The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

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The Masque of Owls (1624)

Edited by James Knowles

INTRODUCTION

The Masque of Owls was staged for Prince Charles on 19 August 1624 at Kenilworth Castle during the King and Prince’s summer progress (Masque Archive, Owls, 1). The Coventry city accounts indicate that Owls belonged to a larger entertainment, including a substantial feast, and records of payments exist for the ringers in Kenilworth to mark the Prince’s arrival (J. Nichols, Progresses, 4.996; REED Coventry, 419), so possibly the text formed a mealtime interlude or after-dinner amusement. It has a relatively simple two-part structure, with Captain Cox’s speech (1–88) followed by six ‘owls’, formerly men, each representing a different kind of bankrupt: a London tobacconist, a London cheesemonger, a Coventry weaver, a sergeant, a Spanish tutor, and a swearing knight (89–178).

It is difficult to judge the exact tone of this entertainment. Captain Cox’s speech oscillates between satirical thrusts at provincial pageantry (its Pegasus is a hobby-horse) and at Coventry’s Protestant elite, but equally the fantastical Cox is himself a ‘ghost’ and his behaviour and archaic language makes him as much a target of ridicule. Moreover, how the owls were represented – and, indeed, performed – would determine the satirical bite of the text. One possible source in Aelian’s De Natura Animalium (On Animals) describes how the dancing Little Horned Owl delights in being caricatured (see Title n.), but there may also be the harsher implication that they are subhuman mimics, like the ‘owls, and popinjays, and ravens, and pies, and other such like birds … taught by man to prate they know not what’ (Second Tome of Homilies, 153; Fudge, 2000, 70). If these bird-men recalled the sinister bird-like gulls of Volpone, then the satire acquires much less benign resonances.

The location may provide some guidance towards the purpose of the text. Kenilworth Castle was not only part of the Duchy of Cornwall, the estate traditionally granted to maintain the Prince of Wales (and which Charles had inherited from his brother, Prince Henry), it was also a location of great symbolic resonance. Kenilworth was famous as the site of The Princely Pleasures, Robert Dudley’s stupendous nineteen-day entertainment of Elizabeth I with Arthurian water-shows, masques, a rustic bride-ale, and a performance of the Coventry Hock Tuesday play. Jonson draws on Robert Laneham’s Letter (1575), the most famous description of the occasion, in Britain’s Burse, The Fortunate Isles, and The Entertainment at Welbeck, and even by the 1620s Kenilworth had come to epitomize a nostalgic view of Elizabethan England embodied in the shared festive culture of the progress entertainment which had united Queen and country (Knowles, 2007; J. M. Richards, 2002, 534). Thus, although Owls lacks many formal elements associated with the court masque, and is closer to the impromptu semi-dramatic disguisings fostered by the Marquis of Buckingham (it is mentioned alongside Maynard’s ‘Masque at Burley’ for the Marquis, see Masque Archive, Owls, 1) in which aristocrats danced the parts of rustics and mechanicals (Knowles, 2000; M. Butler, 1993b, 161). Owls also shares topics with near contemporaneous masques, especially in references to mummers’ plays, the fascination with Tudor writers, and with ‘popular’, festive culture.

Owls echoes the late Jacobean concern with the preservation of traditional pastimes against the encroachments of sabbatarianism and Protestantism. Coventry had a reputation for the latter; in the 1630s Laudians called Coventry a ‘second Geneva’ (Hughes, 1992, 75). So the revival of a traditional pastime, albeit in ghostly form, may have supported royal policy and twitted Coventry’s stricter Protestants, while the articulation of a pro-pastimes view from within a royal demesne, may have sought to turn a favourite anti-government theme, nostalgia for the deceased Elizabeth I, back against the Protestants (see also Title n.) The historic echo of an occasion of apparent national harmony recalls how Elizabeth not only enjoyed the Hock Tuesday play and paid for the feast, but how the 1575 performance had itself been a plea for the revival of ancient pastimes against clerical stricture (Laneham, Letter, C4v and C2). Given its performance in 1624, Owls seems to draw upon the widespread delight at the failure of the Spanish match and James’s decision to allow limited intervention in the Palatinate (145–55 and 109–11) and, through its faint Arthurian echoes, presents a conciliatory gesture towards more martial interests, ultimately suggesting the possibility of a return to a shared festive culture.

