Volpone and Other Plays (76 page)

88.
Dagonet
: King Arthur's jester.

90.
main argument
: see Note on
calling
, above, line 46.

v, vi 21.
et digito
, etc.: ‘and restrain your lips with a finger' – Juvenal,
Satires
, I, 160.

48.
Redde te Harpocratem!
: ‘Make yourself a Harpocrates' – god of silence.

111.
ad correctionem
, etc.: ‘for correction not destruction; for building up not tearing down,' from Horace,
Epistles
, 1.

1
. ‘Ben Jonson',
Selected Essays
(enlarged edition, 1951), p.
147
; reprinted in
Ben Jonson: A Collection of Critical Essays
, edited by J. A. Barish (1963), p.
14
.

2
. Introduction to
Ben Jonson: Selected Works
(n.d. [1938]), p.
1
.

1
. ‘Morose Ben Jonson',
The Triple Thinkers
(new edition, 1952), p.
204
; reprinted by Barish, p.
61
.

1
.
Shakespeare and Jonson: Their Reputations in
the
Seventeenth Century Compared
(1945), vol. 1, pp.
109–12
;
The Jacobean and Caroline Stage
(1941–). vol. iv, p. 608.

1
.
Ben Jonson
(1925–52). vol. 1, p.
115
.

1
. ‘The Basis of Shakespearean Comedy',
Shakespeare Criticism, 1935–60
, edited by Anne Ridler (1963), p.
201
.

1
.
Shakespeare Criticism, 1935–60
, p.
206
.

2
. Introduction to
Ben Jonson: Selected Works, p
. 5.

1
.
Ben Jonson
, vol. IX, p.
205
.

1
. T. M. Raysor,
Coleridge's Miscellaneous Criticism
(1936), p.
55
.

1
.
Ben Jonson on the English Stage, 1660–1776
(1935), p.
143
.

2
.
The Fugitive Art: Dramatic Commentaries, 1947–51
(1952), p-183.

3
.
Curtains
(1961), p.
3
.

1
. See A. V. Judges (editor),
The Elizabethan Underworld
(1930),
passim
.

1
.
Curtains
, p.
3
.

1
.
In Search of Theater
(1953). p.
129
.

1
.
The Muse in Chains: A Study in Education (1937)
, p.
4
a.

6
.
In The Presentation
: in performance.

21
.
professors
: practitioners, i.e. poets.

23
.
forehead
: good sense.

25
.
their mistress
: their muse, the art of poetry itself.

33
.
inform
: train, mould.

48
.
abortive features
: premature, ill-considered dramatic works.

54
.
the food of the scene
: the staple of our theatrical diet, or subjectmatter for plays.

57
.
youngest infant
: i.e.
Sejanus
. Note.

62
.
allowed
: given critical acceptance.

62
.
entirely mine
: all my own work, i.e. unconcaminated by collaboration.

70
.
made obnoxious to construction
: exposed to misconstruction.

71
.
Application
: the identification of characters in plays with actual persons.

82
.
graved
: buried.

92
.
misc' line
: mixed, chaotic.

100
.
a name
: i.e. the name, or profession, of poet.

102
.
vernaculous
: ill-bred.

107
.
most learned Arbitresses
: i.e. the ‘Equal Sisters', Oxford and Cambridge.

109
.
reduce
: recover, bring back into use.

113
.
catastrophe
: i.e. in
Volpone
itself; the climax of the action.

114
.
my promise
: Note.

116
.
of industry
: deliberately.

121
.
goings-out
: endings, resolutions.

133
.
primitiue
: ancient, original.

17
.
coadjutor, novice
, etc.: Note.

21
.
quaking custards
: Note.

29
.
quick
: lively.

33
.
copperas
: an acid.

8
.
the day
…
chaos
: the day of creation.

15
.
that age
: the Age of Gold.

35
.
shambles
: slaughter-house.

56
.
mallows
: coarse greens.

58
.
Romagnìa
: a sweet wine from Greece;
Candian wines
: malmsey from Crete;
Lombard's vinegar
: cheap wine from North Italy.

71
.
cocker up my genius
: give free play to my innate talenets.

6
.
Pythagoras
: Note.

9
.
Æthalides
: the herald of the Argonauts.

12
.
Euphorbus
: a Trojan.

13
.
cuckold of Sparta
: Menelaus, whose wife Helen was abducted by Paris.

17
.
sophist of Greece
: philosopher – i.e. Pythagoras himself

26
.
‘By Quaterl'
: Note.

27
.
musics
: music of the spheres:
trigon
: triangle.

31
.
reformèd
: Protestants.

39
.
moyle
: mule.

43
.
illuminate
: having experienced religious illumination or vision.

46
.
nativity–pie
: Christmas–pie; Note.

85
.
changing
: being made.

89
.
gorcrow
: carrion crow.

124
.
phthisic
: consumption.      126.
posture
: imposture, act.

58
.
forkèd
: ambiguous.

