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n1346   ACT 2 This act introduces us to the witches, thus confirming the expressed suspicions of characters in Act 1. The witches have their own verse form (tetrameter instead of pentameter, and often rhyming couplets instead of blank verse) and a declared goal of having fun by 'practising' or playing tricks on men to spoil male 'sport' and promote their own female 'pranks'. Celebratory sessions allow them to dance, sing, laugh, and hold midnight feasts. In terms of performance, there is some leeway for performing a degree of malice in the witches' behaviour, not only to men, but also toward one another. There seems to be a degree of competition between Gillian and Goody Dickieson, for example, and between Gillian and Meg. But the lines just as easily admit to congeniality and cooperation as they do to malice. Whatever the performance choice, the result is clear: pleasure and shared laughter for the women. The other interesting relationship concept in this scene is that Meg here seems to be an assertive leader, in the absence of Mistress Generous; but by the end of the play, Meg is the witch who collapses and is unable to assert herself in the last scene. This view of Margaret Johnson is based on the actual woman's behaviour under examination by the courts. The time is established in the second scene as after dinner (served at mid-day). The gentlemen return to the hunt while Generous arranges for his groom to fetch more wine for the household. He also arranges for a new tenant (the out-of-work soldier) at the mill, which has been plagued by cats who have frightened away the previous miller. The other significant introduction in this act is the Boy (modelled on young Edmund Robinson, whose false testimony is echoed here, the testimony that ensured the guilty verdict against the witches in Lancashire). The Boy is skipping off school to pick wild plums and watch the gentlemen's hunt. He joins in with a hunt of his own, after he finds a stray pair of greyhounds, but these turn out to be a transformed witch and her demon-boy, who kidnap Edmund amid suggestions of sexual abuse. The other aspect of witchcraft revealed in this scene is the sexual attachment between Robin (Generous's groom) and Mall Spencer, a young witch, formerly the girlfriend of Lawrence, old Seely's manservant. Mall promises a night of pleasure and surprise to Robin if he will stay with her for the night. He seems aware of her witchcraft activities, but (unlike the rest of the community) is not frightened off; in fact, he is titillated by the prospect of seeing more of her tricks. He has seen her make a broom sweep the house by itself, and in 2.6 sees a milk-pail take itself off to the field to prepare for work the next morning. [go to text]

gg1172   not together or in a company; independently (archaic) (OED 2) [go to text]

n1147   Ho! Ho! Well met! Well met! This line has an added 'Ho!' because the witches' verse-form is a very regular 4-foot line, and here the added word fills in theatrical practice, which would share the line as greeting and reply among the four witches when they come onstage from different directions). This line is an example of apparently 'spontaneous' or 'improvised' script, like the laughter or other repeated sounds, like 'Ay, ay, ay' below, as the witches agree on a plan of action. [go to text]

n1367   Ho! This edition adds a second strong-stressed 'Ho!' to regularise the scansion, which in the witches' verse-lines is tetrameter. In this line, spoken as greetings by all the witches, the sound, to the audience's ears, would be 'Ho-ho! Ho-ho!' filling in the extra syllables. [go to text]

gg1174   device scheme, project, often one of an underhand or evil character; a plot, stratagem, trick [go to text]

gs149   strain high pitch of activity (rare) (OED n2, 5a); or effort [go to text]

gg1173   gain advantage; increase in possessions (OED n1 and n2, 2a) [go to text]

n1148   Goody Dickieson The speaker was originally assigned to ‘Meg’ in the quarto, but cannot be correct because Meg has just spoken and this is the reply. Only three witches are named in the scene: the fourth witch may be Mall (as Egan suggested in his edition), more easily confused by the printer for Meg than either Goody Dickinson or Mrs Generous. But this decision is a production choice. The script does contain at least three unnamed witches. [go to text]

gg1175   feat adroit [go to text]

n3454   ’Tis right. On the same line as Mawd's last line in Q. [go to text]

n1149   each sprite Video The sprites -- Suckling, Puckling, Mamilion, Mawsy -- all have names that define them as small cuddly animals or imps that still need to nurse at the breast. The play explores this witch/child paradigm in the witches' fascination with young boys, in which the nurseling is also a sexual object. In the song each witch calls her familiar, but the staging has various possibilities. The two shown in the attached film clips suggest (a) crooning to imagined spirits who appear, but are invisible to us; and (b) crooning to members of the audience, treating them as spirits and bantering with them in a conspiratorial manner. [go to text]

gg1363   duggy breast (the diminutive form of 'dug', the pap or udder of female mammalia; also the teat or nipple; usually in reference to suckling; the use of the animal term is significant here in terms of the play's focus on unnatural sexuality) [go to text]

gg1177   Mawsy something downy, soft, or furry, like a small mouse (regional, western, specifically Cheshire and Yorkshire) [go to text]

gg1178   Puckling, a term of endearment for a small imp or hobgoblin, like the puck or pook, sometimes spelt pug, a spirit that may take the shape of any animal or even inanimate object, at will (see Jonson's The Devil is an Ass, in which the young devil is called Pug; Jonson's Pug takes two different human shapes, but Heywood and Brome's Puckling seems to appear either as an undefined spirit, or in animal form; see also 'pug' [GLOSS gg770] and 'puggy' [GLOSS 1176] [NOTE n952]) [go to text]

gg1179   Suckling endearment for one that suckles at the teat (witches were thought to have a third teat or breast at which their familiars sucked blood for nourishment as part of their pact with the devil) [go to text]

gg1180   Mamilion like Suckling, a small familiar that nurses at the breast (Latin mamilla, breast, nipple) allegedly the name of Margaret Johnson’s familiar (The witch called Meg or Peg represents the real accused witch Margaret Johnson, one of the four who was brought down from Lancaster to have her case reheard in London. In her examination she admits to keeping a familiar, although the other so-called witches did not support her claim, and possibly she testified out of fear or derangement.) [go to text]

gg1363   duggy breast (the diminutive form of 'dug', the pap or udder of female mammalia; also the teat or nipple; usually in reference to suckling; the use of the animal term is significant here in terms of the play's focus on unnatural sexuality) [go to text]