The Oxford editors relegated Owls to a section called ‘Later Entertainments’, alongside the Bolsover and Welbeck entertainments. However, unlike these other texts, it was originally sequenced in the main ‘Masques’ section of F2. It is distinctly possible (as Herford and Simpson, and Orgel note) that the Third Owl (115–34) was censored and replaced by 165–78. Unfortunately, an almost total absence of contemporary documentary evidence makes it impossible to resolve this issue, and nothing is known of either the performance or performers. This edition follows F2.

 

THE MASQUE OF  OWLS AT  KENILWORTH

Presented by the  ghost of Captain Cox mounted in his  hobby-horse.  1624

  CAPTAIN COX

  Room, room, for my horse will  wince

If he come within so many yards of a  prince,

And though he have not on his wings,

He will do strange things.

He is the  Pegasus that  uses 5

 To wait on  Warwick muses,

And on  gaudy-days he paces

Before the  Coventry  graces.

For to tell you true, and in rhyme,

He was foaled in  Queen Elizabeth’s time, 10

When the great Earl of   Leicester

In this castle did feast her.

Now, I am not so stupid

To think you think me a  Cupid,

Or a Mercury that  sit  him, 15

Though  these cocks here would  fit him,

But a spirit very civil,

Neither poet’s god nor devil,

An old Kenilworth fox,

The ghost of Captain Cox, 20

For which I am the bolder

To wear a cock on each shoulder.

This Captain Cox, by  St Mary,

Was at  Bullen with King Harry,

And, if some do not  vary, 25

Had a goodly  library,

By which he was discernèd

To be one of the learnèd

To entertain  the Queen here,

When last she was seen here, 30

And for the town of Coventry

To act to her sovereignty.

But so his lot fell out

That serving then afoot,

And being a little man, 35

When the skirmish began

’Twixt the  Saxon and the Dane

(For thence the story was  ta’en)

He was not so well seen

As he would have been o’the Queen, 40

Though   his sword were twice so long

As any man’s else in the throng,

And for his sake the play

 Was called for the second day.

But he made a vow, 45

And he performs it now,

That, were he alive or dead,

Hereafter it should never be said

But  Captain Cox would serve on horse

For better or for worse, 50

If any prince came hither,

 And his horse should have a feather.

Nay, such a prince it might be

Perhaps he should have  three.

Now,  sir, in your approach 55

The rumbling of your coach

Awaking me, his ghost,

I come to play your host,

And feast your eyes and ears

Neither with  dogs nor bears, 60

Though that have been a  fit

Of our  main  shire-wit,

In times heretofore,

But now we have got a little more.

These, then, that we present 65

With a most  loyal intent

And, as the  author saith,

No ill-meaning to the Catholic faith,

Are not so much beasts as fowls,

But a very nest of owls, 70

And natural,  so thrive I,

I found them in the  ivy,

A thing that though I blundered at;

It may in time be wondered at,

If the place but affords 75

Any store of  lucky birds,

As I make ’em to flush

Each owl out of his  bush.

Now, these owls, some say, were  men,

And they may be  so again 80

If once they endure the light

Of Your Highness’ sight;

For  bankrupts, we have known,

Rise to more than their own

With a  little, little savour 85

Of the Prince’s favour.

But, as you like their tricks,

I’ll  spring ’em:  they’re but six.

 Hey, Owl First!

