The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

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Christmas His Masque (1616-17)

Edited by Martin Butler

INTRODUCTION

Christmas His Masque is dated ‘1616’ in F2. This could mean the Christmas season either of 1615–16 or of 1616–17, but the reference at 15–16 to the unseasonably mild weather shows that the later date must be correct. On 4 January 1617, John Chamberlain wrote to Dudley Carleton, ‘We have hitherto the warmest winter that I think hath been seen, which proceeds from the settling of the wind continually at southwest’; and on 8 February, ‘we have yet felt no winter, unless perpetual weeping weather, extreme foul ways and great floods, may go under that name; for otherwise we have all the signs and shows of a warm spring’ (Chamberlain, 1939, 2.48, 51). By contrast, December 1615 was excessively cold (see CSPV 1615–1617, 86, 103), so the masque’s opening remarks make sense only if it were performed in the winter of 1616–17. The fact that it was not included in F1 also suggests a date after 1615–16.

It is sometimes claimed that the performance took place on 25 December, but there is no external evidence for this, and at court Christmas Day was always given over to religious observances. If, as is argued below, the actors were the Prince’s/Lady Elizabeth’s Men, then this could have been one of the thirteen court performances that the company gave between 21 October 1616 and 13 January 1617; the only one definitely dated is a play before Prince Charles on 28 December (Malone Society Collections, 6.17). Another possibility could be New Year’s night, when Lord Beauchamp saw a ‘play’ at Whitehall (Clifford, 1990, 44), but the dialogue at 18–20 appears to be against this and perhaps further implies that the performance occurred after 1 January. Line 194 might indicate it was intended for Twelfth Night, but in 1617 that evening was occupied by The Vision of Delight. Alternatively, since Christmas laments that he brings only ten followers instead of the twelve that he should have (205–11), it might have taken place on the tenth night, 4 January 1617.

Although placed in F2 as the first in the series of Jonson’s later masques, Christmas His Masque is not a masque at all, but an occasional entertainment presented to the King. Called ‘Christmas his Show’ and ‘The Christmas Show before the King’ in the Folger manuscript, it is a pastiche of a mumming, a form long discontinued at Whitehall and harking back to the days of Elizabeth and Henry Ⅷ. There is no scenery or aristocratic social dancing. Instead, the players pretend to be citizens bringing to court a traditional sport more suited for city performance and consisting of little more than a dance by disguised figures. Of course, this effect of artless simplicity is all the more powerful for being carefully and precisely contrived. No financial records naming the entertainment survive (a payment was made to Pierce Parminit and the ‘French musicians’ for playing ‘in the maskes . . . at Christmas last past’, but this probably refers to the two performances of The Vision of Delight: see Masque Archive, Christmas, 1 and 2). Rather, the occasion was deliberately modest, the fiction being that its events unfolded spontaneously.

Although editors have recognized that Christmas was unlike the usual run of court masques, its publication alongside those grander texts has paradoxically inhibited them from registering how completely it belongs to a different mode. Particularly, the structure of its cast sets it apart, for it has a quite different arrangement from the combination of adult professionals and courtiers that usually performed in Whitehall masques. It seems highly likely that almost all its actors were boys. Christmas is accompanied by ten ‘children’. Two, Minced Pie and Wassail, are girls; Cupid, who is apprenticed to a bugle-maker, is clearly a youth; Baby Cake, a ‘straight young man’ (203), is dressed as an infant; Carol is described as a ‘chirping boy’ (170); Offering is called ‘young Littleworth’ (199); and some others have names or employments – such as Hercules the porter – that were probably intended to play on the ironic disparity between performer and role. Additionally, the ten torchbearers would have been boys, as would the one speaking female part, Venus, making a total of twenty-one boy actors. The obvious reservoir from which so many youths could be supplied was the combined Lady Elizabeth’s Men and Prince’s Men, two companies of professional players that merged in 1614 and whose affairs were thereafter intricately entangled; they also absorbed players from the Queen’s Revels Children. This company is known to have had an unusually large number of boys (see Gurr, 1996, 397–403), something that is clearly apparent in the casting patterns of Bartholomew Fair, written for the combined troupes in 1614 (see Bart. Fair, Stage History, Electronic Edition).

The only role that seems intended for an adult is Christmas himself, and here we may speculate that the likely performer was William Rowley, the famous comic actor and playwright belonging to the Prince’s Men. Rowley specialized in clown parts, especially if the characters were fat. He played Plum Porridge in Middleton’s Inner Temple Masque (1619), the Fat Bishop in A Game at Chess (1624), and other physically hefty roles (see Bentley, 1941–68, 2.555–8). Gregory Christmas is the first of a series of rotund characters in Jonson’s later masques, including the Belly in Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, Vangoose in The Masque of Augurs, the Cook in Neptune’s Triumph, and Merefool in The Fortunate Isles. Although it cannot be proved, it seems a likely conjecture that Jonson designed featured parts for Rowley in his masques year on year. If so, Rowley must have been a minor star of Whitehall’s winter theatricals.

Like other seasonal shows – such as Middleton’s Inner Temple Masque, which is constructed as a debate between Plum Porridge and a Fasting Day, or Thomas Nabbes’s The Spring’s Glory (1638), which presents Christmas arguing with Shrovetide – Jonson’s text celebrates the season by evoking winter cheer and banishing any hint of austerity or self-denial (see 66–8). Its anthology of Christmas games looks traditional but is more innovative than it seems today, for no previous text had gathered these customs together so systematically, and several seasonal rituals make their first documented appearance in English literature here. Most remarkably, this is the earliest representation anywhere of a paternal figure embodying the season’s spirit of feasting, good-fellowship, and community (Hutton, 1996, 117). Perhaps there were precursors for such festive paternalism in late-medieval or early-modern folk culture, the records of which have subsequently been lost to sight. If not, it is pleasant to suppose that Jonson may have invented Father Christmas.

This makes Christmas His Masque an important turning point in the court’s drive to associate itself with popular festive culture. Traditional sports had long been under attack from religious reformers, who felt that England needed discipline and godliness more than it did games, but the Stuart monarchs were increasingly drawn to the competing idea that popular pastimes should be promoted, for the sake of the ties of social amity and ideological loyalty which they fostered. Less than nine months after Jonson’s show, James’s Declaration Concerning Sports extended royal approval and protection to traditional festivity, and specifically to dancing and other games after church on Sundays. This controversial measure became a thorn in the flesh of the godly: it was reissued by King Charles in 1633, and in 1640 was one of the royal measures complained about in the Root and Branch Petition (Underdown, 1985a, 44–72; Marcus, 1986, 76–85). Jonson’s entertainment is careful to underline the political value of revelry, that it binds subjects to the crown and positions everyone as members of one big family – not least those London citizens who, in real life, were more prone to Puritanism than Christmas His Masque represents them as being. Although Jonson presents his citizens as excessively thrifty in their reluctance to part with money (255–62), they are no opponents of festivity, and their delight in seasonal good-fellowship makes them welcome visitors to Whitehall. Christmas His Masque thus co-opts revelry for the court and, by doing so, seeks to bridge a cultural fault-line that would eventually become part of the age’s larger ideological conflicts.