gg1182   trolly-lolly refrain of a song, expressing careless gaiety or jollity; sometimes expressing contempt [go to text]

gg1183   dandle bounce (a child) lightly in one's arms or on one's knee [go to text]

gg865   clip hug, embrace, clasp with the arms [go to text]

n1150   leap Spring sportively up and down, dandle, but with a secondary hint of fornication; of certain beasts: to spring upon (the female) in copulation. In this case, the females fantasise about leaping men, boys, or demons in a sexual woman-on-top scenario. Having sex with the devil was supposed to be part of the witch’s pact, and in common slang, a leaping house was a brothel. [go to text]

n1151   feats Bouts of activity, sexualized by the context of stroking, clipping, and nuzzling at the breast. [go to text]

gs477   store furnish, supply, stock (a person, place, etc.) with something (OED v, 1a); but other plausible additional meanings suggest 'provide for the continuance or improvement of (a stock, race, breed) (OED 2a, now obsolete); 'produce as offspring; also, to breed, rear (young animals) (OED 2b, also now obsolete); these meanings reinforce the odd sexuality binding witches and familiars; also 'keep in store for future use' (OED 4) [go to text]

gg1180   Mamilion like Suckling, a small familiar that nurses at the breast (Latin mamilla, breast, nipple) allegedly the name of Margaret Johnson’s familiar (The witch called Meg or Peg represents the real accused witch Margaret Johnson, one of the four who was brought down from Lancaster to have her case reheard in London. In her examination she admits to keeping a familiar, although the other so-called witches did not support her claim, and possibly she testified out of fear or derangement.) [go to text]

gg1176   puggy term of endearment for children; but also an imp or hobgoblin, like Puck (also called Pook, Pug); possibly, a monkey (OED pug n2, 1, 5 and 6), as in The Queen and Concubine [go to text]

gg1178   Puckling a term of endearment for a small imp or hobgoblin, like the puck or pook, sometimes spelt pug, a spirit that may take the shape of any animal or even inanimate object, at will (see Jonson's The Devil is an Ass, in which the young devil is called Pug; Jonson's Pug takes two different human shapes, but Heywood and Brome's Puckling seems to appear either as an undefined spirit, or in animal form; see also 'pug' [GLOSS gg770] and 'puggy' [GLOSS 1176] [NOTE n952]) [go to text]

gg376   meat food of any kind, not necessarily just flesh, fowl, or fish [go to text]

n1153   churl’s ground A farmer's field. A churl was a countryman, but the term was often used contemptuously of a low-bred villain (especially since Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, first performed 1599, which referred to a grain-hoarder who withheld grain from the market, driving up the price and causing great hardship among the poor); this view of grain-farmers explains the witches' curse of weeds in the field choking out the grain. [go to text]

n1154   dance a round Like fairies, witches were thought to dance in a circle in order to open up the way to the otherworld, and establish magical power. Dancing backwards (or anti-clockwise, turning to the left) in a circle was thought to unscrew or open up the dark spirit world. In the case of the North Berwick witches, as reported in Newes from Scotland (1592), King James VI asked three of the witches to perform their coven's dance before his court. Jonson used the description to create the back-to-back gyrations and belly-to-belly squirming of the dancing hags in The Masque of Queens (1609). [go to text]

n1155   cockle, darnell, poppia wild These are all wildflowers or weeds that choke a farmer’s crop. Cockle, or corn rose, grew in cornfields, and was also known as darnel, tares, or field poppy, presumably because it was a ‘vitious graine ... which commonly groweth among wheat: if it be eaten in hot bread, it maketh the head giddie’. Florio associates it with ‘discord, strife, contention or sedition sowen among men’ (LEME). Although modern wildflower dictionaries recognise the three weeds as separate plants, it is not clear that early modern herbals did so. Thomas Johnson, in The Herbal or General History of Plants (1633), writes in chapter 55 'Of Corne-Rose or wilde Poppy'. But he refers to red poppy, as distinct from black poppy (opium poppy); and earlier herbalists refer to yellow poppy as wild poppy (LEME). Florio (1598), following Thomas Thomas, Dictionarium Linguae Latinae et Anglicanae (1587), declares that 'cockle or darnell grows among the corn, and thus is known as corn-rose'. [go to text]

n1156   projected in our masque THe meaning is: just presented as a device in our dance. That is, the magical dance just performed represents the next act of witchcraft. Normally masque refers to revels at court: usually a courtly entertainment that includes singing and dancing, and a magical stage-display that evokes amazement or wonder in the audience. The last dance of the masque projects the next trick in a kind of dumb-show: the further escapades to take place at the Seely house, culminating in the wedding feast. The actors playing the witches here would have to choreograph the actions, based on the events of acts 3 and 4. [go to text]

gg1366   distraction madness, confusion caused by dissension and conflict [go to text]

n1157   Ha, ha ha! This is extra-metrical laughter, an ad lib performance choice, rather than counted as part of the verse line's metrical feet. A few lines below, however, the laughter is metrical, but then the next scripted laughter is again extra-metrical. [go to text]

gg1187   ‘Ay ejaculation of regret, sorrow; alas [go to text]

n1590   ‘Ay, ay, ay!’ The father to the son doth cry; I, I, I, and printed on one line in Q. But the regularity of the verse demands the half-line to complete Gill's previous line, and then a second line. The spelling of 'I' meaning 'ay' as a groan or howl of grief was common. [go to text]

gg1364   check restrain, put in danger of attack in which the opponent is likely to lose (a term from chess) [go to text]

gg1365   chide give loud and angry expression to dissatisfaction and displeasure; scold (OED 1b) [go to text]

gg1186   hare-brained having or showing no more 'brains' or sense than a hare [go to text]

n1158   Master and dame that over-swayed That is, old Seely and his wife, whose authority was overthrown by their servants Lawrence and Parnell. [go to text]

n1654   All The quarto is not clear about who exactly is on stage, but it is unlikely that Mall Spencer is one. Goody Dickieson is probably the fourth witch, since she is the one who actually is interfering in the hunt, the mischief planned for the day. [go to text]

