' Jonson ridicules the use of the
word in similar fashion in the Masque of _Mercury
Vindicated
from
the Alchemists_.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
3. 86-8 let ... hazard.= Merecraft seems to mean: 'You are in no
hurry. Pray therefore allow me to defer your business until I have
brought opportune aid to this gentleman's distresses at a time when
his fortunes are in a hazardous condition.' The pregnant use of the
verb _timing_ and the unusual use of the word _terms_ for a period of
time render the meaning peculiarly difficult.
=3. 3. 106 a Businesse.= This was recognized as the technical
expression. Sir Thomas Overbury ridicules it in his _Characters_,
ed. Morley, p. 72: 'If any private quarrel happen among our great
courtiers, he (the Roaring Boy) proclaims the business--that's the
word, the business--as if the united force of the Roman Catholics
were making up for Germany.
' Jonson ridicules the use of the
word in similar fashion in the Masque of _Mercury
Vindicated
from
the Alchemists_.
=3. 3. 133 hauings.= Jonson uses the expression again in _Ev. Man
in_, _Wks._ 1. 29, and _Gipsies Met._, _Wks._ 7. 364. It
is also used in _Muse's Looking Glasse_, _O. Pl._ 9. 175.