The only complete text of Christmas His Masque is in F2, where it is first in the masque section. This text probably derives from a scribal transcript made after the performance, possibly written by Ralph Crane, who produced the Chatsworth manuscript of Pleasure Reconciled. Folger MS J.a.1 (JnB 563) contains a pre-performance text of the song and speeches, but it lacks the prose description of the characters. After the masque was staged, Christmas’s song circulated independently in an edited form as a ballad; copies survive in four manuscript miscellanies, in the British Library (JnB 564), Bodleian (JnB 565), Huntington (JnB 566), and Beinecke (JnB 566.5). This edition is based on F2, the only complete text, corrected where necessary from the manuscripts (see the Textual Essay). An adapted version of the masque, using the song and opening speech but with the intervening prose dialogues radically reduced, was performed at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, in 1911, as part of the ‘Festival of Empire’ celebrations (see Performance Archive, Stage History).

 

   CHRISTMAS HIS MASQUE
As it was presented at court,  1616

  Enter CHRISTMAS with two or three of the guard. He is attired in   round hose, long stockings,

a   close doublet, a high-crowned hat with a   brooch, a long thin beard, a   truncheon, little ruffs,

white shoes, his scarves and garters tied   cross, and his drum beaten before him.

CHRISTMAS

 Why, gentlemen, do you know what you do? Ha! Would you ha’

kept me out?  Christmas, old Christmas? Christmas of London, and Captain 5

Christmas? Pray you let me be brought  before my  Lord Chamberlain, I’ll not

be answered else;  ’tis merry in hall when beards wag all. I ha’ seen the time

you ha’ wished for me, for a merry Christmas, and now you   ha’ me, they

would not let me in; I must come another time! A good jest, as if  I could come

more than once a year. Why, I am no dangerous person, and so I told my 10

friends o’the guard. I am old  Gregory Christmas still, and though I come out

 of Pope’s Head Alley, as good a Protestant as any  i’my parish. The truth is, I

 ha’ brought a masque here out o’the city, o’my own making, and do present

it by a set of my sons that come out  of the lanes of London, good dancing boys

all. It was intended, I confess, for  Curriers’ Hall, but because the weather has 15

been  open, and the  livery were not at leisure to see it till a frost  came that

they cannot work, I thought it convenient, with some little alterations and

the  Groom  of the Revels’ hand to’t, to fit it for a higher place, which I have

done; and though I say it,  another manner of device than your New Year’s

night. –  Bones o’ bread, the king! [Calling] Son   Rowland, son Clem, be ready 20

there in a trice; quick, boys!

  Enter his sons and daughters, being ten in number, [with their attendants,] led in in a string

by CUPID, who is attired in a flat cap and a prentice’s coat, with wings at his shoulders.

The names of his children, with their attires:

  MISRULE 25

In a velvet cap with a   sprig, a short cloak, great yellow ruff like a reveller, his   torchbearer

bearing a  rope, a cheese, and a basket.

  CAROL

A   long tawny coat, with a red cap and a flute at his girdle, his torchbearer carrying a song book

open. 30

  MINCED PIE

Like a fine cook’s wife, dressed   neat, her   man carrying a pie, dish, and spoons.

  GAMBOL

Like a   tumbler, with a hoop and bells, his torchbearer armed with a     cowl-staff and a   blinding

cloth. 35

  POST AND PAIR

With a   pair-royal of aces in his hat, his garment all done over with   pairs and   purs, his squire

carrying a   box, cards, and counters.

  NEW YEAR’S GIFT

In a   blue coat, serving-man like, with an   orange and a sprig of   rosemary gilt on his head, his 40

hat full of brooches, with a collar of gingerbread, his torchbearer carrying a   marchpane, with

a bottle of wine on either arm.

  MUMMING

In a masquing   pied suit with a   visor, his torchbearer carrying the box and   ringing it.

  WASSAIL 45

Like a neat   sempster and   songster, her page bearing a brown bowl, dressed with   ribbons and

rosemary, before her.

  OFFERING

In a short gown, with a porter’s staff in his hand, a   withe borne before him and a basin, by his

torchbearer. 50

BABY CAKE

Dressed like a boy, in a fine   long coat,   biggin, bib,   muckender, and a little   dagger, his   usher

bearing a great   cake with a bean and a   pease.

   

They enter singing.

  Now God preserve, as you well  do deserve, 55

Your Majesties all two there,

Your   Highness small,  with my good lords all,

And ladies, how do you do there?

Gi’ me leave to ask, for I bring  you a masque

From  little little little little London; 60

Which   say the king likes, I ha’  passed the pikes,

 If not, old Christmas is  undone.

 

[Noise outside.]

CHRISTMAS

 A’ peace, what’s the matter there?

GAMBOL

Here’s one o’  Friday Street would come in. 65

CHRISTMAS

By no means, nor out of neither of the  Fish Streets admit not a man;

 they are not Christmas creatures. Fish and fasting days, foh! Sons, said I well?

Look to’t.

GAMBOL

[Calling] Nobody out o’ Friday Street nor the two Fish Streets there, do

 you hear? 70

CAROL

Shall John Butter o’  Milk Street come in? Ask him.

GAMBOL

Yes, he may slip in for a torchbearer, so he melt not too fast, that he

will last till the masque be done.

CHRISTMAS

Right, son.

 

Sing again.

75

Our  dance’s  freight is a matter of eight

 And two, the which are  wenches;

In all they be ten,  four cocks to a hen,

And will swim to the tune like  tenches.

Each hath his   knight for to carry his light, 80

Which some would say are torches;

To bring them here and to  lead them there,

And  home again to their own porches.

Now their  intent –

  Enter VENUS, a deaf tire-woman. 85

VENUS

Now all the lords bless me, where am I, trow? Where is Cupid? Serve

the King? They may serve the cobbler well enough, some of ’em, for any

courtesy they have,   iwis; they ha’ need o’ mending.   Unrude people they are,

your courtiers; here was thrust upon thrust indeed! Was it ever so hard to get

in before, trow? 90

CHRISTMAS

How now? What’s the matter?

VENUS

A place,  forsooth, I do want a place. I would have a good place to see my

child act in before the King and  Queen’s Majesties, God bless ’em, tonight.

CHRISTMAS

Why, here is no place for you.

VENUS

  I was to come in, and I would have come in, or my child should not have 95

acted here tonight else.

CHRISTMAS

What are you, I beseech you?

VENUS

Right, forsooth, I am Cupid’s mother, Cupid’s own mother, forsooth,

yes, forsooth; I dwell in  Pudding Lane; ay, forsooth, he is prentice in  Love

Lane with a  bugle-maker, that makes of your  bobs and  bird-bolts for ladies. 100

CHRISTMAS

Good lady Venus of Pudding Lane, you must go out  for all this.

VENUS

Yes, forsooth, I can sit anywhere,  so I may see  my Cupid act. He is a pretty

child, though I say it that perhaps should not, you will say. I had him by my

first husband; he was a  smith, forsooth; we dwelt in  Do-Little Lane then;

 he came a month before his time, and that may make him somewhat 105

imperfect; but I was a  fishmonger’s daughter.