n3455   Enough, enough, This line appears on the same line as the previous speech in Q. [go to text]

gg1188   sides that is, rib-cage, sides of the body [go to text]

gg1189   jig (a) light performance or entertainment of a lively or comical character, given at the end, or in an interval, of a play, now obssolete. which perhaps originally mainly consisted of song and dance, but evidently sometimes took on the nature of a farce; (b) sport, joke; trick or cheat [go to text]

n1187   hang their dogs up Traditionally, dogs were put down by hanging. Cf Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller (1594): 'Iohn Leyden ... died like a dog, he was hanged and the halter paid for' (2.241). [go to text]

gg1190   wat hare [go to text]

n1159   put me up make me start from my cover (hunting term) [go to text]

n1162   I and my Puckling will a brace Of greyhounds be Gill's assertion of the role she will play with her familiar is either a duplicate of Goody Dickieson's plot (as we see in 2.4), with both witches here tacitly agreeing to transform themselves and their familiars into a pair of greyhounds that will join the hunt; or Goody Dickieson sees this as an opportunity to tease Gill, or maliciously take over Gill's 'sport', and play her own game with the two Boys. This is a performance choice for the actors: whether to play the witches as prickly with one another, or as a cohesive group sharing the same jokes. See the notes on the labelling chit-chat between Gill and Meg that ends the scene: this too might be good-natured or not, depending on the actors' choice. [go to text]

gg1191   by-lane lane lying away from the main road [go to text]

n1160   on Dun On horseback: "Dun" was a common name for a horse, especially if its coat were dull brown (see Tilley D642 and D643). [go to text]

n1161   grizzled gut The grey belly (on the hare). Grey was the colour of the elderly Margaret Johnson’s hair. [go to text]

n1368   you’re this edition; y'are (Q.) [go to text]

gg1205   hands signatures [go to text]

gg1204   set to his mark sign a document (or mark it with an x, for an illiterate) (OED set v1, 113a) [go to text]

n1191   both ways Meaning uncertain. Whetstone may refer to both making his mark and signing his name, thus claiming he is not illiterate, and therefore can be considered a gentleman. Possibly he refers to both parents as gentry, although they did not marry and legitimize his birth. [go to text]

gg1207   scurvy contemptible, shabby or sloppy [go to text]

n1192   You write, sir, like yourself. An insult: you write like a contemptible illiterate person. Generous's response on the next line is a gentlemanly rebuke. [go to text]

gg1209   foretold you told you before (not a reference to prophecy) [go to text]

n1369   ’Tis confessed, Not represented as a shared line in Q, but this edition follows the scansion which demands a shared line. [go to text]

gg1210   word speech or utterance (OED 2a, arch.). The reference here is to fulsome giving and receiving of compliments when a simple 'Thank you' from the guest and 'You're welcome' from the host would suffice. [go to text]

n1195   on your part That is, for you. Arthur stresses the obligation he and his friends feel toward Generous. [go to text]

n1370   compliment flattery. Q has 'complement', a common misspelling for 'compliment'; here, the meaning 'accomplishment' or 'completeness' is not pertinent. [go to text]

n1655   part, Line-break, this edition; not in Q. [go to text]

gg1212   itching ears craving to hear something new, persons who crave to hear gossip, especially if scandalous (OED itching 2) [go to text]

gg1214   critic censorious, carping, fault-finding (OED a, 2) [go to text]

gg1213   supererrogate do more than is commanded or required [go to text]

n1196   I now have done, sir. Arthur's apology for his encomium on Generous, who, throughout the previous lines, may show irritation, attempt to interrupt or silence Arthur, or be embarrassed. This is a performance choice, but Generous's previous speeches have made it clear that he hates flattery and superfluous compliments of any kind. [go to text]

gg800   Heyday an exclamation indicating surprise [go to text]

n1197   Metamorphosis Whetstone also complains of the flattery but for him Arthur sounds like a minister basing his boring sermon on verses from Ovid (43 BC - 18 AD), arguably the most popular Roman writer of his time, with a huge afterlife in the works of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jonson, and others. Whetstone has heard enough about Ovid to mention him, but not to say the title correctly. Ovid was banished from Rome in 8 AD for writing The Art of Love, a poetic treatise on how to seduce women. This story of Ovid's banishment is retold in Jonson's The Poetaster (1603). The Metamorphoses is a kind of epic that explains the nature of the universe through constant changes and transformations of one thing into another; for example, Daphne's escape from Apollo (her would-be rapist) by being transformed into a tree. For further overview on Ovid's work, see Brown, Larry A. Ovid’s Metamorphoses. http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/xeno.ovid1.htm (14/05/2007). [go to text]

gg1215   hyperbolize exaggerate [go to text]

gg1216   connive At shut one's eyes to a thing or person held in contempt; pretend to take no notice of [go to text]

n1198   an equal match That is, Arthur will shut his eyes to Whetstone's insufficiencies, and Generous will shut his eyes to Arthur's exaggerations. [go to text]

n1371   Arthur. ] Gener., a printer's error giving Generous three speeches in a row. This speaker is clearly Arthur responding to his benefactor. [go to text]

n1372   To be such as it speaks you: Generous. Plausibly, the word 'Generous' is repeated here from the speech heading that follows. It is not needed for meaning. Then Generous's response on the next line would complete the scansion of the pentameter line as a shared line, instead of an extra-metrical reply. See note on next line. [go to text]

n1199   Still in that strain? Essentially an extrametrical line. It scans only 2 metrical feet, but Generous's verse line is not completed by Arthur's reply. The extra metrical moments may be filled by business; whether Generous turns away for a moment to recover himself, as if irritated or embarrassed; or the other gentlemen murmur kind things ad lib to take the edge off of Generous's refusal to hear nice things said about him to his face. Arthur's reply, given a little delay, is mollifying. He may look suitably repentant. [go to text]

n1373   Gentlemen, This word completes the scansion of the verse-line begun by the previous speaker. Not presented as a shared line in Q, thus giving the next line too many syllables. [go to text]

