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Note about Simplicity goes here.
Oluwaseun Akintola is a student pursuing an English major and Psychology minor at the University of Victoria. She has had the opportunity of working for LEMDO as the recipient of the Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for the summers of 2024 and 2025. Her research primarily focuses on premodern critical race theory in early modern drama, researching racial representation, and constructions of identity in Shakespeare’s plays
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Chantelle Thauvette (
Actor with the Queen’s Men. See Robert Wilson (d. 1600).
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The Queen’s Men Editions anthology is led by Helen Ostovich, General Editor; Peter Cockett, General Editor (Performance); and Andrew Griffin, General Editor (Text).
sometimes applied in a wider and more general sense to any place or state of restraint, confinement, or exclusions, and is practically equivalent to(Toner). Theologically, limbo serves as either a place or state for souls who cannot access heaven but do not suffer in purgatory or hell. Theprison
high suburbs of lowest Hell, with purgatory near the top, hell at the very bottom, and limbo in between both (Andel 52).
the filthie feastes, and vnchast reuels of Bacchusas well as
pertaining to furies: proper or like to mad folkes: furious, raging, detestable, that maketh outragious—disembodied spirits or incorporeal aspects of a human being, such as emotions or passions (
consisting of a wooden staff or handle, at the end of which a stouter and shorter pole or club, called a swingle or swipple, is so hung as to swing freely(
well woven). Q2’s choice puts the repeated emphasis on the thrice-repeated word wares in the last 5 lines, thus urging sales within the construct of London as marketplace.
We tend to think that the Elizabethan playhouse as completely free of furnishings, but Simplicity’s stall is real—shields and images are hung or tacked to it, and Simplicity’s relationship to it anticipates the traders and their stalls on stage in Jonson’s(Nakawaki and White). While here the metaphor of theatre as market stall does not fully materialize as set piece, the line reinforces a connection between the stage itself and the marketplace the play seeks to satirize. Pamela Allen Brown further argues thatBartholomew Fair some two decades later
Wilson’s Prologue metatheatrically conflates market and theatre, then the play proceeds to attack both as debased by greed(Brown).
a ballad-like market cry(Brown). For information on market cries and songs, see Wong,
blowing her trumpet(82 n.0.1).
a disreputable group of people; a violent or unlawful mob; a gang of criminals or ruffians(
assembly of three or more people that has gathered with the intention of committing an unlawful act(
a force retreating in a disordered and rushed manner, Lucre could also be said to have conquered any opposition to her power (leaving Love and Conscience defeated and at her mercy in this initial scene) (
And when all things shalbe subdued unto him, then shall the Sone also himself be subject unto him, that did subdue all things under him, that God may be all in all(
be all in allas
We shalbe prefctly fulfilled with his glorie and felicitie(Geneva Bible 1 Cor 15.28 n.n). Applied to Lucre, it suggests that London has idolatrously elevated her to an all-powerful deity, and that Lucre provides an immediate worldly pleasure that supplants the future spiritual fulfilment souls should strive to reach in order to be accepted into heaven.
open the mouth wide, as animals do to
bite or swallow anything(
to be eager to obtain(
rules the rout. See
overcome my; she is speaking of herself and her function in third person, thus making her statement more general than she means. Hazlitt’s suggestion, haunt, removes the utter defeat Lucre has in mind in both quartos.Conscience’s spirit
a step of a dance, as the reference to the
stepsin the next line suggest (
spare the rod and spoil the child.
natural fools(broadly, people who are considered idiots or who have developmental disabilities) like Simplicity, or
little long-coats, children. See Wiles 184–186.
Nowhere in sixteenth-century Europe are real court jesters pictured as wearing the motley and cockscomb outfit, they are associated with in emblems and on the stage (183). Dissimulation does not wear a fool’s full costume, but the motley beard marks him as a clown.
Partly of one color and partly of another, especially of a dog or animal
having a coat of with two or more colors in distinct patches(
contemptuous gesture which consisted in thrusting the thumb between two of the closed fingers or into the mouth(
Although all three characters. Yet while Wilson appears in this scene to set up Dissimulation as a regular vice character in a morality play, McKeown argues that Wilson sets up these generic expectations in order to disrupt them, and to disrupt binaries between the innocent country and the corrupt city. See McKeown,in this scene are seeking out the opportunities of London, it is Dissimulation who discourses with the urban audience, and implicitly his statement of familiarity is an indictment of an audience that, by 1584, would more and more have been composed of Londoners visiting playhouses and less and less rural audiences catching the show on tour
Wilson, Tarlton, and the Scourge of Simony in Elizabethan Drama.
proverbially a simple rustic, clown(85 n.19.1). Millers in rural medieval settings tended to be serfs working on mills and lands owned by a noble.
Dusty-pollbelow
strike the horse turning the grindstone at the mill(85 19.2). Not all mills were powered by livestock, but the wand is a practical instrument for ensuring animal activity.
In some dramatic uses,the oath is
indicative of the speaker’s rusticity or ignorance(
, or aa coarse, uncultured, or stupid person
fat person(
obstinate or disagreeable person, and
a lecherous or sexist man(
a haunter of bawdry and riotous houses, meaning brothels or alehouses, and
a ravenour of delicate meatesor a glutton (Cooper 1584). To appear
baniacionin both quartos. It appears a second time in the play, in both texts, at
bonacionbut the spellings have been regularized in this edition as
boniacion.
Well doer, or Good and sweete face(Camden 1605). Simplicity’s corruption of the word is apt, as Fraud neither acts well not appears sweet (and is himself corrupt). (2) William Hazlitt’s misreading of the Q2 type in his 1874 edition has produced the word
bonifacion(254), which appears in the 1867 edition of the OED as
fashionable, but there is no evidence to corroborate this spelling as a distinct word (see Terence Logan 1968). (3) Given the word’s context in the play, Simplicity might be clownishly corrupting a French loanword for
brave, both words identifying the same quality of attractiveness.
known for sports involving the maintenance and upkeep of horses(114 n.91). By the time of the second quarto’s printing in 1592, the audiences might have recognized Ware as the home of The Great Bed of Ware, a tourist attraction currently housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
not, relying perhaps on the actor’s tone of sarcasm to carry the line without it. He has been mocking Fraud for all the things he is stupidly proud of; this is just one more example of his flamboyant arrogance.
hanging rope and the cart that takes you to the gallows (or ‘carts’ you, drives you around for public shaming); cf.(Kermode 87 n.58).A Knack to Know a Knave (1594)
lacks gentlemanly breeding, a lout
employed in mean, servile, or distasteful work(
but let, perhaps the same meaning but without a strong visual component which the actors have to construct. They are not simply allowing Dissimulation through; they are alert to his choice of action in pushing through to stop the fight.
ruffianappearance at his entrance suggests he is a person who frequents bawdy houses, either as a customer or as a pimp. Here, as a self-proclaimed
squire to wait upon jades, Fraud almost certainly means he attended on women, either for profit, pleasure, or both (
An huckster, a regrater, a broker, a forestaller, or he that buyeth at the best hand to the end he may sell the deerer.
compares to a contemporaneous 1582 moral interlude entitled(White).A Game of the Cards which the Children of the Chapel Royal staged at considerable cost before the queen at Windsor Castle and featuring the knaves of clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds who prey on a soldier, scholar (aspiring divine?), merchant, and husbandman
rapidly through the fingersin a deceptive sleight-of-hand card trick (
Or elsein the line suggests also, perhaps, that there will be those who swallow the corruption of the vices, thereby letting them win, while others will not be able to stomach it.