CHRISTMAS

No matter for your pedigree, your house; good Venus, will you

depart?

VENUS

Ay, forsooth, he’ll say his part, I warrant him, as well as e’er a play-boy of

’em all. I could  ha’ had money enough for him,  an I would ha’ been tempted, 110

and  ha’  let him out by the week, to the King’s players. Master  Burbage has

been  about and about with me, and so has old Master   Heminges too; they ha’

need of him. Where is he,  trow ’a? I would fain see him; pray God they have

given him some drink since he came.

CHRISTMAS

[Calling] Are you ready, boys? Strike up! Nothing will drown this 115

 noise but a drum.  A’ peace, yet, I ha’ not done.

  (Sing) Now their intent, is  about to present —

CAROL

Why, here be half of the  properties forgotten, father.

OFFERING

Post and Pair wants his  pur-chops and his pur-dogs.

CAROL

Ha’ you  ne’er a son at the  groom-porter’s to beg or borrow a  pair of  cards 120

of quickly?

GAMBOL

It shall not need. Here’s your son  Cheater  without, has cards  in his

pocket.

OFFERING

 Odso; speak to the guard to let him in under the name of a property.

GAMBOL

And here’s New Year’s Gift  has an orange and rosemary, but  not a clove 125

to stick in’t.

NEW YEAR

Why,  let one go to the  spicery.

CHRISTMAS

Fie, fie, fie; it’s naught, it’s naught, boys.

VENUS

Why, I have cloves, if it be cloves you want, I have cloves in my purse; I

never go without one in my mouth. 130

carol

And Mumming has not his vizard, neither.

CHRISTMAS

No matter, his own face shall serve for a punishment, and ’tis bad

enough. Has Wassail her bowl and Mince Pie her spoons?

OFFERING

Ay, ay; but Misrule doth not like his suit. He says  the players have

lent him one too little, on purpose to disgrace him. 135

CHRISTMAS

Let him hold his peace, and his disgrace will be the less. What, shall

we proclaim where we were furnished? Mum! Mum! A’ peace, be ready, good

boys.

 (Sings again) Now their intent is  about to present,

With all the  appurtenances, 140

A right Christmas,  as of old it was,

To be gathered out of  the dances,

Which they do bring,  and  afore the King,

The Queen,  and Prince, as it were now

Drawn here by Love, who, over and above, 145

 Doth draw himself  i’the gear too.

  Here the drum and fife sounds, and they march about once. At the second coming up he proceeds

in his song.

  Hum drum, sauce for a   coney;

No more  of your  martial music, 150

 Even for the sake  of the next new  stake,

For there I do mean to use it.

And now to ye who  in place are to see,

With  roll and  farthingale hoopèd:

I pray you know, though he want his bow, 155

By  the wings that this is Cupid.

He might go back,  for to cry  ‘What you lack’,

But that were not so witty;

His  cap and coat  are enough  to note

That he is the Love o’the city. 160

And he leads on, though he now be gone,

For that  is only  his rule.

 And now comes in Tom of  Bosom’s Inn,

And he  presenteth Misrule;

Which you  may know by the very show, 165

Albeit you never ask it,

 For there you may see what his ensigns be:

The  rope, the cheese, and the basket.

This Carol plays, and has been in  his days

A  chirping boy and a  kill-pot: 170

Kit Cobbler it is, I’m a father of his,

And he dwells in the lane called  Philpot.

But who is this?  Oh, my daughter  Sis,

 Mince Pie;  with her do not dally

On pain  o’your life; she’s an honest cook’s wife, 175

And comes out of  Scalding Alley.

Next in the  trace comes  Gambol in place,

And to make my tale the shorter,

My son  Hercules, ta’en  out of  Distaff Lane,

But an  active man and a porter. 180

Now Post and Pair, old  Christmas’s heir

Doth make  and a  jingling sally.

And wot you who, ’tis one of my two

Sons,  cardmakers in  Pur Alley.

 Next  in a trice, with his box and his  dice, 185

 MacPippin my son, but younger,

Brings Mumming in, and  the knave will win,

For   ’a is a costermonger.

But New Year’s Gift  of himself makes shift

To tell you what his name is: 190

With orange on head and his gingerbread,

Clem  Wasp of  Honey Lane  ’tis.

This, I you tell,  is our jolly Wassail,

And for  Twelfth Night  most meet too;

She works by the  ell, and her name is Nell, 195

And she  dwells in  Threadneedle Street too.

Then Offering, he, with his dish and his  tree,

 That in every great house keepeth,

Is by my son,  young  Littleworth,  done,

And in  Penny-Rich Street he  sleepeth. 200

 Last, Baby  Cake, that an end doth make

Of Christmas’ merry, merry vein-a,

Is  Child  Rowlan, and a straight young man,

Though  he  come out of  Crooked Lane-a.

 There should  have been  and a dozen,  I ween, 205

But I could  find but one  more

 Child of Christmas, and a   log it was,

When I them all  had gone o’er.

I prayed him, in a time  so  trim,

That  he would make one to prance it, 210

And I myself would  have been the  twelfth,

Oh,  but  Log was too heavy to dance it.

 [Speaks.] Now, Cupid, come you on.

CUPID

You worthy wights, king, lords, and knights,

 O queen and ladies bright, 215

Cupid invites you to the sights

He shall present tonight.

VENUS

 ’Tis a good child. – Speak out, hold up your head, Love.

CUPID.

And which Cupid – and which Cupid (  etc.)

VENUS

Do not shake so, Robin; if thou be’st a-cold, I ha’ some  warm waters for 220

thee here.

CHRISTMAS

Come, you put Robin Cupid out with your waters,  and your   fizzling.

Will you be gone?

VENUS

Ay, forsooth; he’s a child, you must  conceive, and must be used tenderly.

He was never in such an assembly before, forsooth, but once at the  warmoll 225

quest, forsooth, where he said grace as prettily as any of the sheriff’s   hench-boys

, forsooth.

CHRISTMAS

Will you peace, forsooth?

CUPID

And which  Cupid – and which Cupid ( etc.)

VENUS

Ay, that’s a good boy. Speak plain, Robin. – How does His Majesty like 230

him, I pray? Will he  give him  eight pence a day, think you? – Speak out,

Robin.

CHRISTMAS

Nay,  he is  out enough; you may take him away, and begin your

dance. This it is to have speeches!

VENUS

You wrong the child, you do wrong the infant. I ’peal to His Majesty. 235

Here they dance.

CHRISTMAS

Well done, boys, my fine boys, my  bully boys!

 

The Epilogue

(Sings again) Nor do you think that their  legs is all

The  commendation of my sons, 240

For at  the Artillery Garden they shall

As well, forsooth, use their guns,

And march as fine as the muses nine,

Along the streets of London,

And i’their brave  tires to  gi’ their false fires, 245

Especially  Tom, my son.

Now if the lanes and the alleys afford

Such an  ac-ativity as this,

At Christmas next, if they keep their word,

Can the  children of Cheapside  miss? 250

Though put the case, when they come in place,

They should not dance but hop,

Their very gold lace with their silk would ’em grace,

 Having so many knights o’the shop!

