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n7837   3.1 At the beginning of Act 3, the much-discussed Frances appears for the first time, and the fruits of Dryground’s scheme begin to come clear, as Oliver and Ambrose go to the ordinary, encounter Frances, and find out about the supposed scheme to raffle Frances’ virginity among the gallants who are frequenting it. The intentions of Dryground (who is playing out the role of the disreputable host in part of the scene and is disguising his true feelings at other points), and Frances herself, are obscure. It is unlikely that spectators will know that Frances is not female at this point (although if they were familiar with Jonson’s The New Inn they might have their suspicions), but she is clearly performing her nationality and may be performing other things too. Like The New Inn and Jonson’s earlier play, Epicoene, The Demoiselle capitalises on the invisibility that an all-male cast gives the cross-dressed character. (For more detailed commentary on the use of a single-sex cast, see notes on Act 5.)

In Act 3, Scene 2, the results of another plot-line are seen, as Bumpsey and his family enter ‘all in brave clothes’, the result of Bumpsey’s spending competition with Valentine. This gives Brome an opportunity to make fun of current, French-influenced fashions, and we discover that Magdalen and Jane are planning to visit the ordinary in pursuit of training in fashionable behaviour. The characterisation of Magdalen develops in this scene: like many middle-aged women in Caroline drama, she is unconsciously bawdy, her speech dripping with innuendo. As the scene progresses, Vermin and, later, Sir Amphilus, enter in search of news of Alice. The latter’s entrance leads to some miniature comic set pieces, particularly when Trebasco enters and informs his master that his prized dog has been abducted. As the scene concludes, the men head to a tavern to drown Sir Amphilus’s sorrows, while the women pursue their plan to visit the ordinary. [go to text]

n7838   [Enter] FRANCIS [and] WAT. ] Francis - Wat. [go to text]

gg5156   regardless heedless, indifferent, careless [go to text]

n7840   with all my heart, That is: with great sincerity, earnestness, or devotion; with the utmost goodwill or pleasure (OED heart n, 39). [go to text]

gg137   honest chaste [go to text]

gg1029   wrought (literally) moulded, shaped; (in context) persuaded [go to text]

gg5169   lewdness lustful or lascivious behaviour [go to text]

n10034   not deserve ] not as well deserve (This line is hyper-metrical, and it seems evident that one of the repetitions of 'as well' is erroneous; a reader of one of the British Library copies of the play [G.18535] deletes the second rather than the first.) [go to text]

gg5170   maidenhead state or condition of being a virgin (OED n1, 1a) [go to text]

gg2226   polluted sinful, tainted [go to text]

gg928   poor insignificant [go to text]

gs1213   bit small portion or amount (especially of food); used to allude to sexual intercourse (Williams, 1: 107-8) [go to text]

gg359   aforehand! in advance [go to text]

gs1214   Heart! an exclamation or mild oath, short for ‘God’s heart!’ [go to text]

gs1215   bespeak order [go to text]

n7842   tavern feast i.e. a meal ordered in a tavern. [go to text]

n7843   next-day dinner, Dinner on the next day (i.e. tomorrow). [go to text]

gs1216   earnest money paid as an instalment or pledge: a deposit (OED n, 2) [go to text]

n7844   To half the value i.e. amounting to half of the price [go to text]

gs1217   troth, promise (especially of marriage) [go to text]

n7846   marriage payment This refers to jointure, the money pledged to the wife on marriage, in the event of her widowhood; Wat equates emotional and financial ‘payment’, suggesting that his pledge of love should entitle him to some sexual reward prior to the wedding. [go to text]

n7845   To be tomorrow, That is: the 'tavern feast' will be ordered, and guaranteed with a deposit, for tomorrow. [go to text]

n7847   hostess i.e. the manager of the tavern [go to text]

gg5171   modicum small quantity of food or drink; OED notes that it can be used as a slang term for ‘something eaten in order to stimulate thirst’ (modicum n. 1.a) [go to text]

n7848   stay his stomach? That is: stave off hunger (OED stay v1, 29); ‘stomach’ is also used to refer to sexual appetite (Williams, 3: 1320): see George Chapman, All Fools (Chapel Children, c. 1600), in which the jealous Cornelio threatens his wife with divorce ‘to bridle her stout stomach’ (Frank Manley, ed., All Fools [Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968], 5.2.213). [go to text]

gs1218   reason. evidence used to support a particular argument (OED n1, 1a); reasons for taking a particular course of action (OED n1, 5a) [go to text]

n7849   Enter DRYGROUND disguised [with] ALICE. ] Enter Dryground disguis’d. Alice. [go to text]

n7850   disguised Dryground appears to be wearing clothes that indicate to other characters his supposed vocation as a pimp. In a poem prefacing Humphrey Mill’s A Night-Search (London, 1640) - to which Brome also contributed a poem - Thomas Brewer comments that the characters depicted include ‘Some satin pimp; some plush decoy’ (sig. A4r), a decoy being a swindler (OED n.² 4); the pimp may therefore wear ostentatiously expensive or fashionable clothing, but with a raffish or disreputable air. [go to text]

n7851   Mistress ] Mr. [go to text]

gg2357   end purpose, aim [go to text]

gs1219   upon towards (OED upon prep, 20); concerning (upon prep, 22) [go to text]

gg5172   scope purpose, aim (OED n2, 2a) [go to text]

gg5173   Tending attending to, looking after (OED tend v1, 2 and 3a); relating to, concerning (OED tend v2, 9) [go to text]

gg5174   contentment. satisfaction, contentedness; enjoyment, delight [go to text]

n7852   a father’s curse, i.e. my father’s anger (a 'curse' here is opposed to the blessing that a father ought to give a child). [go to text]

gs1220   durst would dare [go to text]

gg5175   virgin appropriate to a virgin: chaste, pure; fresh or new (OED virgin a, 16) [go to text]

n7853   this night The events of the play seem to take place during the course of one day. For further comment see the Introduction. [go to text]

n7854   you are ambitious of, i.e. that you hope to achieve [go to text]

gg885   leave permission [go to text]

gg2442   Crown (v) bless, amplify, give honour to (OED v1, 11); bring to a happy conclusion (OED crown v1, 10) [go to text]

n7855   perjured wretches people who have made false oaths, or have promised things that they cannot supply [go to text]

n7856   be branded here. Perjurers could be punished by having letters (for instance, ‘F.A.’ for false accuser) branded on their cheeks or foreheads. See Garthine Walker, Crime, Gender and Social Order in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 100. Dryground probably therefore gestures to his face or forehead. [go to text]

gs370   respect favour; esteem [go to text]

gg5176   noblesse, nobility of character or mind (OED n, 1a) [go to text]

n7857   bars Mine ears ’gainst protestation. i.e. prevents me from hearing arguments to the contrary. [go to text]

gg2413   ’gainst against [go to text]

gg5177   dare will be so bold as to (OED v1, 1); will venture to (OED v1, 3) [go to text]

gs182   project, something projected or proposed for execution; a plan, scheme (OED n, 5a) [go to text]

gs1221   discreet judicious, prudent; able to keep one’s silence (OED a, 1) [go to text]

gg3084   instrument "a person made use of by another [...] for the accomplishment of a purpose" (OED n, 1b); an agent, tool [go to text]

gg5178   Profoundly intensely, extremely (OED profoundly adv, 3) [go to text]

gg5179   love-struck overwhelmed by love; this is OED’s earliest citation, but earlier examples can be found in James Mabbes’ 1623 translation of The Rogue, and in Abraham Cowley’s collection of poems, Poetical Blossoms (London, 1633):

as fire,
Though but a spark, soon into flames is brought,
So mine grew great, and quickly mounted higher;
Which so have scorched my love-struck soul, that I
Still live in torment, though each minute die. (sig. B4v)

[go to text]

n7858   [Frances] ] The speech prefix in the octavo reads ‘Fry.’, which is clearly a misprint (and has been corrected in some copies by early readers). [go to text]

gs1222   civil. orderly, well-governed (OED a, 7); civilised (OED a, 8); polite, well-bred (OED a, 9); humane (OED a, 11) [go to text]

n7859   to better purpose. with a better intention or aim; to greater effect [go to text]

gg29   course way of proceeding, action; also trick, way of gaining money illicitly [go to text]

gs1223   habit? clothing, disguise [go to text]

gg3896   by’t, by it: on account of it, because of it [go to text]

gg5180   daintiest best; most delightful (OED dainty a, 1); most delicately made (OED dainty a, 4) [go to text]

gs1224   brave intrepid, daring (OED a, 1a); excellent, worthy (OED a, 3) [go to text]

gs291   shape! costume, appearance [go to text]

gg5181   swingers, people who act ‘vigorously or forcibly’ (OED swinger n2, 1); see also OED swinger n1: rogue, scoundrel (OED’s examples are all Scots) [go to text]

gs1225   on, about [go to text]

gg4039   ha’ have [go to text]

n7860   borne it up so. carried it off, maintained it [go to text]

gg5182   clipped mispronounced (clip: ‘to cut [words] short; to omit by indistinct or hurried utterance syllables and parts of words; to pronounce imperfectly’ [OED clip v2, 5b]) [go to text]

gg5183   Frenchified made French: spoken in a French style, or with a French accent [go to text]

gg5184   counterfeits pretends, simulates (OED v, 4); passes herself off (OED v, 5) [go to text]

gg5185   coxcombs fools (from the hat in the shape of a cock’s comb worn by a professional fool) [go to text]

gg5186   court woo [go to text]

n7861   ‘Fee! Fee!’s, Exclamations of ‘Fee! Fee!’ (‘Fie! Fie!’, said with a strong French accent). [go to text]

n7862   ‘Laisse-moi!’s, Exclamations of ‘Laisse-moi!’ (‘leave me!’) (French). [go to text]

n7863   ‘Pre’ away!’s, Exclamations of ‘Pre’ away!’ (‘Pray, away!’, i.e. ‘I pray you, [get] away!’). [go to text]

n7864   ‘Intrat-a you mak-a me blush-a’. ‘In truth, you make me blush’ (said with a strong French accent). [go to text]

gg5187   tickled pleased, made eager, excited [go to text]

gs764   ’Slid! an oath, deriving from ‘God’s eyelid’. See Jonathon Green, Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang (London: Cassell & Co., 1998), s.v. ’slid! excl. [go to text]

n7865   dote upon be excessively fond of, pay extravagant attention to [go to text]

n7866   Though I had kept a precept by’t I care not. That is: even if I had kept to conventional rules of moral conduct (i.e. the requirement that a son should honour his father) in doing so I wouldn’t care. [go to text]

gg5188   precept rule for moral conduct (OED n, 1a): in this case the obligation on a son to honour his father [go to text]

gs1226   Notable noteworthy, remarkable (OED a, 1) [go to text]

gg3907   reprobate. someone rejected by God or lost in sin (OED n, 1); ‘an abandoned or unprincipled person’ (OED n, 2) [go to text]

n7867   Wrought me a mischief That is: did wrong to me, committed a crime against me. [go to text]

n7868   Wrought ] Ought [go to text]