An estate in land, etc. belonging to the owner and heirs for ever, without limitation to any particular class of heirs(
Simon, yes, that one, yes, Simony too. As Kermode notes,
the phrase is a mistake for the more usual ‘O per se O’ cryer’s announcement(90 n.107).Simplicity’s version suggests a reading of ‘oh yes, him(self) (i.e. that one), yes’
mumblesa service only once a month—also falls far below reasonable expectations. The selling of benefices was a major problem in sixteenth-century England, before and after the Protestant Reformation. While the sale of benefices and church lands enriched the Catholic Church at the start of the sixteenth century, the problem continued into Protestant England. In the 1550s,
Merchants and lawyers, gentlemen and courtiers, who purchased benefices (mostly former monastic property which came on to the market following the dissolutions) undertook obligations to preach and provide for the poor which they were both unwilling and unable to perform(Carter 239) . While Wilson’s play makes this practice seem to be the work of Catholic foreigners, it was also a direct product of early Tudor policy. Simony provides someone to
mumblea service, but he and others ignore the requirement to care for the poor.
yourhere borrows from Q1. In Q2, it is
our beck, but logically the beck is Lucre’s, not theirs, so this may be an error in Q2.
good manwith a space and an altered inflection in the next line, she rejects the marital implications of the term
throw out my eyes for, which means to look out for, as in Simplicity will leave to find the lady he serves (116 n.237). But Kermode suggests that based on Usury’s response,
Simplicity is offering Usury money or is asking Usury to pay for him to get service with a lady, for(93 n.177). Theto put out one’s eyes with gifts= to bribe
to put out a person’s eyes with (a gift, a bribe, etc.)as
to get a person to pretend not to see something by bribery(
doughty heart to make a hangman off, and notes that
This Q1 reading suggests that Fraud is clever enough to avoid or get rid of the hangman(94 n.192) Walker likewise uses
offbut interprets the line as
to see off the hangman, reversing the execution process by pushing the hangman off the ladder to hang (413 n.190). Q1’s
offbetter suits the end rhyme of the couplet, but Q2’s
ofhas a clearer meaning when paired with
make(
the material or substance of which something(is made up or consists
cove, or cuffin, becomes codified as a way to describe men by appearance or profession, as in
Kinchin Cove: A little man(Head,
Nubbing Coveand
Toppin Cove) and other dispensers of judicial violence, such as the
Floggin Coveor
The whipper of Bridewell(Head,
coff, performers have the option of saying
ofin the line above. Dissimulation’s logic here seems to play on both sides: Fraud might make a good (i.e. corrupt) hangman who takes bribes to save a prisoner; or Fraud might be tough enough as a bargainer to make the hangman merely seem to hang the prisoner.
lustyin the sixteenth century suggests that her appeal is multi-dimensional.
blessfor
kissin the previous line by pretending to mistake
rope-ripefor
rhetoric.
renowned for its courtesans; these women were famed throughout Europe for their wealth, beauty, and good breading, and often featured in English travellers’ accounts of Venetian society. Lucre’s Venetian origins mark her, Salkeld argues, as a
whore(Salkeld).
controls the domestic affairs of a household, supervising the service of his master’s table(
trustyhere might hint at
(a person into whose possession assets, property, etc., are put, to be held or administered for the benefit of another
trusty(
my palaceand
my butler, but in Q2 drops Q1’s
Iand simply refers to herself as
myself. The attempt to revert to a royal we is peculiar, with the deleted I but she retained my. No doubt her imperial manner leaves listeners in no doubt about who
rules the rout. See also
seeinstead of the more polite
prayin Q1 (
conventional expression of old-fashioned hospitality, but points out that hospitality inflects her dealings with the vices earlier in the play as well.
The smoake pence, and the tributaries / That English chimnies pay the Church of Romeas one
treasurein a long list of assets he orders his allies to horde and hide for Wolsey’s
swift aduancement to Saint Peters chaire(Rowley B4v). The second reference comes from Will Summers, Henry VIII’s jester, who calls out smoke pence as a tax the clergy wastes on useless luxuries for themselves. Sommers says
we shal be all poore shortly: you haue had foure hundred threescore pound within this three yeare for smoake-pence, you haue smoakte it yfaith(Rowley F2v). Although Rowley’s play is set during the Reformation, Wilson’s reference to smoke pence here suggests that the clerical abuse continued past the Reformation (as the play is set in the present day of 1584 or 1592). Officially, it was discontinued during Henry VIII’s reign, restored during Mary I’s reign, and discontinued again under Elizabeth I’s reign. Evidence indicates, however, that the Church of England continued the tax into the eighteenth century at least.
Annual tax of one penny from each householder having land of a certain value, paid in England until the Reformation to the papal see in Rome(
It was first paid by King Offa after the visit of the two Papal legates concerned in the erection of the Arch-bishopric of Lichfield in 787, and appears to have continued by Offaand his successors into Tudor times (with a few interruptions) (118 n.344).
Peter’spence (Kermode 98 n.86; Walker 416 n.271). The Q1 spelling of
Pawlewith the capital p suggests the pun, but the Q2 spelling of
powleis more ambiguous. The joke likely works on multiple levels—Simony lumps in a current English state tax with discontinued Catholic taxes to make all taxes seem corrupt.
rubbish(
stuff, nonsense(
and the main facts are not in dispute (23). There are no records of Augustine travelling with an army or forcibly subduing anyone. Contemporary historians agree that Augustine travelled to England with around forty Roman monks and was eventually welcomed by King Ethelbert (Smith 23). King Ethelbert was a pagan, but he had a Christian wife who had her own chaplain with her at court (Smith 23). While Augustine faced resistance from the existing British bishops, to suggest his specific conversion efforts were a massive or forciblet he place in history of Augustine’s mission to the heathen English is a well-defined one
some piece of folk legend, possibly inspired by anti-Catholic animus(118). At the time of the English reformation, Smith writes, many sought to
upgrade the traditions of Apostolic foundation to the level of accepted factand
systematically denigrated the role of Augustine, who from being a glorious founder was recast as the first perverter of a pure faith with imported Papal error(28). From this perspective, Simony’s account of Augustine makes the Christianisation (in so far as it was a Catholicization) seem like a hostile foreign invasion. The references to England having to live under the papacy’s laws and pay tribute to Rome make England’s Catholic past sound like an occupation.
a blend of Zanni and his master Pantalone. Mercadorus’s accent marks him as comical, and in so doing reinforces the play’s xenophobic view of foreigners travelling through England. For a nuanced analysis of early modern attitudes to immigration, see Oldenburg,
Lucarin both quartos of the play. In this instance, the Italian sound emphasizes rhyme with the next line; most words rhyming with Lucre have
erendings rather than
ar, as here. See
respectful (or mock respectful) form of address, usually to an Italian woman (also used in literal renderings of Italian speech)(
a loose or flirtatious woman, a prostitute(
Dissimas the catchword at the bottom of B2r, strongly suggesting that Dissimulation speaks these lines.