But were I so wise, I might seem to advise 255

So great a potentate as  yourself,

 They should, sir, I tell ye,  spare’t out o’their belly,

And this way spend some  of their pelf;

Ay, and come to the court, for to make you some sport,

At the least once every year, 260

As Christmas hath done with his  seventh or eighth son

And his couple of daughters dear.


 THE END

Title CHRISTMAS HIS MASQUE] F2 (subst.); Mock-maske. / The Christmas Shewe / before the King. 1615. / Christmas his Showe JnB 563
Title CHRISTMAS HIS MASQUE] i.e. Christmas’s (cf. the same formula in Sejanus His Fall.).
1616 An endorsement in the Folger MS gives ‘1615’, but this seems to be by a later hand.
1 guard yeomen of the guard: the sovereign’s personal bodyguard.
1–3 ] F2; not in JnB 563
1 round hose Padded breeches covering the upper leg, and worn with stockings. OED, Hose, cites Robert Greene from 1592: ‘round hose bumbasted close to the breech is now common to every cullion in the country’.
2 close doublet Tight-fitting garment for the upper body.
2 brooch Brooches were worn in men’s hats as an embellishment, but were already old-fashioned in 1616. See Mag. Lady, 1.7.33; and AWW, 1.1.156–8: ‘Virginity like an old courtier wears her cap out of fashion, richly suited but unsuitable, just like the brooch and the toothpick, which wear not now.’
2 truncheon Baton, such as a marshal would carry.
3 cross In criss-cross pattern (across his body and legs).
4–9 Why . . . time The illusion is created that Christmas has to force his way into the hall, past the guard; a motif repeated from Love Restored and The Irish Masque, which similarly make play with the difficulties that ordinary people have getting access to the privileged territory of the court. Cf. also 87–90 below.
5 Christmas Given the scansion of this name in 141, 207, it was probably pronounced (as generally in Jonson’s time) with greater emphasis than in today’s speech, with a long ‘i’ in ‘Christ-’, and equal stress on ‘-mas’. The two halves of the word are separated by Ananias in Alch., 3.2.43, when he puritanically corrects ‘Christmas’ to ‘Christ-tide’.
6 before] F2; afore JnB 563
6 Lord Chamberlain The official in charge of court ceremonial and admission to the masques: in 1616–17, William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke.
7 ’tis . . . all Proverbial (Dent, H55). Cf. Tub, 5.9.12, and 2H4, 5.3.34.
8 ha’ me,] JnB 563; ha’ me; F2
9–10 I . . . year Proverbial (Christmas comes but once a year).
11 Gregory This Christian name connects Christmas with Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604), who was remembered for sending missionaries to convert England to Christianity and for permitting them some tactical pragmatism: he allowed heathen temples and festival customs to remain in place, so long as they were nominally used in the service of the Christian God (Marcus, 1986, 80; Bede, History of the Church of England, trans. T. Stapleton, 1622, 144–5). ‘Gregory’ thus points to the link between contemporary Christmas revelry and folk practices reaching back into time immemorial. Inevitably, this is problematic, since Puritan opponents of seasonal festivity complained that it preserved irreligious, licentious, or pagan customs – or, at best, that such rituals were Catholic. Hence Jonson’s Christmas is concerned to emphasize that, despite his delight in revelry and the associations of his name, he is a good Protestant (11–12).
12 Pope’s Head Alley A thoroughfare between Cornhill and Lombard Street, known at this time as a centre of printing and bookselling. See Und. 43.80.
12 i’] F2; in JnB 563
13 ha’] F2; haue JnB 563
14 of the] F2; o’the JnB 563
15 Curriers’ Hall The guildhall belonging to the leather-workers’ company, located in Cripplegate (Stow, London, ed. Kingsford, 1.297).
16 open free from frost. The weather during Christmas 1616–17 was indeed unusually mild; see the Introduction. Presumably leather-workers could not operate because their material would no longer be malleable when frozen; thus they would not rest from producing so long as the weather remained favourable.
16 livery members of the guild.
16 came] F2; come JnB 563
18 Groom . . . Revels’ This official was a subordinate to the Master of the Revels, who licensed court entertainments, and whose warrant (‘hand’) would authorize the show for performance.
18 of] F2; o’ JnB 563
19–20 another . . . night i.e. this is a different kind of show from that you have on New Year’s nights. If this show were staged in the 1615–16 season, this could have been read as a reference to Gold. Age, which was performed on 1 January 1616; but perhaps Christmas just means ‘than your usual New Year’s fare’.
20 Bones o’ bread God’s bones (a euphemism).
20 Rowland, son Clem The Folger MS mentions a third son, George, but his name does not recur in the ensuing text. Perhaps it was deleted when Jonson found he had no need for him.
20 Rowland,] F2; Rowland, Son George, JnB 563
22–53 ] F2; not in JnB 563
25 misrule Christmas was traditionally a time of disorderly activity and game-playing, led in some great houses and the Inns of Court by a Lord of Misrule or seasonal prince.
26 sprig Probably a spray of rosemary, used for decoration at festivals. Cf. 40 and 46–7 below.
26 torchbearer In processional entries, masquers were typically preceded by attendants carrying lights, usually played by aristocratic boys not yet old enough to dance in the masques. See Strong (1977), 105.
27 rope . . . basket As is discovered at 168, these signify the trade of the man who masquerades in this name (all of the mummers are citizens, and Misrule is played by a carrier), while the other participants in the procession bear emblems that link them to festive customs associated with Christmas.
28 carol Festive Christmas songs were popular in the seventeenth century, but were sung at home or from door to door, rather than at church.
29 long tawny coat A ‘long coat’ is a coat reaching to the ankles, and was particularly associated with the dress of children or fools; see 52, and Bart. Fair, 1.4.88, Staple, 3.2.131–2. ‘Tawny’ is an orangey-brown colour.
31 minced pie Spiced fruit pie; a seasonal Christmas food (appropriately played by a youth pretending to be a cook’s wife).
32 neat elegantly.
32 man servant.
33 gambol i.e. Tumbling Trick, a traditional Christmas game. Christmas Gambols is listed as one of the sons of Christmas in Thomas Nabbes’s The Spring’s Glory (1638), with the implication that he is a tumbler: ‘Thou hast one son bred up in the country called Christmas Gambols, that doth nothing but break men’s necks’ (Spencer and Wells, 1967, 328). In Middleton’s Inner Temple Masque (1619), Dr Almanac has a nephew called Kersmas Gambols.
34 tumbler acrobat.
34 cowl-staff] F2 (Cole-staffe)
34 cowl-staff Stout pole, used for carrying burdens (the performer is a porter; see 180).
34–5 blinding cloth For blind man’s bluff.
36 post and pair A card game played at Christmas for money; the ‘post’ was the stake, and the ‘pair’ the pack of cards. Christmas and New Year were particularly associated with gambling. In Alch., 1.1.55, Face rents out gambling chips for post and pair at Christmas.
37 pair-royal set of three.
37 pairs packs of cards (OED, Pair n. 6a).
37 purs Apparently a name for the jacks in post and pair. Gifford cited an epigram by John Davies of Hereford on ‘Mortal life compared to post and pair’: ‘Some, having lost the double pair and post, / Make their advantage on the purs they have; / Whereby the winner’s winnings all are lost, / Although, at best, the other’s but a knave’ (Wit’s Pilgrimage, 1610(?), Q1).