n1200   deeds, conveyances, and bonds These are all terms for legal papers pertaining to a mortgage on property. [go to text]

n1201   sealing and subscribing Terms denoting the notarizing and signing of documents. [go to text]

n1202   bad supper A scanty or ill-prepared meal. Generous is again being too modest, but the effect is to speed his guests on their way. [go to text]

n1203   where such bait, they do not use to inn Arthur makes a polite, if teasing, refusal: where such poor refreshment, such as a slight repast for travellers upon a journey (OED bait 4), is offered as an incitement (OED bait 2), guests don’t usually stay or lodge there (OED inn v 2: lodge). [go to text]

n1204   Our love and service to you. This conventional statement is a preliminary farewell, perhaps offered with handshakes or bows from all the gentlemen. Arthur speaks for all three friends. [go to text]

n1205   The first I accept; The last I entertain not. That is, Generous accepts Arthur’s love, but rejects the service or debt. The comment is kindly but odd, in that they have just spent the afternoon signing legal papers that ensure the debt to Generous will be repaid. But 'service' implies Generous's prerogative and superior status. [go to text]

gg1217   relieve feed, used specifically of hares, but now obsolete (OED 2e) (It may also mean the men 'rally' in their second attempt at that day's hunting.) [go to text]

n1206   one while male and another female At some times male and at other times female. Technically, this is not the meaning of hermaphrodite, which denotes the co-existence of male and female sexual characteristics, not the alternating of sexual characteristics. However, Whetstone’s description of rabbit mutation is correct. Whetstone's delivery of such facts may offer opportunities to the actor to make this character more complex: he is not merely a fool, or merely a bastard who resents his illegitimate social position. His twitting of the gentlemen actually rests on information they may lack, despite their education. [go to text]

gg1218   begets inseminates [go to text]

gg1219   brings gives birth to [go to text]

n1207   Pliny Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) was the author of Natural History, which contains often dubious but entertaining science. [go to text]

gg1357   light met with, especially unexpectedly or by accident (OED v1, 10d) [go to text]

gg1358   lightly easily, readily (OED adv, 4) [go to text]

gs184   lightly Whetstone is punning on light, used earlier in this same line (LLW 1.1.speech237) [go to text]

gg1220   Cousin generally used in speaking to or of kin, whether nephew or actual cousin, or any other relationship by blood or marriage outside the immediate nuclear family [go to text]

gg1221   precedent model to be followed [go to text]

gg1222   gentle carriage demeanour or behaviour appropriate to the gentry, or to gentlemen [go to text]

n1591   Generous remains on stage. Latin stage direction indicating that Generous remains on stage. [go to text]

n1690   Robert. Sir. ] appears at the end of the previous line in Q [go to text]

gg1226   aught anything whatever [go to text]

gg1227   gelding castrated stallion [go to text]

n1222   writings That is, business paperwork, including the mortgage for Arthur. [go to text]

gs155   wait tend (upon someone); accompany as a servant [go to text]

n1223   used it been in the habit of doing this or behaving like this [go to text]

n1592   leave out Wednesdays and Fridays That is, if she goes to church once a week on Sundays, she goes out alone on the horse at least 5 times oftener. [go to text]

n1691   Generous. And still alone? ] appears at the end of the previous speaker's line in Q [go to text]

gg1228   sorted chosen as fitting or suitable (OED 14a, citing this usage for 1634) [go to text]

n1224   back-return when she comes back [go to text]

n1225   conjures me 1. conspires with me; makes me swear as her confederate (OED 1); 2. entreats me (OED 4); 3. sarcasm: invokes or effects my promise by supernatural means. Here the 'supernatural means' is money, but witchcraft becomes the issue later. [go to text]

n1226   claps me in the fist with some small piece of silver Slaps a silver coin into my hand (tone is derisive: see OED 5a). [go to text]

gs186   carriage morally upright behaviour [go to text]

gg1230   reckoned estimated, valued [go to text]

n1227   the best Generous is thinking in social terms: the gentry, county society, people of status in the community. [go to text]

n1228   o’er me most indulgent That is: in her relations with me, disposed to gratify me by compliance with my desire or humour, or to overlook my faults or failings. The implication is that Generous thinks of his wife as the superior person who is, as he says, 'over me' within the marriage, since to have the power to indulge another is expected in the stronger partner. Her compliance or indulgence of his wishes is a favour she confers, not simply obedience given to her husband as a duty to a superior (see early modern marriage vows to 'love, honour, and obey'). [go to text]

gg1367   hatch bring forth from the egg, or more generally breed, to complete the idea of the previous line; figuratively, bring to maturity or full development, esp. by a covert or clandestine process; to contrive, devise, originate and develop (OED v1, 1, 4, and 6a). [go to text]

gg1231   jar discord, want of harmony, disagreement; a divergence or conflict of opinions (OED 5) [go to text]

n1231   him That is, the gelding. Mrs Generous’s desire to control her husband’s horse and even her preference for the gelded animal imply witchcraft in frustrating or destroying male authority. [go to text]

n1229   my service That is, your employment with me; working for me. [go to text]

gg1368   side-saddle saddle that allows a woman to sit with both feet on one side (usually the left) of a horse (In use since ancient times, as witnessed by illustrations on Greek vases and Celtic stones; but becoming more common in the middle ages, and still used by some modern female riders. Sitting aside rather than astride was considered more modest.) [go to text]

n1230   like to hinder me of many a round tester Likely to prevent me from gaining many extra tips. A tester or teston was silver coin created by Henry VIII, and refers especially to debased and depreciated money; thus, a colloquial or slang term for a sixpence. [go to text]

gg1232   cellar wine-cellar [go to text]

gg1233   claret red wines generally [go to text]

gs156   choice worthy [go to text]

gg1234   nag small horse or pony [go to text]

n1232   Mitre Fleet Street tavern at Mitre Court near Ram Alley, close to the Inns of Court. The name was common, but this Mitre tavern may have been the location for 5.3 of Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour and is mentioned several times in the play as a place for good food and wine. Another Mitre Tavern was located on Bread Street near Cheapside (Chalfont 128-130). [go to text]