This bird is London bred, 90

As you may see by his horned head,

And had like to have been  ta’en

At his shop in   Ivy Lane,

Where he sold by the  penny

Tobacco as good as any. 95

But whether it did provoke

His conscience, he  sold smoke,

Or some other  toy he took,

Towards his calling to look.

He fled by moonshine thence, 100

And  broke for sixteen pence.

Hey, Owl Second!

This too, the more is the pity,

Is of the breed of the same city,

A true owl of London. 105

That gives out he is undone,

Being a cheesemonger,

By trusting two of the younger

 Captains for the hunger

Of their half-starved number, 110

Whom since they have shipped away,

And  left him God to pay,

With those  ears for a badge

Of their  dealing with his  Madge.

Hey, Owl Third! 115

A  pure native bird

This, and though his hue

Be not  Coventry blue,

Yet is he undone

By the thread he has spun; 120

For since the wise town

 Has let the sports down

Of May games and morris,

For which he right sorry is,

Where their maids and their  makes, 125

At dancings and  wakes,

Had their  napkins and  posies

And the  wipers for their noses,

And their smocks  all  bewrought

With his thread which they bought, 130

 It now lies on his hands,

And having neither wit nor lands

Is ready to hang or choke him

In a skein of that that broke him.

Hey, Owl Fourth!135

 Was once a bankrupt of worth,

And having run a  shifting race

At last by money and  grace

Got him a  sergeant’s place,

And to be one of  chase. 140

A full fortnight was not spent

But out comes the Parliament,

Takes away the  use of his mace,

And left him in a worse than his first case.

Hey, Owl the fifth! 145

But here was a defeat,

Never any so great,

Of a  Don, a Spanish  reader,

Who had thought to have been the leader,

Had the  match gone on, 150

Of our ladies one by one,

And  triumphed our whole nation,

In his  rodomont fashion.

But now since the breach,

He has not a scholar to teach. 155

Hey, Owl  sixth!

The  bird  bringer-up is a knight,

But a passionate wight,

Who, since the  act against swearing

(The tale’s worth your hearing) 160

In this short time’s growth

Hath at twelve pence an oath

(For that, I take it, is the rate)

Sworn himself out of his estate.

  The third, varied. 165

A  crop-eared  scrivener this,

Who when he heard but the  whis-

per of moneys to come down,

Fright got him out of town

With all the bills and  bands 170

Of other men’s in his hands,

And cried, ‘Who will drive the trade,

Since such a law they had made?’

It was not he that broke,

 Two i’the hundred spoke. 175

Nor cared he for the curse;

He could not hear much worse,

 He had his ears in his purse.