38 box For collecting the money won at gambling (though the custom of giving servants and craftsmen a Christmas ‘box’ was also starting to develop in this period; see Hutton, 1996, 23). See also 44.
39 new year’s gift Before the nineteenth century, 1 January was the date on which seasonal gifts were exchanged. This performer wears a series of objects that would have been appropriate as presents. See Hutton (1996), 23.
40 blue coat The customary dress for servants. See Case, 1.5.28.
40 orange Oranges stuck with cloves were used to spice wine (see 125–6), but in some Christmas customs were adopted as symbols of the Epiphany, and indeed are still so used in England today. The earliest surviving examples date from the nineteenth century (Hutton, 1996, 67).
40 rosemary Used as a decoration at weddings, and gilded to enhance the celebration. H&S compare Herrick’s lyric ‘To the maids to walk abroad’ (speaking of weddings): ‘This done, we’ll draw lots, who shall buy / And gild the bays and rosemary’ (ed. Martin, 215). Gilded fruit was given as New Year gifts in the nineteenth century (Hutton, 1996, 67).
41 marchpane marzipan; a decorated cake.
43 mumming A show, put on by silent, disguised, and masked dancers, who processed from house to house performing and sometimes collecting money. Mumming is first recorded at court in 1347; some particularly memorable examples were presented to or by Henry Ⅷ. In H8, 1.4, Shakespeare depicts a group, which includes the King, who arrive in this manner at Cardinal Wolsey’s palace (though the word ‘mumming’ itself is not used). As well as a ‘box’ (44), the text later indicates that Mumming has some dice with him (185), which implies that he intends to gamble with the people he meets. On one famous occasion in 1377, Richard Ⅱ was visited by mummers who gamed with him using loaded dice, designed to ensure that he would always win. See Chambers (1923), 1.150; and cf. Informations, 262–4.
44 pied part-coloured.
44 visor mask.
44 ringing it shaking it, to make the coins rattle.
45 wassail A spiced drink, passed around in a bowl, or carried from house to house in hope of collecting gifts. The custom is first recorded in the 1320s, and ‘Wassail!’ (meaning ‘good health’) was originally a toast.
46 sempster seamstress, needlewoman.
46 songster singer. Presumably the seamstress – who is played by Christmas’s daughter Nell (195) – would sing as she worked.
46 ribbons] F2 (Ribbands)
48 offering Probably a charitable gift, given to the poor at Christmas. OED, 3b, records ‘Offering, or present to a lord at Christmas or other times’ from 1440, but Jonson’s list of performers seems to separate Offering from New Year’s Gift (39), which more nearly corresponds to OED’s definition. Possibly the ‘basin’ (49) is for the collection of charitable donations. Cf. 197–8, and Tub, 1.1.94–5: ‘His charity must offer at this wedding; / I’ll bid more to the basin and the bridal.’
49 withe willow wand. Presumably the intention is for this to be set up in the house beside the basin (see 197–8).
52 long coat A child’s garment; see 29.
52 biggin child’s cap.
52 muckender handkerchief.
52 dagger Presumably to cut the cake.
52 usher servant; possibly, a tutor.
53 cake Part of a Christmas custom: whoever found the bean and the pea in the Twelfth Night cake became, respectively, the festive king and queen. H&S compare Herrick’s lyric ‘Twelfth Night, or King and Queen’: ‘Now, now the mirth comes / With the cake full of plums, / Where bean’s the king of the sport here; / Beside we must know, / The pea also / Must revel, as queen, in the court here’ (ed. Martin, 317). This sport was medieval in origin, but was revived in the sixteenth century; a queen of the bean reigned at the Scottish court during Christmas 1563 (Hutton, 1996, 106, 110–11). See also OED, Bean n. 6c; and Speeches Delivered to her Majesty (1592) in John Lyly, Works (ed. Bond), 1.481. A Candlemas king and queen ‘of Fortune’s choice’ appear in Robert White’s 1617 masque Cupid’s Banishment (Cerasano and Wynne-Davies, 1996, 84).
53 pease pea (obsolete singular form).
54 They enter singing.] F2 (subst.); Singe JnB 563
54 F2’s SD suggests that these verses were performed by all the actors, yet they are cast in the first person singular, and the dialogue and SD at 147–8 imply that the ballad was sung by Christmas alone. Perhaps 54 is a ‘literary’ SD provided by the scribe, and in performance Christmas alone did all the singing. The Folger MS merely has the SD ‘Singe’, which seems to be a direction for Christmas himself.
55–62 ] eight lines in F2, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; four lines in JnB 563, JnB 564, written as fourteeners
55–62 These lines appear as fourteeners in the Folger MS, and the Newcastle MS transcribes the whole ballad in this form. F2 divides the song into quatrains, but the even lines are not capitalized, so perhaps Jonson originally wrote them as fourteeners. The measure and rhyme scheme are essentially the same as those that Jonson later adopted for the inserted ballad in The Masque of Augurs, though there the stanzas are divided into six-line units. Jonson uses this verse form nowhere else in his works.
55 do] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; not in JnB 564, JnB 566
57 Highness] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; highnesses JnB 565
57 Highness small Prince Charles (who was age 16 and not yet in his majority).
57 with] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 566; and JnB 565, JnB 566.5
59 you] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; not in JnB 564, JnB 566
60 little little little little] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564; little, little, little JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5
61 say supposing.
61 say] F2, JnB 563, JnB 566, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; if JnB 564
61 passed the pikes passed through difficulties; literally, ran the gauntlet (OED, Pike, n. 5, 2a, comparing the French idiom passer par les piques).
62 If not] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564; or else JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5
62 undone A comic rhyme, stressed on the first syllable to rhyme with ‘London’.
63 SD] this edn; not in F2, JnB 563
64 A’ peace A shortened form of ‘Ha’ peace’, a cry for silence. Cf. Tub, 5.10.32, 51, 70, 90.
65 Friday Street A street between Cheapside and Old Fish Street, running due south from the cross in Cheap. It was a district of fishmongers, whose Friday market gave the street its name. See Stow, London, ed. Kingsford, 1.351.
66 Fish Streets Old Fish Street was one section of Knightrider’s Street (a long thoroughfare running east–west between Cheapside and the river); it was situated a few hundred yards to the south-east of St Paul’s churchyard. New Fish Street ran north–south between Eastcheap and London Bridge, at the other end of the city (Chalfant, 1978, 79; Stow, London, 1.211). Both streets were known for their fishmongers.
67 they . . . creatures Because fish was eaten on Fridays and other fasting days, and is therefore unsuitable food for Christmas’s celebratory feasts. Cf. EMI (F), 3.4.1–4.
70 you] JnB 563 (yow); yo F2; yo’ H&S
71 Milk Street In Cripplegate, running north from West Cheap; a wealthy residential area, though Stow, London, 1.295, suggests the name came from milk having been marketed here. Butter was also a fasting-day food; see EMI (F), 3.4.31–2.
75 SD] F2 (subst.); Sing. JnB 563
76 dance’s] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564; Dancers JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5