gg1235   quintessence the ‘fifth essence’ of ancient and medieval philosophy, latent in all things, the extraction of which, by distillation, was the object of alchemy (the term was used to describe alcoholic tinctures in early modern chemistry) [go to text]

n1233   to find the way out again, I had the help of more eyes than mine owne! That is, Robert was too drunk to see the way by himself. [go to text]

gg1236   ipsitate very same, implying a specific extraordinary thing; bastard Latin (?) [go to text]

gg1369   smooch kiss; incorrectly defined as a US colloquialism, but actually dating back to early modern England (see John Florio, A World of Words (1598) under Inbeccare, to embill or feed birds, to bill, to smouch (LEME); OED cites usage for smouch as far back as 1583; in a modern text, smooch is the more familiar term now) [go to text]

n1234   be with thee to bring Meaning uncertain, but the context suggests some mutually satisfying consequence, probably sexual, bringing the couple together for a pleasurable purpose. [go to text]

n1374   ROBERT exits. This edition moves the note down to the actual point of exit. In Q, the exit is attached to the end of Robin's last line above. [go to text]

gs158   tender offer, especially an offer of money (OED n2, 1b) [go to text]

gg1237   country countryside, including the idea of home town or county area, not necessarily a foreign nation [go to text]

n1236   For begging ’gainst the statute in that name The English statutes against begging, 1576, 1597, and 1610, all criminalized begging and vagrancy. The Poor Law Act, consolidated by Elizabeth in 1601, based on earlier statutes, and remaining in force until 1834, asserted the responsibility of the parish to care for its own indigents: the aged or infirm poor were supported by local taxation, and children were apprenticed, but so-called 'sturdy vagabonds' (like this soldier) caught begging would be punished by whipping or being placed in the stocks for 3 days and nights before being returned to their birthplace and put to labour. The scheme was supervised by the Privy Council and administered locally by justices of the peace. [go to text]

gg1238   want (n) need, poverty [go to text]

n1237   With the Russian against the Polack A very current reference to the Russo-Polish war of 1632-1634: on March 1, in the Battle at Smolensk, King Ladislaus IV of Poland defeated the Russian army. This soldier is evidently a mercenary who worked for the Russians, and was probably released from being a prisoner of war because he was English. [go to text]

n1266   a heavy war This particular engagement was part of the Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648, which raged through most of Europe, with complicated alliances not simply governed by supporters of the Protestant Reformation on the one side and Catholic supporters of the Counter-Reformation on the other. Between 1625-1630, the English formed a league with the Dutch, the Danes, and the French against the Hapsburgs, but the league was defeated. [go to text]

gg1239   durance imprisonment [go to text]

gg1241   pass document giving permission to leave, enter, or travel somewhere; equivalent to 'passport' [go to text]

gg1240   perusal act of reading through or over something, whether thorough or cursory reading [go to text]

n1375   It shall not need. What countryman? Although Q indicates Generous continues to speak in verse, it is not verse that scans in pentameter lines. It seems more likely that, once Generous recognises the Soldier as an honest man, he speaks more sympathetically and gets off his high horse of verse that was marking the class distance. [go to text]

n1235   What countryman? What part of the country are you from? [go to text]

n1267   Yorkshire This soldier has taken a meandering route home, since Lancashire is west of Yorkshire, and one would think that from Poland he would have reached Yorkshire first, before ending up in Lancashire. [go to text]

n1376   Perhaps thou lov’st this wandering life, to be an idle loitering beggar than to eat of thine own labour. Set as verse in Q, but the verse does not scan in a balanced way. As indicated in the earlier note, Generous demonstrates his generosity by speaking in prose with a man he recognises as honest. [go to text]

gs159   scurvy (n.) a disease characterized by general debility of the body, extreme tenderness of the gums, foul breath, subcutaneous eruptions and pains in the limbs, induced by exposure and by a too liberal diet of salted foods, and now recognized as caused by insufficient vitamin C in the diet [go to text]

gg1242   hedge construct a boundary with hedge or fence; or maintain a hedge by trimming or tying branches [go to text]

gg1255   thresh separate grains of wheat or corn from the husks or straw [go to text]

gg1243   delve dig with a spade, especially preparing for crops (in northern dialects, more specific than ‘dig’); in conjunction with ‘hedge’, used of maintaining hedges and ditches along country roads (Barber) [go to text]

n1268   I love nothing less than loitering I like to work; I don’t like wasting time hanging about doing nothing. [go to text]

gg1256   quoth he! the phrase 'said he?', used with contemptuous or sarcastic force in repeating a word or phrase used by another; hence meaning indeed! forsooth! [go to text]

gs164   take find (someone in a specific place) [go to text]

n1271   I’ll give you leave to cast my flesh to the dogs I'll allow you to feed the dogs with my flesh. The implication is that if the miller is found in the mill again, he’ll be dead, and if so, the owner can use the meat on his bones for dogfood, since, if he is fool enough to return, he must be less than human and won’t deserve decent burial. [go to text]

n1269   grind my bones to powder betwixt the millstones Instead of the more appropriate 'bones', the quarto repeats ‘flesh’, but this seems to be a printer’s error. Cf tale of Jack the Giant-Killer, who hears the giant’s threat, ‘Be he alive or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread’. The Miller unwittingly responds to the witches' tactic of turning men into tractable boys by slipping back into children's fairy-tales for his oath. [go to text]

gg1258   cat-a-mountains wildcats [go to text]

n1272   in red and white That is, in blood and scratched skin, as opposed to the black and white of a legal document. [go to text]

gg1259   murrain plague-like disease afflicting domestic animals [go to text]

n1274   scratched where I am sure it itched not! Proverbial: Tilley M49 and M205. [go to text]

n1273   How cam’st thou in this pickle? How did you get into this disagreeable condition, plight, or predicament? The question is common: the same wording occurs in The Tempest, 5.1.284. [go to text]

n1275   They say we millers are thieves Proverbial: Tilley M955. This prejudice also explains why the witches do not see scratching a miller as a criminal or harmful act; for the locals who have been cheated by millers, it is simply pay-back time. [go to text]