THE END

Title: OWLS Although owls might normally be associated with wisdom (Athena’s owl), or treated as birds of ill omen, they were also often seen as stupid by early modern writers. Cf. ‘As blind as an owl’ (Tilley, O92). Wither (1635), N1, distinguishes between the Athenian owl and ‘English owlets’ whose watchfulness is caused by ‘lust’ and ‘sottishness’. Jonson’s contemporary sources do not always carefully differentiate between kinds of owls; however, Swan (1665), 3E2, separates the great owl, screech owl, and howlet. While the reference to the ‘Madge’ (114) confuses the issue, the allusions to ears (91, 166) suggest the Coventry birds are horned or short-eared owls. Jonson may draw on classical accounts (Aelian, De Natura Animalia, Of Animals, 1.29; Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 9.391; Aristotle, Historia Animalium, The History of Animals, 592b and 597b; Pliny, Natural History, 10.33) of dancing horned owls that delight in being caricatured. This may not be unconnected to the birds’ stupidity, since fowlers were supposed to distract the birds by encouraging them to perform so they could be easily netted (Athenaeus, 9.391; Aristotle, 597b). The myth was known in the early modern period (see Turner, 1903, 131), probably through Pliny, who mentions the dance and describes the eared owl as copying other birds and as ‘a hanger on’ that ‘performs a kind of dance’ (Pliny, 10.33).
Title KENILWORTH Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, had reverted to the Crown in 1603 and became part of the Duchy of Cornwall estate in 1611. Although no longer a permanent residence, and stripped of much of its original furnishings and statuary, Hollar’s 1650 engraving (Dugdale, 1656, V3) shows a substantial edifice, and the 1609 survey valued the castle at over £28,000 (J. H. Harvey, 1945, 107). After 1623–4 the estate was leased to Robert Carey, Earl of Monmouth (Dugdale, 1656, X4v; VCH Warwicks, 6.139; A. G. Lee, 1964, 149, 165, 187). Much enlarged and improved by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1531–88), the castle became famous when he, Elizabeth I’s favourite, entertained her between 9 and 27 July 1575. The entertainments included an Arthurian mock-battle on water and speeches provided by George Gascoigne (J. Nichols, 1788, 1.1–92). See also Introduction.
Title ghost Cf. Leicester’s Ghost (written before 1605), ‘Room for my Lord of Leicester, though it be but his shadow!’ (Rodgers, 1972, 3). This widely circulated manuscript pamphlet attacked Leicester’s dominant role as favourite, and used the image of Elizabeth ‘that peerless queen of happy memory’ to criticize Stuart government (Rodgers, 1972, 9, 19, 31). Owls appropriates the tropes of Protestant critics and uses them to present a critique of sabbatarianism.
Title hobby-horse A costume horse designed to fit round the waist of the dancer or actor; usually made of buckram or another light material. Most commonly associated with morris dancing. The Kenilworth entertainment had included tilting and cavalry displays; this mock-horse offers an antithetical vision. It is possible that one site for this performance would have been the tiltyard for which Kenilworth was famous (Dugdale, 1656, V4v).
Title 1624] Nichols; 1626 F2, F3
Title Captain Cox Described by Laneham, Letter, as ‘marching in valiantly before’ and as ‘clean trust and gartered above the knee, all fresh in a velvet cap . . . flourishing with a tonsword’ (C3v). Cox, who acted as presenter of the Coventry Hock Play (see 37n.) was supposed to have been a Coventry mason, aleconner (a parish official who oversaw the quality of ale, cf. Burse, 173n.), and marshal of the musters (Laneham, Letter, C3v), but no other records confirm his existence. He became a famous figure in part because of the extensive library of romances, broadsheet, and black-letter texts and ballads described in Laneham, C2v–C3v. See Miskimin (1977), 187–93.
1 SH] CAP. COXE. F2
1 Room, room The traditional cry of mummers at the opening of their play (i.e. ‘make room’). Cf. Laneham’s Letter describing the arrival of the Hock Play performers (see 37n.): ‘But aware, keep back, make room now, here they come’ (C2v, C3v).
1 wince kick restlessly from impatience (OED, 1). Cf. Tilley, H700.
