ii. ] [Note: wedlocks: wives; cf. The Poetaster IV.iii. ] [Note: shifting sisters: probably prostitutes, i.e., the ‘sisterhood’ that shifts beds; cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One V.ii. ] [Note: 'cause: so that ] [Note: [slanderers]: slanders (Q) ] [Note: familiar: a spirit or demon appointed to serve a particular person; cf. The Witch I.ii. ] [Note: [voyage]: viage (Q) ] [Note: chirurgeon: surgeon (archaic) ] [Note: umbles: physical constitution (literally, the edible innards of an animal, usually a deer) ] [Note: stand to't stiffly: with the sexual innuendo ] [Note: [make]: meke (Q) ] [Note: their tricks in't: how they do it ] [Note: [Yea]: Ye (Q) ] [Note: Fillips: fillip = a stroke or tap given by bending the last joint of a finger against the thumb and suddenly releasing it; the pun, of course, is on ‘temple.’ Cf. Anything for a Quiet Life IV.ii. ] [Note: Chick Lane: better known as Stinking Lane, just off Newgate Street to the east of Grayfriars Church (later Christchurch) ] [Note: wide straddle: apparently a characteristic of the real Moll ] [Note: entertainment: employment ] [Note: cast off this: i.e., she will give Trapdoor the clothes she now wears as hand-me-downs; cf. Your Five Gallants IV.viii, Blurt, Master Constable II.ii, The Revenger's Tragedy V.i. ] [Note: St. Thomas Apostle's: on Knightrider Street by Wringwren Lane, east of St. Paul's near College Hill ] [Note: pruing: with the possible pun on ‘proo,’ to call an animal to stand (dial.) ] [Note: kyes: cries ] [Note: up and ride: a common phrase; cf. Blurt, Master Constable IV.i, The Family of Love I.ii. ] [Note: What is't: whats ist (Q) ] [Note: drugs: drudges ] [Note: pounded: with the sexual innuendo ] [Note: teeth waters: i.e., mouth waters; cf. 2 The Honest Whore IV.ii. ] [Note: cookish: like a cook, i.e., hovering over, tending all the time ] [Note: fool's head: with a pun on bauble, the ornament on the end of the wand carried by a jester, which often carried sexual innuendo, which certainly seems to be the case here ] [Note: [sting]: sing (Q); cf. The Taming of the Shrew II.i. ] [Note: [apron] husbands: aperne (Q); husbands who are tied to their wives' apron-strings ] [Note: cotqueans: men who meddle with female affairs (Dyce) ] [Note: milch-kine: milk-cows ] [Note: scurvygrass: cruciferous plant which supposedly prevented scurvy; cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's I.ii. ] [Note: Demophon was false to Phyllis: ‘Demophon, son of Theseus, en route back to Athens at the end of the Trojan War, met and married Phyllis, a Bisaltian princess. When he tired of her and announced his need to visit his mother in Athens, Phyllis knew he would not return though he swore by all the gods that he would be back within the year. On his departure, she gave him a casket containing a charm, with instructions to open it when he had abandoned all hope of returning to her. Instead of going to Athens, Demophon settled in Cyprus. At the end of a year, Phyllis committed suicide. In the same hour, Demophon was prompted to look in the casket. The contents (their nature undisclosed in the myth) maddened him. Galloping off insanely on his horse, he was thrown and impaled on his own sword’ (Hoy, referencing Robert Graves, The Greek Myths). Gomme confuses this with another tale involving a Thracian princess named Phyllis at the time of the Trojan War. ] [Note: Pan-da-rus was to Cres-sida: Dyce was first to observe that the hyphens probably indicate the difficulty with which Mistress Gallipot reads their names. ] [Note: Aeneas made an ass of Dido: Returning from the Trojan War, Aeneas was shipwrecked in Carthage and with whom Dido, the queen, fell in love. He took advantage of her luxurious accommodations until Jupiter prompted him to leave in order to found Rome; at his departure, Dido killed herself. ] [Note: die to thee: with the sexual innuendo ] [Note: I know his threes too well: Mistress Gallipot may merely be making a comment on Laxton's handwriting, but this sounds like a laugh-line, probably bawdy; I haven't been able to discover any such significance, but it has been noted that Middleton, for one, had a penchant for things coming in threes. ] [Note: adamants: magnets, lodestones ] [Note: Hockley Hole: village that lay in the Fleet Valley northwest of Clerkenwell Green, not to be confused with Hockley-in-the Hole in Bedfordshire, mentioned in The Puritan IV.ii, Northward Ho! I.i. ] [Note: made sure: contracted, betrothed ] [Note: twelve months three times...silver bow: cf. 2 The Honest Whore V.ii, The Whore of Babylon I.i (‘Five summers have scarce drawn their glimmering nights/Through the moon's silver bow...’) & IV.ii. ] [Note: sleight: contrivance; cf. Your Five Gallants II.iii, The Changeling IV.i. ] [Note: God-so: an oath; cf. ‘catso,’ Blurt, Master Constable V.i. ] [Note: turtles: turtle-doves, emblems of true love; cf. The Changeling III.iv. ] [Note: sirrah: This form of address for servants was sometimes used for women. ] [Note: sadness: seriousness ] [Note: rubbers in a false alley: Rubbers, a singular form, was the third game after the players had each won one game in a match at bowls, a very popular sport often gambled upon. Aspects and terminology of the game were often used by playwrights, often with sexual overtones. Rubbing, a variation of rubbers, has obvious sexual overtones; cf. Love's Labours Lost IV.i. Alleys, or banks, were undulations in the open green which skilled bowlers used when rolling their bowls; here, the false alley is Openwork's supposed harlot. The bias was the impetus given to cause the bowl to run obliquely. For various allusions to bowls, cf. Blurt, Master Constable III.iii, If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil Is in It II.i, Old Fortunatus IV.i, Troilus and Cressida III.ii, Satiromastix V.ii. ] [Note: stale mutton: mutton was slang for strumpet, hence stale = overused, worn-out; cf. Your Five Gallants III.iii, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside I.i, II.i, IV.i, Blurt, Master Constable I.ii, No Wit, No Help Like a Woman's I.i, The Bloody Banquet II.i, 1 The Honest Whore II.i. ] [Note: abroad: i.e., outside the house ] [Note: rack and manger: i.e., his food; to live at rack and manger was to live in reckless abundance. Cf. Northward Ho! IV.iii. ] [Note: saddle him in's kind: treat him as he should be