n1593   piece of a nap A short sleep, snooze (OED n, 3); punning on woolly material removed from the surface of cloth by shearing, especially considered as the stuffing of pillows or mattresses. (OED n, 2). The miller plays on the reputation of millers for theft, a crime for which he'd rather be hanged than endure any further sleepless nights in the mill. [go to text]

n1276   caterwauling The cry of cats at rutting time; their rutting or heat; going after the opposite sex; lecherous motions or pursuits. By transference, any hideous, discordant howling noise. The sexual implications of the word describing the attack on the miller are repeated in subsequent scenes of the witches' molestation of boys and men generally. [go to text]

gg1260   sail one of the arms of a windmill [go to text]

n1277   they That is, the sails or arms of the windmill. [go to text]

gg1261   fitters tatters [go to text]

gg1262   poorly spirited cowardly [go to text]

n1278   Sir, trust me with the mill that he forsakes. At this point, the soldier rises to verse lines, emphasising his dignity as a man to be reckoned with. He wants to separate himself from the whining miller, and to impress Generous with his merit as fearless and undaunted by the challenges presented by the mill. Generous follows suit by responding in verse, including shared lines. [go to text]

n1279   quiet my possession That is, establish peaceful possession of a property (legal usage), but also punning on his soldierly control instead of the apparent demonic possession. [go to text]

n1280   Have given the mill quite over? Have given up the mill entirely? [go to text]

gg162   late recent [go to text]

gg1263   sped fared; managed [go to text]

n1281   I’ll stand it all danger. I'll cope with any perils. [go to text]

n1282   ’Tis a match. It's a deal. [go to text]

gg1317   switch enters. thin flexible shoot cut from a tree, used as a whip [go to text]

gg1265   bullies wild plums from the bullace tree (the local term appears in Edmund Robinson Jr.’s testimony in 1633) [go to text]

n1284   J. Adson Probably John Adson (1587-1640) flute and cornet player, who joined the theatre in 1633 and might well have been conscripted to play this mute role (Barber, citing Bentley 2.343). As Egan points out (135), Adson was also a composer, and his 'new airs' are mentioned in 4.1 of Cavendish's The Country Captain, another King's Men play. [go to text]

gg1269   brace pair, two [go to text]

gg1271   slips leashes for dogs, so contrived that the animals can readily be released; especially ones used for a couple of greyhounds in coursing, by which they can be let go simultaneously (OED n3, 3a) [go to text]

n1285   Master Robinson’s dogs In naming Master Robinson, the playwrights draw in one of the few specific references to witnesses involved in the 1633 Lancaster trial of the witches. Robinson, father of Edmund Robinson, the boy whose false testimony convicted several witches in the 1633 trials, subsequently profitted from his son's lies by travelling to other parishes and offering witch-finder services after getting Edmund to retell his story of finding the greyhounds and being abducted by a witch. The details of that abduction are related in 2.5 and later in 4.1 in the experience of Robin at the witches' feast. [go to text]

n1286   it may be something in my way That is, there may be a tip or reward for the boy. [go to text]

n1287   as liberal a gentleman as any is The comment is more ironic for subsequent audiences than for 1634 audiences, who did not yet know that the Robinsons would be exposed as liars by the London judges. The boy equates Master Robinson with Generous in calling him a 'liberal' or generous 'gentleman'. Robinson was a farmer, but not a member of the local gentry. His witch-finding activities between the Lancashire trial and the London hearing were mercenary and distinctly ungenerous to the women involved in the Lancaster trial and others accused by him in other parishes. His status equates rather with Master Doughty, who also becomes a witch-finder by mid-play. [go to text]

n1288   Now if I could but start a hare by the way, kill her, and carry her home to my supper The boy demonstrates here that he is a practical child; his interest in hunting is partly for the sport, but mostly for the result: pleasure in the prospect of meat and praise at home for bring back a hare for dinner. [go to text]

n1290   My dog as yours. My dog against yours. Arthur is betting that his dog will be the first to locate game. As in the opening scene of the play, Arthur behaves like a 'gentleman' in that, although he is now more in debt than before because he now owes money to Generous as well as to the man who holds his mortgage, he is still willing to gamble with money he does not really have. [go to text]

gs166   piece coin (possibly a Charles I sovereign worth 20 shillings) [go to text]

gg1283   pied multicoloured, usually with patches of colour [go to text]

gg1284   at his lap eating; licking up liquid dog food [go to text]

gs167   forbear put up with, tolerate (Obs.) [go to text]

n1377   Of what Whetstone's lines, beginning with this completion of the previous two speakers' verse-line, can be scanned, with some relineation. The printer apparently tried to lineate as verse, and perhaps the playwrights wanted to show that Whetstone, try as he might, is simply unworthy of verse. Nevertheless, with very little effort, his lines scan respectably, even if his effort to join the gentlemanly class does not work out so well. The gentlemen in the dialogue following Whetstone's speech refuse to speak in verse. [go to text]

n1291   farthings With the double rings Farthings were, before the 17th century, small silver coins worth a quarter of a penny; later they were made of copper, brass, or lead, or merchants issued tokens worth a farthing; hence, in the transferred sense, worth little or nothing at all (OED 1a, 2; Egan). See note on 'eight double-ringed tokens' in Act 1 Scene 2. [go to text]

n1292   counterfeit Falsification of weight and counterfeiting of gold coinage led to a proclamation on 5 May 1634 aimed at halting these abuses (Barber). But Whetstone's challenge to Bantam is that the amount of the bet can be anything Bantam cares to name, from a worthless farthing to a worthless counterfeit coin of higher apparent value. The implication is that Bantam would only lay bets in coin so devalued that it wouldn't cost him anything if he lost. [go to text]

n1334   I take you I accept your wager. [go to text]

n1300   cover these Match the money shown. [go to text]

gg1306   all one both the same thing [go to text]

n1301   And weigh alike: both many grains too light. In other words, Bantam calls Whetstone a liar who makes bets without having the money to cover them. [go to text]