For in the worlde ye shall haue wo, / Because ye are vnknowen: / And for because ye hate the world, / The world will loue his owne(5.81). Mercadorus has no difficulty pursuing lucre through dissimulation because he intends to fully follow a material and temporal path to wealth (hence,
so long as the world endure) rather than a spiritual path to heaven.
sappears to signal Mercadorus’s accented Italian pronunciation.
sarua voutra boungrace(Kermode 100 n.29). The original is garbled Italian, so this modernization enhances Mercadorus’s fluency in his native language. He should be fluent in Italian, although he has probably cobbled together various languages to serve his mercantile purposes. Wilson’s Italian, on the other hand, often seems more like French.
stealor carry off clandestinely, make away with (
By the late 1570s exports of tin, lead, and bell metal seem to have been a substantial element of English trade to the Ottomans(Ingram).
Turkey is characterized as a thriving, ambitious, and productive place whereas London is depicted as vain and frivolous(Ebrahim).
Thomas Browne adds a number of other(101 n.49). See (Robbins 166).Electrick bodiesinto the Ancients’ knowledge of jet and amber, which will attract straw when rubbed
probably referring to ambergris, wax-like fatty substance from whale intestine, used in cookery, and perfumery; the resin of amber was known in the period and, interestingly, is particularly electrified by rubbing(101 n.49). Walker further suggests that
to make fatmight mean to impregnate (Walker 418 n.49-50). Lucre’s sales-pitch argues that the qualities of the amber will somehow transfer to the owner.
(119 n.422). Thep robably a reference to some popular superstition
Red, he writes,Coral
will grow pale, blewish, and maculated with several spots, when it is worn by one that is nigh death, or dangerously sick, and will foretell Diseases by changing of its colour(Garencières 15). These tracts—in which coral is hyped as a cure-all—are the kind of grasping pseudoscience Thomas Browne writes against in
the use of Ice is condemned by most Physitians,(41). Notably while even a leading skeptic accepts the medicinal properties of crystals, these properties do not match with what Lucre promises.while that of Christall commended by many. For although Discorides and Galen, have left no mention thereof, yet hath Mathiolus, Agricola, and many others commended it in disenteries and fluxes; all for the increase of milk
specious talk or representation(
came from former Catholic church bellsmelted down and
exported to the Ottoman Empire where it was used in the production of armament(Ebrahim).
a multivalent word: (1) way of doing things, inclination (2) stroke, touch (3) device, trick (4) skill, art(102 n.67).
if).
I’ll consider(emphasis mine), making it clear that he will consider the favour Dissimulation grants later. In leaving out theit hereafter if I can
not only immigrants but also merchants passing through England, tourists, diplomats, and anyone else from outside the realm(Oldenburg 3–4). England received two major waves of immigration in the 1540s and 1560s (largely as a result of Protestant/Catholic conflicts on the continent), but that anti-immigrant rhetoric spiked in the 1590s around discourses of economic competition like the ones Artifex cites here. Oldenburg also argues, though, that while Wilson and other writers capture this anti-alien sentiment, there were other factions and forces in England who worked towards a cosmopolitan marketplace that welcomed foreign trade, foreign goods, and foreign workmanship alongside domestic wares.
thrivingand hard work (through industry
husbandhere to refer to himself as a head of household or master who provides for his subordinates, including servants and children.
Originally: an inferior legal practitioner who dealt with petty cases(Hence: a lawyer who engages in petty quibbling and cavilling, or who employs dubious or underhanded legal practices
Creticus the Lawyerin the final scene.
worthy to be ratified(
butfirmas a verb can meanratify,
the sense ofis plausible too (settling… or winning the suit
reflect(Luke 1.68-69 qtd. in Walker 422 n.161-162). This paradise of riches is the new salvation of the chosen people.s Luke 1:68–9:Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people: and hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant
appear to pose a problem of attributionfor early editors Collier and Hazlitt (Kermode 67). Collier and Hazlitt attribute line 4 to Sincerity and line 5 to Simplicity. Modern editors Kermode and Walker retain the speaker prefixes that appear in Q2.
ecclesiastical living, or church office (
Simplicity cannot in fact read, and the stage direction and lines that follow suggest comic stage business where Simplicity transparently attempts to cover up his ignorance(Kermode 107 n.15).
the first bill of session was for a more reverent observance of the Sabbathbut the bill
was scrapped and a new one formulated to ban unlawful games, hunting, hawking, bear-baiting, and wakes during church services, and to prohibit fairs, markets, and setting up stalls on Sundays(Greaves 415). Queen Elizabeth, however,
who had no personal taste for a strict Sabbath, vetoed the bill(Greaves 415–6). Sincerity’s complaint is another way that the play speaks specifically to the moment of its publication and performance, although arguments over how to regulate church attendance and leisure activities never vanish entirely.
kettels. Billiard balls were also sometimes called bowls.
ke^lessounds like kayles; the glottal stop is a linguistic habit common in northern dialects. Hazlitt adopts the seventeenth-century spelling, skittles, but many different spellings for this game circulated in early modern England.
our heads, including himself and Simplicity in his desire for moral improvement, and not specifically addressing Conscience’s representative job in life.
affect the conscience, feelings(
there shall be no time lost that may be won, and further cannot be done; for(Savage 46). The English translation is from John Clark’sultra posse non est esse
no living man all things can(Clark K2r).
possibly a personal allusion to some body sitting(239 n.P184 l.33). Mithal suggests that thein the cornerof the theatre; or it may have been some well-known character of the time
reference is to the rather ludicrous posture of Simplicity as he squats down to make his back into a desk—a kind of vulgar joke(122 n.602).
bow.
perhaps referring to another audience member, as he did the first time he bent over, but
Hospitality’s reply suggests the line is directed at him(110 n.59). Hospitality is described as an old man, but Mithal interprets Simplicity’s mistaking of Hospitality as a
boyas a
clown’s joke(122 n.612). But it could be a theatrical joke: boys in tied-on beards did play old men as wizened little fellows. Alternatively, Hospitality’s reply might simply be reassurance that the audience will not mock Simplicity, in order to keep Simplicity bowed and still while he signs the letters.