treated, i.e., subdue him ] [Note: ride our journey: with the innuendo of ‘enjoy our sexual pleasure’ ] [Note: amble: originally used only for horses; another in the series of sexual metaphors ] [Note: 'Ud's light: God's light, an oath; cf. IV.ii, ‘'Ud's soul’ ] [Note: glister: clyster, enema; cf. Dr. Glister in The Family of Love , A Trick to Catch the Old One V.ii, The Old Law III.ii, Anything for a Quiet Life IV.ii. ] [Note: one of Hercules' labours: Hercules performed twelve nearly impossible tasks as penance for killing his wife and children in a fit of insanity. ] [Note: pudding tobacco: tobacco compressed into rolls resembling pudding, or sausage, but Laxton's question seems to be a threat, probably implying that he is after Gallipot's pudding, or guts; cf. Satiromastix I.ii. ] [Note: [precontract]: precontact (Q); a contract of marriage. Cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One IV.iv. ] [Note: No wild fowl to cut up: Wild fowl is slang for whore; cf. Northward Ho! I.ii. ] [Note: [lain]: lien (Q) ] [Note: [now]: uow (Q) ] [Note: Be-Lady: by our Lady, an oath (appears variously as berlady and byrlady; cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One IV.ii, The Puritan III.vi. ] [Note: bouncing ramp: bold, vulgar, ill-behaved woman or girl ] [Note: oyster-wench: cf. Richard II I.iv. ] [Note: As a barber's every Saturday night: alluding to barbers' reputation for gossip-mongering ] [Note: in conjunction: in the same zodiacal sign (with the sexual innuendo); for more astrological metaphors, cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's ] [Note: holes of her upper body: i.e., the eyelets of the bodice of her gown; cf. A Mad, World, My Masters III.iii. ] [Note: placket: a short opening or vent at the top of a woman's petticoat or kirtle skirt, hence slang for vagina; cf. The Family of Love IV.ii, Anything for a Quiet Life II.ii. ] [Note: standing collars: a high, straight collar fastened in front, like that worn by Moll on the title-page; cf. Northward Ho! II.i, If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil Is in It III.iii. ] [Note: Michaelmas Term: the first term in the legal year, when termers would have a lot of money; cf. Westward Ho! II.i, III.iii, IV.i. ] [Note: tilting: encountering (cf. IV.ii for other meanings, although this usage has sexual innuendo as well) ] [Note: them: the other knights ] [Note: [Pox]: Foxe (Q) ] [Note: Russian bear: Bears were imported from Russia for the bear-baitings, and they were known for their ferocity; cf. The Whore of Babylon II.i, Macbeth III.iv. ] [Note: baggage: wanton; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside I.i, Romeo and Juliet III.v, Pericles IV.ii, The Comedy of Errors III.i, The Merry Wives of Windsor IV.ii. ] [Note: take up more: i.e., on credit ] [Note: ningles: ingles, i.e., favorite boys, catamites; cf. Satiromastix I.ii. ] [Note: horse-leeches: rapacious parasites; cf. A Fair Quarrel III.ii. ] [Note: advise: advice ] [Note: woodcock: a bird easily trapped and hence a dupe; cf. The Witch II.iii, The Family of Love II.iv, the character Woodcock in Blurt, Master Constable , No Wit, No Help like a Woman's III.i, Northward Ho! V.i. ] [Note: counter: Counters (or compters) were debtors' prisons (in London were the Poultry Counter, in which Dekker himself was once imprisoned, and the Wood Street Counter); they were divided into four wards. The master's was for the richest and provided the best accommodations; then came the knight's, the twopenny, and finally, for the poorest, the Hole, a name which Middleton frequently takes advantage of for the bawdy pun. Cf. The Phoenix II.iii & IV.iii, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside V.iv, Your Five Gallants I.i, Michaelmas Term III.iv, A Trick to Catch the Old One IV.iii, The Puritan III.iv. ] [Note: countertenor: for the same pun, cf. The Witch of Edmonton II.i. ] [Note: bridled there: with a pun on Bridewell, a prison for prostitutes ] [Note: Bedlam: St. Mary of Bethlehem Hospital, the lunatic asylum just outside London (for its location, consult the map in the notes for A Chaste Maid in Cheapside ). Cf. The Changeling I.ii. ] [Note: counter:/Why, 'tis an university!: Writers at this time frequently made this comparison (e.g., Middleton in The Phoenix and Michaelmas Term ). ] [Note: commence: earn a degree ] [Note: be plac'd: beg plac't (Q) ] [Note: Proceeds: advances to a higher degree ] [Note: dispute: undergo a disputatio, or oral examination; cf. Middleton's parody in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside IV.i. ] [Note: Lies by th' heels: is arrested and chained; cf. Anything for a Quiet Life V.i. ] [Note: puttocks: buzzards; this is the name of the sergeant in The Puritan . ] [Note: spirits: i.e., sergeants (looking ahead to Curtilax's line about conjuring); cf. Michaelmas Term III.iii. ] [Note: muzzle-chops: nickname for a man with a prominent nose and mouth ] [Note: blue coat: describing the uniform of serving-men; cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One II.i, No Wit, No Help like a Woman's IV.ii, The Shoemakers' Holiday V.ii. ] [Note: honesty: a collective term for gentry, here used in the singular ironically ] [Note: I conjure most in that circle: with the pun on the circle in which conjurers evoked spirits ] [Note: toward: promising, hopeful ] [Note: One pair of shears sure cut out both your coats: i.e., you are two of a kind; cf. Measure for Measure I.ii. ] [Note: ware: merchandise (cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's I.iii); as Gomme notes, the image is not very precise, unless Sir Davy is thinking of the wares a peddler carries on his back, just as these officers are always on the backs of gentlemen. ] [Note: great fish and little fish: proverbial; cf. Pericles II.i. ] [Note: a sergeant cares but for the shoulder of a man: i.e., because he claps the man on his shoulder to signify his arrest; cf. Michaelmas Term III.iii, The Puritan III.iii, Satiromastix IV.ii, Westward Ho! V.iv. ] [Note: Jews: Jews were often unkindly depicted or referred to in these terms in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama; the most notable examples are of course The Merchant of Venice and The Jew of Malta. Also cf. The Phoenix II.ii, Your Five Gallants IV.viii, The Family of Love I.iii. ] [Note: [flay]: flea (Q) ] [Note: Bartholomew