A Song
of the Moon The title is editorial. Cunningham first printed
the poem from the Newcastle MS (BL Harley 4955, fol. 53-v). H&S
describe the poem as ‘apparently a fragment of some lost entertainment
at a great house near the Peak’. Fitzmaurice (
1998), 72 suggests it was omitted from
Welbeck because it was too coarse to be
uttered in the presence of the Queen. This would tally with its position
after the previous poem in the Newcastle MS. In
Welbeck, 75–6 Fitzale is described as having ‘an industrious
collection of all the written, or reported wonders of the Peak’. It is
likely that these lines were originally conceived as following line 95
of the entertainment: Fitzale’s ‘Stint, stint your court, / Grow to be
short’ may mark the excision. The bawdy here would lead in to the
discussion of the marriage of Fitzale’s daughter. ‘I am no sprite’ (6)
is a response to Accidence’s claim in
Welbeck, 89
that ‘He can fly o’er hills and dales’ (reminiscent of Shakespeare’s
Puck); there are also evident reminiscences of Starveling’s performance
of Moonshine in
MND, 5.1.235–63. The opening
lines promise a continuation of the catalogue of wonders of the
Peak.
A Song of the Moon] G
1 wonders . . .
Peak As listed in Welbeck, 77–9, these
are St Anne’s Well at Buxton (the best-known site of pilgrimage in
Derbyshire before the Reformation), Eldon Hole (a pothole approximately
200 metres long, with an initial vertical shaft of about 60 metres; the
largest open pothole in Derbyshire), and Poole’s Hole (a pothole one
mile west of Buxton known as ‘the devil’s arse’). Richard Andrews’s poem
on Jonson’s visit to the peak is in the Newcastle MS (BL Harley MS 4955,
fols. 166v–169; see Literary Record, Electronic Edition).
3–4 break . . .
mind reveal a secret. ‘As some would say’ establishes the
character of the speaker as laboriously pedantic.
7 wight
person. (Archaic.)
8 Pressed
The speaker may have originally have been intended to ‘press’ through
the crowd (
OED, v.1
15a), like Robin Goodfellow in
Love
Restored, 31–3. The word can also mean ‘seized for use in royal
purposes’ (
OED, v.2
2).
11 day.] H&S; day JnB 431
13 merry . . .
hall ‘’Tis merry in hall when beards wag all’ (
Tilley, H55). Cf. also
Tub, 5.9.12.
14 turned] H&S; turne JnB 431
15 Morts
Harlots (often gypsies).
15 merkins
female pubic hair. (Can also be used of artificial pubic hair; here used
metonymically.)
24 it.] H&S; it JnB 431
26 heads
gives the cuckold’s horns (not recorded in
OED or in G.
Williams,
1994).
27 As she is urged to do by the standard-bearer;
‘standard’ can be slang for ‘penis’ (G. Williams,
1994). No record
of a gathering of armed bands or general musters survives for Derby in
1633 (C. Cox,
1890, 1.156), but the military puns hereabouts do seem to
imply that Jonson knew of something of the kind.
30 circle
vagina.
31 quarters ‘allusive of a woman’s sexual parts’ (G. Williams,
1994), with a
pun on the ‘quarters of the moon’.
31 lighter
more sexually free.
34 For the
breeches Cf. the proverb ‘the woman wears the breeches’ (
Tilley, B645).
35 All she needs is for her next-door neighbour to
mount her.
37 if’t] H&S; it JnB 431
37 gossips’ fellow wives’.
37 hap
fortune.
38 cap
‘The cap is the fool’s cap, the version worn by the erotic fool being a
badge of cuckoldry’ (G. Williams,
1997). It can also be used of ‘a woman
in her sexual capacity’ (G. Williams,
1997). The idea is that she is selling
sex to buy ale.
39 Pem
Waker’s Fitzale’s daughter, in Welbeck,
110–30, is called Pem; presumably Jonson first used the surname Waker in
Welbeck and then revised it out.
40 easèd.] H&S; eased JnB 431
41 in their
grease unwashed. G. Williams (
1994) does not record a sexual sense,
but the general atmosphere of innuendo suggests one.
44 seize
playing on the legal sense ‘take possession’ [of their lease].