guest or visitor, in contradistinction to the members of the household(
Person who hoards wealth and lives miserably in order to do so(an avaricious, grasping, or stingy and parsimonious person
great farealready means a feast, banqueting here could mean
(a course of sweetmeats, fruit, and wine served either as a separate entertainment, or as a continuation of the principal meal, but in the latter case usually in a different room; a desert
Disposed to find fault(carping
something that exists only in appearance or pretence(
’semblingand Q2’s
semblationplay on Dissimulation’s name, but while ’sembling and dissembling are recognizable words,
semblation, like
testern, is a clownish malapropism.
tenure, an alternate spelling in the early modern period, but which refers to the title by which the property is held; or the relations, rights, and duties of the tenant to the landlord. Although Sincerity seeks a living in a parish that would ensure his income and dwelling, with Lucre as the facilitator or employer, Lucre refers only to the letter, a document, and not to the living, which she claims is out of her hands to assign.
Idoes not appear in Q2 but does appear in Q1, and has been inserted here for grammatical clarity.
Saint Michael’sis a credible name for a parsonage while
Saint Nihilis a joke.
Michel, is
an obsolete, dialectical and archaic form of ‘mickle’ which means ‘great’ in various senses. Here it means ‘great in size, and, therefore, great in value or income’(123–4 n.718). Mithal goes on to argue that
Simplicity here is deliberately misconstruing ‘Nihil’ as ‘Michel’, firstly in order to derive fun out of an awkward situation, and secondly, to extract a commission from Sincerity for the pains he has taken on his behalf(123–4 n.718). Kermode adds that
the pun is convincing, but whether Simplicity is doing this deliberately or ignorantly remains open to question(114 n.154).
(7). In noting the failure of this moment, in which at he classical term for this moment isanacoluthon , a breaking off of thought that usually implies some sort of interior recognition
Is he(7). See Palmer’s essay for an analysis of Nemo in connection to early modern discourses of hospitality.Wilson perhaps hinting that Hospitality seems so feeble because his contemporarieslike Nemo have lost the capacity to think about him?
Wutand
michare both variant spellings of
pretend(
eatin this line is pronounced
In addition to delivering possession the donor must leave or otherwise abjure the land. There can be no livery of seisin unless the land is left vacant(222). This part of the custom may also trace back to the thirteenth-century, in which the petty assize of novel disseisin gave tenants and others who believed themselves to have been dispossessed of lands without a fair hearing an opportunity to bring their claims before a royal court and have the matter speedily dealt with (See Biancalana). Novel disseisin fell out of use in the fifteenth-century, so it is unlikely that Usury is genuinely concerned about being brought to court by an occupant he might unknowingly dispossess. If he is thinking of novel disseisin, it might explain in part why he observes this part of the transfer ceremony, and why he refers to it as
an old customin
take part in, invest in, a financial venture or speculation.(rare
venter, which no longer has any verbal meaning, although Kermode connects the term to a person who utters or sells any idea of an erroneous, malicious, or objectionable nature; but that is not what Usury is doing here (Kermode 107 n.10). He is simply taking legal possession of a property on behalf of its owner, Lady Lucre. His dispossession of the ladies may be mean-spirited, but he is within the law.
Oh,.Oh,
this, or he may be passing on a verbal message.
Usury’s assumed cruelty would seem more likely to the interpretation(118 n.43). Mithal suggests that this meansat a day’s length, orwithin a day from now
at the end of a quarter(126 n.834). Either or neither could be right. The
settled beforehandor
fixed by agreement—so unless that paper (if there is one) that Usury gave to Conscience appointed a time for getting out, then she would leave at the end of her lease, or the paid portion of her lease (
thsounds with
tsounds.
Far fet and deere bought are good for Ladyes(Tilley 138 n.D12).
both naturarly in spreding the infection and otherwise in drawing Gods wrath and plage vpon vs(Chambers and Greg qtd. in Steggle 4). The threat foreigners posed, according to Woodroffe, was their (perceived) lack of church membership, their competition with English craftsmen, and their
erecting of smale tenements and turning of great howses into smale habitations within the liberties of London(Chambers and Greg qtd. in Steggle 4). See Steggle’s article for more information on English connections between overcrowding, immigration, and contagion.
Although it is always difficult to identify exactly the signification of ethnic and national terms in Renaissance writings, the conflation of North Africans with sub-Saharans is misleading because England's relations with sub-Saharan Africans were relations of power, domination, and slavery, while relations with the Muslims of North Africa and the Levant were of anxious equality and grudging emulation(7–8). For more information on the power structures that underlie the trade Lucre proposes, see Matar’s work.
the bringing in of any Commodities traded from the LEVANT, into this Kingdome; aswell by Subjects as Strangers, not free of that Company; Also conteyning a publication of certaine Statutes, for the restraint of all His Maiesties Subiects, from Shipping any Commodities in Strangers Bottomes, either into this Kingdome, or out of the same(Larkin and Hughes 148). The 1592 merger of the Turkey Company and the Venice Company to form the Levant Company makes
(121 n.96). He could alternatively be referring to his foreign suppliers asmeformyor to indicate the sense ofstrangers like me
priestinstead of the Anglican term
parsonpresent in Q1. The uncertainty of Pleaseman’s title here echoes his later ambiguity about his faith. Kermode notes that this change from
parsonto
priestmight
indicate a deliberate change in a post-Armada, anti-Catholic environment(121 n.0.1). Peter Pleaseman’s costume could be designed to signal his crypto-Catholicism and further align him with Simony.
prescient and crack-brained characters, since the former rejects Simony and the latter praises him(121 n.3). Presco might also derive from
Prescomight mean either rule follower, or a rule-changer, which fits the character’s rejection of Simony.
Crackomight also refer to
impaired or unsound in constitution, moral character, reputation(
sirhere is a title for ordinary priests (esp. ones who do not hold university degrees, who would be addressed as Master (
Sirapplies to Peter Pleaseman for the same reason, presumably, in line 6.14.
manin
Pleasemanis a universal term not gendered to exclude women).
please. As the conversation continues, Pleaseman will reveal he is indifferent to many other things the audience might expect him to have a preference about. This joke will inevitably sound different to a modern audience for whom the word
pleasebecomes sexual in Simony’s question, that Pleaseman is comfortable with sodomy (which, in early modern Europe, constituted a range of non-procreative sexual acts performed for pleasure between same-sex partners and opposite-sex partners). Associating Peter Pleaseman with sodomy would have linked him, in the minds of an Elizabethan audience, to the corruption and vice of the Catholic Church. But the Catholic Church was also rumoured to be a hot bed of extramarital heterosexual scandal, so Simony’s joke does not necessarily have to be homophobic to work for an Elizabethan audience as bawdy anti-Catholic satire. From Simony’s perspective, though, the question is likely testing Pleaseman’s heterosexual virility.
a community or corporation of clergy living together on a foundation for religious service(
The building or set of buildings occupied bywithin a university or clerical residence (a society or institution
an excuse, a pretext) (
a piece or lump of this, and, in that vein, for
human excrement(
(A dough pudding containing meat and baked in a dish
Simplicity is using the word ironically for the plain gowns of Love and Conscience, which he is going to pawn with Usury(127 n.984). We cannot know, however that the gowns are plain and more likely may be the last of the ladies’ fine clothing from when they were solidly upheld and praised as virtues. Simplicity is pawning the clothes for profit, but they would not be worth a quarter rent if they were neither finely embroidered nor well made from good cloth like velvet, taffeta, or soft wool.