2 prince] F3; Prinee F2
5 Pegasus The winged horse of the muses.
5 uses is accustomed to, makes a habit of.
6 To wait on (1) To be in readiness to receive orders (hence to be a servant); (2) to attend, especially to proceed ahead, or accompany someone as a mark of honour (OED, Wait v.1 9a and 13b).
6 Warwick Warwickshire.
7 gaudy-days festival days.
8 Coventry The town lies about five miles north of Kenilworth. It was one of England’s most important towns in the fourteenth century but had long declined, although it was still famous for its cloth manufacturing (see 118 and n.).
8 graces women; with a play on ‘the Graces’ (perhaps suggested by ‘muses’, 6). Possibly it also satirizes the pretensions of Coventry’s civic leaders to religious purity: ‘grace’ is the theological concept of the favour of God (OED, Grace 11). Coventry’s civic elite would not have been delighted with a hobby-horse before their processions since they had suppressed maypoles in 1591 and by 1605 even forbade children to play in the street (Bolton, 1969, 219).
10 Queen] Q. F2
11–12 Leicester . . . feast See Title n. (KENILWORTH). Feast would be pronounced ‘fest’ so ‘Leicester’ and ‘feast her’ would rhyme. Cf. Epicene, 1.1.71–2.
11 Leicester] F2 (Lester)
14–15 Cupid . . . Mercury Winged gods.
15 sit him Sit astride the horse (cf. OED Sit v., 33a = to ride).
15 him the horse.
16 these cocks Captain Cox apparently wore a cock on each shoulder, and the two birds punningly allude to his name as two cocks = cox. Cf. 22.
16 fit him i.e. suit him: Mercury was associated with the cockerel.
23 St Mary Suitable for Cox to swear by: St Mary’s Hall by St Michael’s Church was a well-known Coventry landmark (see Reader, 1810, 181).
24 Bullen Boulogne, captured by Henry Ⅷ in 1544, an occasion celebrated in the seventeenth century. Cf. Old Meg of Herefordshire (1609), A3: ‘Bullen when great drums wore broken heads’). Also a synonym for ‘old-fashioned’ (see Dekker, 1929, 18), and for an easy victory as in the proverbial ‘Our fathers won at Boulogne, who never came within report of the cannon’ (Tilley, F100).
25 vary Give a divergent account (OED, 4).
26 library See Title n. (cox).
29 the Queen Elizabeth Ⅰ.
37 Saxon . . . Dane The Coventry Hock Tuesday play (performed on the second Sunday after Easter) showed the overthrow of the Danes by the Saxons near Coventry in 1002. It probably started in 1416 and was regularly performed up to at least 1565 but was suppressed sometime thereafter. The 1575 performance for Queen Elizabeth, described in Laneham, Letter, C3v–C4v, was partly an appeal for royal support for continued performances. It was staged again in 1576 and is mentioned in the Coventry ordinances in 1591, but no further references have been found (T. Sharp, 1825, 125–32, and REED Coventry, xx). The Kenilworth version combined military processions and displays with ‘Danish lance-knights on horseback and then the English each with their alder-pole martially in their hand’ first tilting ‘with furious encounters’ at each other and then fighting on foot. They were then followed by footmen from both sides who paraded themselves in geometrical patterns until they, too, fought. Eventually, the Danes were vanquished and taken off in conquest by the English women (Laneham, Letter, C3v–4).
38 ta’en] tane F2
41 his sword Possibly the ‘tonsword’ carried by Cox (Laneham, Letter, C2, C3v). ‘Tonsword’ is only known through Laneham; perhaps a two-handed sword?
41 his] Wh; this F2
44 The Queen was distracted from seeing the play by ‘delectable dancing in the chamber’ and the ‘great throng and unruliness of the people’ (Laneham, Letter, C4v), and so it was repeated the next Tuesday.
49 Captain] Cap. F2; Capt. F3
52 indented in F2
54 three The Prince of Wales’s crest was three ostrich feathers.
55 sir Prince Charles.
60 dogs nor bears On 14 July Elizabeth was entertained with the baiting of thirteen bears. See Laneham, Letter, B4–B5v.
61 fit Verse of a song, part of a poem. A deliberate archaism, perhaps suggesting chivalric romance or a ballad. Cf. Welbeck, 230.
62 main shire-wit] H&S; maine-shire wit F2