76 freight load, burden.
77 And two] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566; Two JnB 566.5
77 wenches Minced Pie is played by Sis the cook’s wife (173–4) and Wassail by Nell the seamstress (1903–6).
78 four] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; two JnB 564
79 tenches Freshwater fish similar to carp.
80 knight] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 566.5; wight JnB 565, JnB 566
80 knight companion; the dancers’ torchbearers. ‘Knight’ is here used ironically; it is in keeping with other archaic vocabulary, such as ‘Child’ used to mean a young nobleman (203) and ‘wights’ (214), helping the claim that this show presents Christmas ‘as of old it was’ (141).
82 lead] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564; carry JnB 566, JnB 566.5, R JnB 565
83 home] F2; whome JnB 566.5
84 intent –] F2; intent. JnB 563
85 Enter . . . woman.] F2; Woman JnB 563
88 iwis] F2 (y’wisse)
88 iwis truly.
88–9 Unrude . . . indeed Probably with a bawdy implication.
88 Unrude Uncouth.
92 forsooth According to the lady Cytheris in Poet., 4.1.24–7, ‘forsooth’ is a ‘city-mannerly word . . . use it not too often in any case, but plain “ay, madam” and “no, madam”’. Cf. 1H4, 3.1.240–2.
93 Queen’s] F2; the Queenes JnB 563
95–7 This passage is present only in the Folger MS, but it is placed after 93, where it seems to interrupt the dialogue. This edition follows W. W. Greg’s conjecture that it is an addition to the folio text but has been copied into the wrong place. See the Textual Essay.
95–7 ] JnB 563, after line 91; not in F2. Placed after line 94 by Orgel, conj. Greg (1942), 146
99 Pudding Lane In Billingsgate Ward, and (according to Stow) so named from the animal offal washed along it (a ‘pudding’ being a sausage): ‘because the butchers of East Cheap have their scalding house for hogs there, and their puddings, with other filth of beasts, are voided down that way to their dung boats on the Thames’ (Stow, London, 1.210). Presumably the name is chosen, like several in this text, for its vaguely suggestive possibilities.
99–100 Love Lane Also situated in Billingsate, another lane running down towards the Thames from East Cheap, a little further east from Pudding Lane. Chalfant (1978), 122, notes two other Love Lanes in the city, but Venus is clearly talking about the same insalubrious neighbourhood. This is an appropriately named street in which to find Cupid as an apprentice.
100 bugle-maker glass bead-maker.
100 bobs ornamental pendants; ear-drops.
100 bird-bolts blunt arrows for shooting birds; suitable for women who would not participate in the more violent activity of hunting deer or boar. It is not clear why a bugle-maker should manufacture them, though they would be an appropriate product for Cupid, given the metaphorical damage that his arrows do in affairs of the heart. Cf. Berowne on Cupid: ‘Thou hast thumped him with thy bird-bolt under the left pap’ (LLL, 4.3.25).
101 for all this i.e. despite all this protestation about your right to be here.
102 so provided that.
102 my Cupid] JnB 563; Cupid F2
104 smith In myth, Venus’s husband Vulcan was a smith; Venus and Mars made him a cuckold.
104 Do-Little Lane A small passage south of St Paul’s, running south from Carter Lane into Knightrider’s Street. The name carries the insinuation that Venus’s love life with her husband is less than satisfactory, and perhaps hints that Cupid was fathered by somebody else. In myth, Cupid is variously represented as the son of Mercury, Mars, or Jupiter, or as having had no father, being so ancient a god. He is certainly not child to Vulcan.
105 he came Cupid came.
106 fishmonger’s Fishmongers were proverbially lecherous, as was Venus’s father, Jupiter, whose love life was notorious. Perhaps there is also an allusion to the myth that Venus was born from the foam of the sea. In early modern London fishmongery was a low status profession, and the women associated with it were represented as noisy and vulgar.
110 ha’ had] F2; haue had JnB 563
110 an] and JnB 563
111 ha’] a JnB 563
111 let . . . week Boy actors were sometimes indentured through London guilds to which Heminges and other actors belonged; the boys could not be apprenticed through the King’s Men as such since it was not a guild.
111 Burbage Richard Burbage (c. 1573–1619), the leading actor of the King’s Men.
112 about and about Perhaps with unintentional bawdy innuendo.
112 Heminges] F2 (Hemings)
112 Heminges William Heminges (d. 1630), the King’s Men’s business manager.
113 trow ’a think you.
116 noise] F2; voyce JnB 563, corrected to noyse in margin
116 A’ peace See 64n.
117 Sing] Sing — F2 (at start of line); Sing JnB 563 (centred above the line)
117 SD Sing Orgel and Lindley take this word as a command spoken by Christmas to the rest of the group that they should proceed with the line of the ballad that was interrupted at 84. But ‘Sing’ is written as an SD in both F2 and the Folger MS, and when the ballad continues, it is sung by Christmas alone (see 147–8), so probably the intention is that only Christmas should sing at 117. Perhaps this arrangement conceals an imperfect textual join, for lines 115–16 are partially reprised at 136–8. Did Jonson insert 118–38 as an afterthought?
117 about] JnB 563; above F2
118 properties (1) appurtenances, as at 140; (2) stage props.
119 pur-chops . . . pur-dogs These terms are otherwise unknown, and any explanation is really only a guess. The ‘purs’ seem to have been the jacks in the game post and pair, and Gifford usefully suggests that ‘pur-chops’ and ‘pur-dogs’ might have been the names of individual cards; the epigram by John Davies that he cites to explain ‘purs’ (see 37n.) refers to other cards in the game as ‘Pur Ceit’ and ‘Pur Tant’. More doubtfully, OED interprets ‘pur-chops’ and ‘pur-dogs’ as cards that would take the jack; Orgel suggests that they refer to the truncheon and the dog sometimes pictured on the jack.
120 ne’er] F2 (nere); neuer JnB 563
120 groom-porter’s A household official responsible for overseeing gaming and providing cards and dice in a large establishment such as Whitehall; see Alch., 3.4.61.
120 pair pack (see 36n.).
120–1 cards of] JnB 563; cards F2
122 Cheater] JnB 563; Chrater F2
122 without,] this edn; without; F2; without JnB 563
122 in his] F2; in’s JnB 563
124 Odso (F2: Odds so) God’s wounds (a euphemism).
125 has] F2 (ha’s)
125–6 not . . . in’t Perhaps with a bawdy suggestion.
127 let one go] F2; il’e get one to run JnB 563
127 spicery A household department attached to the royal kitchen.
134–5 the players . . . one Rather as Drugger borrows a player’s suit in Alch., 4.7.
139 sd Sings again] F2 (subst.); Sing JnB 563; centred above the verse in both
139 about] JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; bout JnB 564; above F2
140 appurtenances characteristic accessories.
141 as of old] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; as if could JnB 564
142 the] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; not in JnB 566
143 and] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565; JnB 566; not in JnB 566.5
143 afore] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; for JnB 564; offer JnB 566
144 and] F2, JnB 563; the JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; & ye JnB 564
146 Doth . . . gear Involves himself in the goings-on.
146 i’the gear too] F2, JnB 563; I th’ yeer now JnB 564; by the geer too JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5
147 Here the drum] F2; Drum JnB 563
149 Hum drum, sauce] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564; Hum drum, hum drum, is sauce JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5