gg4089   wretch, vile or contemptible person (OED n, 3); miser (OED n, 4); OED’s post-medieval examples of the latter meaning are largely Scottish, but this sense is found elsewhere, as in Abraham Fleming’s A Memorial of the Famous Monuments and Charitable Almsdeeds of the Right Worshipful Master William Lambe Esquire (London, 1580), sig. B1v: ‘Do you not remember that the Holy Ghost speaketh of a covetous miser, a wretch, a worldling, one that very busily occupied his head about enlarging his barns, that his soul might be more merry in the middest of his abundance’ [go to text]

gg5189   beget generate, father [go to text]

n7869   ’Tis in my bones; That is: it’s in my very core, it’s in at the heart of my being; also alludes to the damage that venereal disease does to the bones, as the next lines make clear. [go to text]

gg5190   youth. youthful wantonness, folly or rashness (OED 3) [go to text]

gs1227   pox venereal disease, usually refers to syphilis [go to text]

n7870   I know from whence the pox is now descended; The gout begets it. Wat suggests that the characteristic disease of loose-living young men, syphilis, is the offspring of the stereotypical disease of older men (and in particular misers), the gout. This association between gout and the pox is found in other texts; Williams (2: 612) quotes Thomas Paynell’s translation of Ulrich von Hutten’s De Morbo Gallico (London, 1533): ‘some time the sickness [i.e. the syphilis] turneth itself into the gout, or into the palsy or into apoplexy and infecteth many one with leprosy, for it is thought that these infirmities be very neighbours one to another’ (sig. A5v). See also Falstaff’s comment in Shakespeare’s 2 Henry IV: ‘A man can no more separate age and covetousness than a can part young limbs and lechery; but the gout galls the one and the pox pinches the other, and so both the degrees prevent my curses’ (1.2.229-33). [go to text]

gg5191   gout ‘a specific constitutional disease occurring in paroxysms, usually hereditary and in male subjects; characterized by painful inflammation of the smaller joints, esp. that of the great toe, and the deposition of sodium urate in the form of chalk-stones; it often spreads to the larger joints and the internal organs’ (OED n1, 1); the word can also be used to refer to venereal disease, as Williams notes (2: 612), ‘partly through confusion of symptoms, partly as euphemism’; however, Wat’s comparison depends on a clear distinction being drawn between gout and the pox, so it is unlikely that this sense is primary here [go to text]

n7871   But ’s But he’s (i.e. who is not) [go to text]

gg5192   spice touch or trace of a disorder or malady (OED n, 5a); dash or flavour (OED n, 5b) (OED notes that the latter meaning often carries with it a touch of the former) [go to text]

gg5193   limbo, often refers to a region just outside Hell, to which the unbaptised and those born before Christ’s birth were relegated, but also (as here) refers to Hell in general; ‘limbo’ can also mean ‘prison’ or ‘confinement’, so the pun takes Dryground into his statement about the compter in the rest of this line [go to text]

gg3909   compter, an obsolete spelling of ‘counter’ (a prison attached to a local magistrate’s court): used specifically in the seventeenth century to refer to London’s debtors’ prisons (OED compter; OED counter n3, 7) [go to text]

gs910   fitted supplied, furnished [go to text]

gg5194   copesmate. comrade, partner (OED 2); accomplice in cheating (OED 3) [go to text]

gg5023   ’Slight! An expletive (a shortening of the phrase: "By God's light!") [go to text]

n7872   I could ask you blessing. i.e. as if he were Dryground’s son [go to text]

gs1228   courtesy act of politeness or consideration [go to text]

n7873   grew to any understanding, That is: reached an age at which I was capable of judgement or reason. [go to text]

n7874   Nor (as I know) before, but whipped and held to’t. That is: even when I was too immature to reason properly, I did not ask his blessing unless I was whipped and forced to (it). [go to text]

gg5195   held obliged to adhere (OED hold v, 7b), constrained, bound (OED hold v, 10) [go to text]

gg5196   to’t. to it [go to text]

gg5197   hand part, share (OED n, 3b) [go to text]

gs898   match, marriage or marriage agreement (OED n1, 8a); bargain (OED n1, 9) [go to text]

gs1572   ordinary an establishment where meals were provided at a set price; OED notes that in the seventeenth century ‘the more expensive ordinaries were frequented by men of fashion, and the dinner was usually followed by gambling; hence the term was often used as synonymous with “gambling-house”’ (OED n, 11c) [go to text]

n7875   The maidenhead here, the new ordinary The demoiselle, All of these epithets refer to Frances: the first replaces her metonymically with her unbroken hymen, the physical evidence of her virginity; the second conflates her with the premises in which she apparently works, and where that virginity will apparently be on sale; the third sums her up in the French word for ‘maiden’ or a young woman. [go to text]

n7876   Condescendeth she? i.e. has she condescended to promise to marry you [go to text]

gg4319   Whoe’er whoever [go to text]

gs363   withal, substituted for ‘with’ (OED prep.) [go to text]

n7877   before or after, i.e. before or after our marriage [go to text]

gg1199   roundly plainly (OED 3a); completely, fully (OED 2) [go to text]

gg5198   baulks refuses: often used in the context of a horse shying or refusing to jump (OED balk v1, 3a) [go to text]

gg5199   boggles hesitates, raises scruples (OED boggle v, 2) ; quibbles, equivocates (OED boggle v, 3) [go to text]

gg5200   less lesser, less important [go to text]

gg350   knowledge sexual intimacy (OED n, 7) [go to text]

gg359   aforehand. in advance [go to text]

gg352   office! service, duty, employment, responsibility [go to text]

n7878   But that I am afeard i.e. if I wasn’t afraid that [go to text]

gg5201   afeard afraid, frightened [go to text]

gg103   presently. immediately (OED adv, 3); without delay [go to text]

gg5202   maids, girls [go to text]

n7879   Frank, Dryground frequently abbreviates Frances’ name as ‘Frank’, and he is the only one to do so. The abbreviation calls attention to the ambiguity of Frances’ name, and its appropriateness for the function that Dryground implies that she will have to fulfill. For further comment see [NOTE n5802]. [go to text]

gg5203   chandler’s chandler: a tradesman who manufactures and sells candles [go to text]

gg451   vintner a person who deals in or sells wine [go to text]

gg5204   bottle-man a servant or tradesman who has charge of bottles [go to text]

gg5205   tobacco-merchant. a tradesman who sells tobacco: tobacco is often assumed to be an essential purchase for gallants in early modern drama [go to text]

n7880   Now, Wat, observe me Video The exchange between Wat and Dryground begins with a clear direction to Wat and the audience to listen carefully (‘Now, Wat, observe me’), and it is another example of Brome’s deft handling of exposition. There are certain facts (some of them misleading) that need to be conveyed to the audience at this point, but the playwright nonetheless ensures that the exchange between Wat and Dryground retains its dramatic interest and dynamic through the careful delineation of the relationship between Wat and Dryground. The tone can be varied. In this version of part of the exchange from the workshop on this scene it is kept relatively light through the shared laughter between Wat and Dryground, the little dance that Wat (Philip Cumbus) does as he says that he is ‘flying’ with the idea of the raffle, and the relatively tolerant air with which Dryground delivers the line ‘Here’s a ripe rascal!’ [DM 3.1.speech482]. In this version, the pace is somewhat slower, and the tone is darker, particularly in Dryground’s aside. In this third version, which extends to the entrance of Frances (Hannah Watkins) at [DM 3.1.speech489], the tone is darker still, Wat is more sexually aggressive. The exchange is disturbing in part because we have just seen Frances for the first time, and she enters interrupting Dryground, apparently oblivious to the scheme and its consequence. In this version, therefore, the proposed project does not seem merely abstract. [go to text]

n7881   an ingenious critic Martin Butler notes that the Caroline theatre audience is the first ‘to leave traces of widespread critical discussion of plays’ (Theatre and Crisis 1632-1642 [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984], 107). [go to text]

n7882   released you from ] released from [go to text]

gg808   thraldom captivity [go to text]

n7883   Upon condition i.e. upon the condition [go to text]

n7884   at my dispose. That is: under my direction or management (OED dispose n, 2); under my control or power (OED dispose n, 3). [go to text]

n7885   You have performed it. This might be performed as if it is a complete statement, or Wat might interrupt him. [go to text]

gs1229   Honestly, worthily (OED adv, 1); without fraud or falsehood (OED adv, 2) [go to text]

gs1230   absolute perfect, unlimited [go to text]

gg5206   grateful agreeable, welcome (OED a,1) [go to text]

n10035   fortunes, ] Fortune (this correction is made by the reader of one of the British Library copies [G.18535]) [go to text]

gg5207   sunk, swallowed (OED sink v, 2b); fallen, degenerated (OED sink v, 11); weighed down, crushed (OED sink v, 13); diminished, decreased (OED sink v, 15: OED's earliest citation is from 1655 but this sense may be intended here); reduced to ruin, destroyed (OED sink, v, 21) [go to text]

n7886   I make no doubt, i.e. I don’t doubt: I am sure [go to text]

gg4308   ’Mongst amongst [go to text]

gs1262   got begot, fathered [go to text]

n8026   on the by, on the side, i.e. illegitimately [go to text]

n8027   they ] thy [go to text]

gs1263   bouncing swaggering (see OED bounce v, 4a), vigorous [go to text]

gg5276   spirits! characters, people of a particular disposition (OED spirit n, 8a and 9) [go to text]

n8028   You come fairly on. That is: you’re showing promise; you’re getting the right idea. Compare Davenant, The Platonic Lovers (King’s Men, 1635; published London, 1636), in which Amadine declares of her suitor, ‘Indeed he’s grown more bold with me of late, / And will come fairly on in time’ (sig. H4r). [go to text]

gg1143   portion; dowry (monies, goods or lands brought by the wife to augment her husband’s estate on their marriage) [go to text]

n8029   Aye, ] J [go to text]

gg128   habit clothing [go to text]

gg5277   pimping someone who acts as or like a pimp (OED a1) [go to text]

n8030   the most of her, i.e. the most money I can from her. [go to text]

n8031   This has music in’t. That is: this is pleasing (see OED music n, 9a). This line could be delivered as an aside. [go to text]

n8032   You will be secret, i.e. you won’t talk indiscreetly [go to text]

n8033   dumb bawd From the point of view of a sexually irresponsible gallant, a bawd who was unable to speak would be the ultimate in discretion. Henry Shirley’s lost play The Dumb Bawd of Venice was performed at court on 15 April 1628 and entered in the Stationers’ Register on 9 September 1653 (see Bentley, Jacobean and Caroline Stage, 5: 1059), and the phrase may have had wider currency. [go to text]

gg4108   In troth truly [go to text]

gg5187   tickled pleased, made eager, excited [go to text]

n8034   to put her off – That is: to cast her off, to abandon her (OED to put off [in put v] 3b); to sell her (OED to put off [in put v] 9b); also means ‘to dispose of her fraudulently’ (OED to put off [in put v] 9a), and ‘to marry her off’ (OED to put off [in put v] 9b); and ‘to dismiss her (from employment or service)’ (OED to put off [in put v] 5b) any of which an audience (or Wat himself) might assume before Dryground says ‘I mean her maidenhead’ [go to text]

gg754   rate price [go to text]

gg5278   rifled gambled (rifle also means ‘despoil’ or ‘plunder’ [OED rifle v1, 1], and this sense hovers above the word’s use here) [go to text]

gs1264   fair successful (OED a, 14a); unobstructed (OED a, 16); open to view (OED a, 17) [go to text]

gs1265   fair free from fraud (OED a, 10a): not loaded or otherwise tampered with [go to text]

n8035   win and wear This is a proverbial phrase (Tilley W480), often used in the context of victory in battle: cf. William Warner, Albion’s England (London, 1597), ch. 22:

But since ye all (for all, I hope, alike affected be
Your wives, your children, lives, and land from servitude to free)
Are armed both in show and zeal, then gloriously contend
To win and wear the home-brought spoils, of victory the end. (p. 109 [sig. H7r])

Williams (3: 1580-9) notes that ‘wear’ is often used, as here, with the sense of to ‘draw on in coition like a garment’; see also Sir Amphilus’ comment of the missing Alice in Act 4 Scene 1 (speech 697): ‘It were good / You would let us have her again, and quickly too, / Ere she be worse for wearing, as we say’ [DM 4.1.speech697]. [go to text]

gs1266   faults? (moral) imperfections (OED fault n, 3a); transgressions (OED fault n, 5) [go to text]

gg5279   rarest most unusual, most exceptional (OED a1, 5a); most excellent (OED a1, 6b) [go to text]

gg4146   gamesters gamblers; those who engage in sexual ‘play’ [go to text]

gg5280   stiff steadfast, resolute (OED stiff a, 8), with a double entendre on ‘erect’ [go to text]

gs1267   straight, erect in stature (i.e. not deformed or diseased); honest [go to text]

gg5055   projected! planned, designed [go to text]

n8036   twenty pieces, On Wat’s reckoning in speech 477 [DM 3.1.speech477] a piece is worth 20 shillings, or £1; in today’s money this is equivalent to roughly £85. [go to text]

n8037   I vow I declare (used to strengthen an assertion: see OED vow, v² 2); the phrase is uttered five times in The Demoiselle, three times by Wat, who echoes Nicholas in The Weeding of Covent Garden, an equally disreputable young man, who uses it compulsively (and is echoed by the aspiring Clotpoll) [go to text]

gg1689   less unless [go to text]

n8038   their number i.e. the number of them [go to text]

n8039   Two thousand pound! In today’s money £2000 would be worth around £170,000. [go to text]

gs1268   merry pleasing, jolly; ‘merry’ can also mean ‘boisterous or cheerful due to alcohol’ (OED a, 4c), and a ‘merry bout’ was slang for a drinking session or sexual intercourse (OED a, S2); OED’s earliest example dates from 1668, but this usage appears in Walter Mountfort’s The Launching of the Mary (auspices uncertain, 1633), in which the drawer declares, ‘Here’s your wine, gentlewomen. Your handsel hath ever been lucky; ’twas a merry bout last time -’ (The Launching of the Mary, ed. John Henry Walter [Oxford: Malone Society, 1933], ll. 1935-6) [go to text]

n8040   And worth as many maidenheads in the sport A man shall find in spending it! Methinks i.e. worth as many nights with (new and therefore expensive?) prostitutes as it will pay for. [go to text]

gs1269   even a common formulation in Early Modern English, meaning something like ‘just’, ‘nothing else but’, or ‘to be sure’, ‘forsooth’ (OED adv, 8b) [go to text]

gs1270   flying rising into the air (as if with joy) [go to text]

n8041   What art thou thinking, Wat? Video Wat evidently pauses after saying ‘I feel myself even flying with ’t already’, as there is a distinct change of tone between this speech and his next, which begins ‘That here may grow / A danger’. See this extract from the workshop on this scene for one way in which the pause and change of tone might be negotiated. [go to text]

gg868   use have sex with [go to text]

n8042   Phew! Video This is a sound of scorn (more like ‘pah!’, or a snort), rather than of relief - Wat is not worried about too many of the men trying to have sex with Frances, he is worried that they might start fighting one another. See this extract from the workshop on this scene. [go to text]

gg5281   indifferent, unconcerned [go to text]

n8043   if ’twere all or more— As it is possible a wench might bear it— If they come single, and in civil sort, That is: if it were all of the hundred gamesters, or even more, if the girl could withstand it, as long as they come one by one, and behave themselves. [go to text]

n8044   Allow her breathing-whiles— i.e. to allow her to catch her breath. [go to text]

gg5282   breathing-whiles— breathing-spaces (OED breathing vbl. n, 10) [go to text]

n8045   Here’s a ripe rascal! Video This line could be an aside. Dryground has made similar remarks in the preceding sections of the scene, and most of them could either be delivered approvingly as direct comments to Wat, or as disparaging comments in asides. See this extract from the workshop on this scene, in which Robert Lister (reading Dryground) delivers the line as an aside to the audience; it might also be self-addressed. [go to text]

gs1271   ripe fully developed (OED a, 2b); ‘fully informed; thoroughly qualified by study and thought’ (OED a, 4a); fully prepared (OED a, 7a); ‘ready or fit for some end or purpose’ (OED a, 7b); ‘quite prepared for action of some kind, esp. mischief’ (OED a, 7c) [go to text]

gg1924   combustion, disorder, commotion (OED 5b) [go to text]

gg5283   blow up expose, betray (blow v1, 27a) [go to text]

gs1272   business i.e. the task we are engaged in [go to text]

gg5284   gallantly. splendidly, in a way befitting a gallant; with exaggerated courtesy or politeness (OED adv, 4) [go to text]

gg5285   agree assent (OED v, 8) [go to text]

gg5286   as well ‘in the same way’ (OED well adv, 21); ‘as generously’, ‘as charitably’ (OED well adv, 2a); ‘as profitably’ (OED well adv, 6c); ‘as naturally’ (OED well adv, 8a); ‘as readily’ (OED well adv, 9a) [go to text]

gs1273   cast designed (with a pun on ‘cast’ meaning ‘to throw dice’) [go to text]

gg2156   ta’en, taken [go to text]

gg236   Anon soon; immediately; in good time [go to text]

gg776   on’t of it [go to text]

n8046   at the push That is: at the critical or decisive point (OED push n2, 4a). This puns on physical pushing, and ‘push’ is also used to allude to copulation (Williams, 2: 1119): in Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (Lady Elizabeth’s Men, c. 1613) the lovers are brought together with the help of an ‘honest chambermaid, / That helped all at a push’ (5.4.33-4). [go to text]

gs130   charge command [go to text]

gg5287   undertaking. enterprise; copulation (Williams, 3: 1457) [go to text]

gg2960   sweet pleasing, agreeable [go to text]

n8047   kneel i.e. to receive his blessing [go to text]

n8048   in such commands. i.e. if he would only give me these kinds of orders. [go to text]

n8049   Enter FRANCES. ] Enter Francis. (In early modern English, the spellings ‘Francis’ and ‘Frances’ are both used for men and women: for further comment on Frances’ name see [NOTE n5802]; on its various forms in the speech prefixes see [NOTE n8686].) [go to text]

gg236   Anon soon; immediately; in good time [go to text]

gg5289   make ’t make it [go to text]

gs1278   plain clear [go to text]

gs1279   How now, ‘How is it now’: i.e. ‘what’s happening?’ [go to text]

n8072   Frank? Video As elsewhere, Brome changes the tone with the entrance of a new character: for a version of this transition see this extract from the workshop on this scene. On Dryground’s addressing Frances as ‘Frank’ see [NOTE n7879]. [go to text]

n8073   by all means at any cost, without fail (OED mean n3, P5) [go to text]

n7841   The foulest coil ‘to keep a foul coil’ is a proverbial phrase (Tilley C503) [go to text]

gs1212   coil bother; disturbance, fuss (OED n2, 1 and 3) [go to text]

gg62   bawdy-house, brothel [go to text]

gs1280   somewhat a certain amount of information (OED a, 1a) [go to text]

gg5290   gathered amassed (OED gather v, 3a); gained (OED gather v, 8); inferred, deduced (OED gather v, 10) [go to text]

gs1281   civil, orderly, well-governed (OED a, 7); civilised (OED a, 8); polite (OED a, 9) [go to text]

gg5291   modest ‘becomingly diffident and unassuming; not bold or forward’ (OED a, 3a) [go to text]

gg859   warrant assure, promise [go to text]

gs1282   Whip move briskly; slip (OED v, 1b) [go to text]

n8074   your disguise, Wat’s disguise seems to involve a false beard, since in Act 5, Scene 1 he tells Valentine ’Twas I you saved / Out of the Temple suds’ [DM 5.1.speech958]), only for Valentine to ask ‘Hast thou been shaved since?’ [DM 5.1.speech959], to which he replies, ‘No, sir, I was disguised’ [DM 5.1.speech960]. [go to text]

gg5292   at call. ready to answer a call, immediately available (OED call n, 14) [go to text]

gg5293   Presto! at once [go to text]

gs1283   Anon, immediately [go to text]

n8076   WAT [exits]. ] Ex. VVat [go to text]

n8077   Stands aside. Unlike Oliver and Ambrose, who have apparently eavesdropped from off-stage, Dryground remains on stage while the young men talk; the audience are presumably therefore aware of his reactions to what they say. [go to text]

n8078   Enter OLIVER [and] AMBROSE. ] Enter Oliver, Ambrose. [go to text]

gs1284   Trick stratagem, crafty or fraudulent device (OED n, 1a) [go to text]

gs1285   trick stratagem, crafty or fraudulent device (OED n, 1a), punning on ‘sexual act’ (Williams, 3: 1421) [go to text]

gs1286   deals trades (OED deal v, 13a), punning on ‘distributes cards to players’ (OED deal v, 7a); ‘deal’ is often used to refer to sex in mercenary terms and in terms of card-playing (Williams, 1: 370): see, for example, Edward Sharpham, Cupid’s Whirligig (King’s Revels, 1607; published London, 1607): ‘why thy husband is abroad in traffic for commodities [...] thou mayst deal at home for ready money’ (sig. L1v), and Brome’s own A Mad Couple Well Matched in which Lady Thrivewell notes that her husband has claimed to have ‘sat up with the three lady gamesters’ [MC 1.2.speech165] when he was actually carrying on his affair with Alicia Saleware, and when he confesses she comments, ‘Fair dealing still’ [MC 1.2.speech167] [go to text]

gg63   Fie! exclamation of disgust or reproach [go to text]

n8079   and such mothers too: the town’s too full of ’em. i.e. London is full of mothers putting their daughters to prostitution. [go to text]

gg5294   juggling (a) cheating, deceptive, beguiling [go to text]

gg859   warrant assure, promise [go to text]

n7861   ‘fee! fee!’s, Exclamations of ‘Fee! Fee!’ (‘Fie! Fie!’, said with a strong French accent). [go to text]

