I charge ye not to open the door to
give them an answer, but whisper't through the keyhole!
give them an answer, but whisper't through the keyhole!
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
90-100]:
Caue quemquam alienum in aedis intromiseris.
Quod quispiam ignem quaerat, extingui uolo,
Ne causae quid sit quod te quispiam quaeritet.
Nam si ignis uiuet, tu extinguere extempulo,
Tum aquam aufugisse dicito, si quis petet.
Cultrum, securim, pistillum, mortarium,
Quae utenda uasa semper uicini rogant,
Fures uenisse atque abstulisse dicito.
Profecto in aedis meas me absente neminem
Volo intromitti, atque etiam hoc praedico tibi,
Si Bona Fortuna ueniat, ne intromiseris.
Jonson had already made use of a part of this passage:
Put out the fire, kill the chimney's heart,
That it may breathe no more than a dead man.
_Case is Altered_ 2. 1, _Wks. _ 6. 328.
Wilson imitated the same passage in his _Projectors_, Act 2, Sc.
1: 'Shut the door after me, bolt it and bar it, and see you let
no one in in my absence. Put out the fire, if there be any, for
fear somebody, seeing the smoke, may come to borrow some! If
any one come for water, say the pipe's cut off; or to borrow a
pot, knife, pestle and mortar, or the like, say they were stole
last night! But harke ye!
I charge ye not to open the door to
give them an answer, but whisper't through the keyhole! For, I
tell you again, I wilt have nobody come into my house while I'm
abroad! No; no living soul! Nay, though Good Fortune herself
knock at a door, don't let her in! '
=2. 2. 1 I haue no singular seruice=, etc. I. e. , This is
the sort of thing I must become accustomed to, if I am to
remain on earth.
=2. 2. 49, 50 Though they take Master Fitz-dottrell, I am no
such foule. = Gifford points out that the punning allusion of
_foul_ to _fowl_ is a play upon the word dottrel. 'The dotterel
(Fuller tells us) is avis ? ?
Caue quemquam alienum in aedis intromiseris.
Quod quispiam ignem quaerat, extingui uolo,
Ne causae quid sit quod te quispiam quaeritet.
Nam si ignis uiuet, tu extinguere extempulo,
Tum aquam aufugisse dicito, si quis petet.
Cultrum, securim, pistillum, mortarium,
Quae utenda uasa semper uicini rogant,
Fures uenisse atque abstulisse dicito.
Profecto in aedis meas me absente neminem
Volo intromitti, atque etiam hoc praedico tibi,
Si Bona Fortuna ueniat, ne intromiseris.
Jonson had already made use of a part of this passage:
Put out the fire, kill the chimney's heart,
That it may breathe no more than a dead man.
_Case is Altered_ 2. 1, _Wks. _ 6. 328.
Wilson imitated the same passage in his _Projectors_, Act 2, Sc.
1: 'Shut the door after me, bolt it and bar it, and see you let
no one in in my absence. Put out the fire, if there be any, for
fear somebody, seeing the smoke, may come to borrow some! If
any one come for water, say the pipe's cut off; or to borrow a
pot, knife, pestle and mortar, or the like, say they were stole
last night! But harke ye!
I charge ye not to open the door to
give them an answer, but whisper't through the keyhole! For, I
tell you again, I wilt have nobody come into my house while I'm
abroad! No; no living soul! Nay, though Good Fortune herself
knock at a door, don't let her in! '
=2. 2. 1 I haue no singular seruice=, etc. I. e. , This is
the sort of thing I must become accustomed to, if I am to
remain on earth.
=2. 2. 49, 50 Though they take Master Fitz-dottrell, I am no
such foule. = Gifford points out that the punning allusion of
_foul_ to _fowl_ is a play upon the word dottrel. 'The dotterel
(Fuller tells us) is avis ? ?