Fair: London's annual jamboree and chief national cloth sale; it was opened by the Lord Mayor on St. Bartholomew's Eve (August 23) and lasted a fortnight. Cf., of course, Jonson's Bartholomew Fair . ] [Note: Sa, sa: from the French ‘ça, ça’ the exclamation of fencers when delivering a thrust, here used as a hunting cry; cf. King Lear IV.vi, The Revenger's Tragedy V.i, Patient Grissil III.ii. ] [Note: give the counter: To hunt counter is to run a false scent, or follow it in reverse direction; so here, turn him back. ‘There is doubtless a play on counter in the sense of prison’ (Gomme). ] [Note: mace: A sergeant's scepter or staff of office, with the pun on the spice; cf. A Mad World, My Masters III.ii, The Old Law V.i, Anything for a Quiet Life III.ii. ] [Note: caudle: warm drink of gruel and ale or wine, often used medicinally; cf. Your Five Gallants IV.ii, The Witch II.iii, The Family of Love III.i, No Wit, No Help like a Woman's II.iii, The Puritan IV.iii. ] [Note: double your files, traverse your ground: literally, make the ranks smaller by putting two files in one, and move from side to side; it doesn't make sense, but Sir Davy's enthusiasm outstrips his knowledge of military maneuvers. ] [Note: and: and and (Q) ] [Note: ambuscado: ambush ] [Note: [nook] thou: uooke (Q); hide in that nook ] [Note: wrangling: noisy, argumentative ] [Note: ravens: Ravenshaw is a sergeant in The Puritan ; also cf. Westward Ho! III.ii. ] [Note: wind-shaken: weakened by the force of the wind, here a metaphor for having been weakened by debts and ill-luck ] [Note: men-midwives: cf. The Whore of Babylon II.i. ] [Note: Peeping?: The officers are peeking into the tavern to see when Jack Dapper will come out. ] [Note: two infected maltmen: ‘Presumably the cloaks would hide the visible signs of an infection (but 'infected' could mean tainted with crime). I do not know why maltmen...should be picked on.... Maltmen appear in several proverbs, none of which seems to tell on the present context’ (Gomme). Cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's III.i. ] [Note: course: a pursuit with hounds, a hunting term ] [Note: buckler: a small, round shield; cf. The Phoenix II.iii, The Changeling I.ii, Much Ado about Nothing V.ii. ] [Note: dry-beat: cf. The Shoemakers' Holiday I.iv. ] [Note: a butcher dry-beat him with a cudgel: As Mulholland conjectures, an allusion to fray in February 1611 involving two butchers, Ralph Brewin of St. Clement's Eastcheap and John Lynsey of St. Andrew's Undershaft, accused on assaulting gentlemen patrons of The Fortune. ] [Note: [MOLL]/Honest sergeant--/[TRAPDOOR]: In Q, the s.p. is Both, and the word ‘sergeant’ is ‘Seriant’ uncorrected, ‘Serieant’ corrected. Gomme follows Dyce and Bullen, and maintains the dual s.p. while emending to ‘servant’. On the other hand, Bowers prefers ‘sir’, believing Gull would not be addressed before his master, and that the compositor mistakenly expanded the abbreviation ‘Sr’. However, I tend to think the Q reading is correct, and that Moll's and Trapdoor's lines were fused to convey the fact that they are acting in tandem and are speaking almost simultaneously. Splitting the s.p. somewhat clarifies the action and helps a reader visualize the trick: Moll accosts and in some way ‘hangs upon’ Curtilax (as he puts it) in order to expose him and divert his attention, leaving it to Trapdoor to sound the alarm, thus allowing Jack and Gull to escape. (Cf. similar ‘rescue’ in The Phoenix IV.iii, where a reveler physically prevents an arrest by feigning a jest.) ] [Note: rescue: the taking of a person or goods out of custody by force; cf. 1 The Honest Whore IV.iii, Coriolanus ] [Note: Shoe Lane: the lane that ran south from Holborn Street to Fleet Street; it paralleled the Fleet Ditch to the east ] [Note: scriveners' bands: i.e., in debt; Middleton especially took a very dim of scriveners (i.e., notaries, those who draw up contracts and bonds of debt): cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One I.iii, The Family of Love III.i, The Phoenix II.ii, A Yorkshire Tragedy i, The Revenger's Tragedy I.iii. ] [Note: German watch: renowned for their complexity and craftsmanship; cf. A Mad World, My Masters IV.i, Love's Labours Lost III.i. ] [Note: hundred marks in yellow links: his chain of office as magistrate; cf. A Mad World, My Masters V.i & V.ii. ] [Note: headboroughs: parish officers whose functions are identical to those of petty constables'; cf., e.g., Verges in Much Ado about Nothing , The Changeling I.ii. ] [Note: court cupboard: a sideboard with three shelves and elaborately carved legs ] [Note: closely: secretly ] [Note: lets: prevents ] [Note: [glisterings]: gilsterings (Q) ] [Note: mysteries: skill, art (obs.), cf. All's Well that Ends Well III.vi, Ford and Dekker's The Sun's Darling IV.i; Dyce suggests emending to ‘miseries’. ] [Note: to choose: for choice ] [Note: [father's]: fathets (Q) ] [Note: I pitied her for name's sake: Moll was traditionally the name of a ‘low’ woman; cf. A Yorkshire Tragedy i, the lascivious Moll Plus in The Puritan , and Moll Yellowhammer (ironically named because she is virtuous) in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside . ] [Note: lays: wagers; cf. The Revenger's Tragedy V.i, The Changeling III.iii. ] [Note: ring-doves: like turtle-doves (III.iii), emblematic of true love; cf. A Game at Chess IV.iv. ] [Note: fury: with a pun on fury in the sense of musical inspiration ] [Note: Like a swan above bridge: Bullen notes that ‘the Thames abounded with swans at this date.’ There is a pun on the piece of wood over which the strings of the viol are stretched. ] [Note: close: secretive ] [Note: call the viol an unmannerly instrument for a woman: viol de gambo, a six-stringed violin which was gripped between the player's thighs, with the sexual innuendo reinforced by the sexual pun on ‘instrument’; cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One I.i, Your Five Gallants II.i. ] [Note: Burse: The Royal Exchange, built by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566-68; it had many shops and was famous for its silks and draperies. Cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside I.ii (‘Gresham's Burse’), Anything for a Quiet Life I.i, Westward Ho! II.i. ] [Note: Saint Kathern's: the dockside district of London's East End, which had a notorious reputation; cf. The Devil is an Ass I.i, The Alchemist V.iii. ] [Note: Fleet: the Fleet prison ] [Note: hoise up sails: cf. 2 The Honest Whore IV.ii, Patient Grissil III.i, If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil Is in It II.i. ] [Note: tails: 1) cant term for the sexual organs and, by extension, lascivious people, 2) pun on tales ] [Note: cousin-germans: first cousins; cf. The Old Law II.i, Blurt, Master Constable I.ii. ] [Note: many a younger brother...wriggle in and out: ‘Suggestive of a variation on that type of cony-catching known as 'The curbing law' (whereby a thief angles with a hooked rod through an open window for valuables that he has previously spotted)’ (Hoy). ] [Note: eel in a sandbag: Gomme glosses as ‘a proverbial phrase used of things languishing for want of proper sustenance’ (as Cynthia's Revels II.v), but this doesn't seem to fit the context. ] [Note: ballets: i.e., ballads commemorating the condemned ] [Note: brokers/Would be chosen for hangmen: It was customary for hangmen to receive the clothes of their victims; cf. The Devil Is an Ass I.i. ] [Note: wardropes: wardrobes ] [Note: No poison, sir, but serves us for some use: cf. The Changeling II.ii, ‘The ugliest creature/Creation fram'd for some use.’ ] [Note: Foot: by God's foot, an oath (elsewhere ‘'Sfoot’); cf. The Phoenix I.ii, A Yorkshire Tragedy ix, Blurt, Master Constable I.i, The Bloody Banquet I.iv, The Revenger's Tragedy I.iii. ] [Note: sight: sigh ] [Note: plunge: stress, straits, i.e., into a dilemma ] [Note: Puts down: 1) surpasses, 2) overthrows, which Sir Alexander interprets as doing so by means of venereal disease ] [Note: And will do still; he'll ne'er be in other tale: he'll always be wanting the full payment, i.e., nobody will pay him if doesn't extend credit ] [Note: Clifford's Inn: the oldest of the Inns of Chancery, next to St. Dunstan's in the West on Fleet Street ] [Note: You teach to sing too?: with the sexual innuendo; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.i, Troilus and Cressida V.ii. ] [Note: prick-song: a pricked song is music written down, with the sexual innuendo; cf. Women Beware Women III.ii, The Phoenix I.ii, Your Five Gallants II.i, Romeo and Juliet II.iv, The Witch III.ii, Match Me in London IV.ii. ] [Note: lesson: musical exercise or composition written for use in teaching ] [Note: mend: surpass ] [Note: angels mark'd with holes in them: Small holes are drilled in the shillings for means of identification; evidently Sir Alexander means to have Moll arrested later for stealing them. ] [Note: fish: slang for loose women or the female genitals ] [Note: roses: Large silk roses on shoes became fashionable at the end of the 16th century; Moll wears them in the title-page illustration. Cf. Webster's The White Devil V.iii, Chapman's Caesar and Pompey II.i. ] [Note: Bunhill: A street in London near Moorfields; on its east side were the artillery fields, used for archery practice. Bullen notes that in September 1623, Middleton received twenty marks ‘for his service at the shooting on Bunhill, and at the Conduit Head before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen.’ ] [Note: fline: flown ] [Note: Pimlico: The part of Hoxton from the corner of St. John's Road and New North Road to Hoxton Street, which was called Pimlico Walk; it was a place of resort and famous for fresh cakes and ale. The name was later transferred to the area between the Thames and St. James's Park. Cf. The Alchemist V.ii. ] [Note: double: be duplicitous, evasive; cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's II.i. ] [Note: shag-ruff band...set in a cramp-ring: ‘One of a number of ingenious depictions of the Jacobean gallant's head precisely fixed in the centre of a stiffly elaborate ruff’ (Hoy). Cramp-rings were rings that supposed protected the wearer from the cramp and epilepsy; they were hallowed by the king or queen every year on Good Friday. Cf. The Alchemist IV.iii, The White Devil III.i. ] [Note: tilt: an awning over a boat ] [Note: punk: whore; cf. Your Five Gallants I.i, A Trick to Catch the Old One I.ii, Blurt, Master Constable III.i. ] [Note: incontinently: 1) immediately, 2) with an insatiable sexual appetite; cf. Blurt, Master Constable II.ii, The Old Law V.i, Satiromastix III.i. ] [Note: poking my ruff: poking-sticks (or poting-sticks) were steel sticks used to set the plaits of the ruff; cf. Blurt, Master Constable III.iii, A Yorkshire Tragedy i, 1 The Honest Whore II.i. ] [Note: hit I him i' the teeth: I reproached him; cf. A Fair Quarrel II.ii, Satiromastix I.ii. ] [Note: rest: a wood pole with an iron spike on one end driven into the ground, and a semicircular piece of iron on the other which supported the musket when firing ] [Note: whisking: moving actively, brisk, lively ] [Note: running: flighty ] [Note: purse-nets: a bag-shaped net, the mouth of which can be drawn together with cords, used especially for catching rabbits or fish; cf. Pursenet the pickpocketing gallant in Your Five Gallants , 2 The Honest Whore IV.ii. ] [Note: [MISTRESS GALLIPOT/ ]: A line of Mistress Gallipot's seems to have dropped out, for Mistress Openwork has two consecutive speeches. ‘Then they hang the head’ appears at the top of the page, with the s.p. appearing as the catchphrase at the bottom of the previous page. The sequence of dialogue doesn't necessitate a line between the two speeches (i.e., Mistress Openwork's second speech can follow the first without any disruption in sense), but another line could easily be inserted. Three copies of (Q) were reset, resulting in accidentals such as ‘Then they hang head’: Bowers conjectures that the printer realized Mistress Gallipot's was missing, unlocked the frame, found it could not be inserted, and the reset the type carelessly. ] [Note: hang the head...droop: with the sexual innuendo ] [Note: cog: wheedle, fawn, employ feigned flattery; cf. The Merry Wives of Windsor III.iii, Westward Ho! II.i. ] [Note: ingle: 1) fondle, caress, or 2) wheedle, cajole (as in Blurt, Master Constable II.ii) ] [Note: riven: broken, split ] [Note: frump'd: mocked, insulted ] [Note: how shall I find water to keep these two mills going?: a pun on water = semen; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.ii ] [Note: clapp'd under hatches: kept below deck, with the pun clap = clip, i.e., embrace ] [Note: all split: to make all split = to