_ 623:
He wears a hoop-ring on his thumb; he has
Of gravidad a dose, full in the face.
He wears a hoop-ring on his thumb; he has
Of gravidad a dose, full in the face.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
=5 a subtill thing. = I. e. , thin, airy, spiritual, and so not
occupying space.
=6 worne in a thumbe-ring. = 'Nothing was more common, as we learn
from Lilly, than to carry about familiar spirits, shut up in rings,
watches, sword-hilts, and other articles of dress. '--G.
I have been unable to verify Gifford's statement from Lilly,
but the following passage from Harsnet's _Declaration_ (p. 13)
confirms it: 'For compassing of this treasure, there was a
consociation betweene 3 or 4 priests, _deuill-coniurers_, and
4 _discouerers_, or _seers_, reputed to carry about with them,
their familiars in rings, and glasses, by whose suggestion they
came to notice of those golden hoards. '
Gifford says that thumb-rings of Jonson's day were set with jewels
of an extraordinary size, and that they appear to have been 'more
affected by magistrates and grave citizens than necromancers. ' Cf.
_I Henry IV_ 2. 4: 'I could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring. '
Also _Witts Recreat. _, _Epig.
_ 623:
He wears a hoop-ring on his thumb; he has
Of gravidad a dose, full in the face.
Glapthorne, _Wit in a Constable_, 1639, 4. 1: 'An alderman--I may
say to you, he has no more wit than the rest of the bench, and that
lies in his thumb-ring. '
=8 In compasse of a cheese-trencher. = The figure seems forced
to us, but it should be remembered that trenchers were a very
important article of table equipment in Jonson's day. They were
often embellished with 'posies,' and it is possible that Jonson was
thinking of the brevity of such inscriptions. Cf. Dekker, _North-Ward
Hoe_ 3. 1 (_Wks. _ 3. 38): 'Ile have you make 12. poesies for a dozen
of cheese trenchers. ' Also _Honest Whore_, Part I, Sc. 13; and
Middleton, _Old Law_ 2. 1 (_Wks. _ 2.
