Money is again
designated
as a whore in the _Staple of News_
4.
4.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
La.
_, _Wks.
_ 6.
74, 5.
In Sir Thomas Overbury's
_Character_ of _The Almanac-Maker_ (Morley, p. 56) we read: 'The verses
of his book have a worse pace than ever had Rochester hackney; for his
prose, 'tis dappled with ink-horn terms, and may serve for an almanac;
but for his judging at the uncertainty of weather, any old shepherd
shall make a dunce of him. '
ACT II.
=2. 1. 1 Sir, money's a whore=, etc. Coleridge, _Notes_,
p. 280. emends: 'Money, sir, money's a', &c. Cunningham, on the
other hand, thinks that 'the 9-syllable arrangement is quite in
Jonson's manner, and that it forces an emphasis upon every word
especially effective at the beginning of an act. ' See variants.
Money is again designated as a whore in the _Staple of News_
4. 1: 'Saucy Jack, away: Pecunia is a whore. ' In the same
play Pennyboy, the usurer, is called a 'money-bawd. ' Dekker
(_Non-dram. Wks. _ 2. 137) speaks of keeping a bawdy-house for
Lady Pecunia. The figure is a common one.
=2. 1 . 3 Via. = This exclamation is quite common among the dramatists
and is explained by Nares as derived from the Italian exclamation
_via! _ 'away, on! ' with a quibble on the literal of L. _via_, a way.
The _Century Dictionary_ agrees substantially with this derivation.
_Character_ of _The Almanac-Maker_ (Morley, p. 56) we read: 'The verses
of his book have a worse pace than ever had Rochester hackney; for his
prose, 'tis dappled with ink-horn terms, and may serve for an almanac;
but for his judging at the uncertainty of weather, any old shepherd
shall make a dunce of him. '
ACT II.
=2. 1. 1 Sir, money's a whore=, etc. Coleridge, _Notes_,
p. 280. emends: 'Money, sir, money's a', &c. Cunningham, on the
other hand, thinks that 'the 9-syllable arrangement is quite in
Jonson's manner, and that it forces an emphasis upon every word
especially effective at the beginning of an act. ' See variants.
Money is again designated as a whore in the _Staple of News_
4. 1: 'Saucy Jack, away: Pecunia is a whore. ' In the same
play Pennyboy, the usurer, is called a 'money-bawd. ' Dekker
(_Non-dram. Wks. _ 2. 137) speaks of keeping a bawdy-house for
Lady Pecunia. The figure is a common one.
=2. 1 . 3 Via. = This exclamation is quite common among the dramatists
and is explained by Nares as derived from the Italian exclamation
_via! _ 'away, on! ' with a quibble on the literal of L. _via_, a way.
The _Century Dictionary_ agrees substantially with this derivation.