n1307   grains That is, Bantam is mean-minded to accuse Whetstone of illegitimacy. [go to text]

n1302   shed Bantam is punning on 'hare' and 'hair'. Deliberate insult: loss of hair was a sign of venereal disease. [go to text]

n1303   haring or whoring The pun shifts to the sexual. Whetstone defends his manliness against Bantam's jeering. [go to text]

n1304   birds’ nests A slang reference to female pudenda (Partridge). Reginald Scot tells a funny story of a witch who stole the townsmen's 'privy members' and put them in a nest up a tree, challenging any man missing a penis (or claiming that the witch caused him to be impotent) to climb up and retrieve it. [go to text]

gs172   angle fishing rod [go to text]

n1305   hair This is continuing the pun on 'hare'. Whetstone, to judge from his answer, does not get the joke. [go to text]

gg1308   taken made use of, appropriated; also legally entered into possession of (OED 15a and b) [go to text]

n1306   leaped in at a window The upper half of a Dutch door or hatch-way was the sign of the brothel, and associated with the London ‘red-light’ district of Pict Hatch. A bastard child was associated with window-leaping, the sign of illicit sex. Leaping itself was an exercise associated with sexual games or virility. But Whetstone is speaking literally of a hare; Bantam's reply interprets the colloquialism. [go to text]

n1307   Oh, base! That is, Bantam is mean-minded to accuse Whetstone of illegitimacy. [go to text]

gg1333   tried proved or tested by examination [go to text]

n1824   heard Barber; hard Q. [go to text]

n1308   go off the score Pay off a debt. The 'score' or tally was usually kept on a chalkboard in taverns, or otherwise indicated by marks or notches. In this case, the score Whetstone wants to pay off is metaphorical. [go to text]

n1309   if thou hast them still, and not lost them by scribbling Clipping or cutting off ears was a 'warning' punishment for certain offences; William Prynne had his ears clipped, one on 7 May 1634 and the other on 10 May 1634, for writing offensive puritan tracts against the government and the Church of England. [go to text]

n1335   Grindstone Whetstone may be thinking here of the ancient proverb 'The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small', with the implication that, no matter how long it takes, Whetstone will be even with Bantam for the insult. [go to text]

n1336   Bulfinch This choice of new name is a mystery: the bird is a common songbird, easily trained as a pet, but with no apparent folk meaning. At least it is a legitimate breed, not a by-blow. Egan suggests that Whetstone will 'sing' or complain to his aunt and uncle. See the character of Bullfinch in The Northern Lass and corresponding note. [go to text]

n3387   remember and take notice also, that I am a ‘bastard’ Whetstone echoes Dogberry's frequent request in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, 4.2, that all the witnesses remember that he is an ass, and must be recorded as such. [go to text]

gg1334   baffled unworthily handled, injuriously used , abused (LEME) [go to text]

n1692   I was in a cold sweat ready to faint the time he stayed amongst us. ] set as verse in Q [go to text]

n1378   But come, now the hare is found and started, she shall have law. So, to our sport! Although Q sets these lines as verse, they do not scan as iambic pentameter. This edition offers them as prose. [go to text]

n1337   she shall have law That is, the hare will be subject to the rules of the hunt, be tried in the chase, and executed, if the hunters succeed. The gentlemen assume the hare is female, and thus in gender terms it becomes the assertion of patriarchal order over female bodies, something the witches are out to subvert in their 'sports' with neighbourhood males. [go to text]

gg1315   Halloo exclamation to incite dogs to the chase [go to text]

gg1316   lither slothful, sluggish [go to text]

n1312   turned tykes That is, transformed into mongrels without hunting skills (that is, no longer greyhounds). The phrasing echoes 'turned Turk', the Christian fear of (enforced) conversion to Islam when travelling in Muslim countries; or possibly enforced and unnatural sexual activity, especially buggery. This was one joking fear affecting travel wagers on Puntarvolo's greyhound in Jonson's Every Man Out of his Humour. Cf Revels edition 4.3.16 and note. [go to text]

gg1122   with a wanion with a plague, with a vengeance [go to text]

gs178   use treat, with implication of treat harshly [go to text]

n1313   not lash you, yet lash you Not leash you, but whip you. [go to text]

gg1317   switch thin flexible shoot cut from a tree, used as a whip [go to text]

n1314   upon the dogs’ going in Problematic stage direction. The actors who worked on this scene for the Brome editors suggested that there might be a stage bush over the trapdoor in the stage, through which the dogs might 'disappear' while the yipping sound of beaten dogs could be picked up by the actors who appear through the trap as Goody Dickieson and Boy 2. This effect would be more 'magical' than having actors play the dogs from the start, a less likely option on the early modern stage, where dogs (presumably pets of company members) were not infrequently used as supernumeraries. On the other hand, an actor does play a dog in Rowley, Dekker, and Ford's The Witch of Edmonton. [go to text]

n1315   my Gammer Dickieson Video "Gammer" was conventionally a rustic way of addressing an elderly woman. In this case, Goody Dickieson is not necessarily the boy's grandmother. The actor here must decide whether the boy is relieved to see a woman he recognises, or terrified at realising that the gossip about her being a witch is now confirmed. Both reactions may be performed sequentially to give comic depth to the moment [go to text]

gs173   swinge whip, flog, thrash (OED v1, 1) [go to text]

n1317   shilling This is rather a large sum for an elderly village woman. On the other hand, the request, from an adult to a child, for secrecy and willingness to pay for it creates a certain audience discomfort, as it raises the spectre of child abuse, perhaps already signalled by Boy 2. [go to text]

n1318   with my two legs I can outrun her Video The workshop here focused on what is another problematic stage action: the actors' solution was to have the boy run as fast as he could but be unable to move more than a short distance before Dickieson pulled him back on an invisible thread. The following clips record two attempts to realise this sequence in performance. [go to text]

gs174   sirrah address to a young boy or servant [go to text]

n1379   But Gammer, what do you mean to do with me, now you have me? Q sets these lines as verse, but this edition sets as prose: more likely, since Goody Dickieson does not share the boy's incomplete line. [go to text]