149 Hum drum Nothing too fancy. Cf. Tub, 2.1.24.
149 coney] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; cunny JnB 564, JnB 566
149 coney rabbit.
150 of] F2, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; o’ JnB 563
150 martial music Referring back to the ‘drum and fife’ (147), which were the instruments typically used to accompany military drilling.
151 Even] F2, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; Eu’n JnB 563
151 of] JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; o’ F2
151 stake H&S suggest that this refers to a post set up for the masquers to dance around; cf. the ‘bride-stake’ in Welbeck, 143 and 249. In the entertainment given to Queen Elizabeth at Elvetham in 1591, the Fairy Queen presented her with a garland set on a staff, which she placed in the ground while she danced around the garden. There is, though, no indication here that a stake was erected, and Christmas might be referring to some future occasion (‘the next new stake’) when the company are to dance around a stake to the fife and drum. For example, at this time May games it was customary for morris dances to be performed around a maypole (Forrest, 1999, 129–33). Alternatively, a monetary stake at gambling could be meant, alluding to the court’s Christmas gaming, though its connection with ‘martial music’ is less obvious.
153 in place are] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; are in place JnB 566
154 roll A bumroll, worn to accentuate the hips.
154 farthingale A hooped frame worn below a skirt. Christmas addresses the women in the audience, though a class distinction may be implicit, as bumrolls were the citizen equivalent of the more courtly farthingale. Cf. Poet., 2.1.52–3.
156 the] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; his JnB 564
157 for] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564; not in JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5
157 ‘What you lack’ The usual cry of shopkeepers.
159 cap and coat The characteristic dress of ordinary citizens.
159 are] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; is JnB 564; weer JnB 566
159 to] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; for to JnB 564
162 is] JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; was F2
162 his rule] F2 (his-rule)
163 And] JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; But F2
163 Bosom’s Inn A large and well-known inn in St Laurence Lane, between Cheapside and the Guildhall, originally called Blossom’s Inn, and described by Stow as a ‘large inn for receipt of travellers’ (London, 1.270–1). Nashe’s Have with you to Saffron Walden refers to ‘a carrier of Bosom’s Inn’ (Works, ed. McKerrow, 3.14).
164 presenteth] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; present JnB 566
165 may] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; must JnB 564
167 For there] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564; There JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5
168 rope . . . basket Objects indicating Tom’s trade as a city carrier.
169 his] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; our JnB 564
170 chirping merry.
170 kill-pot hard drinker.
172 Philpot Philpot Lane, running north from East Cheap into Fenchurch Street and Eastcheap. Originally named after Sir John Philpot, the name insinuates that Kit is a heavy drinker – a joke which is clearer in F2’s unmodernized spelling (‘Fil-pot’).
173 Oh] F2 (O’), JnB 564 (O’), JnB 563 (O); ’tis JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5
173 Sis Short for Cicely.
174 Mince Pie] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; not in JnB 564
174 with her do not] F2, JnB 563; forbear with her to JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5
175 o’] F2, JnB 563, JnB 566; of JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566.5
176 Scalding Alley A narrow alley running north from the Poultry, at the east end of Cheapside, formerly called Scalding Wike or Scalding House. Here poultry was at one time scalded in preparation for being sold at the stalls in the main street nearby (Stow, London, 1.186).
177 trace line.
177 Gambol] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565 (subst.), JnB 566.5; gumball JnB 564; Gamball JnB 566
179 Hercules An appropriate name for a porter, and for an inhabitant of Distaff Lane, since Omphale humiliated Hercules by forcing him to spin wool on her distaff. But Hercules is ironically named if, as suggested in the Headnote, Christmas’s sons were all played by child actors.
179 out of] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; in JnB 566
179 Distaff Lane A lane in Bread Street Ward (just east of St Paul’s). Stow (1.345) identifies it with Maiden Lane, running westward from Friday Street, though he adds that an identically named lane ran south from Maiden Lane into Old Fish Street.
180 active Because Gambol would need to be athletic; he is dressed like a ‘tumbler’ (34).
181 Christmas’s] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564 (subst.); Christmas his JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5
182 and a] F2, JnB 563; an a JnB 564; on a JnB 565, JnB 566; a JnB 566.5
182 jingling Indicating that Post and Pair is shaking his ‘box’.
184 cardmakers Probably these boys are not manufacturers of playing cards, for the commoner early modern occupations would be the manufacture of mariner’s ‘cards’ or charts, or manufacture of the combing-tool called a card used in clothmaking. The occupation punningly gives rise to the performer’s association with a card game.
184 Pur Alley Not a real London street, but a pun; it develops the term ‘purs’ (the jacks, in playing cards, as at 37n.) into a street name that parodies the legal term ‘puralee’, which refers to disafforested territory around the margins of a forest that was originally within its bounds and is still subject to forest law (it is the etymological root of the modern term ‘purlieu’). See OED, Puralee 2, and Purlieu 1.
185–92 There is an inconsistency here: the order in which Mumming and New Year’s Gift are described reverses the sequence at 39–44.
185 in] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; wth JnB 564
185 dice See 42n.
186 MacPippin Named for his trade as a costermonger; the prefix suggests he is Irish (as in Alch., 4.1.57; and cf. 5.4.44–5 for the costermonger’s proficiency at gambling, which Christmas predicts at 187–8).
187 the knave] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; they know JnB 566
188 ’a is] F2, JnB 563; he is JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; heers JnB 564
188 ’a he.
189 of] F2, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; for JnB 563
192 Wasp Also the name of a character in Bart. Fair.
192 Honey Lane A narrow lane running off Cheapside, north of the standard in Cheap.
192 ’tis] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566; is JnB 566.5
193 is] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564 (subst.), JnB 565, JnB 566.5; in JnB 566
194 Twelfth Night] F2 (Twelfe-night), JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; this night JnB 564
194 most] JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; more F2
195 ell An old unit of measure, equivalent to 45 inches.
196 dwells] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; works JnB 564
196 Threadneedle Street A major thoroughfare in Broad Street Ward, running between Bishopsgate and Cheapside, with the Royal Exchange and many taverns (Chalfant, 1978, 179). A suitable address for a seamstress.