63
.
perplexed
: confusing.      66.
chequin
: a Venetian gold coin.

46
.
brain
: Note.

52
.
scotomy
: dizziness and loss of sight.

53
.
left to snort
: ceased snoring or breathing.

72
.
elixir
: a liquor thought to be capable of prolonging life for ever, or in alchemical lore the substance for turning other metals into gold.

73
.
aurum palpabile
: Note.

75
.
cordial
: a medicine which restores the heart.

96
.
colour
: pretence.      97.
taking
: tempting.

103
.
proper issue
: legitimate offspring (i.e. Bonario).

124
Rook go with you
: May you be rooked – fooled.

156
Æson
: Jason's father, who was magically restored to youth by Medea.

9
orient
: from the East, and therefore especially valuable and lustrous

23
visor
: mask

63
culverin
: hand-gun or cannon.

92
fat
: grow fat.

4
salt
: wanton.

12
.
Laid for this height
: aimed for the latitude.

14
with licence
: with the permission of the Privy Council; legally.

18
.
vents our climate
: comes from our country.

25
.
speaks
: describes

28
.
tires
: attires, clothes

34
.
lion's whelping
, etc.: Note.

76
.
ordinary
: eating-house.

77
.
advertisement
: information.

78
.
concealed statesman
: government agent in disguise.

82
.
his character
: his code.

85
.
in policy
: for diplomatic reasons.

86
.
had your languages
: was a linguist.

87
.
And to't, as sound a noddle
: And, in addition, as good a head.

94
.
advices
: bulletins.

95
.
coat
: party.

96
.
relations
: reports.

106
.
I hold myself in no small tie unto my fortunes
: I count myself fortunate.

113
.
vulgar grammar
: Note.

114
.
he that cried Italian to me
: my Italian teacher.

118
.
of ingenuous race
: of good family.

3
.
the dear tongues
: the main languages (of Europe).

4
.
mountebank
: Note

5
.
quacksalvers
: quacks.

12
.
cabinet counsellors
: intimate advisers.

13
.
only languaged men
: the best linguists.

15
.
terms and shreds
: impressive-sounding jargon, miscellaneous quotations, etc.

24
.
phant'sied
: depicted.

39
.
the Portico to the Procuratia
: the arcade of the residence of the Procurators – important state officials.

41
.
cold on my feet
: forced to sell things cheap.

44
.
Buttone
: another mountebank.

48
.
ground ciarlatani
: pavement-quacks, without platforms; charlatans.

49
.
feats of activity
: acrobatic feats.

51
.
Tabarine
: the zany in a troupe of Italian comedians.

60
.
scartoccios
: scraps of paper used to wrap up medicines, etc.

62
.
oppilations
: obstructions.

70
.
canaglia
: the rabble, or scum
(canaille)
.

75
.
Terra Firma
: Venetian territory on the mainland.

79
.
magazines
: warehouses.

79
.
moscadelli
: muscatel wines.                             81.
cocted
: boiled.

92
.
malignant humours
: Note.

100
ff.
mal-caduco
: epilepsy;
tremor cordia
: palpitation of the heart;
retired nerves
: shrunken sinews;
the stone
: kidney trouble;
strangury
: urinary complaint;
hernia ventosa
: flatulence caused by hernia;
iliaca passio
: intestinal pains;
torsion of the small guts
: gripes;
melancholia hypocondriaca
: the ‘black bile', chronic depression.

110
.
Zan Fritada
: a famous comedian, whose name Volpone borrows to address his own zany, Nano.

114
.
Hippocrates, Galen
: Greek physicians.

121
.
sassafras
: a stimulant.

122
.
guacum
: a drug obtained from a resinous wood.

145
.
simples
: herbal ingredients.          148.
decoction
: boiling to extract.

148
.
flies in funto
: goes up in smoke.

159
.
balloo
: a game played in Venice with a large ball.

171
.
gossip
: here, god-father, companion.

180
.
gazet
: a Venetian coin (a penny).

186
.
tart of palate
: with a keen sense of taste.

191
.
aches
: has two syllables in the song.

199
.
moccenigo
: coin of little value.

201
.
the banner of my front
: the banner on the mountebank's stage listing his miraculous cures.

201
.
bate a bagatine
: take off a penny.

208
.
a double pistolet
: a valuable gold coin.

6
to make your properties
: to take over as your stage.

7
.
vent
: chimney

28
.
horn him
: cuckold him.

33
.
your epilogue
: Note.

4
.
his strained action
: his excessive theatrical performance.

4
.
his dole of faces
: his range of facial expressions.

12
.
toad-stone
: Note.

17
.
fricace for the mother
: literally, massage for a fit of hysteria, but here used with suggestive overtones.

18
.
mount
: become a mountebank; again with suggestive sexual overtones.

21
.
cittern
: zither.

24
.
dowry, Dutchman
:Notes.

55
.
a conjurer
: Note.

57
.
lock
: chastity-belt.