Conscienceis capitalized in this line as a proper noun while
honestyis not.
arrantor thieving vices are coming together to weaken Love and Conscience. He certainly doesn’t intend to implicate himself here (they are Lucre’s notorious vices, not his) and yet he is incapable of defending either virtue from assault. Even he intends to rob the ladies by using some of the gold to eat a good dinner.
refrainand
answerhere in his curt response. Refrain most often means to hold back, to restrain, or forbear (
dearly answer, or be held responsible and punished, for murder (either in a court or in heaven). Her answering (speaking on Hospitality’s behalf) does nothing to make him feel answerable for the crime he plans to commit. In the line below, Usury will play on a third meaning of
thiscan work as stage business whether he points at a material object like a dagger, a pistol, or a rope; or seizes the man by the neck and shakes him like a dog with a rat.
; also,p repare (food) for cooking or eating
To cut up or divide (an animal or its meat) for food in the manner of a butcher(
dressconstitutes a violent threat, which makes sense in the context of the line and in the OED sense:
treat (a person)(properly, esp. (in ironical use) with deserved severity; hence, give a thrashing or beating to
elfin this context means demon, and commonly elf and fairy were considered demonic and malignant, with no difference between the two, despite the post-seventeenth-century revision of fairy-tales. But
elvesas part of the December instruction to
loke to thy cattle. Serue yonge, poore elues alone by themselues(G2v).
churdle, with the
dadded to rhyme with
worldon the next line. But an actor can achieve the same effect with
don world. Adding a
dto churl makes no grammatical sense, although as a verb
there is also a nod toward the three(129 n.59). Although Simplicity gives his facts out of order (Hospitality died and then made his will?) Hospitality sees Usury and Dissimulation as the two thieves crucified on either side of Jesus.treesor crosses of Golgotha and the death of Christ, the champion of Hospitality
Gosets off a series of synonyms that become progressively hostile.
I see, and say nothingis curious.
I perceive and keep silentor
I consider and hold my peace(see
delicate balancing act between assertion and abnegation of authority(2). In Crane’s translation,
The first half of the motto, video, implies silent judgment, the informed consideration of a person who must, and can, advise herself. The choice of video rather than audio indicates that she intends to make up her own mind on the basis of observation rather than to accept blindly her advisors’ spoken counsel(2). Crane reads
graziers—farmers who keep grazing animals—provides a doublet for
wealthy farmerswho may keep animals, but also grow crops, whether to feed stock or sell at market (Collier 241 n.205.1.13.).
breeches, which are short trousers that go to the knee or just below, suggests that it is information Simplicity holds close. Mithal suggests that Simplicity means he has
sure and private knowledge of it(128 n.1133). Walker suggests the expression means
I know it instinctively (equivalent of(440 n.100). There are ample opportunities for bawdy humour in this line given Simplicity’s marriage proposal atI feel it in my water)
livingdoes not pun directly, but includes both sleeping in bed and eating all day, his favorite pastimes (
sirrah,
a term of address used to workmen or boys, expressing contempt, reprimand, or assumption of authority on the part of the speaker(
sirrah. Since
sirrahimplies that he’s speaking to a man, it seems most likely that he is no longer talking about being in service to Lucre and is offering to be a drudge to this same informal
youin the rest of the line. He may also be offering his service directly to Dissimulation, whom he calls
Sirrahwhen he next speaks at
ironic or patronizing(131 n.108); also, a term used for children or wives, not adult servants.
groundrefers to the right to beg throughout the country (Kermode 131 n.119).
a couple of false knaves togetherwhen he recognizes them in scene 2, associating them with cheating and knaves or jacks in a deck of cards.
esp. when summarily dismissed(
an unwelcoming or hostile receptionor
the act of forcibly driving someone away(
beraymeans
to fall to (food)(
’Twas her brother that in pure kindness to his horse buttered his hay.
One whose occupation is to tan hides or to convert them into leather by tanning(
baker’s ’vantageat
a retail dealer in provisions, groceries, etc.: often somewhat contemptuous(
almost all things, as namelie butter, cheese, fagots, pots, pannes, candles, and a thousand other trinkets besides(Stubbes G7r-G7v qtd. in
conscience went not selling broom. / Then love and friendship did agree / To keep the band of amity(Deloney 70). The song likewise defines this as a time when
men to lucre did not yield. The weavers’ song is available in full in the appendix. In Robert Greene’s 1592 satirical pamphlet
for when veluet was worne but in kinges caps, then conscience was not a brome man in Kent street but a Courtier, then the farmer was content his sonne should hold the plough, and liue as he had done before: Beggars then feared to aspire, and the higher sort scorned to envy(C1r). Collier—a nineteenth-century editor of both
freedom of movement and casual investment in unsupervised labor rendered their work suspectand
(24). Poor, unmarried women who were neither apprenticed nor in service were often labeled vagrants, even if they were housed and working (Fumerton 23–4). To be labelled aw omen who occasionally left the confines of the home and took to the streets were especially vulnerable" to prosecution as beggars or sex workers
prosecution by officials, as if they were just such idle tramps: they might be driven out of town or, more likely, incarcerated in a bridewell, put to supervised work, and instructed to find service, apprenticeship, or, in the case of women, a husband(Fumerton 16). So although Conscience retains her house at great cost to her, and finds work for herself that is honest, she like many other working poor London women is putting herself at risk of prosecution and punishment by working in the street. The stakes, should she be prosecuted as a vagrant, are high, even though in the economic downturn of the 1590s an increasing number of people found themselves regularly on the edge of vagrancy, as Conscience does.
competuallyis a clownish fusion of
broom-sellers often part-exchanged their wares for old shoes and other goods(see [
Wily Willappears in scene 13 as part of a trio of beggars that include Simplicity, but this is likely a different Will since Wily Will and Simplicity do not seem to know each other well. Will here might be an allegorical reference to the virtue of willpower that we do not meet in the play.
you thinkcannot refer indirectly to Conscience so the intended audience interaction is clear.
