_ Nay, not to me sir,
But to the faire right of your worshipfull place.
But to the faire right of your worshipfull place.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
Here again we have a punning allusion to the uncovered head of
the gentleman-usher. 'It was a piece of state, that the servants
of the nobility, particularly the gentleman-usher, should attend
bare-headed. ' Nares, _Gloss. _ For numerous passages illustrating the
practice both in regard to the gentleman-usher and to the coachman,
see the quotations in Nares, and Ford, _Lover's Melancholy_, _Wks. _
1. 19; Chapman, _Gentleman-Usher_, _Wks. _ 1. 263; and the following
passage, _ibid. _ 1. 273:
_Vin. _ I thanke you sir.
Nay pray be couerd; O I crie you mercie,
You must be bare.
_Bas. _ Euer to you my Lord.
_Vin.
_ Nay, not to me sir,
But to the faire right of your worshipfull place.
A passage from Lenton (see note 4. 4. 134) may also be quoted: 'He is
forced to stand bare, which would urge him to impatience, but for the
hope of being covered, or rather the delight hee takes in shewing his
new-crisp't hayre, which his barber hath caused to stand like a print
hedge, in equal proportion. '
The dramatists ridiculed it by insisting that the coachman should be
not only bare-headed, but bald. Cf. 2. 3. 36 and Massinger, _City
Madam_, _Wks. _ p. 331: 'Thou shalt have thy proper and bald-headed
coachman. ' Jonson often refers to this custom. Cf. _Staple of News_,
_Wks. _ 5. 232:
Such as are bald and barren beyond hope,
Are to be separated and set by
For ushers to old countesses: and coachmen
To mount their boxes reverently, etc.