197 tree i.e. the withe or willow wand (see 49). It was a common custom in this period to bring holly, ivy, bays, or rosemary into the house at Christmas, while withes were particularly associated with Easter. Stow (London, 1.98) says that ‘In the week before Easter had ye great shows made for the fetching in of a twisted tree, or withe, as they termed it, out of the woods into the King’s house, and the like into every man’s house of honour or worship.’ See also OED, Withe, n. 1c. (Christmas trees in their modern form date from the Victorian era.)
198 That are set up in every great house. (‘Keepeth’ is archaic).
199 young] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564 (subst.), JnB 565, JnB 566.5; younger JnB 566
199 Littleworth] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; Alworth JnB 564
199 done impersonated.
200 Penny-Rich Street Peneritch Street, a short lane adjoining Bucklersbury in Cheap Ward. The location suggests a monetary pun on the name of the performer, Littleworth.
200 sleepeth] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; keepeth JnB 564
201 Last] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566; lett JnB 564; Lady JnB 566.5
201 Cake] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; leake JnB 564
203 Child In medieval romance, an honorific title for young noblemen before the award of knighthood. It humorously links Christmas’s son (who is dressed as a small child, Baby Cake) with the Old French Song of Roland and the English ballad hero ‘Child Roland’ mentioned in Lear, 3.4.182; and cf. Alch., 4.7.2. The name is spelled ‘Rowlan’ for the sake of the rhyme with ‘man’.
203 Rowlan] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564; Rowland JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5
204 he] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; he’s JnB 564
204 come] F2, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566; came JnB 563, JnB 566.5
204 Crooked Lane-a Crooked Lane was at the upper end of New Fish Street; so named because of its twisting course.
205 There] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564; Theise JnB 565 (subst.), JnB 566; Thes JnB 566.5
205 have] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566; ha’ JnB 564, JnB 566.5
205 and a dozen i.e. a dozen (an archaic construction).
205 I ween] F2, JnB 563, JnB 566; of win JnB 564; I win JnB 565, JnB 566.5
206 find] F2, JnB 563, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; not in JnB 564; get JnB 565
206 more] JnB 563; more; F2
207 Child of Christmas] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; child, Chrismas JnB 564
207 log] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566; loge JnB 566.5; toy JnB 564
207 log the yule log: a large single log brought in to fuel the hearth throughout Christmas day. Jonson’s allusion probably predates the earliest literary reference to this custom, in Herrick’s ‘Ceremonies for Christmas’ (1648) (Poetical Works, ed. Martin, 263). See Hutton (1996), 263, 285.
208 had] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566.5; haue JnB 566
209 so] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564, JnB 565, JnB 566; to JnB 566.5
209 trim suitable.
210 he would] F2, JnB 563, JnB 564; neede JnB 565; heed JnB 566, JnB 566.5
211 have been] F2, JnB 565, JnB 566, JnB 566.5; ha’ been JnB 563; be JnB 564
211 twelfth] F2 (twelfe)
212 but] JnB 563; hut F2
212 Log] F2, JnB 563, JnB 565, JnB 566 (Logg), JnB 566.5; toyy JnB 564
sd] this edn; not in F2, JnB 563
215 O] JnB 563; or F2
218 ’Tis A condescending form of address to a child.
219 (etc.)] F2 (subst.); not in JnB 563
219 (etc.) Indicating that Cupid continues to stammer this fragment until Venus rescues him.
220 warm waters Presumably some kind of spirits or diluted drink, such as brandy or whisky. For the distilling and selling of aqua vitae, see Alch., 1.1.53 and Devil, 2.1.4–7.
222 and your fizzling] not in JnB 563
222 fizzling] F2 (fisling)
222 fizzling farting (OED, Fizzle n. 1). Cf. Devil, 5.3.2. It is possible that Christmas simply means ‘fissling’, making a fuss, though OED does not record this before 1719, and its examples are from Scots or northern dialect sources. The absence of this passage from the Folger MS suggests it is a later insertion, or perhaps that the copyist censored it as too indelicate.
224 conceive understand. Perhaps with a weak play on the idea of conceiving a child.
225–6 warmoll quest A meeting of the liverymen of the ward under the presidency of the alderman (OED, Wardmote; ‘warmoll’ is an obsolete form of ‘wardmote’). OED cites Cowell’s Interpreter (1607): ‘Wardmote is a court kept in every ward in London . . . ordinarily called among them the wardmote court’; and Brinklow’s Lamentation of a Christian against the City of London (1542): ‘there is a custom in the city once a year to have a quest called the warmoll quest, to redress vices’. In describing all the wards of the city, Stow’s Survey of London has a note of how many men comprise the ‘wardmote inquest’ in each. See also Mag. Lady, 1.2.28.
226–7 hench-boys] F2 (Hinch-boyes)
226–7 hench-boys pages, who walked beside the mayor’s horse in processions. OED cites ‘K. W.’ in 1661: ‘Much of kin to those hench-boys, who on my lord mayor’s day at London were wont to run before my lady mayoress in velvet caps.’
229 Cupid —] F2 (Cupid,)
229 (etc.)] F2 (subst.); not in JnB 563
231 give him] JnB 563; give F2
231 eight pence Twopence more than Bottom was expected to get from Theseus for his performance (MND, 4.2.19–24).
233 he is] F2; hee’s JnB 563
233 out at a loss; forgetful.
237 bully boys good lads. An affectionate term, as in ‘bully Bottom’ (MND, 3.1.8).
238–9 The Epilogue / (Sings again)] G; Sings agen. The Epilogue. F2; Sing JnB 563
239 legs i.e. dancing.
240 commendation] F2; commendations JnB 563
241 the Artillery Garden The training ground of the city militia, outside the walls in Bishopgate. See Und. 44.23.
245 tires attires.
245 gi’ . . . fires shoot blanks.
246 Tom Tom of Bosom’s Inn (see 163).
248 ac-ativity The word ‘activity’ is elongated in order to fit the ballad metre. H&S note that in some mummers’ plays the presenters promise that the audience will see ‘activity’. See Tiddy (1923), 86–7; and the Fool in the Revesby Sword Play: ‘I am come to show you a little sport and activity’ (Adams, 1924, 362). For the obsolete meaning ‘feats of gymnastics’, see OED, Activity 3; and cf. Volpone, 2.2.47. The Admirals’ Men were paid for performing ‘feats of activity and tumbling’ at court in the Christmas seasons of 1588–9 and 1590–1 (Chambers, 1923, 2.136, 4.104–5).
250 children of Cheapside Denizens of the city (Cheapside being the main London thoroughfare). A cant idiom; cf. Justice Overdo preaching to the ‘children of the Fair’ and ‘sons and daughters of Smithfield’ (Bart. Fair, 2.6.52, 54) – though if the players really were youths the phrase would have had a literal application here.
250 miss fail to impress.
254 This alludes to the fact that James had knighted many wealthy citizens, a practice that aroused widespread anxiety about the sanctity of honour. Cf. Alch., 2.6.54.
256 yourself i.e. King James.
257–8 Christmas draws a political moral for the King: the citizens he has knighted should show their gratitude to him by spending their ‘pelf’ (= riches) not on their own pleasures (‘their belly’) but on entertaining him with shows like this at court annually.
257 spare’t] F2; spare JnB 563
258 of] F2; o’ JnB 563
261 Seventh or eighth] F2 (Seventh or eigth); seauen or eight JnB 563
263 The End] F2; Finis JnB 563
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