wreak havoc; cf. The Witch II.ii, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside IV.ii, A Midsummer Night's Dream I.ii. ] [Note: cork heels: Chopines had cork soles and high cork heels, and were often associated with wantonness; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside III.ii, The Changeling III.iii & V.iii, Much Ado about Nothing V.iv, The Revenger's Tragedy I.ii, 2 The Honest Whore III.i. ] [Note: gudgeons: small, easily-caught fish, therefore fools; cf. the character Gudgeon in The Family of Love , A Chaste Maid in Cheapside IV.ii, The Bloody Banquet II.i, Northward Ho! I.ii, Match Me in London V.ii. ] [Note: false faces: At one time fashionable only among the upper classes, the wearing of masks to conceal a woman's identity had worked its way down the social scale; by Restoration times, it was mostly identified with prostitution. Cf. The Phoenix I.v. ] [Note: you'll eat of a cod's head of your own dressing: i.e., you'll catch yourself in your own net (cod's head = fool), but also with sexual innuendo. Cf. Blurt, Master Constable II.ii, 2 The Honest Whore V.ii. ] [Note: gib: cat, a term of reproach, especially for an old woman ] [Note: Your worst: Gomme emends to ‘you're worsted’, i.e., you're blemished, but the Q reading can stand as an abbreviation for ‘Do your worst,’ as Mistress Gallipot says later this scene. ] [Note: music of the spheres: in Ptolemaic astronomy, crystal spheres revolved between earth and God's throne, a frequently occurring image; cf., e.g., The Revenger's Tragedy II.i. ] [Note: get you a-mumming: literally, a command to don a mask and take part in a mummers' play, but Mistress Openwork is telling him to be quiet (pun on mum) ] [Note: Pass by their privilege current: i.e., most people, believing the wearer to be beautiful beneath the mask, show her respect; as Gomme notes, however, the prostitutes who wore masks did not always pass current, as in Northward Ho! I.ii, 2 The Honest Whore IV.i. ] [Note: Dam: dambe (Q); both ‘dam’ and ‘damn’ fit the context, and the pun is probably intentional, but the OED records ‘dambe’ as an erroneous form only of ‘dam.’ ] [Note: beldam: witch ] [Note: [sprites]: spirits (Q), emended for the rhyme ] [Note: [them]: then (Q) ] [Note: as shopkeepers do their broid'red stuff: a popular charge against tradesmen of keeping the light low to disguise shoddy merchandise; cf. the draper Quomodo (whose henchmen are Falselight and Shortyard) in Michaelmas Term , The Duchess of Malfi I.i, Anything for a Quiet Life II.ii. Hoy suggests emending to ‘braided’, i.e., goods that have changed color, or faded. ] [Note: two flags were advanc'd: an allusion to the raising of flags at theaters to announce performances; cf. The Whore of Babylon IV.i. ] [Note: MISTRESS [GALLIPOT]: Mist. Open. (Q) ] [Note: Westward Ho: the cry of the Thames watermen, but obviously a direct reference to Dekker's and Webster's 1604 comedy, which features citizens' wives and their gallants on a journey westward to Brainford; also cf. Twelfth Night III.i. ] [Note: toss/Me in a blanket: Blanketing, or tossing in a blanket, was a form of punishment, the offender being tossed in the air by blanket held by those below. There is the innuendo of love-making in a blanket, as Openwork links baboon, a term of abuse, with its proverbially lascivious nature. Cf. The Bloody Banquet III.i, Satiromastix IV.iii. ] [Note: stale: a lover or mistress whose devotion is turned into ridicule for the amusement of rivals ] [Note: reversion: 1) legal term for the right of succession after death or the expiration of a grant, 2) leftovers of a meal; cf. The Old Law II.ii, The Changeling IV.iii. ] [Note: Cold Harbour: Also called Cole Harbour, a mansion by the Thames on Upper Thames Street, later tenements where debtors and vagabonds found sanctuary from the law (a cole = a cheat, sharper); it burned down in the Great Fire of 1666. Cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One II.i, III.i, IV.i, Anything for a Quiet Life II.iii (illustration), Westward Ho! IV.ii. ] [Note: MISTRESS [OPENWORK]: Mist. Gal. (Q) ] [Note: western [pug]: png (Q). 1) pug = harlot, 2) western pug = navigators of barges down the Thames from places like Brentford to London; cf. Westward Ho! II.ii. ] [Note: tilted: 1) jousted, with the sexual innuendo, 2) pitched in the boat on the waves, with the sexual innuendo; cf. III.iii, 1 Henry IV II.iii. ] [Note: run atilt: engage in a joust ] [Note: OPENWORK: Mis. Open. (Q) ] [Note: I'll ride to Oxford...brazen head speak: At Oxford, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay spent seven years constructing a brass head in order to ask it if it was possible to build a brass wall around England. Unfortunately, the head was left unattended when it came time for the head to speak. The story would have been familiar from The Famous History of Friar Bacon (earliest extant copy dated 1627, but prob. c. 1550), and from Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1594), the prologue and epilogue of which Middleton wrote in 1602. ] [Note: text letters: large or capital letters; cf. If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil Is in It I.ii, The Whore of Babylon V.ii. ] [Note: turn'd it all to poison: It was believed that every spider was poisonous, but only if the victim knew it was there; cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's II.i, The Winter's Tale II.i. ] [Note: OPENWORK: Mist. Open. (Q) ] [Note: [counterfeit]: counterfet (Q) ] [Note: chore: core, here, the core of the apple from the garden of Eden ] [Note: rub: another allusion the game of bowls, where rub = an obstacle by which a bowl is hindered in its proper course: cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's I.i & II.iii, The Revenger's Tragedy III.v, The Shoemakers' Holiday V.iv, Richard II III.iv, Hamlet III.i, Henry VIII II.i, and Henry V II.ii, V.ii. ] [Note: deal upon: 1) set to work upon, 2) have sexual intercourse with ] [Note: sumner: summoner, a petty officer who notified people when they were to appear in court; cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One II.i, Anything for a Quiet Life I.i. ] [Note: aloof off: cf. s.d.'s for Michaelmas Term I.i, III.i, No Wit, No Help like a Woman's IV.i. ] [Note: snaffling: snuffling (var.); Greenwit is pretending to have a cold in order to disguise his voice. ] [Note: Rose Tavern: There were many London taverns bearing this name. Hoy and Gomme think that the one near Temple Bar at the corner of Thanet Place, frequented by lawyers, is the most attractive candidate. Another Rose Tavern stood on Holborn Hill, from which coaches departed for Brentford. ] [Note: Crastino sancti Dunstani: the morrow after St. Dunstan's Day (19 May) ] [Note: Bow Church: St. Mary's le Bow (Sancta Maria de Arcubus) on the corner of Bread Street in West Cheap, the original site of the Court of Arches, the chief court of the Archbishops of Canterbury; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside I.i. ] [Note: libel: the plaintiff's charges ] [Note: fagary: vagary; cf. Satiromastix IV.ii. ] [Note: tawny-coat: the traditional dress of a summoner; cf. Patient Grissil IV.iii. ] [Note: I must lose my hair in their company: with the jest that he has syphilis, which causes the hair to fall out; cf., A Midsummer Night's Dream I.ii, The Revenger's Tragedy I.i, The Bloody Banquet II.iii, A Trick to Catch the Old One IV.v, Westward Ho! V.iv, 1 The Honest Whore II.ii. ] [Note: in the nose: The advanced stages of syphilis involved the disintegration of cartilage and tissue, and the disfigurement of the nose was an obvious sign; cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's IV.ii. ] [Note: a knack to know an honest man: An anonymous play by this title was mentioned by Henslowe as being a new piece on 22 October 1594, between which date and 3 November 1596 twenty-one performances by the Admiral's Men at the Rose on the Bankside are recorded; it was printed in 1596. This and ‘a knack to know a knave’ were proverbial. ] [Note: A very clean shift,/But able to make me lousy: with the pun on shift = piece of clothing and lousy = lice-ridden ] [Note: [Gelt]: Get (Q). This seems to be the best emendation, = gold (from geld, i.e., money) ] [Note: Irish: a dice game resembling backgammon ] [Note: when she comes to bearing: 1) in Irish and backgammon, the removal of a piece at the end of a game, 2) child-bearing; cf. Northward Ho! IV.i. ] [Note: perspicuous: clear in statement ] [Note: Meg of Westminster: There was another Moll, much like Moll Frith, whose exploits are told in The Life and Pranks of Long Meg of Westminster (1582); cf. Satiromastix III.i, Jonson's The Fortunate Isles. ] [Note: forlorn hope: Originally, a chosen body of fighters detached to the front to begin the attack, or skirmishers, it came to mean figuratively those in a desperate condition. ] [Note: mittimus: a writ for the receiving and keeping of a criminal; cf. The Phoenix V.i, The Old Law V.i. ] [Note: Newgate: One of the six gates of ancient London and a chief prison, demolished in 1767; see the illustration above. Cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside II.ii, Your Five Gallants III.v, Anything for a Quiet Life III.ii, The Puritan I.iii. ] [Note: firework to run upon a line: for an illustration, cf. ‘firedrake’ (a firecracker) in The Witch I.i; also cf. Your Five Gallants III.ii, The Whore of Babylon III.i. ] [Note: linstock: a stick approximately three feet long used to hold matches for igniting a cannon; cf. Blurt, Master Constable II.ii. ] [Note: captain of the galley-foist: a term of contempt. A galley-foist was a large barge with oars, used specifically as the one that transported the Lord Mayor to Westminster to take his oath; cf. 2 The Honest Whore IV.iii. ] [Note: shovel-board shilling: a highly-polished shilling used in the game of shovel-board, a game resembling the modern shuffleboard; cf. The Merry Wives of Windsor I.i, Every Man in His Humour III.v. ] [Note: whistled the poor little buzzard off: a term from falconry, meaning to dismiss by whistling; cf. Othello III.iii. ] [Note: boot-halers: freebooters, marauders, highwaymen ] [Note: boon voyage: an anglicizing of bon voyage ] [Note: nappy: heady, intoxicated ] [Note: ging: company, crew ] [Note: world's end: There were apparently many taverns of this name within and (more appropriately) far outside London. ] [Note: cow-heel: a cow's foot stewed to a jelly ] [Note: Alla corago: from coraggio (Ital., courage); cf. All's Well that End's Well II.v, The Tempest V.i. ] [Note: siege of Belgrade: The Hungarians lost Belgrade to the Turks in 1521. ] [Note: Moldavians, Walachians, and Transylvanians: inhabitants of three of the Balkan provinces in modern Rumania ] [Note: Sclavonians: a general name for the Slavic people; cf. A Fair Quarrel IV.i. ] [Note: from Venice to Roma...diverse others: ‘An amble indeed: Vecchio is presumably Civitavecchia, Bononia and Bolonia are one and the same, the modern Bologna, Romania is Romogna, Valteria Volterra, Mountepulchena Montepulciano. Moll recognizes that this is not proper journey but a string of names picked up at hearsay’ (Gomme). ] [Note: butter-box: The Dutch were stereotyped as being overfond of butter, and therefore fat; cf. No Wit, No Help like a Woman's I.iii, The Shoemakers' Holiday I.iv. ] [Note: ruffling: swaggering ] [Note: Ick, mine here...mine here: Gomme provides a translation, although ‘a 'translation' must be a matter partly of guesswork, but it isn't entirely gibberish, though some words are hard to identify. (I have supposed that, since Tearcat goes once into Spanish, he may also include an attempt at a French word: it looks as if Beasa may be baiser.) 'I, sir? I am the ruffling Tearcat, the brave soldier, I have traveled through all Holland: the rascal who gave more [than] a kiss and a word. I beat him with blows on the head; pulled out thence a hundred thousand devils, cheerfully, sir'.’ ] [Note: jobbering: jabbering ] [Note: Not a cross: i.e., not a penny; coins were frequently stamped with a cross on the reverse. Cf. Blurt, Master Constable II.i, The Family of Love I.ii. Sir Beauteous is trying to get rid of them by offering them money. ] [Note: skeldering: sponging, used especially for vagabonds posing as soldiers; cf. Satiromastix I.ii, the character Shift in Every Man out of His Humour. ] [Note: glaziers: eyes ] [Note: black patches: black patches were fashionable, and often hid blemishes such as rheum and scabs; cf. Blurt, Master Constable III.iii, Anything for a Quiet Life IV.ii. ] [Note: Isle of Dogs: a peninsula in the Thames between Limehouse, Greenwich, and Blackwall Reaches, so named because it was said the king's hounds were kept there; it was a place of refuge from creditors and the law, which led to frequent jokes. The lost play The Isle of Dogs by Jonson and Nashe led to the theaters being closed for two months. Cf. Satiromastix IV.i. ] [Note: whip-jack: A ‘sort of nimble-fing'red knaves...who talk of nothing but fights at sea, piracies, drownings and shipwracks, travelling both in the shapes and names of mariners, with a counterfeit license to beg from town to town.... The end of their land voyage is to rob booths at fairs.... These whip-jacks will talk of the Indies and of all countries that lie under heaven, but are indeed no more but fresh-water soldiers’ (The Bellman of London). ] [Note: horners: 1) workers in horn (i.e., the animal's horn is the raw material), 2) cuckolds (obs.) ] [Note: horns for the thumb: case or thimble of horn which the cutpurse wore when using a knife to cut the strings of a purse; thieves came to be known as horn-thumbs. ] [Note: nipping: cutting a purse ] [Note: maunderer: beggar ] [Note: pad: road ] [Note: out at elbows: have a coat worn out at the elbows, to be ragged, poor, in bad condition ] [Note: cant: ‘It was necessary that a people, so fast increasing and so daily practicing new and strange villainies, should borrow to themselves a speech which, so near as thy could, none but themselves could understand; and for that cause was this language, which some call pedlar's French, invented.... This word canting seems to be derived from the Latin verb canto, which signifies in English to sing, or to make a sound with words, that's to say, speak. And very aptly may canting take his derivation a cantando, from singing, because amongst these beggarly consorts that can play upon no better instruments, the language of canting is a kind of music, and he that in such assemblies can cant best is counted the best musician’ (Lanthorn and Candlelight). Some canting phrases have already been glossed above; Gomme provides an excellent glossary, culled from works of Dekker and others featuring canters' dictionaries. ] [Note: upright man: The highest ‘office’ in the thieves' hierarchy; after him comes the ruffler, the angler, the rogue, and finally the wild rogue. ] [Note: doxy: whore ] [Note: Halt not: do not limp, i.e., be roundabout ] [Note: by the salomon: by the Mass, an oath ] [Note: kinchin mort in her slate at her back: ‘Kinchin morts are girls of a year or two old, which the morts, their mothers, carry at their backs in the slates, which in the canting tongue are sheets’ (The Bellman of London). ] [Note: dell: ‘A dell is a young wench...but as yet not spoiled of her maidenhead.... These dells are reserved as dishes for the upright men, for none but they must have the first taste of them’ (The Bellman of London). A wild dell was one born or begotten under a hedge. ] [Note: darkmans: night ] [Note: strommel: straw ] [Note: ben: good ] [Note: [booze]: bouse (Q) ] [Note: gruntling cheat, a cackling cheat, and a quacking cheat: ‘By joining of two simples do they make almost all their compounds. As for example, nab...is head, and nab-cheat is a hat or a cap, which word cheat being coupled to other words stands in very good stead and does excellent service’ (Lanthorn and Candlelight). Trapdoor therefore refers to a pig, a cock or capon, and a duck. ] [Note: old: fine, rare ] [Note: ken: house. Like ‘cheat,’ this word is often used in combination with other cant, e.g., a boozing ken is an alehouse, and a few lines later a lib ken is a ‘sleep-house’ or lodging, and a stalling (or stuling) ken is a house for receiving stolen goods. ] [Note: queer cuffin: ‘The word cove or cofe or cuffin signifies a man, a fellow, etc., but differs something in his property according as it meets with other words, for a gentleman is called a gentry cove or cofe, a good fellow is a ben cofe, a churl is called a queer cuffin...and in canting they term a Justice of the Peace (because he punisheth them, belike) by no other name than by queer cuffin, that's to say a churl or a naughty man’ (Lanthorn and Candlelight). ] [Note: heave: rob ] [Note: mill: rob ] [Note: bung: purse ] [Note: couch a hogshead: lie down asleep ] [Note: ruffmans: woods or bushes ] [Note: wap: have sexual intercourse ] [Note: niggle: have sexual intercourse ] [Note: Cut benar whids: speak good words ] [Note: fambles: hands ] [Note: stamps: legs ] [Note: fadoodling: apparently Trapdoor's invention; the earliest OED entry is 1670 (= something ridiculous) ] [Note: fit: strain ] [Note: gage: quart pot ] [Note: rom-booze: wine ] [Note: Romville: London ] [Note: caster: cloak ] [Note: Peck: meat ] [Note: pannam: bread ] [Note: [lap]: butter; lay (Q) ] [Note: popler: porridge ] [Note: deuse a [vill]: the country; vile (Q) ] [Note: [MOLL, TEARCAT]: Tearcat's name appears as a s.p. at both the third and tenth lines, and the s.d. The song appears in the right-hand margin at the sixth; like Gomme, I think it is reasonable to assume they join in a chorus here, as well as the last two lines. ] [Note: lightmans: day ] [Note: hartmans: stocks ] [Note: scour the queer cramp-ring: to wear fetters (a jocular use of cramp-ring: cf. IV.ii) ] [Note: palliard: beggar ] [Note: docked: lay with ] [Note: skew: cup ] [Note: Avast: away ] [Note: bing: go ] [Note: Romford market: Romford, twelve miles northeast of London in Essex, famous for its hog market; cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside IV.i. ] [Note: stall'd: made, ordained ] [Note: trine: hang ] [Note: cheats: gallows ] [Note: I prae, sequor: go before, I follow ] [Note: gallant: finely dressed ] [Note: wand: switch for urging a horse on; cf. The Witch II.iii. ] [Note: strike: Their cant here is best explained by this passage from The Bellman of London, some of which is covered in Moll's explanation below: ‘This figging law, like the body of some monstrous and terrible beast, stands upon ten feet, or rather lifts up proudly ten dragon-like heads, the names of which are these, viz.:

• He that cuts the purse is called the nip.
• He that is half with him is the snap, or the cloyer.
• The knife is called a cuttle-bung.
• He that picks the pocket is called a foist.
• He that faceth the man is the stale.
• The taking of the purse is called drawing.
• The spying of this villain is called smoking or boiling.
• The purse is the bung.
• The money the shells.
• The act doing is called striking.