62 shire-wit A pun on the ‘county wit’ and ‘sheer wit’, that is, downright or absolute wit. ‘Sheer-wit’ was used in the later seventeenth century as a fashionable term for some particular form of humour (OED, 8b). Cf. Welbeck, 172.
66–8 loyal . . . faith i.e. offending neither Catholics nor Protestants. Laneham alluded to the attempts of Coventry preachers to abolish pastimes as papist and defended the Hock Tuesday play as ‘without ill example of mannerz, papistry, or any superstition’ (Laneham, Letter, G2).
67 author Laneham: see 66–8n.
71 so thrive I ‘so may I prosper’ (used as a mild oath to reinforce the sentence).
72 ivy A place of concealment (OED, Ivy-bush); also the sign for a tavern, perhaps implying the ‘owls’ are drunk despite their pretensions to purity.
76 lucky birds Punning on ‘bird’ = a jocular name, ‘fellow’ or ‘cove’. Cf. Gypsies (Burley), 203.
78 bush See 72n.
79 men See 89–178n.
80 so again] F3 (so agen); soagen F2
83 bankrupts The early modern legal sense of ‘bankrupt’ was directed towards those who absconded with the property of their creditors; popularly the term simply meant ‘a fugitive from creditors’ (OED, Bankrupt 2).
85 little, little] little-little F2
88 spring ’em make them rise from cover; an expression often used of game birds such as partridges (OED, Spring 18).
88 they’re] this edn; they are F2, F3; they’are H&S
89–178 F2 leaves the staging unclear. Gifford suggested the owls were statuettes; H&S imagine ‘rustic actors who danced out’ wearing ‘horned’ heads and feathers. The text requires that Cox should ‘spring’ em’ which may suggest some kind of revelation, and it is possible that the performance resembled James Shirley’s The Triumph of Peace (1633), where an owl appears from an ivy-bush (S. Wells, 1967, 284, 293–4, and 310, 62–3n.). Shirley’s masque does not specify whether the owl danced or simply walked (he is surrounded by other dancing birds) but the birds were played by boys, whereas in Owls ‘these owls, some say, were men’ (79), which may allude either to their transformation into birds, or else to the use of adult performers. The likely source for Owls suggests the owls might have danced (see Title n., OWLS).
92 ta’en] tane F2
93 Ivy Lane A City of London street that ran north from Paternoster Row to Newgate Street. Stow says it was named for the ivy growing there (Sugden, 280).
93 Ivy Lane] Jvy-lane F2
94 penny] F3; peney F2
97 sold smoke swindled. ‘To sell smoke’ comes from Lat. fumum vendere, to act dishonestly (OED, Smoke 4f); ‘smoke’ was anything of no value or substance (OED, 4d). Cf. Tilley, S576.
98 toy trifle.
101 broke became bankrupt.
109 Captains Leaders of the English troops that had left to fight in Germany on behalf of the protestant Elector Palatine. The arrival of the German mercenary, Count Mansfeldt (1580–1626) had attracted much public comment in April 1624. He had been cordially entertained by Charles and Buckingham, and received permission to raise 13,000 English troops and a provisional promise of £20,000 monthly. The campaign to restore the Elector Palatine and his wife, Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of James I, threatened to involve England in the European war and politically divided England (Cogswell, 1989, 239–44).
112 left . . . pay i.e. left him unpaid. The phrase ‘leave God to pay’ or ‘God pays’ was used for a bad debt. Cf. Epigr. 12.
113 ears . . . badge His ears, implicitly compared to a cuckold’s horns, are the mark (‘badge’) of his shame at being financially and sexually duped.
114 dealing i.e. sexual dealing.
114 Madge A barn owl. Cf. EMI (F), 2.2.18–19: ‘I’ll sit in a barn with Madge Owlet and catch mice first.’ Swan, Speculum Mundi (1635), 3E2v: ‘Also there is Ulula, and that is that which we call the owlet or Madge.’
116 pure of unmixed (i.e. Coventry) descent (OED, 2b); Puritan (OED, 5b). Jonson often uses ‘pure’ mockingly of Puritans; see Poet., 4.1.5, 14, and Dame Purecraft in Bart. Fair. Coventry had a growing reputation for hard-line Protestantism and boasted several lectureships, hosted a Baptist church by 1614, and had only received its new charter in 1622 after the King had been reassured of the city’s religious conformity (Reader, 1810, 53; M. D. Harris, 1898, 203; and M. D. Harris, 1924, 5), although in 1611 the bishop reported there were ‘not above seven who would conform themselves’ (Bolton, 1969, 219).