Pot, both sound like kitchen implements, and thus gods of food preparation that a food-obsessed Simplicity would pray to.
resistfor
Meliositymight be aiming for the word
mellisonnance,
melliloquence, or
melody(131 n.1210).
resist me, the line might be closer to a twisted opposite of what he should logically intend to say: it might mean
close fitting cap, worn by women(
On 4th September 1565, he writes,
William Pickering had a license to print, among other ballads, one called(241).The Countrye hath no peere , which may have been this very song, of which, we may presume, Simplicity only sings one stanza
Tarryto the Jew, Shylock, at moments that constitute a major pivot in Shylock’s fate. See the trial scene, when Portia entraps Shylock by granting his case, except for
no jot of blood(
green headed wantonsadds context to Mercadorus’s hint at (see
A reddish orange gem, a variety of zircon, also applied to varieties of topaz and garnet(
variegated in colour and used for carving, jewellery, decorative work(
Turquoise evolved into an object of imperial interaction and exchange among the empires of early modern Islamic Eurasia. By the sixteenth century, as it traveled from Nishapur(3).a central turquoise mine in Iran through the blue-tiled cities of the eastern Islamic world and farther, to Venice, Paris, and other European markets, it was coveted as a strange and exotic object from the East. Becoming associated with the Turks and the trade roots that carried the gem across the Ottoman Empire to Europe, the stone was calledpietre turchese in Italian and in Frenchpierre turquoise , or Turkish stone
focuses not only on the monetary value of the stones or even their aesthetic appeal, but also draws attention to their portability by pointing to their combination of great value and small size. This emphasis on portability serves to remind us of the vulnerability of Jews in early modern Europe: prone to arbitrary expulsion from their homes(Hopkins). It is possible that Gerontus, a Jew living in Turkey, is descended from (or is himself) a displaced European Jew, and that his store of jewels represents a portable wealth that was harder to seize during expulsion from Europe, or trial by Catholic authorities like the Inquisition, or forced relocation within the Ottoman empire, or any other method of seizure to which Jews were subject in their positions of precarity.
Green-headedtypically means
rawand
inexperiencedand most of the
wantonif we take
wantonto mean
self-indulgentand
lavish to an irresponsible degree(
wantonas a
lustful or lecherous personwith adjectival connotations of a promiscuity specifically linked to women (
green-headedalludes to
disorder believed to occur almost exclusively in young, virginal women soon after pubertyand cured by marriage and sexual intercourse (
like a green girlwhen she tells him of Hamlet’s affection demonstrates how
greencould mean not only inexperienced, but fanciful when applied to women, and how it could enhance the sexual connotations of
wanton. Thus, Gerontus, like Mercadorus, implies here that the women of England seek sexual gratification in international trade while preserving a shroud of plausible deniability.
, and he crafted policies to recruit (and, often, forcibly relocate) Jewish communities to Istanbul where they becamef or the reconstruction of the city, the sultan realized that he needed people with mercantile skills and capital
indispensible for the economic development of his new imperial capital(5–6). Daniel Goffman argues that through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Jewish merchants came to compete fiercely with European traders in textiles and wine, but that their trading power declined towards the end of the sixteenth century because of shifts in international markets (17-19). Nevertheless, Jews from Europe, especially The Netherlands, would have invested in gems as easily transportable and the basis of new trade elsewhere. Jews also lived and traded in India, where gems are still a huge business; when the Portuguese took Goa, Jews moved south to Kerala and North Africa, and north all over—Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, often in the gem trade working or competing with Jains. Jains had the Asian market—Jews traded with middle east and Europe.
if thy brother be impoverished, and fallen in decay with thee, thou shalt relieve him, and as a stranger and sojourner, so shall he live with thee. Thou shalt take no usury of him, nor vantage, but thou shalt fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money to usury, nor lend him thy vittles for increase(Lev 25.35-37).
He hath sparsed abroad and hath given to the poor: his benevolence remaineth for ever. Walker 445 n.35 also references the Epistle of St. James 2.6–9, in which those who dishonour the poor and fail to love their neighbors are
rebuked of the Law, as transgressors. 2 Cor. 8, in which Paul appeals for donations to the poor, provides an interesting piece of the puzzle in verses 13–15:
Neither is it that other men should be eased and you grieved: But upon like condition, at this time your abundance supplieth their lack: / That also their abundance may be for your lack, that there may be equality. / As it is written, he that gathered much, had nothing over, and he that gathered little, had not the less(Geneva Bible, 2 Cor. 8). Although Conscience’s claim is not spelled out exactly as she words it, it does not require a logical leap to make. Her idea may come from a sermon that interprets scripture rather than directly from scripture itself. Conscience’s speech here has the qualities of a sermon, and may be borrowing from texts like sermons, which were sometimes printed after they were preached.
brooms might be needed to sweep the dining room in preparation for the feast, or as part of rituals of good luck such as(446 n.61). Floors were normally covered with sweet rushes; the brooms would be needed to sweep up the old rushes, so that servants can strew new ones for the wedding party.jumping the broom
where dogs reveal Richard’s evil and strangeness by barking at him(
But the earl hath not so many biting dogs abroad as we have sleeping curs at home here, ready for rescue;
Ah, Catesby, thou lookest like a dog, and thou, Lovell, too, but you will run away with them that be gone, and the devil go with you all.
this face,
these lipsto exclaiming
how beauty hath adorned thee, to mistaking the physical allure for Conscience’s
soul, and finally, apparently without
choos, toing
kiss thee with my lips that love thee with my heart. But it should be clear that the desire is one-sided: Conscience, as her next speech makes clear, has been occupied with counting the money. Lucre is essentially arousing herself.
injury or frenzyor
surprise or disapproval(
Holdabove, of when Conscience receives the five thousand crowns from Lucre, or when she counts them, only the statement here that she has done so. Usury likely brings them in with the box of abominations, but the text offers a lot of discretion in how to stage Conscience’s payment and her counting.
A certaine leane scrag, a starueling, that is nothing but skin and bone: also barren, foolish(
Coggin’here, because this servant drops the final
gto rhyme with
Scoggin’.
three Jews (Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabaeus), three Pagans (Hector, Alexander, and Julius Caesar), and three Christians (Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon)(
Ferdinandois an Italian styling of the name Ferdinand (which was popular across Europe in many different forms) and
Frissitand its Q1 variant,
Frisset, are variants of Hungarian words meaning fresh, impudent. Is the play insinuating that foreign weights and measures, or foreign merchants misusing English weights and measures, are eroding marketplace trust? Are the names markers of class, noting that these people are above the simple titles of Master and Mistress? In England, standard weights and measures were set by the crown but regularly misused and abused. In Elizabethan England, there were numerous discussions in Parliament about improving weights and measures standardization, but little consensus and little action (see Greaves 614). Throughout Elizabeth’s reign, false weights and measures were common enough not simply because of avarice, but because achieving and enforcing a true, accessible standard was challenging (Greaves, 616). While the problems of standardization must have caused headaches for international trade and for customs officers, standardization was problematic between regions of England too. Thus, if this is a moment of xenophobia in the play, slight as it seems, it is not an entirely accurate picture of the complex situation Elizabethan merchants and consumers faced.