n7862   ‘laisse-moi!’s. Exclamations of ‘Laisse-moi!’ (‘leave me!’) (French). [go to text]

gs45   Pox of pox on/of (it): a plague on (an expletive) [go to text]

gg3082   counterfeit pretended, spurious, feigned, acted (OED a, 2) [go to text]

gg5295   gibb’rish! gibberish: unintelligible speech [go to text]

n8080   plainer English That is: more straightforward or easily comprehensible language (OED plain English n, 1). [go to text]

n8081   I have enough. i.e. I have enough information; I have heard enough [go to text]

gs1287   blade. gallant (used contemptuously); given that ‘blade’ is often used in sexual contexts, it is possible that it here means ‘pimp’ [go to text]

n8082   I am the man Dryground deliberately uses a heightened, over-the-top style here, and it is one that Oliver readily associates with his assumed role as a host/pimp. Compare the exaggerated style of the host, Blague, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton (King’s Men, c. 1603; revived at court in February 1631 and November 1638), and that of Goodstock (really, like Dryground, a gentleman in disguise) in Jonson’s The New Inn (King’s Men, 1629). For further comment on the relationship between The Demoiselle and The New Inn see the Introduction. [go to text]

gg5296   sparkling brilliant, lively (especially in speech) (OED a2, 3 and 4): OED’s earliest citation for sense 4 dates from 1647, but see Dekker and Middleton, The Roaring Girl (Prince Henry’s Men, 1611), in which Sir Alexander refers to Mary Fitzallard’s ‘sparkling presence’ (11.259) [go to text]

gs1288   spirits people who have a certain kind of character (in this case ‘sparkling’) (OED spirit n, 9); dispositions (OED spirit n, 18b) [go to text]

gs324   Sirrah sir (authoritatively or contemptuously); often addressed to a boy or servant [go to text]

gs1289   varlet! servant, menial (OED 1); knave, rascal (OED 2): often used as an abusive form of address [go to text]

gg5297   bewrays exposes, reveals (his true character) (OED bewray v, 6) [go to text]

gs1290   compliment. seems to refer to the wine which Dryground is about to give the gallants in welcome; OED’s earliest citation for this sense of ‘compliment’ (n, 3) dates from 1722; but compare Joseph Beaumont, Psyche, or Love’s Mystery, in XXIV Cantos … The Second Edition, with Corrections Throughout, and Four New Cantos, Never Before Printed (London, 1702), Canto 14, Stanza 69 (p. 214):

’Tis true, his lips were complimented by
A draught of wine; but ah, the compliment
Cruelly mocked him by the treachery
Of bitterness, which made his taste repent.
Besides, he had resolved to swallow down
No blood of grapes, till he had shed his own.

[go to text]

gg5298   never-dying immortal [go to text]

n8083   the brim i.e. the brim of the cup [go to text]

gs1291   high lofty, exalted; luxurious; ‘high’ also means ‘intoxicated’ (OED a, 16b) [go to text]

gg5299   Luna the moon [go to text]

n8084   Full six and thirty times hath Luna waned The strength she got in six and thirty growths From Phoebus’ virtuous beams, into this juice, That is (as Oliver points out in his reply), the wine is three years old. [go to text]

gg5300   Phoebus’ the sun’s [go to text]

gs1292   nectar the drink of the gods in classical mythology, also used to refer to wine and other drinks [go to text]

gg5301   Phoebean poetic or witty (from Phoebus [Apollo], the god of the sun, poetry and music in classical mythology): compare Jonson, ‘Over the Door at the Entrance into the Apollo’: ‘’Tis the true Phoebeian liquor, / Cheers the brains, makes wit the quicker’ (Ian Donaldson, ed., Poems [London: Oxford University Press, 1975], 372) [go to text]

n8085   fire divine, i.e. poetic inspriation [go to text]

gs1293   high exalted, lofty; heavenly [go to text]

gg5302   strains, tunes; songs or poems; strings of impassioned language (OED strain n2, 13c: OED’s earliest example is from 1649, but this sense may be present here) [go to text]

gg5303   lurks hides, is concealed [go to text]

gg5304   bounce up talk up: boastfully proclaim the worth of [go to text]

gg5305   works. acts, deeds; literary compositions [go to text]

gg483   sack, white wine from Spain: sack is derived from 'sec', and usually meant a dry white wine; hence Falstaff's enjoyment of 'sack and sugar' [go to text]

gg5306   beverage drink [go to text]

gg5307   bombast, inflated or pretentious language (especially when used to talk about a trivial subject) [go to text]

n8086   nor drink, nor talk not drink, nor talk (the first ‘nor’ here now sounds archaic, but would not have done so in the 1630s) [go to text]

gg2841   thing a pejorative term for a woman (OED n1, 10a) [go to text]

n8087   of things, That is: of women (perjoratively) (see OED thing n1, 10a); ‘thing’ can refer to the penis, vagina or the act of copulation (Williams, 3: 1379), so ‘thing of things’ could mean a whore. [go to text]

n8088   Sings. ] Sing. (the stage direction appears in the right hand margin in the octavo) [go to text]

n8089   ‘Thou shalt not woo my daughter, This song has a Scottish or Northern-English feel to it (see notes on the rest of the song for comments on individual words); the source and tune have not yet been traced. It possibly appears in other plays: Constance in The Northern Lass responds to Nonsense’s ‘If you will believe me lady’ with ‘Nor ne man for your sake’ [NL 3.2.speech488], and there may be some connection with one of Merrythought’s songs in Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Queen’s Revels, c. 1607):

She cares not for her daddy, nor
She cares not for her mammy,
For she is, she is, she is, she is
My Lord of Lowgave’s lassie. (2.492-5)

[go to text]

gs1294   ne no (often found in Northern English or Scots) [go to text]

gg5308   Unlass unless: Dryground’s song seems to require him to sing with an accent, so I’ve retained the octavo’s spelling (unlasse) here [go to text]

gg5309   until unto; against (in the 1630s both may have been associated with Scots or Northern English speech) (OED prep, 1) [go to text]

gg5310   by near, close to (OED prep, 1a); in the presence of (OED prep, 3a); apart from, away from (OED prep, 8b: this is Scottish usage dating from the sixteenth century) [go to text]

gs1295   naked.’ nude or, perhaps more likely, wearing only underwear (OED a, 1a); poorly or inadequately clothed (OED a, 3a); destitute, without resources (OED a, 3b) [go to text]

n8090   Her mammy’s gone to Heaven, sir, and I pray The inclusion of ‘sir, and I pray’ make it unlikely that these lines are part of the song, but they may incorporate quotations from it: for instance, Dryground’s ‘mammy’ suggests a continuation of the song’s lexis (and, possibly, its accent) and ‘fathers poor’ inverts the usual word-order in a quasi-poetic fashion. [go to text]

gg5311   mammy’s mother's (especially used by and to children) [go to text]

n8090   Let fathers poor breed daughters as they may. The inclusion of ‘sir, and I pray’ make it unlikely that these lines are part of the song, but they may incorporate quotations from it: for instance, Dryground’s ‘mammy’ suggests a continuation of the song’s lexis (and, possibly, its accent) and ‘fathers poor’ inverts the usual word-order in a quasi-poetic fashion. [go to text]

n8091   What will it hold? The referent of ‘it’ here is ambiguous: Oliver’s next comment (‘The rifling, sir, I mean’) suggests that Dryground reacts as if he assumes that ‘it’ refers to Frances; this would give a pun on ‘hold’ meaning ‘bear’ or ‘endure’ (OED hold v, 3d) and ‘contain’ or ‘have capacity for’ (OED hold v, 5a). [go to text]

gg211   number ‘the full count of a collection or company of persons’ (OED n, 8a) [go to text]

gg5312   put in, enter, offer himself as a candidate (OED put in, 3b [in put, v]); ‘put in’ is also sexual slang: cf. Marston et al., The Insatiate Countess (Queen’s Revels, c. 1611), in which Abigail tells Mizaldus, referring to her husband’s absense and the opportunity for adultery it provides, ‘He shall not be long out, but you shall put in’ (Four Jacobean Sex Tragedies, ed. Martin Wiggins [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998], 2.1.121) [go to text]

gs1296   chance? opportunity, chance of success [go to text]

n8092   Come in That is: enter into the scheme, with a sexual pun on ‘come’. [go to text]

gg5313   adventurers? gamesters (OED adventurer 1); volunteers or soldiers of fortune (OED adventurer 3); people who undertake or share in commercial ventures (OED adventurer 4); people who live by their wits (OED adventurer 5: OED’s earliest citation dates from 1663, but something of this sense may be intended here) [go to text]

n8093   I find you have overheard me. Dryground pretends not to know until now that he has been overheard. [go to text]

gg5314   disclose reveal [go to text]

n8094   wit and mirth, These words are often associated in Caroline texts: compare the title of John Taylor’s Wit and Mirth Chargeably Collected out of Taverns, Ordinaries, Inns, Bowling Greens, and Alleys, Alehouses, Tobacco Shops, Highways, and Water-Passages : Made up, and Fashioned into Clinches, Bulls, Quirks, Yerks, Quips, and Jerks (London, 1628); Brome himself uses it in The Antipodes, in which Doctor Hughball tells Diana that in the Antipodes

All wit and mirth and good society
Is there among the hirelings, clowns, and tradesmen,
And all their poets are puritans. [AN 1.3.speech199]

[go to text]

gg5315   censure (v) judge [go to text]

gg5316   mildly; without anger or severity (OED adv, 1a) [go to text]

gs1297   decayed reduced, diminished [go to text]

gg295   base contemptible, degraded, unworthy [go to text]

gs1298   impudence? shamelessness, immodesty [go to text]

gg5317   rash. hasty, impetuous (OED a, 2a) [go to text]

gs1299   respect care, attention (OED n, 13c) [go to text]

n8095   Draw[s his sword]. ] Draw. [go to text]

gs1300   e’en even: just now [go to text]

gs1301   fair flattering (OED a, 5a); kindly (OED a, 15) [go to text]

n8096   Of this good gentleman and his virtuous daughter. This is to be delivered with heavy irony on ‘good’ and ‘virtuous’; Oliver may also deliver the word ‘gentleman’ in a sarcastic fashion. [go to text]

n8097   wronged us both. That is: did us both injury (OED wrong v, 1); treated us both unfairly (OED wrong v, 1b) [go to text]

gs1302   discovery? disclosure, revelation, information [go to text]

gs1303   impatience lack of patience; irascibility (OED 1) [go to text]

gs1304   prevented outstripped (OED v, 5a); hindered, precluded (OED v, 8); deprived of a purpose, cut off (OED v, 10); frustrated (OED v, 11) [go to text]

gg5318   sup eat supper [go to text]

gs1305   afford grant, have the means to offer [go to text]

gs806   business. affairs, concerns, tasks to attend to [go to text]

n8098   [DRYGROUND] exit[s]. ] Exit. [go to text]

n8099   city justice, i.e. the city’s legal authorities [go to text]

gs1306   grave influential, respected, authoritative (OED a1, 1); formidable (OED a1, 2b) [go to text]

