0 s.d. A bed Cf. R. Brome and T. Heywood, The Late Lancashire Witches (1634), Act V, ‘A Bed thrust out, Mrs Gener[ous] in’t’. Richard Hosley found 23 instances of staging a bed in Chamberlain’s / King’s Men plays 1595–62; in 8 it is stated, and in 8 others implied, that the bed was brought on stage (see Shakespeare Quarterly 14 (1963), 57–63). This could have been done by stage attendants, but in the Adelaide Theatre Group production (1971) Mrs Allwit’s bed was pushed on, very rapidly, by other cast members.
2 kursen Christian, but with a pun on ‘cursed’, as the christening was ‘After the pure manner of Amsterdam’, and therefore thoroughly Puritan
6 Amsterdam meeting place and refuge for European dissenters, symbolic of Puritanism
12 chopping vigorous, strapping
13 spit out of his mouth proverbial
16 up and down (a) exactly (b) oral and vaginal; cf. the song, IV.i.187
18 spiny thin, spare
19 mettled courageous, with a pun on the meaning ‘amorous’
28 s.d. plate gold or silver ware
35 clown country bumpkin
38 She’s She has
40 zeal religious zeal, but also sexual enthusiasm (cf. I.i.148)
50 high standing cup stemmed goblet
51 ’postle spoons usually silver, the handles ending in the figure of an apostle, often given by sponsors at christenings
gilt silver covered with gold
52 Judas … red beard Ancient belief; Judas wore a red beard in medieval religious drama. The supposition that red hair denoted lechery (cf. the Welsh Gentlewoman) as well as evil generally persisted in the theatre into the late nineteenth century, so that villains sometimes wore red wigs.
55 consumes (a) burns (in anger) (b) consummates sexually
58 tasseled Handkerchiefs were fashionably large, ornamental and had tassels at the corners.
61 urine was used as a cosmetic lotion, including as a dentifrice
63 lurch at the lower end eat up the food as quickly as possible to prevent those at the other end of the room from getting much (or any); but with a possible bawdy pun on lower end
71 plums sugar plums 72 wriggle-tail tiny
73–4 belly only broke his back (a) her greed alone made him overwork and (b) her lust left him exhausted
74 fitters fragments
76 Bucklersbury runs south from the corner of Cheapside and the Poultry to Walbrook; ‘on both the sides throughout [it was] possessed of grocers and apothecaries’ (Survey, I, 260); Allwit is saying the catering for all the christenings of his wife’s children over the years would have ruined him
85 troll pass about
93 merry (a) happy (b) tipsy
96 tipple tumble
99 countess At the end of January 1613 it was reported that ‘the Countess of Salisbury was brought abed of a daughter, and lies in very richly, for the hanging of her chamber, being white satin, embroidered with gold (or silver) and pearl is valued at fourteen thousand pounds’ (John Chamberlain, Letters, ed. N. E. McLure (Philadelphia, 1939), I, 415–16).
104 Lammas 1 August; harvest festival of the early English church
129 cattle property (as in ‘chattels’, another form of the word), including in this case the Welshwoman’s ‘Two thousand runts’ (IV.i.94)
133 still always
139 freshwoman Tim’s nonce word from ‘freshman’, a first-year university student. Cambridge University did not admit women to full membership, awarding them degrees, until 1947, though the first women’s college, Girton, had been founded in 1869.
141 answered under bachelor satisfied the requirements for a Bachelor’s degree
147 Negatur ‘It is denied’; standard Latin phrase in academic disputation
155 lin cease
whip To be whipped as a disciplinary measure was a great disgrace.
156 free school St Paul’s school was rebuilt and largely endowed in 1512 by John Colet, Dean of Paul’s, for 153 poor scholars; William Lily was the first high master, but Tim may have been there under the illustrious Richard Mulcaster (1596–1608).
166 Dunces (a) writings of Duns Scotus (1265?-1308?) and supporters of his theological views, which were attacked by the humanists and reformers of the 16th century (b) fools
169 naturally (a) spontaneously (b) foolishly
171 Non ideo sane ‘Not indeed on that account’
173 goose pies made with a jointed goose, spices, ale, fried onions and wine, baked in pastry; here the word accentuates Tim’s foolishness
176 Timothius The correct Latin is Timotheus = ‘Honouring God’.
179 s.d. Kiss The English were at this time notorious for the freedom with which they kissed in greeting.
185 comfits ‘kissing-comfits’ were intended to sweeten the breath
190–91 Welcome … brethren Cambridge was the intellectual centre of Puritanism and its closeness to the Continent made it more accessible than Oxford to Calvinist influence.
195 embrace our falls An opportunistic and over-literal interpretation of Calvin’s doctrine that humankind’s fallen state must be humbly accepted.
198 parted departed
199 looking glass (a) Mistress Underman is still on the floor and the sarcastic Allwit calls for a looking glass to see if she is still breathing; cf. King Lear V.iii.262–5 (b) a chamber pot
201 show procession
203 Pissing-conduit Possibly the conduit at the western end of Cheapside, near Paul’s Gate and Bladder Street, named here from the slenderness of its stream of water. The name could be both generic and specific. The ‘little Conduit, called the pissing Conduit’ by Stow (I, 183) was by the Stocks Market, beyond Poultry, and so not in Cheapside itself, though Parker and Barber both prefer this to the Paul’s Gate conduit. See E. H. Sugden, A Topographical Dictionary to the Works of Shakespeare and his Fellow Dramatists (Manchester, 1925), p. 127.
204 two … drums and a standard bearer The phallic symbolism, which so excites the gossips, is obvious.
211 nap Anabaptists held that a man and a woman could lie together without moral taint provided they were asleep.
214 hare-mad Hares grow wilder in the breeding season, around March.
215 bums (a) padded rolls worn on the hips beneath the skirt (b) backsides
218 stools Padded furniture was becoming fashionable, large sums being spent on embroidered coverings.
225 rushes An indication that rushes were strewn on the public theatre stage, as well as on the floors of houses.
226 figging fucking, but a generally derisive term used here in a line of concentrated bawdiness
short … heels ‘short-heeled’ = wanton; cf. Revenger’s Tragedy I.ii.184, ‘Their tongues as short and nimble as their heels’
shittle-cork wedge heels (and soles) of cork, fashionable 1595–1620; ‘shittle’ = shuttle as in ‘shuttle-cock’ (which was slang for ‘whore’)
231 Life ‘God’s life’
237–8 speak … break A common rhyme (’ea’ = ‘a’ sound in ‘bake’); cf. Thomas Morley’s lyric, ‘Now is the month of Maying’.
243–4 build … child Shakespeare rhymes ‘child … spilled’, Romeo and Juliet III.i.146–7.
244 dry barren