’Tis good having a hatch before the doormeans that it is good to keep silent (
half-door or gate with an open space above(
The implication seems to be that Dissimulation will be doubly safe. Rather than having an open half door, he’ll keep his hatch behind a locked door(450 n.39).
forced confinementand
imprisonment(
is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?
his knavery and my policy did not agree, reversing the meaning, and might be expected from Dissimulation. But who would believe him? With or without the
not, Dissimulation is a liar. Dissimulation’s
thanksin line 1395 may be sarcastic; Simony reassures him that he was simply telling a story to praise Fraud, not Dissimulation. Dissimulation seems to take offense, giving logical context for Simony’s move to change the subject.
represents an inaccurate rendering of the Arabic name(
Muhammad, the preferred modern spelling, in order to maintain Gerontus’s confidence in his Turkish setting. Though Gerontus is not a Muslim (which makes his oath here the product of his environment, not his heritage), it is implausible that he, as a Jewish subject of the Ottoman empire and a Turkish merchant, would be unfamiliar with the proper pronunciations of common Arabic names.
covered with excrementor 2.
disgusting, contemptible(
lustyis intended, while Kermode and Walker opt for
lustly. Given that the meaning here seems to encompass vigorous, daring bravado as well as self-pleasuring, sexual bravado,
sheetesunmistakable. In Q1, the beggars are threatening to steal sheets from hedges, where they’ve been left out to dry. It is unclear, though, how the rest of the line,
most pleasant to see, fits in with this idea. In Q2, black letter makes the spelling more ambiguous—it could be
sheetes, but it could also be
sheeres, or shears. Should the line in Q2 be shears, then the beggars are threatening to steal shears used to prune hedges, and use them to create better sightlines between them and their targets. Hedges were
the usual form of fence in England,(
themthe alewife, makes much more sense if the Q1 spelling of
sheetesis retained here. An alewife whose tavern served as an inn or a brothel would have a constant need for bedding, but not so much for shears.
Mean, third-rate, paltry, despicable, rascally(
lowseto mean
clear oneself from lice, and Kermode, like Hazlitt, modernizes the word as
lousewith this same sense, a reasonable definition, esp. given the clown trick of seeming to pick his lice and throw them at the audience.
Generic name for a country lass(Kermode 150 n.16), based on the barn owl, or Madge-howlet (Fr.
believed that the air which they inhaled possessed a similar capability with which to nourish or damage their bodies as did the food which they ingested(37). Noxious odours were thought to be a vector of disease, and of plague in particular, while
ancientabout the freedoms Tom Beggar has outlined. On the contrary, the freedoms Tom outlines demonstrate the collapse of the ancient feudal system that bound people to the land and reciprocal service to lords. All but the freedom of the city are shaped to some degree by Elizabethan poor laws, which are an intercession aimed at reshaping England in the absence of feudalism and Catholic institutions of poor relief.
church moneycalls out this traditional contribution.
tax levied on imports and exports,but under Tudor rule
was chiefly(a tax of four shillings in the pound on lands and two shillings and eight pence in the pound on moveables
Tax of one fifteenth … imposed on personal property(
neither scot nor lotmeans to pay nothing at all (
(d uty paid towards municipal expensesmunicipal taxes and charges paid by burgesses in proportion to their means
shield(on which a coat of arms is depicted
Treein
rampantas that describes an animal (esp. a lion) leaping up, a hind foot still on the ground and forepaws in the air. Similarly, a tree cannot be passant, walking from left to right with three of four paws raised, and eyes straight ahead. Nevertheless, like the scriptures, one of the thieves is saved.
a band drawn across the upper part of the shield having (usually three) dependent points(one of these points is a pendant
Marks of cadency in these knots denoted each son of a family in order of seniority. Simplicity calls Fraud as the younger brother of Deceit, making the knot a mark of his birth order (142 n.1640-1641). This plays off the reference to pendants in the previous line, which also mark birth order. The knot under the ear demonstrates a noose drawn tight against a convict’s neck—not a proper heraldic image.
placed on a wreath, coronet, or chapeau, and borne above the shield and helmet in a coat of arms(
placed above the escutcheon in an achievement and supporting the crest(
tableshere means
thin strips of wood or metal, and connects it to
defensive armour for the head, which was
commonly made to rest upon the shoulder of the knight wearing it and was secured to his person by a chain. These chains in the world of heraldry were sometimes represented as formed of solid flat pieces(142–3 n.1646). Kermode notes that
tablescould be
tablets, and suggests that they refer here to
weights to pull on the ropes and(152 n.64). Both Mithal and Kermode entertain Hazlitt’s suggestion that the word should bemake you hang fast, as Simplicity puts it (and a number of weights threaded together would resemble achain
a small(152 n.64).tcould look like acin secretary hand manuscript, and the meaning—that the hempen ropes are as stout as cable and therefore efficient for hanging a man—is apt
render illustrious(
describe in proper heraldic language(
the hygh pad, the hygh waye(descriptions of types of robbers, urban and rural, and their canting language) (G3v); and John Baret,
to Robbe or slea by the high wayes: to go or come on with a violent rage; a brigand (Baret,
a shotte, or a rekenyng in a tauerne an Inne or such other placebecame the measure or quantity of a drink instead of the money paid for drink (Thomas,
double shotis the
double-shot, meaning
to load (a cannon) with a double quantity of shot
two swigs out of a large, leather beer jug(154 n.94) makes more sense contextually, but the first recorded instance of
supply or amount of drink(
to have free shotwas to
have gratuitous entertainment(
put to bedand
to be delivered of a child. There is a chance that Will alludes to birth as a metaphor for ideas here, so that he is saying in essence
your talk of robbery is impregnating us with ideas for thieving.
ballad ofThe full ballad, titledMary Ambree which startsWhen Captains couragious ,whom death could not daunt.
Legal matters between Jews and non-Jews, whether Muslims or Christians, were brought before Muslim law courtseven though those courts privileged Muslims (Shmuelevitz 44). Shmuelevitz writes that
there is no information on the appearance of Christians in Jewish courts or on the appearance of Jews in Christian courts. The animosity and suspicion between the Jewish and Christian communities was so deep, and the fear of a miscarriage of justice so great, that both communities preferred to submit legal cases against each other to the Muslim law court(46). The balance of power in this trial scene is thus strikingly different from the power dynamics of Shakespeare’s later
Turkish weeds.
