present play are birds of prey, it is perhaps worth noting that at the beginning Lucian includes the fly among 'the other birds.' Jonson in the New Inn introduces a character named Fly, whom he describes as 'the Parasite of the Inn,' and whom he often classes as a bird; cf. 2. 2. (Wks. 5. 337):

Thou shalt be the bird

To sovereign Prue, queen of our sports, her Fly.

I have called attention in the Introduction to the fact that Sir
Pol and his wife are also birds-chattering poll-parrots. Epigram
LXXII is entitled To Fine Lady Would-be; and there is another
of two lines, LXXI, On Court Parrot:

To pluck down mine, Pol sets up new wits still;
Still 'tis his luck to praise me 'gainst his will.

Voltore, the vulture, is called so because he preys on the dead; it was a common name for legacy-hunters. Cf. Erasmus, Adagia 1. 7: 'Captatores testamentorum et hæredipetæ, vulgata metaphora vultures appellantur, quod senibus ceu cadaveribus inhient.' But Voltore is also a vulture in appearance, with his black, flapping lawyer's gown; see Staple of News 5. 1 (Wks. 5. 281):

Do, do, my gowned vulture.

It is an interesting question whether there were hints in the costumes of the other players of the various birds for which they are named.

THE ARGUMENT

Volpone and The Alchemist are the only plays of Jonson that have arguments in acrostics. His usual scorn for such ingenuities in verse is indicated in his conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden, p. 29: 'And said of that Panagyrist who wrott panagyriques in acrostics, windowes, crosses, that he was Homo miserrimæ patientiæ. He scorned Anagrams; and had ever in his mouth

Turpe est difficiles amare nugas,

Et stultus labor est ineptiarum.'

As Whalley remarks, the acrostic form of argument is taken from the similar arguments prefixed to the comedies of Plautus. These are not by Plautus, but probably by some grammarian of the second century. Their form leads to excessive brevity, and a consequent roughness of expression, which Jonson has imitated to some extent.

6 bold. The use of the adjective bold modifying the subject each, instead of an adverb modifying the verb, is a Latinism.

PROLOGVE

I Now, luck yet send vs. The word luck is object of the verb send; yet seems a little awkward; it implies that the poet has done his duty, but now hopes for luck in addition. It is evidently a makeshift substitute for God of the Quarto, which had to be eliminated on account of the stricter regulations against using sacred names on the stage.

3 the palates of the season. This would not be a complimentary phrase. For Jonson's judgment on the taste of his day, see note on Ep. Ded. 104.

4 Here is ri'me, not emptie of reason. The phrase 'rhyme or reason' has long been common both in French and English. NED. quotes examples from the thirteenth century to the present time; for the thought, cf. Discoveries, p. 124 (ed. Castelain): 'The common Rymers powre forth verses, such as they are, (ex. tempore) but there neuer comes from them one Sense, worth the life of a Day. A Rymer and a Poet, are two things.'

5 This we were bid to credit, from our Poet. 'Jonson calls himself here a poet, and his plays, poems; making use of expressions importing dignity and honour: thus in his Discoveries [Castelain, p. 119]: "A poet is that, which by the Greeks is called a maker" &c. And this name he gives to himself in the Prologue to the Silent Woman

Lest so you make the maker to judge you.'—U.

Many other quotations might be given to show that Jonson was proud to claim this title, e. g., Conversations, p. 38: 'In his merry humor he was wont to name himself The Poet.' It is to be doubted, however, whether the word is used here with any intention of distinguishing this particular play from the rest, as more poetical. It is probably merely a reminiscence of the prologues of Terence, who regularly in them refers to himself as 'the poet.' Cf. the first line of the prologue of Andria:

Poeta quom primum animum ad scribendum adpulit. There is a similar use of the word in each of the other prologues. 8 To mixe profit, with your pleasure. 'Our learned Comedian takes particular care, in many passages throughout his works, to let his audience know, that he strictly observed what his favourite author writes in the Art of Poetry:

Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci.
Lectorem delectando, pariterque monendo.

So in the second Prologue to the Silent Woman:

The ends of all, who for the scene do write
Are, or should be, to profit and delight.

And in his Introduction to Every Man out of his Humour:
Asp. To please: but whom? attentive auditors,

Such as will join their profit with their pleasure.

and in other places.'-U. Among these would be the Prologue of the Alchemist:

But when the wholesome remedies are sweet,
And in their working gain and profit meet.

and the Epilogue of the Staple of News:

Thus have you seen the maker's double scope,
To profit and delight.

The immediate source of the present passage and of its repetition, just quoted, is Erasmus' Epist. Apol. 1 D: 'In omnibus edendis libris hic unicus semper fuit scopus, ut mea industria aliquam adferam utilitatem.' It will be noticed that Jonson is practically translating the sentence. Cf. also the dedicatory epistle to Erasmus' translation into Latin of Lucian's Dream: 'Omne tulit punctum (ut scripsit Flaccus) qui miscuit utile dulci. Quod quidem aut nemo, mea sententia, aut noster hic Lucianus est assequutus, qui priscæ Comœdiæ dicacitatem, sed citra petulantiam referens: Deum immortalem! qua vafricie, quo lepore perstringit omnia, quo naso cuncta suspendit, quam omnia miro sale perfricat. . . Neque legenda, sed plane spectanda oculis exponit, ut nulla Comœdia, nulla Satyra cum hujus dialogis conferri debeat, seu voluptatem spectes, seu spectes utilitatem.' Line 34 below shows that Jonson may have been thinking of this passage.