gs1307   wench young woman: also used to refer to a mistress or a whore (see OED n. 2; Williams 3: 1512-13) [go to text]

gg1610   hazard (n) risk of loss or harm (OED 3) [go to text]

n8100   pimp whiskin An image of a fashionably dressed ‘Pimp-wiskin’ appears on the frontispiece of Humphrey Mill’s poem A Night’s Search: Discovering the Nature and Condition of all Sorts of Night-Walkers, With Their Associates (London, 1640), jeering the unfortunate family of a man who has been lured away by a bawd. [go to text]

gs1308   whiskin pimp (OED whiskin 2); used here as an intensifier for ‘pimp’ [go to text]

n8101   Enter WAT [and] FRAN[CES]. ] Enter Wat. Fran. [go to text]

n8102   take him in hand. take charge of him [go to text]

gs1309   handle manage; deal with (with a sexual pun deriving from the oldest meaning of ‘handle’: ‘to touch or feel with the hands, to pass the hand over, stroke with the hand’ [OED v1, 1a]) [go to text]

n8103   Coy it That is: affect shyness (OED coy v1, 4a) [go to text]

gs1310   provident thoughtful; thrifty (OED a, 1a) [go to text]

n8104   To make ourselves more known to you, Video That is: to make your acquaintance, to make ourselves more familiar to you; to make ourselves possessed of more knowledge about you (puns on ‘know’ meaning to have sexual knowledge of: see OED know v, 7; Williams, 2: 770-1). In this extract from the workshop on the scene, Alan Morrissey (reading Oliver) stresses the sexual innuendo. [go to text]

n8105   your price i.e. the price of your virginity [go to text]

n8106   Pre’ ye sir, have you been ever in France? Video This is the first point at which we hear Frances speak with a strong French accent, which is specified in the octavo text with phonetic spellings. It might be handled in slightly different ways in performance, however. In this extract from the workshop on this scene, Hannah Watkins (reading Frances) uses a relatively light accent, whereas in this version it is more exaggerated, as Frances plays the French coquette. [go to text]

gg5319   Pre’ ye pray ye: I ask you (said with a strong French accent) [go to text]

n8107   in doctor’s hands That is: under the care of a doctor (Oliver picks up the association between France and syphilis, known as the French pox, and denies that he has ever been treated for venereal disease). [go to text]

n8108   placket-high. A placket is an apron or petticoat, or an opening or slit in a garment which gives access to a pocket; it is therefore frequently referred to in sexual innuendo (see OED n1, 2; Williams, 2: 1048-51): ‘since I was placket-high’ could therefore mean ‘since I was a child’ or ‘since I began having sexual dealings with women’. [go to text]

n8109   Fransh, French (said with a strong French accent: this is the octavo’s spelling) [go to text]

n8110   Find what you say. i.e. understand you [go to text]

n8111   no i.e. not (said with a strong French accent) [go to text]

n8112   If it be no Welsh gentleman? Price was a stereotypical name for a Welshman; in the copy of the play in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, a seventeenth-century reader has added ‘de Prices live dere’ (sig. D5r) in apparent clarification of Brome’s joke. [go to text]

gg5322   hark you listen to me [go to text]

n8113   gross sum i.e. the total sum amassed from the gamesters: puns on an alternative meaning of ‘gross’: coarse in morals or behaviour, lacking in decency (OED gross a, 15) [go to text]

n8114   To take it neatly off, i.e. to take her virginity in a skilful fashion [go to text]

gg5323   operator surgeon [go to text]

n8115   Put you to i.e. cause you [go to text]

n8117   Parlez français Monsieur, je vous prie. ] Parle Françoy Monsieur, Je vou prie. [go to text]

n8116   Parlez français Monsieur, je vous prie. Speak French, sir, I pray (i.e. I ask you) (French) [go to text]

gs1311   handsome clever, skilful (OED a, 2b); seemly (OED a, 3: said sarcastically); attractive (OED a, 6a) [go to text]

gg1880   becomes suits, befits, is proper [go to text]

n8119   Fee, fee, Fie, fie! (said with a strong French accent) [go to text]

n8120   ’Tis no good fashion i.e. it’s not good manners; it’s not fashionable behaviour. [go to text]

n8118   ’Tis no good fashion For the young man and maid to noting but kiss! Brome may deliberately echo the exchange between King Henry and Princess Katherine in Act Five of Shakespeare’s Henry V, in which Henry tries to kiss Katherine only to be similarly rebuffed. [go to text]

n8121   to noting but kiss! To do nothing but kiss (said with a strong French accent): i.e. to do such a thing as kissing, to occupy themselves only with kissing. [go to text]

n8122   Nothing but kiss! Oliver deliberately misunderstands Frances and takes ‘nothing but kiss’ to mean ‘not do anything more than kiss’. [go to text]

n8123   of t’one with t’other i.e. of kissing with other sexual activities. [go to text]

n8124   you no understand. i.e. you do not understand (said with a strong French accent). [go to text]

n8125   Speaks he no Fransh? i.e. doesn’t he speak French? (said with a strong French accent). [go to text]

n8126   Yes, yes, he speaks no French. Oliver again deliberately misunderstands Frances, interpreting her ‘Speaks he no Fransh’ as ‘he doesn’t speak French’. [go to text]

n8127   Heh! Monsieur, vous moquez de moi. ] He Monsieur vou mocque de Moy. [go to text]

gg5325   Heh! an exclamation of amusement or irritation [go to text]

n8128   Monsieur, vous moquez de moi. Sir, you are mocking me (French). [go to text]

n8129   Oui, par ma foi. ] Owie par ma foy. [go to text]

n8130   Oui, par ma foi. Video Yes, by my faith (French): i.e. yes, in truth; yes indeed. In performance, various things might be done with Oliver’s movement into French at this point. He obviously understands Frances’s ‘Monsieur, vous moquez de moi’, but his reply might be delivered in a way that suggests that his French is relatively fluent, as in this extract from the workshop, or with a strong English accent. In this extract from the workshop, Oliver says ‘Oui, par ma foi’ in a poor accent, and Frances mocks him by delivering ‘Je suis bien aisée’ in an equally strong English accent. [go to text]

n8131   Ha! Monsieur, vous parlez français. Je suis bien aisée. ] Ha Monsieur vou parle francoy. Je sui’ bien aisie. [go to text]

gs1312   Ha! an exclamation of amusement, irritation or triumph [go to text]

n8132   Monsieur, vous parlez français. Sir, you speak French (French). [go to text]

n8133   Je suis bien aisée. The primary sense in the seventeenth century seems to be ‘I am very glad’, but it also means ‘I am put at ease’ and ‘I am very easy’ (the sense that Oliver assumes in his reply). Compare the ‘French bawd’ Margarita in Middleton’s Anything for a Quiet Life (King’s Men, 1621), who declares, ‘Mon cousin! Je suis bien aise de vous voir en bonne disposition’ (3.2.96-7), and language manuals such as John Eliot’s Orthoepia Gallica: Eliot’s Fruits for the French: Interlaced with a Double New Invention, which Teacheth to Speak Truly, Speedily and Volubly the French Tongue (London, 1593), in which a speaker meeting a friend says ‘je suis bien aise de vous voir en bonne santé’ (glossed as ‘I am very glad to see you in good health’) (sig. I1r). [go to text]

n8134   Easy! Oliver (deliberately?) misunderstands Frances’ ‘Je suis bien aisée’ (‘I am very glad’ or ‘I am put at ease’) as ‘I am very easy’. He may do this because he understands French reasonably well, and knows that ‘aisé’ also means ‘easy’, or because the French and English words sound similar. [go to text]

gg5326   manage control, take charge of (originally refers to the training of horses: see OED v, 1a) [go to text]

gg262   prithee, (I) pray thee: (I) ask you; please [go to text]

gs1313   fooling, acting the fool, fooling around [go to text]

n8135   I know you can good English if you list. Video In this extract from the workshop in this scene, Alan Morrissey (reading Oliver) delivers this line in a mocking imitation of Frances’s French accent. [go to text]

gs1314   can are capable of; can speak (see OED v1, 8) [go to text]

gg1119   list. wish, please [go to text]

n8136   Indeed I can. Video Frances stops pretending that she cannot speak English fluently, but there are various options open to a performer here. An actor might continue to speak with a French accent, as in this extract from the workshop on this scene, or they might switch to an English accent. In this extract, the English accent used by Hannah Watkins (reading Frances) is slightly exaggerated: having performed the role of the French coquette, she now similarly performs Englishness. In this version, in contrast, the admission that she can speak English is almost forced from her by the physically aggressive approach of Oliver (Alan Morrissey). This version, although powerful in itself, would cause problems in context, as it is improbable that Ambrose would not intervene, given that he and Wat are conversing on the other side of the stage. In this version, therefore, Frances and Oliver remain in close physical proximity with each other, and the exchange is more intimate. [go to text]

n8137   in my best, i.e. in my best English [go to text]

gs1315   frame compose, express (OED v, 8) [go to text]

gs1316   phrase, manner of expression (OED n, 1); choice of words (OED n, 3) [go to text]

gg5322   hark you, listen to me [go to text]

n8194   Aside ] in the octavo text this section is in brackets [go to text]

gg5355   mystical! mysterious [go to text]

gg1196   w’ ye. with you [go to text]

gg1766   So so (that), so long as (OED adv and conj, 26a) [go to text]

gs1281   civil. orderly, well-governed (OED a, 7); civilised (OED a, 8); polite (OED a, 9) [go to text]

gs1324   private. discreet; ‘dependable in confidential matters’ (OED private a1, 13) [go to text]

n8195   Does she not know on’t, Video Brome here cuts between conversations (a common technique in his plays), fading out of the exchange between Frances and Oliver, and into that of Ambrose and Wat. Cutting to Wat and Ambrose at this point ensures that the audience are reminded of the plot to sell Frances’s virginity, and Ambrose’s horror contrasts effectively with Wat’s enthusiastic depravity. This extract from the workshop on this scene includes the transitions into and out of the exchange, and conveys the tone effectively. [go to text]

gg776   on’t, of it [go to text]

gg5356   inkling suspicion [go to text]

gs1325   Carries conducts, manages (OED v, 22a) [go to text]

gg5357   cud-chewing refers literally to the food that a ruminating animal (such as a cow) brings back into its mouth from its first stomach and chews (OED cud n, 1a); might also refer figuratively to meditating or ruminating [go to text]

gg5358   heifer a young cow that has not yet had a calf (OED 1a): Wat probably deliberately uses this word to suggest Frances’ current sexual inexperience [go to text]

n8196   The butcher that must knock her down, Wat equates the man that will take Frances’ virginity with a butcher; ‘knock her down’ might be delivered with heavy sexual innuendo. [go to text]

gg141   bravely worthily; fearlessly; splendidly, handsomely (OED) [go to text]

gg5359   carried! managed, conducted (OED carry v, 22a); Wat may pun on alternate meanings: taken as the result of effort, won (OED carry v, 15a); borne, sustained (OED carry v, 26a) [go to text]