Nemo. Both are called
judgein their speaker prefixes (although the Arabic word for judge,
the money did demandhas been replaced with Q1’s
my money did demand. Q2’s use of the impersonal
themoney gives a more businesslike reading than Q1’s
mywhich makes the case personal, and even grasping, although the complainant has waited well beyond the agreed time to repay the debt and has not been abusive.
fewmay have been intended rather than
five(243 P.226.1.16). Gerontus has more incentive to be precise here, presumably, than he did in the earlier scene when his goal was to keep Mercadorus as a customer and cajole him into repaying the loan.
become a Mahomet, especially since the speaker here is himself Muslim and, moreover, a judge of Islamic law.
; see also Anders Ingram,the law of our realmbeing enforced in this particular instance establishes a kind of religious freedom, the freedom to convert to Islam, that only furthers the vice characters’ goal of corrupting Christian London
Death, he writes,
—even the threat of death—is not good for business, and given that hisas it might cost him his livelihood and reputation.Gerontus’s clientele include Chrisitian merchants, Gerontus’s fears of being blamed for Mercadorus’s apostasy may easily be read in an economic light
Jewishness. For analysis of this line in the Performance as Research collection, see Matthew Martin’s
vizard behindmeans that she wears a mask
on the back of her head (giving her two faces), which agrees with Diligence’s description of Love in scene 17, line 4 (
a deformed creature much like Bifronswith two faces, akin to Janus. Masks on either side of the actor’s head might highlight the dialogue’s reference to two faces, help provide a visual clue for the mythological reference to Bifrons in the next scene, but
behindmay also simply mean that Love follows behind Lucre wearing a single mask that disguises the actor’s face or head (since Lucre explains she wears the mask to disguise her lust-swollen or pride-swollen head). Helen Ostovich points out the vizard’s practical role in
act or behave coylyis to
affect shyness or reserve(and here the OED’s examples all see women acting coyly in courtship) (
Displaying modest backwardness or shyness (sometimes with an emphasis on the displaying); not responding readily to familiar advances(
forhe makes his living through begging in the next line, he might be ironically suggesting that being released into the world to beg is a more miserable punishment than being whipped.
belief based on available evidence(
seen in the streets walking in a citizen's gown, and Diligence two lines down says he knows Fraud to be a
wealthy man and a burgess, seeming to confirm that Fraud is wearing a citizen’s gown in this scene too (
to face (something) out with a card of tenmeans to bluff or brag your way to a victory using a low-scoring card (
faced out, or stripped of his clothing, as he is in the stage direction in the very next line.
(Norman French) forOyez, oyez, oyez!
Fetch Lucre and Conscience to the bar, and Diligence may give a signal of some kind to release the two ladies from the box, and allow them to approach the judge.
Bifrons is a mythological figure of many monstrous shapes, demonic in origin: male or female, hunchbacked, a cloaked demon carrying a bloody scythe, obsessed with death and hiding corpses,and includes images of Bifrons. Bifrons more commonly means
the Janus-Juno confusion presumably makes Diligence call Bifrons Juno’s daughter, but she also had a daughter Hebe (Juventas), a young girl who maintained the purity of the domestic hearth or home. In some ways, Love, now polluted, is Hebe perverted. The
would have enhanced the sense that serious crimes were being judged in a contemporary context.
With familiar friends to pass the time in sport,but the play never provides overt evidence in dialogue that she has sexual relationships with Mercadorus. Mercadorus professes love frequently (as an inferior might to a social superior and employer), but the play does not indicate the degree to which Lucre stoops to reciprocate. Allegorically, the charge substantiates that merchants and lawyers have an insatiable lust for money, but the burden falls perhaps unfairly onto money itself as a source of sexual corruption.
my lady’s pleasurethat the three of them should rob Mercadorus as he returns from Turkey and share in the profits, but we never see Lucre give the order herself
of low birth or rude manners(
sacredin both Q1 and Q2 (Kermode 161). Lucre’s accusers are not all identified in the text of the scene, so they do remain secret. With
sacred foe, here, Lucre might address Conscience, who is asked to answer next for charges that implicate Lucre. Or she might address Justice Nemo, imbuing him with powers higher than those of a regular assize court. Or, Lucre may use
sacredtowards a legitimate or an ironic target as they prepare to vow revenge in the next line.
alone, speaking for yourself(i.e. without Lucre’s influence) (161 n.39).
sincerity, straightforwardness, honesty, integrity(
Paul calleth them thieves that do not give the needy of their storein a passage that has no single clear referent, but closely resembles 2 Cor. 8–9 in its message. The word choice provides both a simple meaning, and perhaps a hidden reminder that it is the greedy, and not the needy, who should be judged as thieves and criminals.
Divulge or reveal (secrets) prejudicially(
Wantonnesse:(Thomas,toying: ribandous iesting
Doubling Love.
Thou wast pure Loue,and Q1’s
Thou wast pure (Loue)change the sense of the line (163 n.86). Kermode’s punctuation,
Thou wast pure, Love,is aimed to follow
Q1’s equivalent parentheses around(Kermode 163 n.86). This edition retains Q2’s alteration to highlight a specific dimension of the Q2 text. Nemo’s judgment fails to ponder poverty and human suffering in any serious and engaged way, and so fittingly here he sees Love as pure concept without recognizing the play’s conceit that she is a human woman who requires basic necessities (which are not exactlyLoveandaddress love as a realistic entity who is being criticized for losing her purity. Q2’s alteration topure Love,suggests the ongoing view ofpure loveas a moral concept that has been tainted
grief or passion that preys stealthily on a man’s heart or torments his conscience (like a worm in a dead body or a maggot in food); esp. the gnawing pain of remorse(
Oh.moment.
(i nordinate and culpable desire of possessing that which belongs to another or to which one has no right
Give him some other kind of meat.
Sir, shall I give him oats,vetches , peas, barley, or bread?
You shall have— but what?
no manhath no place.
no manbid me to dinner — when shall I dine?
Simplicity sings, and ’sperience doth prove, No biding in London for Conscience and Love. The country hath no peer , Where Conscience comes not once a year , And Love so welcome to every town, As wind that blows the houses down. Sing down a-down, down, down, down. Simplicity sings it, and ’sperience doth prove, No dwelling in London, no biding in London , for Conscience and Love.
Newbrooms , green brooms, will you buy any,Come maidens, come quickly, let me take a penny. My brooms are not steeped , But very well bound; My brooms be not crooked, But smooth-cut and round. I wish it should please you To buy my broom. Then would it well ease me, If market were done. Have you any old boots, Or any old shoes, Pouch-rings , or buskins , To cope for new broom? If so you have, maidens, I pray you bring hither, That you and I friendly May bargain together. New brooms, green brooms, will you buy any? Come, maidens, come quickly, let me take a penny.
Have ye any old shoes, Or have ye any boots? Have ye any buskins, Or will ye buy any broom?
I, Mercadorus, do utterly renounce before all the world my duty to my prince, my honor to my parents, and my goodwill to my country.
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