118 Coventry blue A blue thread manufactured at Coventry and used for embroidery.
122–3 Traditional pastimes, such as the maypole and maying, had been the target of strict Protestant reformers and had occasioned James I’s Book of Sports (1618). See 8n.
125 makes lovers, mates (OED, Make 5). An archaic usage by 1620.
126 wakes celebrations.
127–8 napkins . . . noses Napkins were associated with morris dancers (cf. Gypsies, Burley, 420) but also with rustic weddings. In Welbeck, 224–6, the ‘old May Lady’ and bride wears scarves (often given as favours at weddings) and handkerchiefs.
127 posies] poses F2
128 wipers handkerchiefs. Embroidered handkerchiefs could be an expensive accessory or a gift at lower-class weddings (see Linthicum, 270).
129 all bewrought] Nichols; all-be-wrought F2
129 bewrought embroidered.
131 i.e. due to his opposition to the pastimes Third Owl has destroyed the market for his thread.
136 The implication is that he was a fraudulent trader and devoid of ‘worth’ = (1) money, and (2) honesty. See 83n.
137 shifting cheating. Cf. the character Shift in EMO.
138 grace luck (OED, 10).
139 sergeant’s A sergeant was a petty judicial officer, often the employee of municipal authorities (OED, 8a).
140 chase pursuit.
143 use . . . mace i.e. deprives him of his symbol of office. The reference to ‘Parliament’ (142) is unexplained.
148 Don Spaniard.
148 reader teacher, specifically one who expounds to pupils (OED, 4a).
150 match The proposed marriage of Prince Charles and the Spanish Infanta caused widespread consternation, and its collapse in 1623 was widely celebrated, including in Coventry (Reader, 1810, 63). See Neptune, Introduction.
152 triumphed conquered, triumphed over.
153 rodomont boaster, braggart.
156 sixth!] F2 (sixt.)
157 bird bringer-up] Wh; Bird-bringer up F2
157 bringer-up last person (he brings up the rear). From military terminology.
159 act against swearing A bill against profane swearing was introduced in the 1624 parliament (Ruigh, 1971, 161); see ‘An Act against Swearing and Cursing’ (21ο Jac.1.c.20 in Luders, 1819, 4, Pt 2, 1229–30). Swearers and cursers were made to pay a fine of twelve pence per oath which was donated to the poor.
165 It is not clear why the Third Owl was replaced with these more anodyne lines (166–78) on usurious practices, but the attack on puritanism may have been offensive to the civic elite of Coventry.
165 set at right F2, aligned with the start of lines 135, 145, 156
166 crop-eared Ear-cropping was a standard form of punishment (OED cites this example), but ‘crop-eared’ also = short-eared, an allusion to the owl.
166 scrivener (1) a professional scribe (OED, 1), or (2) a usurer (OED, 3). Often they were punished for misdemeanours, such as copying libels or lending at excessive rates, by ear-cropping. See 175n.
167–8 whis-|per A classicism rather than an awkward enjambment. Cf. Sej. 2.361–2n.
170 bands bonds (financial agreements). See 175n.
175 Two . . . hundred H&S state that the current interest rate of two per cent had been established in 1624, but 21ο Jac.1.c.17 (Luders, 1819, 4, Pt 2, 1223–4) establishes a rate of eight per cent. Under the same act scriveners and scriveners’ brokers were forbidden to take more than five per cent for the brokage of a loan or one percent for making or renewing a bond, although the punishment was a fine rather than ear-cropping.
178 i.e. after his ears have been cropped. Cf. Staple, 5.2.83–4.
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But a very nest of owls, See more
In this short time’s growth See more
If the place but affords See more
Hey, Owl the fifth! See more
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Hey, Owl Third! See more
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Of their See more
As you may see by his horned head, See more
A See more
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For to tell you true, and in rhyme, See more
An old Kenilworth fox, See more
And for the town of Coventry See more
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Where their maids and their See more
He is the See more
In times heretofore, See more
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