gs509   divers various, sundry [go to text]

n8197   great place high rank [go to text]

gs1326   worship, good reputation, honour (OED n, 1a); ‘holding a prominent place or rank’, dignity, importance (OED n, 3a) [go to text]

gs1327   gather deduce, conclude (OED v, 10) [go to text]

n8198   of the riflers. i.e. among the gamesters [go to text]

gg262   Prithee, (I) pray thee: (I) ask you; please [go to text]

gg5360   nameless. anonymous, deliberately left unnamed [go to text]

n8199   some of civil coat, i.e. aldermen or other city officials [go to text]

gs1328   civil civic, municipal (OED a, 4); sober, decent, grave (OED a, 10) [go to text]

n8200   that love to draw New stakes at the old game Williams (3: 1303) notes that ‘stake’ often refers to the penis or an erection; Wat suggests that the civic officials love to engage in illicit sexual activity. [go to text]

gs1329   game card games; amorous sport [go to text]

n8201   Truckle-breeched ‘Truckle’ refers either to a pulley or a castor (as in a truckle bed: a bed on castors); the implication may be that the justices wear breeches that are longer than was fashionable in 1630s England, or that they appear to run on wheels in some way. [go to text]

gg5361   justices, judges or magistrates [go to text]

gg5362   bustling energetic; Brome uses the term ‘bustle’ in connection with the law elsewhere: see The Queen and Concubine [QC 5.3.speech1234] [go to text]

gs1330   thrust push or force their way through, jostle (with sexual innuendo) [go to text]

gg5363   motions; in a legal context, applications ‘made to a court or judge by a party to an action or his counsel, to obtain some ruling or order of court (esp. an interlocutory injunction) necessary to the progress of the action’ (OED n, 13c); with sexual innuendo [go to text]

gs1331   muffled wrapped up; with their faces concealed (OED a, 1a) [go to text]

gg5364   money-masters moneylenders (OED money a, C2) [go to text]

gg5365   merchant venturers ‘merchant[s] engaged in the organization and dispatch of trading expeditions overseas, and the establishment of factories and trading stations in foreign countries [...] member[s] of an association of such merchants incorporated by royal charter or other lawful authority.’ (OED merchant adventurer) [go to text]

n8202   Foreign commodity i.e. Frances, the goods or merchandise that the merchant venturers are seeking to win. [go to text]

gg5366   fair (adv.) nobly (OED adv, 1); courteously (OED adv, 2a); honestly (OED adv, 4); becomingly (OED adv, 5) [go to text]

gg2559   outrage! violent injury, indignity, affront (OED n, 2a); excessively proud, foolish or presumptuous action (OED n, 3b) [go to text]

gg5367   Hark thee, listen to me [go to text]

n8203   They [talk] aside. ] They aside. [go to text]

n8204   Sir, I have heard you Video In this rhetorically complex speech, Frances compares herself to a ship beset with various troubles, and her point becomes clear when she says ‘you may apply this’. Sea-faring imagery is often used in the context of prostitution. In James Shirley’s The Gentleman of Venice (Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men, 1639 [possibly premiered at Dublin c. 1637]; published London, 1655), Malipiero’s description of the courtesan Rosabella as ‘my wanton pinnace’ (a ‘pinnace’ is a small ship) leads into an extended dialogue in which Bernardo says that she is ‘Boarded by / Some man of war by this time’, Marino says that ‘She is spooned away’, and Malipeiro responds by saying

My top and top gallant gone? Ha! Are there pirates
Upon these coasts? Give fire upon the water-rats
And shoot pell-mell, fight as a whirlwind flings,
Disordering all (sig. D1v)

Frances’s speech might have a different effect in performance depending on whether she has maintained her French accent, or is using an English one at this point. In this extract from the workshop on this scene, Hannah Watkins (reading Frances) still speaks with a French accent; in this version, she has switched to an English accent. The second version has a greater intimacy and venom on Frances’s part: these effects could be achieved with the French accent, but it is possibly easier for an Anglophone performer to achieve them in their native accent. [go to text]

gg5368   troubled disturbed or afflicted, in this case by bad weather: the oldest meaning of ‘troubled’ is ‘physically agitated; of the sea, sky, etc., stormy; of water, wine, etc., stirred up so as to diffuse the sediment, made thick or muddy, turbid’ (OED ppl. a, 1) [go to text]

gs1333   pilot navigator of a ship [go to text]

gg5369   contrary hostile, unfavourable [go to text]

gg5370   ne’ertheless nevertheless [go to text]

gg5371   tackling the rigging of a ship [go to text]

gs1334   sure, secure, firm [go to text]

gs1335   tight, water-tight [go to text]

gg5372   sea-room room to manoeuvre a ship at sea (OED) [go to text]

gg5373   vies displays, especially in competition with something (OED vie v, 4) [go to text]

gg2506   threat’nings threatenings: threats [go to text]

gs1336   apply i.e. treat this as a lesson or moral; apply this example to your own behaviour (see OED apply v. 8, application 4.a): Frances suggests that Oliver’s attentions have been as bothersome as the misfortunes that might befall a ship [go to text]

gg5375   plainer. more frank or straightforward, less cryptic [go to text]

gs1337   maidenhead? virginity [go to text]

gg5376   inflamed excited [go to text]

gg5377   spotless pure, immaculate (OED a, 2) [go to text]

n8205   lust i.e. the lusts of others [go to text]

gs1338   salary, monetary reward [go to text]

n8206   At price of both our lives. To some extent, Frances is acting the role of the virtuous maiden here, just as she acted the role of the French coquette earlier in the scene. See [NOTE n8204] for comments on the use of a French or English accent in this section of the scene. [go to text]

n8207   Sir, I have said. i.e. I have said all I am going to say. [go to text]

n8208   [FRANCES] exit[s]. ] Exit. [go to text]

gs1339   wench young woman (often used pejoratively or dismissively) [go to text]

gs1340   truth honesty, virtue, integrity (OED n, 4) [go to text]

n8209   make one. i.e. be one of the gamblers [go to text]

n8210   [WAT] exit[s]. ] Exit. [go to text]

gs1341   fit punish appropriately [go to text]

gg4066   Nam! a diminutive of Ambrose or Abraham [go to text]

n8211   A villany enough to blow the house up. A common image of ill-doing, possibly inspired in part by the Gunpowder Plot. Compare the language of Moll’s comment in The Roaring Girl on the subject of ‘a justice in this town, that speaks nothing but “Make a mittimus, away with him to Newgate”, used that rogue like a firework to run upon a line betwixt him and me [...] to lay trains of villainy to blow up my life: I smelt the powder, spied what linstock gave fire to shoot against the poor captain of the galley-foist, and away slid I my man like a shovel-board shilling’ (10.11-14, 16-19). [go to text]

n8212   a virtue that Might save a city. Oliver’s comment underlines the distance that he has travelled in this scene, and the ways in which his easy cynicism has been shaken by Frances. [go to text]

n8213   let’s hence. i.e. let’s go [go to text]

n8214   Confer our notes together by the way. i.e. compare notes on what we’ve just learned. [go to text]

n8215   [They] ex[it.] ] Exeunt. [go to text]

n8216   [Enter] BUMPSEY, MAGDALEN, [and] JANE, all in brave clothes. ] Bumpsey, Magdalen, Jane, all in brave Cloaths. [go to text]

n8217   all in brave clothes. The family enter in their new clothes, Jane’s purchased by Valentine, and those worn by Bumpsey and Magdalen purchased by Bumpsey, who is clearly entering into the spirit of his agreement with Valentine. [go to text]

gs1342   brave splendid, showy, fashionable [go to text]

n8218   is flown out, That is: has exploded ‘or burst out into extravagance in conduct, language, or temper’ (OED fly v1, 8e) [go to text]

gs1343   prettily puns on ‘ingeniously, skilfully’ (OED adv, 1a), ‘attractively, charmingly’ (OED adv, 2a) and ‘considerably’ (OED adv, 3) [go to text]

n8219   like flight, This picks up ‘flown out’: Bumpsey is saying that he will engage in similarly extravagant behaviour to that of Valentine. [go to text]

gs1344   pitch aim; ‘To set in order for fighting’ (OED pitch v2, 18a); ‘To set at a particular rate or level (as high, low, etc.)’ (OED pitch v2, 21a); compare Mother in The Revenger’s Tragedy:

O see, I spoke those words, and now they poison me.
What will the deed do then?
Advancement? True — as high as shame can pitch!
For treasure, whoe’er knew a harlot rich? (4.4.136-9)

[go to text]

gs1345   souse drink (alcohol), drench oneself in alcohol [go to text]

n8220   while there is game to fly at— That is: while there is gambling to be done, with a pun on ‘game’ as referring to the quarry in falconry; Williams (1: 520) suggests that the phrase is ‘allusive of copulation’. [go to text]

n8221   Five hundred pieces This would be worth around £42,900 in today’s money. [go to text]

n8222   took out, i.e. took with him [go to text]

gs1346   venture risk, hazard [go to text]

gs1572   ordinary. an establishment where meals were provided at a set price; OED notes that in the seventeenth century ‘the more expensive ordinaries were frequented by men of fashion, and the dinner was usually followed by gambling; hence the term was often used as synonymous with “gambling-house”’ (OED n, 11c) [go to text]

n8223   That’s he, that’s he! i.e. that’s the behaviour I expected from him. [go to text]

gs1347   At a word to speak plainly, to be honest (can also mean ‘in short’ or ‘briefly’) [go to text]

gg4314   la, an exclamation used ‘to call attention to an emphatic statement’ (OED int.) [go to text]

gg2643   ha? a versatile exclamation which can express surprise, wonder, joy, suspicion, indignation, etc., depending on the speaker’s intonation (OED int, 1) [go to text]

n8224   Aye, ] I [go to text]

n8225   put the sword into the madman’s hand, A proverbial phrase: see Tilley L156, ‘Learning in the breast of a bad man is as a sword in the hand of a madman’ and P669, ‘Ill putting (put not) a naked sword in a madman’s hand’. [go to text]

n8226   As one would say. Magdalen calls attention to the fact that she is repeating a proverbial expression. [go to text]

n8227   Mistress At-a-Word, Bumpsey turns Magdalen’s catchphrase back at her. [go to text]

n8228   fine French frippery, This description suggests that the ‘brave’ clothes that the Bumpseys and Jane are wearing are in the fashionable French style. For further discussion see the Introduction. [go to text]

gg5378   frippery, finery, fashionable clothing [go to text]

n8229   Turned o’th’ summoned from the [go to text]

n8230   (as one would say), Bumpsey again mimics Magdalen. [go to text]

gg5379   Huffle ‘to puff up, inflate, or elevate with pride’ (OED v, 2a; The Demoiselle is OED’s earliest citation) [go to text]

gg3927   sovereignty. rule, supremacy, authority [go to text]

n8231   coach, Like the new clothes, the coach is a symbol of Bumpsey’s desire to follow Valentine in fashionable behaviour and spending. [go to text]

gg5380   bespoke, ordered [go to text]

gg5381   whirl rush, sweep [go to text]

