No More Learning

Fair_,
_Wks. _ 4. 386: 'She hath been before me, punk, pinnace and bawd,
any time these two and twenty years. ' Gifford says on this passage:
'The usual gradation in infamy. A _pinnace_ was a light vessel built
for speed, generally employed as a tender. Hence our old dramatists
constantly used the word for a person employed in love messages, a
go-between in the worst sense, and only differing from a bawd in not
being stationary. ' A glance at the examples given above will show,
however, that the term was much more elastic than this explanation
would indicate.

The dictionaries give no suggestion of the origin of the metaphor.
I suspect that it may be merely a borrowing from classical usage.
Cf. _Menaechmi_ 2. 3. 442:

Ducit lembum dierectum nauis praedatoria.

In _Miles Gloriosus_ 4. 1.
986, we have precisely the same
application as in the English dramatists: 'Haec celox (a swift
sailing vessel) illiust, quae hinc agreditur, internuntia. '

=1. 6. 62 th' are right. = Whalley's interpretation is, of
course, correct. See variants.

=1. 6. 73 Not beyond that rush. = Rushes took the place of
carpets in the days of Elizabeth. Shakespeare makes frequent
reference to the custom (see Schmidt). The following passage from
Dr. Bulleyne has often been quoted: 'Rushes that grow upon dry
groundes be good to strew in halles, chambers and galleries, to
walk upon, defending apparel, as traynes of gownes and kertles
from dust. ' Cf. also _Cyn. Rev.