n1320   [She fondles the Boy.] This action isn't strictly speaking necessary, provided that the witch uses her voice to caress and croon to the boy. The actors tried this moment without any touching, or very little touching, and the boy's cringing and disgusted reaction was enough to make the 'unnatural' point of the old woman's sexual designs on him. See film clip. [go to text]

gg343   brave splendid [go to text]

gg323   fell dreadful, terrible; cruel, savage [go to text]

gg1323   perforce forcibly, violently; by force or threat of force [go to text]

n1338   This bridle[The bridle appears suddenly.]helps me still at need, And shall provide us of a steed. Now, sirrah, take your shape and be Prepared to hurry him and me. In these four lines, the witch reverts to 'witch-speak', verse-lines of four feet instead of five, and rhyming couplets instead of blank verse. The lines here have the effect of a magic charm, making it impossible for the boy to escape. [go to text]

n1319   BOY 2 exits. Video The exit of Boy 2 and the appearance of the horse are simultaneous. The actors in the workshop chose to have Boy 2 turn into a horse on stage by gradually taking on horse-like characteristics: pawing the ground, shaking the head, snorting, whinnying, and chewing the bit. The effect was extraordinary [go to text]

n1380   The boy is vanished, and I can see nothing in his stead but a white horse ready saddled and bridled. In Q, the obvious prose lines are set as verse; in this edition, they are set as prose. [go to text]

n1321   Thou, boy, before and I, behind Video The description has sexual implications, as the film clip shows, for sodomy and bestiality in the 'riding' motions of this threesome. It also highlights the switching of gender roles, with the old woman as sexual predator on boys and taking up the male position behind her 'boy toy'. The stage picture is both appalling and preposterously funny [go to text]

n1339   thy cream, thy cheesecakes, and every good thing Video Mall's job is dairy-maid, thus giving her access to such delicacies, but in feeding Robin's appetites, they are also euphemisms for sexual pleasures. A workshop with the actors explored this play with meanings. [go to text]

n1340   Cut Interesting choice of name for Robin's horse: generally, Cut was a common name for a curtailed horse; that is, one who had its tail docked. Specifically, it might refer to (a) an animal that has been castrated (OED v, 26); (b) horse whose gait, when running, strikes or bruises the inside of the fetlock with the shoe or hoof of the opposite foot, often without noticing or reacting to pain -- possibly an explanation for Robin's insensitivity to Mall's witchcraft (OED v, 27); (c) (one's) lot, fate, fortune; fate or fortune as a ruler of events (OED 2). [go to text]

gg1324   bandoleer broad belt, worn over the shoulder and across the breast, with loops by which bottles or implements might be suspended (Obs.) [go to text]

n1322   half a score mile That is, 10 miles. The singular was often used in early modern English, especially when reckoning amounts (weights, sums, distances). [go to text]

gg1325   curry-comb time the time at which horses are groomed for the day with an iron comb [go to text]

n1323   the old man That is, Generous. Robin here suggests he is much younger than his master, but their shared memories of drinking in London indicate they are probably much of an age. [go to text]

gg1335   Bacchus god of wine [go to text]

n1324   he will never be a Puritan, he holds so well with the Mitre Puritans were fundamentalist Christians, dissenting from the standard Anglican or Church of England dogma. Aside from being the name of the tavern, a mitre is the tall deeply-cleft headdress worn by a bishop (occasionally an abbot) as a symbol of episcopal office; also, in the Roman Catholic church by cardinals and popes. The northern counties of England were thought to be Catholic strongholds in early modern England. [go to text]

n11373   Well, Robert, I find your love by your haste from me. I’ll undertake you shall be at Lancaster, and twice as far, and yet at home time enough, an be ruled by me. Video Mall is toying with Robin to ensure her power is stronger than Robin's employer's power over him,, as she makes him swear to be ruled by her authority. [go to text]

n1341   if I fit him not If I don't serve my turn on him (OED v1, 4) or settle my account with him (OED v1, 9) [go to text]

gg1337   pint pint (approx. half a litre) of ale or beer [go to text]

n1325   Thy belly full Quite as much (of anything) as you want or care to take. OED adds 'Now rather coarse', but the context here clearly has a coarse sexual code embedded in it. [go to text]

n1326   The pail goes. Video This stage effect is easily enough created with thin string or wire and a pail; it requires one person at either side of the stage, each holding one end of the wires attached to the pail, and thus able to pull it back and forth without risk of the pail's falling over. Having the pail back up if Robin attempts to come too close to see how it works creates a good comic effect by endowing the pail with magical intelligence. [go to text]

gg1326   ’Light mild abbreviated oath, 'by God's light' [go to text]

n1342   turn all the milk make all the milk turn sour [go to text]

n1343   make it burn too, till it stink worse than than the proverb of the bishop’s foot A common proverb: 'The bishop's foot has been in it', based on the belief that bishops spoil whatever they meddle in. (see Notes and Queries, Fifth Series V, 49 and 333-4). It also appears in the Yale edition of Milton's Animadversions at the end of the tract in 'To the Postscript' (Complete Prose Works, 1:733). A Scottish and north-country proverb, in use since at least 1523, links the bishop's foot directly to milk that is burnt in the boiling. The smell of burnt milk is particularly foul. [go to text]

n11374   My horse is gone! Video The challenge of creating a horse on stage for this couple suggests the relation between riding and sexual activity. In the first clip recorded during a workshop on this scene we see Mall transform a small horse into a large stallion. In the second recorded extract the couple mount the horse. The actors experimented with making this moment one fraught with sexual equivocation. [go to text]

gs179   jade sometimes used without depreciatory sense, playfully, or in generalized sense, horse [go to text]

gg1336   trussed compactly framed or formed (Obs.) [go to text]

n1381   an ] and. In early modern English, 'an' meant 'if', but was frequently spelled 'and'. [go to text]

gs180   look look for (colloquial) [go to text]

gg1338   afore in advance (dialect) [go to text]

gg1339   Stand up mount (the horse) [go to text]

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