gg5382   Good lack! an exclamation along the same lines as ‘good heavens!’ or ‘good grief!’ [go to text]

n8232   Fine gentleman, that wears the purchase Of a pawned forfeiture. Must I not speak, trow? Magdalen is perhaps suggesting that Bumpsey has bought his fine new clothes second-hand (which would mean that he was not keeping up his side of the bargain properly). [go to text]

gs1348   trow? do you think?; I wonder? [go to text]

n8233   Excellent Magdalen! Bumpsey again mocks Magdalen, but at the same time he seems to be admiring her performance. [go to text]

gs1349   allowed, with approval (OED ppl. a, 1); speak with permission (from authority) (OED ppl. a, 2) [go to text]

n8234   Aye, ] J [go to text]

n8235   put me to’t, i.e. incited me to this course of action [go to text]

gg5383   uphold maintain at the same level (OED v, 2c); support in the face of criticism (OED v, 4) [go to text]

gg5384   Behaviour ‘good manners, elegant deportment’ (OED n, 1.e) [go to text]

gg982   carriage deportment, bearing [go to text]

n8236   above my ’parel. i.e. superior even to my new clothing [go to text]

gg5386   ’parel. apparel: clothing [go to text]

n8237   Aye, ] J [go to text]

gs1350   beast ‘A human being under the sway of animal propensities’ (OED n. 4.a); used here as a rather abusive endearment [go to text]

gg5388   fashion-sick! made sick by fashion; compare Thomas Bancroft, ‘To London in Time of Pestilence’, in Two Books of Epigrams and Epitaphs (London, 1639):

the roaring boys I see
Put women down with man-less luxury,
Still to be fashion-sick, and drink, and swear,
And rage, as if they Stygian monsters were (sig. G1v)

[go to text]

n8238   Ma-dame, Bumpsey addresses Magdalen mockingly with the French equivalent of ‘Mistress’: the octavo’s spelling and punctuation (retained here) probably indicate the pronunciation that Brome had in mind. [go to text]

gs773   course, method of proceeding, way of acting (OED n, 22a) [go to text]

n8239   to i.e. matching up to [go to text]

gg4694   humour, whim, caprice (OED n, 6) [go to text]

n8240   though all split by’t. ‘Split’ can mean to suffer shipwreck, and ‘all split’ means to go to pieces: this line suggests that Bumpsey is aware that his actions may be putting his family at risk, but he nevertheless vows to continue. [go to text]

n8241   Enter [SECOND] SERVANT. ] Enter Servant. [go to text]

n8242   Ma-dame. Bumpsey again addresses Magdalen sardonically, here as he takes his leave of her. [go to text]

n8243   [BUMPSEY] exit[s] with [SECOND] SERVANT. ] [Exit with Ser- / vant.] (in the octavo the direction appears in the margins of lines 1608-9 [DM 3.2.lines1608-1609]). [go to text]

gs895   rare exceptional; splendid [go to text]

gs1351   creature human being; OED notes that it is often used in ‘admiration, approbation, affection, or tenderness’ (3b) [go to text]

n8244   Of a French breed, i.e. of French birth or lineage (though the use of ‘breed’ and ‘creature’ together suggest something inhuman about Frances). [go to text]

gs1352   demoiselle, young woman; as elsewhere in the play, the French word is used deliberately [go to text]

gg5389   professeth is expert in, makes her business (OED profess v, 6) [go to text]

gg5390   court-carriage the kind of behaviour and deportment thought appropriate to the royal court [go to text]

gs297   sort? kind, sorts of people [go to text]

gg5391   indocible unteachable (OED a) [go to text]

n8245   Stiff i’ the hams, Jane seems to interpret ‘indocible’ (unteachable) as ‘inflexible’. [go to text]

gg5392   hams, backs of the thighs and buttocks [go to text]

gg5393   haunches, the part of the body between the last ribs and the thighs (OED) [go to text]

n8246   as nimbly as the barren doe. A barren doe is one that has never had a fawn, or which has lost it early in the spring and goes without one for the rest of the year; it might therefore have more freedom of movement, not being constricted by the need to tend to a fawn. Magdalen may have in mind a song in Thomas Heywood’s The Golden Age (Queen Anna’s Men, c. 1610; published London, 1611), in which Diana and her followers sing ‘Come to the forest let us go, / And trip it like the barren doe’ (sig. D4r), as she sings a song about Diana later in the play, in [DM 5.1.speech901]. There is an unconscious double-entendre here; Williams (1: 399) notes that the phrase is often used in descriptions of whores or promiscuous women, and Magdalen therefore implicitly asserts that she is not too old to indulge in illicit sexual activity. [go to text]

n8247   My gimbals don’t complain for want of oil yet. Magdalen again speaks with (unconscious?) sexual innuendo: on a literal level she is commenting that her joints are still well lubricated (i.e., she still has no trouble moving), but ‘oil’ in sexual slang often means semen (see Williams, 2: 971-2); compare the use of a similar phrase in the context of dancing in Robert Armin’s The Two Maids of Mortlake (King’s Revels, 1607-8; published London, 1610), in which Sir William comments, ‘O sir, pardon me. / My joints were oiled to pleasure, but now, not’ (sig. B3v). [go to text]

gg5394   gimbals ‘joints, connecting links (in machinery)’ (OED gimbal 2) [go to text]

n8248   this madame; i.e. Frances, but there is again unconscious sexual innuendo as the term ‘madam’ was widely used to refer to a whore or bawd (Williams 2: 838-9). [go to text]

n8249   we will be madames Magdalen means that she and Jane will be French-style ladies, but there is again an unconscious pun on the alternative meaning of ‘madam’: whore. [go to text]

gs1353   crown a coin (once gold, subsequently silver) to the value of five shillings; probably with sexual innuendo, as the metaphorical horns of the cuckold are often referred to as a ‘crown’ (see Williams, 1: 337) [go to text]

gg5395   lecture lesson, or a moral talk less formal than a sermon, delivered outside a regular church service; also refers to a sermon delivered by a ‘lecturer’ (OED n, 4b); there is again a sexual pun, as ‘lecture’ is often used in the context of sexual misdemeanours (Williams, 2: 794-5) [go to text]

gs1354   baulk avoid or shun [go to text]

n8250   Saint Antlins The church of St Antholins, on the north side Budge Row in the city of London. Sugden (Topographical Dictionary, 20-1; s.v. Antholins [St.]), notes that ‘A number of clergymen of Puritan views established a morning lecture here in 1599’; the church and, particularly, its lectures and sermons, are mentioned in a number of Jacobean and Caroline plays. [go to text]

gg1683   mum. be silent [go to text]

n8251   Enter BUMPSEY [and] VERMIN. ] Enter Bumpsey, Vermine. [go to text]

gg41   bravery? 'finery, fine clothes' (OED 3b); showy attire (worn with an air of bravado) [go to text]

gg5396   hufty-tufties, finery (OED n, a); cf. Thomas Nashe, Lenten Stuff (London, 1599): ‘huftytufty youthful ruffling comrades wearing every one three yards of feather in his cap for his mistress’s favour’ (sig. D3r) [go to text]

gg5397   gorgets the word ‘gorget’ can refer to a piece of female clothing covering the neck and breast, such as a wimple (OED gorget n1, 2); a necklace (OED gorget n1, 3); or a piece of armour worn around the throat (OED gorget n1, 1) [go to text]

gg5398   gay. ‘bright or lively-looking, esp. in colour; brilliant, showy’ (OED a, 2a) [go to text]

gg3002   prodigal! extravagant, recklessly wasteful [go to text]

n8252   You do not well i.e. you are not behaving well; you are being unkind. [go to text]

gs1355   comfort aid, support; consolation [go to text]

n8253   lies not in is not imprisoned [go to text]

n8254   take his course, proceed in his usual way [go to text]

n8255   the sin. i.e. the sin of prodigality and/or the iniquity that inheriting Vermin’s fortune might bring them. [go to text]

gs1356   in hand in preparation [go to text]

n8256   You like it not (it seems) This line may indicate Vermin’s facial expression and/or body language during Bumpsey’s speech. [go to text]

gs1572   ordinary? an establishment where meals were provided at a set price; OED notes that in the seventeenth century ‘the more expensive ordinaries were frequented by men of fashion, and the dinner was usually followed by gambling; hence the term was often used as synonymous with “gambling-house”’ (OED n, 11c) [go to text]

n8257   five hundred or a thousand pieces In today’s money, £500 would be worth around £42,900 and £1000 would be worth around £85,800. [go to text]

n8258   An old ape has an old eye; This is a proverbial expression (Tilley A272); it also appears in William Rowley’s A Match at Midnight (Revels Company, c. 1622) and Robert Chamberlain’s The Swaggering Damsel (Beeston’s Boys, c. 1639). [go to text]

n8259   cuts and slashes. Cuts and slashes in clothing, revealing the fabric of a lining or under-garment, were fashionable decoration in the early seventeenth century, especially among courtiers; see John Harington’s mock prophesy, ‘A Prophesy when Asses Shall Grow Elephants’, which includes the lines: ‘When monopolies are giv’n of toys and trashes: / When courtiers mar good clothes with cuts and slashes, / When lads shall think it free to lie with lasses’ (The Most Elegant and Witty Epigrams of Sir John Harington, Knight [London, 1618], sig. D5r). The Victoria and Albert Museum’s collections include a men’s formal ensemble from the mid-1630s which has been ‘pinked’ (or cut) and an earlier women’s gown dating from c. 1600-1615 with slashes. Magdalen may also continue her unconcious sexual innuendo here; Williams (1: 357-8) notes that ‘cut’ can refer to a whore or to the genitals. [go to text]

gg2573   distracted? maddened, deranged [go to text]

gs424   perfect fully prepared, completely rehearsed [go to text]

gs1357   quaint courtly, refined (OED adj, 4a); strange, unusual, unfamiliar; curious, remarkable; mysterious (OED adj, 8); proud, vain (OED adj, 7) [go to text]

gg5399   carriages ways of bearing oneself; deportments [go to text]

gg3417   raw, unripened, unready, in a natural state not yet fashioned into something more sophisticated [go to text]

n8260   How ladylike she talks! Bumpsey continues to enjoy Magdalen’s performance. [go to text]