’ ] [Note: Shadow: follow closely ] [Note: cheaping: asking the price of, bargaining for ] [Note: caduceus: Strictly defined, the wand carried by an ancient Greek or Roman herald: one was carried by Mercury, the messenger of the gods. Although it sounds as Moll is referring to a rod on which the goldsmith kept his rings in the marketplace, Mercury was also the god of thieves (cf. the inscription in the title-page of the 1662 prose tract above), and this stick may be similar to a curber's hook (cf. IV.i). Cf. Troilus and Cressida II.iii. ] [Note: ken: know ] [Note: [trust]: rrust (Q) ] [Note: last new play i' the Swan: Further evidence for the 1611 date of composition. The Swan produced no new plays from 1597/8 to 1611, featuring acrobatic performances and sports contests instead. The Swan was used exclusively as a theater from 1611 to 1615; A Chaste Maid in Cheapside was performed there in 1613. It was located in the Paris Garden, Southwark, at the western end of the Bankside, west of Hopton Street (click here for a map: the Swan is on the left, the Globe on the right). Illustration: the famous 'de Witt sketch' by Arend van Buchel, after a drawing by his friend Johannes de Witt, who had visited the Swan Theater around 1596. This is the only contemporary picture of the interior of an Elizabethan playhouse. ] [Note: Make it good: Returning property stolen by cutpurses was evidently a custom of Mary Frith's. ] [Note: synagogue: meeting-house of thieves where stolen money and goods are accounted for and divided, officers elected, etc. ] [Note: Pacus palabros: from pocas palabras (Spanish, few words); cf. The Taming of the Shrew Induc., The Spanish Tragedy III.xiv. ] [Note: In younger days: Moll Frith would have been about 26 in 1611. ] [Note: cheaters: ‘The cheating law, or the art of winning money by false dice. Those that practise this study call themselves cheaters, the dice cheaters, and the money which they purchase cheats’ (The Bellman of London). Cf. 1 The Honest Whore IV.ii. ] [Note: lifters: The lifting law ‘teacheth a kind of lifting of goods clean away. The such liftings are three sorts of levers used to get up the baggage, viz.:

• He that first stealeth the parcel is called the lift.
• The that receives it is the marker.
• He that stands without and carries it away is called the santar

’ (The Bellman of London). ] [Note: puggards: thieves; cf. The Winter's Tale IV.iii. ] [Note: curbers: Those who hook goods out of a window (cf. IV.i) ] [Note: black guard: cf. Westward Ho! III.iii. ] [Note: some Italian pander: In further support of a 1611 composition date, Mulholland ties this observation to the Crudities of Thomas Coryate (?1577-1617), entered in the Stationers' Register on 26 November 1610 and printed in 1611. The interesting link is that Prince Henry, who financed its publication, was also the patron of the company at the Fortune Theater; Mulholland suggests that this allusion could be either ‘a token of support for the beleaguered Coryate’ or ‘a form of advertisement.’ ] [Note: quick: lively ] [Note: tickling: pleasing, amusing, with the pun on making an arrest, or whipping; cf. Your Five Gallants IV.viii, Blurt, Master Constable I.ii, passim, Anything for a Quiet Life III.ii. ] [Note: close: secretly ] [Note: the Sluice: an embankment on the Thames built to protect the low-lying district of Lambeth Marsh from flooding, with a possible pun of sluice = to have sexual intercourse with ] [Note: Lambeth: notorious for thieves; cf. Westward Ho! IV.i. ] [Note: six wet towns: possibly the riverside towns of Fulham, Richmond, Kingston, Hampton, Chertsey, and Staines ] [Note: where fares lie soaking: i.e., where travelers lie soaking wet, with the sexual innuendo ] [Note: Blackfriars: cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside for a map showing the Blackfriars stairs. ] [Note: [has]: had (Q) ] [Note: gaskin-bride: a bride who wears gaskins, a particular kind of breeches or hose; cf. The Puritan III.iii. ] [Note: rak'd up: i.e., smothered ] [Note: culverin: a large cannon, ten to thirteen feet long; cf. Patient Grissil IV.iii, The Noble Spanish Soldier II.i. ] [Note: [SIR ALEXANDER]: Fitz-All. (Q) ] [Note: He does it well: Indicating that Greenwit and Goshawk know about Fitzallard's plot? ] [Note: For your speeches...rashness: i.e., though I foresee that you will tax me for rashness ] [Note: engage: wager ] [Note: his: i.e., Sir Alexander's ] [Note: upon her: i.e., Moll ] [Note: matches: wagers ] [Note: In that refusal: i.e., of Moll ] [Note: Of an old knight: in the manner of an old knight ] [Note: monthly: like a lunatic, who supposedly were made mad by Luna, the moon; cf. The Witch IV.i, The Phoenix IV.i (‘privileg'd by the moon’), The Changeling III.iii. ] [Note: smock-dowry: with no dowry but her smock; cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One IV.iv, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside III.iii. ] [Note: unmark'd: unnoticed, of no account ] [Note: work upon advantage: take advantage of my position; cf. A Fair Quarrel III.iii. ] [Note: citizens and their wives: In the d.p. in (Q), Tiltyard, Openwork, and Gallipot are bracketed with the Latin cives et uxores to the right. ] [Note: challenge: be the equivalent of, rival ] [Note: sped: 1) provided, 2) sexually fertile ] [Note: simple: pure, disinterested ] [Note: [Cheaters]: Cheates (Q) ] [Note: booted but not coach'd: Gomme offers various explanations for this line; the best sense seems to me to be that those who cheat at dice will be rich or respectable enough to be well-shod but not enough to ride in coaches. ] [Note: Vessels: maidenheads ] [Note: before [thee]: done to thee; hee (Q) ] [Note: pursue: seek ] [Note: cuck: put on the cucking stool ] [Note: [gentlewomen]: gentlewoman (Q); the following line calls for the plural: Moll is addressing the citizens' wives. ] [Note: beams: sunbeams ] [Note: hit her o'er: directed criticism toward ] [Note: book: Believed by R. C. Bald to be Martin Mark-All, Beadle of Bridewell: His Defence and Answer to the Bellman of London, a pamphlet of 1610, now lost. Its author, one S. R., and Dekker exchanged hostilities in print, stemming from S. R.'s deriding Dekker's attempts at rogue literature and questioning his knowledge of thieves' cant. ] [Note: humourous: full of humours or fancies, whimsical ] [Note: The Roaring Girl...recompense: That this passage refers specifically to Moll Frith herself has been much discussed; it was certainly within her character, although, as Gomme suggests, it could refer to the actor playing Moll who was to appear at the Fortune in another play. ]