9-14 And not as some, etc. Upton shows that Dekker is especially meant, quoting the Apologetical Dialogue at the end of Poetaster:

Pol. O, but they lay particular imputations.

...

Aut. As what? Pol. That all your writing is mere railing. Aut. Have they no other? Pol. Yes; they say you are slow, And scarce bring forth a play a year.

Jonson's usual slowness in composition was well known, as can be seen from many of the poems in Jonsonus Virbius; these lines of Owen Feltham will serve as an example:

Admit his muse was slow. 'Tis judgment's fate
To move, like greatest princes, still in state.
And those slight nothings that so soon are made,

Like mushrooms, may together live and fade.

His unusual speed in the case of Volpone is alluded to in the poem by J. Mayne in the same collection:

He that writes well, writes quick, since the rule's true

Nothing is slowly done, that's always new.

So when thy Fox had ten times acted been,

Each day was first, but that 'twas cheaper seen.

16 fiue weekes fully pen'd it. It is interesting that Erasmus in Epist. Apol. 3 E makes a similar claim of rapidity of composition: 'In hoc negotii septem plus minus dies impendi.'

17-18 From his owne hand, without a co-adiutor,

Nouice, iourney-man, or tutor. 'A most interesting passage in the Prologue shows how joint plays were written; the second hand was either 1, coadjutor, where the authors had equal powers each over his own share of the play, as in the Beaumont and Fletcher series; 2, novice, where the second hand was learning his business; and 4, the tutor, who superintended and corrected, as in the early form of some of Shakespeare's plays; or 3, journeyman, where a part of the play was put out to an underwriter, as one act of The Arraignment of London was to Cyril Tourneur.' (Fleay, Biog. Chron. 1. 373.)

21 Nor quaking custards with fierce teeth affrighted. 'In the Poetaster, Marston (not Decker, as Whalley has it) throws up the words quaking custard: the allusion, however, is not to this, but to a burlesque representation of a city feast, of which, in Jonson's days, an immense custard always made a conspicuous part. With this custard a number of foolish tricks were played, at the Lord Mayor's table, to the unspeakable delight of the guests; and some dramatic writer, perhaps, had transferred them, with improvements, to the stage, where they seem to have given equal pleasure. I suspect that Jonson's "taxing" did not always "fly like a wild goose, unclaimed of any man"; yet I cannot pretend to guess at the objects of his present satire.'-G. 'The City custards continued to be famous down to Peter Pindar's time:

"Rich as Dutch cargoes from the fragrant East

Or Custard Pudding at a City Feast.”—C.

In the first scene of The Devil is an Ass, Satan gives a list of the few occupations left for devils on earth:

He may, perchance, in tail of a sheriff's dinner,
Skip with a rhyme on the table, from New-nothing
And take his Almain leap into a custard,

Shall make my lady mayoress and her sisters
Laugh all their hoods over their shoulders.

23 Nor hales he in a gull, old ends reciting. 'Whalley observes, in the margin of his copy, that Marston is probably meant by the "reciter of old ends"; and it must be granted that they abound, as he says, in the Malcontent. The Malcontent, however, which was inscribed to Jonson, has no "gull" amongst its characters, who are all equally liberal of old ends, and all equally oracular.'-G.

26 make Bet'lem a faction. Add a new disorderly party to Bedlam. On Bethlehem, or Bedlam, see Stow 1. 164-5: 'Next unto the parrish church of S. Buttolph, is a fayre Inne for receipt of Travellers: then an Hospitall of S. Mary of Bethelem, founded by Simon Fitz Mary one of the Sheriffes of London in the yeare 1246. He founded it to have beene a Priorie of Cannons with brethren and sisters, and king Edward the thirde granted a protection, which I have seene, for the brethren Milicia beate Maria de Bethlem, within the Citty of London, the 14. yeare of his raigne. It was an Hospitall for distracted people, Stephen Geninges Marchant Taylor gave 40. li. toward purchase of the patronage by his Testament 1523. the Mayor and Communalty purchased the patronage thereof with all the landes and tenementes thereunto belonging, in the yeare 1546. the same yeare King Henry the eight gave this Hospital unto the Cittie; the Church and Chappell whereof were taken down in the raigne of Queene Elizabeth and houses builded there, by the Governours of Christes Hospitall in London. In this place people that bee distraight in wits, are by the suite of their friendes receyved and kept as afore, but not without charges to their bringers in.'

27 Nor made he' his play, for iests, stolne from each table. He did not collect jests and then write a play to include them, but rather planned his play first, then invented his jests to fit it. For the prevalence of the former custom, cf. the Induction to Cynthia's Revels: 'Besides, they could wish your poets would leave to be promoters of other men's jests, and to way-lay all stale apothegms, or old books, they can hear of, in print, or otherwise, to farce their scenes withal. That they would not so penuriously glean wit from every laundress or hackney-man, or derive their best grace, with servile imitation, from common stages, or observation of the