n8261   now my black bag’s on, A black bag seems to have been a item of head-gear which could function as a veil, like those worn in one of Hollar’s engravings in Ornatus Muliebris Anglicanus or The Several Habits of English Women, From the Nobility to the Country Woman, as They are in These Times (London, 1640) or the picture of Tanakin Skinker on the titlepage of A Certain Relation of the Hog-Faced Gentlewoman Called Mistress Tanakin Skinker (London, 1640) [IMAGEDM_3_1]. Within the text itself, the author comments, ‘One thinks with himself, so the body be handsome, though her countenance be never so course and ugly, all are alike in the night; and in the day time, put her head but in a black bag, and what difference betwixt her and another woman?’ (sig. B1v). The fashionable status of the garment in the late 1630s and 1640s is suggested in Henry Neville, A Parliament of Ladies (London, 1647): ‘“why, what dost thou long for?”, said my husband. “For that”, quoth I, “which is beyond your reach, iwis: silk gown and satin petticoat of the fashion, an Italian cut-work handkerchief, and a black bag, with all the appurtenances thereto belonging”’ (sig. B2r). The earliest reference that I have been able to find is in a description of French women in John Taylor’s The Complaint of Christmas, and the Tears of Twelfthtide (London, 1631): ‘The women were well-faced creatures, but like our melancholy gentlemen, who are in danger of a man-catching sergeant, they seemed afraid to show their faces, and therefore they hid their heads in black bags, like lawyers’ declarations; the difference is that the lady’s bag is silk, and the lawyer’s buckram’ (p. 5; sig. B3r). The fashion seems originally to have been French, and it spread to England in the early 1630s. It is also mocked in The New Academy [NA 1.1.speech 141]. (A black bag is also mentioned in Dekker, Ford and Rowley, The Witch of Edmonton, first performed by Prince Charles’s Men in 1621, but it is possible that this is a later interpolation, since the play was not printed until 1658.) Magdalen probably puts the black bag over her head as she says this, removing it again when she says ‘Boo!’ in the next line. [go to text]

gs191   hold bet, wager [go to text]

gg5400   unrecoverably irrecoverably [go to text]

gs1358   favour pardon; goodwill [go to text]

gs1359   light explanation (often used figuratively to refer to mental illumination or elucidation) (OED n, 6) [go to text]

gg5401   inward intimate [go to text]

gg5402   partook shared [go to text]

gg5403   nearest closest, most intimate [go to text]

gg5404   profess declare, acknowledge [go to text]

gs1360   presumption grounds for believing (OED n, 4); ‘belief based on available evidence’ (OED n, 3a) [go to text]

gg5405   associates companions, confederates [go to text]

gs1361   ground valid reason, justifying motive (OED n, 5c) [go to text]

gs1362   strict ‘Rigorously maintained, admitting no relaxation or indulgence.’ (OED a, 10) [go to text]

gs773   course method of proceeding, way of acting (OED n, 22a) [go to text]

gs1363   examination. judicial enquiry; formal interrogation [go to text]

gs1364   rapine seizing the property of others, pillage [go to text]

gg5406   oppression. cruel and exploitative treatment of others [go to text]

gg4541   upbraid reproach, find fault with [go to text]

n8262   The fox here learns to sing. Possibly refers to Aesop’s fable in which a fox tricks a crow out of a piece of cheese by praising his voice and making him open his beak to sing; Alice suggests that the crafty fox has been reduced to the status of one of his victims. See also Tilley F656: ‘When the fox preaches, beware the geese’. [go to text]

gg5407   fox either (1) trick (OED v, 1); or (2) force by using a fox (a kind of sword) (OED v, 3) [go to text]

n8263   Will no prey serve you but new married wives, fox? Williams notes that the fox is a ‘virility symbol’ and an emblem of lechery (1: 538); Magdalen seems to pick up Jane’s Aesopian reference to the fox and turn it into a suggestion that Vermin is a lustful old fox preying on her young daughter. [go to text]

gs1365   clear, innocent [go to text]

gg5408   mocks insults, acts of mockery [go to text]

gg255   fast secure [go to text]

gg5409   friend acquaintance; family member; sympathiser, supporter (used ironically) [go to text]

gs1366   friend? mere acquaintance [go to text]

n8264   Enter Sir AMPHILUS [and SECOND] SERVANT. ] Enter Sir Amphilus, Servant. [go to text]

n8265   made bold to follow took the liberty of following [go to text]

gg5410   ado fuss, business [go to text]

n8266   I cry these ladies’ mercy. Sir Amphilus apparently notices the women for the first time, and begs their pardon for having ignored them. [go to text]

gs1367   cry entreat, beg [go to text]

n8267   give you the courtesy of my lips— Sir Amphilus probably kisses the women’s hands, although it is possible that he makes the old-fashioned gesture of kissing them on the lips (or attempting to do so). Kissing the hand was a mark of courtesy, but could also be the first stage in courtship; kissing someone on the lips had been an accepted non-sexual greeting in the sixteenth century, but it seems to have become more sexualised in the seventeenth century. [go to text]

gg5411   peasantry, peasants collectively (OED n, 1); rusticity, vulgarity (OED n, 2) [go to text]

n8268   In the name of peasantry, what knight art thou, If not the Knight of the Ploughshare? Bumpsey is not persuaded by Sir Amphilus’s denial that he is a ‘clown’. [go to text]

n8269   the Knight of the Ploughshare? A title which many would have assumed to be oxymoronic; compare Francis Beaumont’s play The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Queen’s Revels, 1607-8; revived c. 1634-6 by Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men at the Cockpit), in which the hero is a grocer’s apprentice. Cf. also the proverbial phrases, a knight of the collar or halter (Dent K159.11) and a knight of the post (Tilley K164). [go to text]

gg5412   Ploughshare? ‘the large pointed blade of a plough, which, following the coulter, cuts a slice of earth horizontally and passes it on to the mouldboard’ (OED) [go to text]

gg5413   coats petticoats, or skirts of a dress (OED n, 2a) [go to text]

n8270   as courtesy makes a knight, so clothes makes a lady. This has a proverbial ring, but it is not to be found in the collections of Dent or Tilley. [go to text]

gg5414   ill (n) evil (OED ,. 1); ill will, unfriendly feeling (OED n, 3a); misfortune, calamity (OED n, 5a) [go to text]

n8271   old This may suggest that either Sir Amphilus’ clothing or behaviour would be more appropriate to a younger man; alternatively, ‘youth’ can also refer to youthful folly or rashness (OED 3), so Bumpsey may be using it as a synonym for ‘fool’. [go to text]

gg5415   lay (v) search (OED v1, 18c) [go to text]

gs1368   toy whim, foolish fancy [go to text]

n8272   belongs to i.e. has business at, has a connection to [go to text]

n8273   I had not sent else. That is: otherwise I would not have sent Trebasco there. [go to text]

n8274   hang sorrow. i.e. sorrow be damned [go to text]

n8275   acquainted among familiar with; have friends among [go to text]

gs1369   gamester gambler [go to text]

gg5416   cobbler, someone who makes his business from mending shoes [go to text]

gg5417   neatest most skilful [go to text]

gg5418   handicraftsman someone with a manual occupation [go to text]

n8276   to enable him by learning to borrow of the ancients. i.e. to give him enough learning to be able to plagiarise from classical authors. [go to text]

gg5419   posies poems, especially short ones [go to text]

gg5420   privy small buildings or rooms used for privies (lavatories) (OED privy house n) [go to text]

n8277   What a youth’s this for a knight! Bumpsey again either scorns Amphilus’ behaviour as unsuitable for a man of his age, or labels him as a fool. [go to text]

n8278   To the point, i.e. get to the point [go to text]

gg4145   whelp? puppy [go to text]

gs1370   tall well-grown; fine; valiant [go to text]

gs1371   resolve answer [go to text]

gs1372   pain, suffering [go to text]

gs1373   handsome attractive; skilful [go to text]

n8279   What a dog-trick is this? Jane is annoyed with Trebasco for distracting Sir Amphilus from his story of the cobbler-poet. [go to text]

gg5421   dog-trick low trick; ill turn (OED) [go to text]

n8280   dog-trick ] Dog-trick’s [go to text]

n8281   main game, i.e. the principal animals that might be hunted and/or the methods of hunting them. [go to text]

gs895   rare exceptional; splendid [go to text]

gs1374   tricks stratagems, wiles (OED n, 1a); feats of dexterity (OED n, 5a) [go to text]

gs1375   qualities virtues, accomplishments [go to text]

gs1376   ready in the form of cash for immediate payment [go to text]

n8282   the swoln’st headful of wit i.e. the most conceited poet [go to text]

n8283   Like his dam, Flaps’s. ] Like his Dam Flapses (Flaps seems to be the name of the dog’s mother.) [go to text]

gs1377   dam, mother [go to text]

n8284   Yes, and his coat all over, sir, they told me. In Hunger’s Prevention: Or, The Whole Art of Fowling by Water and Land (London, 1621), Gervase Markham describes a water-dog as follows:

your dog may be of any colour and yet excellent, and his hair in general would be long and curled, not loose and shagged; for the first shows hardness and ability to endure the water, the other much tenderness and weakness, making his sport grievous; his head would be round and curled, his ears broad and hanging, his eye full, lively and quick, his nose very short, his lip, hound-like, side and rough bearded, his chaps with a full set of strong teeth, and the general features of his whole countenance being united together would be as lion-like as might be, for that shows fierceness and goodness. His neck would be thick and short, his breast like the breast of a ship, sharp and compassed; his shoulders broad, his forelegs straight, his chin square, his buttocks round, his ribs compassed, his belly gaunt, his thighs brawny, his cambrels [upper parts of the hind leg] crooked, his pasterns strong and dew-clawed, and all his four feet spacious, full and round, and closed together to the clee [claw], like a water duck, for they being his oars to row him in the water, having that shape, will carry his body away the faster. (sig. F2v-F3r)

Markham also prints a picture of the properly groomed and shaved water-dog [IMAGEDM_3_2]. [go to text]

n8285   misgives me. fills me with suspicion or foreboding (see OED misgive v, 1a) [go to text]

gg5160   transportable capable of being transported [go to text]

gg2643   Ha! a versatile exclamation which can express surprise, wonder, joy, suspicion, indignation, etc., depending on the speaker’s intonation (OED int, 1) [go to text]

gg5422   How! a cry of pain or grief (OED int1, 3) [go to text]

n8286   a great Monsieur, i.e. a French nobleman [go to text]

gg560   muse. (n) poetic inspiration [go to text]

gs1378   vein talent, genius; characteristic style of language or expression (OED n, 11b) [go to text]

gs1379   dull, slow, lacking wit [go to text]

gg1329   offer at make an attempt at; venture [go to text]

n8287   That line is long enough to reach him. i.e. to reach the dog on the other side of the English channel. [go to text]

n8288   I would it were else. i.e. I wish that circumstances were different. [go to text]

gg4018   ’Od’s pity! an exclamation meaning ‘for the pity of God’ (‘’od’ is a corruption of ‘God’, often found in oaths). Brome is fond of ‘’od’s pity’, using it in The Demoiselle, The Lovesick Court, The Northern Lass and The Sparagus Garden; it is not common elsewhere, although Shakespeare uses ‘’od’s pittikins’ in Cymbeline (4.2.293) [go to text]

gg45   case condition [go to text]

gs978   dangerous hazardous, risky, unsafe [go to text]

n8289   a cup of wine To order a design. Although this is lined as prose in the octavo, it seems likely that Bumpsey here mimics Sir Amphilus’s poetic ‘vein’. [go to text]

gg5423   crosses, misfortunes, vexations [go to text]

n8290   [They] ex[it]. ] Exeunt. [go to text]

n8291   damasin, Magdalen appears to conflate demoiselle, damsel and, possibly, damson. [go to text]

n8292   [They] exit. ] Exit. [go to text]

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