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26 Plays
nowhere else' (Dictionary of Birds, p. 643). Cf. 3 Henry VI, v. vi.
44-5:
The owl shriek'd at thy birth,—an evil sign:
The night-crow cried, abodmg luckless time.
The Greek was probably the night-heron, and Jonson may
have meant this bird, recalling the sardonic epigram on its harsh, dissonant
cry in the Greek Anthology, xi. 186:
20. left-handed, sinister (literally and figuratively). Virgil, Eel. ix. 15,
'Ante smistra cava monuisset ab ihce cormx'. Contrast C.R. iv. iii. 79,
'A most right-handed, and auspicious encounter'.
25. the conduit, or the bake-house. Poet. iv. iii. 113-14 n.
26. the infant'ry, the 'blackguard' or meanest drudges in the Court,
who rode with the furniture and kitchen utensils in the royal progresses.
Webster, The White Devil, ed. Lucas, i. ii. 127-9: 'a lousy slave that
within this twenty yeares rode with the blacke guard in the Dukes
canage mongst spits and dripping-pannes,' Merc. Vin. 86, L.R. 118.
28. hppis & tonsoribus notum. Horace, Sat. i. vii. 3. Cf. 5. of N.
i. ii. 29, 30, where Penniboy junior stops a tailor from telling the news:
' let Thom (He's a Barber) by his place relate it.'
34. my eaters? my mouthes. For this method of describing servants
cf. 'eaters', Sir Gyles Goosecappe, 1606, ed. Bang, i i. 57, 'feeders',
Antony and Cleopatra, in. xiii. 109, 'cormorants', E.M.O. v. i. 9; and
Petronius, Satyncon, 57. 6, 'viginti ventres pasco'.
38. barncado. The earliest example of 'barricade' in the O.E.D. is
dated 1642.
44. a man of your head, and haire. ' Head' means intellect, and ' haire'
quality: for the latter cf. Fletcher, The Nice Valour, i. i (Fol. 1647,
p. 151), 'A lady of my haire cannot want pittying'.
64. citterne, then common in barbers' shops for the customers to
amuse themselves with, while waiting. Dekker, The Honest Whore,
part ii, v. ii (1630, Ki v ), 'A Barbers Citterne for euery Seruingman to
play vpon'. In the Jail Delivery Roll 19 January 7 Elizabeth quoted
in Middlesex County Records, ed. Jeaffreson, i, p. 52, is the catalogue
of a barber's stock in trade, William Swayne of Westminster, which had
been stolen: 'vnum lavarium vocatum a barbors basen de quodam
metallo vocato latten ad valenciam us. vid., vnum poculum vocatum
a latten pot ad valenciam us. vid., tres tonsorias vocatas rasors ad
valenciam iiis., forfex a pare of sheres ad valenciam lis. vid.,
dua pectma vocata combes ad valenciam vuid., et vnum instrumentum
music, vocatum a pare of Clavicordes ad valenciam injs., et vnum
instrumentum musicu vocatum a Giterne ad valenciam iijs.'
65-118. Compare the terser outburst in The New Inn, n. i. 19-29.
72. male-baudes lock. Cf. W. M., The Man in the Moone, 1609, D3 V ,