134 p First TRULLA stav'd, &c.] Staving and Tailing are terms of art used in the Bear-Garden, and signify there only the parting of dogs and bears: Though they are used metaphorically in several other professions, for moderating; as law, divinity, hectoring, &c. Back
153 q Or like the late corrected
leathern
Ears of the Circumcised Brethren.
Pryn, Bastwick, and Burton, who laid down their
ears as proxies for their profession of the godly party, not long
after maintained their right and title to the pillory to be as
good and lawful as theirs who first of all took possession of it
in their names. Back
328 r That old, &c.] Pygmalion, king of Tyre, was the son of Margenus, or Mechres, whom he succeeded, and lived 56 years, wherof he reigned 47. Dido, his sister, was to have governed with him, but it was pretended the subjects thought it not convenient. She married Sichaeus, who was the king's uncle, and very rich; wherefore he put him to death; and Dido soon after departed the kingdom. Poets say, Pygmalion was punished for the hatred he bore to women with the love he had to a statue. Back
925 s And as the FRENCH we conquer'd
once,
Now give us Laws for PANTALOONS, &c.
Pantaloons and Port-Cannons were some of the
fantastick fashions wherein we aped the French.
At quisquis Insula satus Britannica
Sic patria insolens fastidiet suam,
Ut more simiae laboret fingere,
Et aemulari Gallicas ineptias,
Et omni Gallo ego hunc opinor ebrium;
Ergo ex Britanno, ut Gallus esse nititur,
Sic Dii jubete, fiat ex Galle Capus.
THOMAS MORE.
Gallus is a river in Phrygia; rising out of the mountains of Celenae, and discharging itself into the river Sanger, the water of which is of that admirable quality, that, being moderately drank, it purges the brain, and cures madness; but largely drank, it makes men frantick. Pliny, Horatius. Back
1123 t A learned divine in King James's time wrote a polemick work against the Pope, and gave it that unlucky nick-name of The Pope's Bull baited. Back
1166 u Canonical Cravat, &c.] Smectymnuus was a club of five parlimentary holders-forth; the characters of whose names and talents were by themselves expressed in that senseless and insignificant word. They wore handkerchiefs about their necks for a mark of distinction (as the Officers of the Parliament Army then did) which afterwards degenerated into carnal cravats. About the beginning of the long Parliament, in the year 1641, these five wrote a book against Episcopacy and the Common Prayer, to which they all subscribed their names; being Stephen Marshal, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurstow, and from thence they and their followers were called Smectymnians. They are remarkable for another pious book, which they wrote some time after that, intitled, The Kings Cabinet unlocked, wherein all the chaste and endearing expressions, in the letters that passed betwixt his Majesty King Charles I. and his Royal Consort ar e by these painful labourers in the Devil's vineyard turned into burlesque and ridicule. Their books were answered with as much calmness and genteelness of expression, and as much learning and honesty, b. the Rev. Mr. Symonds, then a deprived clergyman, as theirs was stuffed with malice, spleen, and rascally invectives. Back
1249 x So Cardinals they say do
grope
At t'other end the new-made Pope.
This relates to the story of Pope Joan, who was called
John VIII. Platina saith she was of English
extraction, but born at Mentz; who, having disguised herself like
a man, travelled with her paramour to Athens, where she made such
progress in learning, that coming to Rome, she met with few that
could equal her; so that, on the death of Pope Leo IV. she
was chosen to succeed him; but being got with child by one of her
domesticks, her travail came upon her between the Colossian
Theatre and St. Clement's, as she was going to the Lateran
Church, and died upon the place, having sat two years, one month,
and four days, and was buried there without any pomp. He owns
that, for the shame of this, the Popes decline going through this
street to the Lateran; and that, to avoid the like error, when
any Pope is placed in the Porphyry Chair, his genitals are felt
by the youngest deacon, through a hole made for that purpose; but
he supposes the reason of that to he, to put him in mind that he
is a man, and obnoxious to the necessities of nature; whence he
will have the seat to be called, Sedes Stercoraria.
Back
1262 y To leave your Vitiligation, &c.] Vitilitigation is a word the Knight was passionately in love with, and never failed to use it upon all occasions; and therefore to omit it, when it fell in the way, bad argued too great a neglect of his learning and parts; though it means no more than a perverse humour of wrangling. Back
1373 z Mere Disparata, &c.] Disparata are things separate and unlike, from the Latin word Disparo.Back
