He was in the habit
of signing himself 'Gentleman' and this seems to be satirized in 3.
of signing himself 'Gentleman' and this seems to be satirized in 3.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
1 Merecraft speaks of a Sir John
Monie-man as a projector who was able to 'jump a business quickly'
because 'he had great friends'. That Popham is referred to seems not
unlikely from the fact that he was the most important personage who
had embarked upon an enterprise of this sort, that his scheme was one
of the earliest, that he was not a strict contemporary (d. 1607), and
that his scheme had been very unpopular. This is proved by an anonymous
letter to the king, in which complaint is made that 'the "covetous
bloody Popham" will ruin many poor men by his offer to drain the fens'
(_Cal. State Papers_, Mar. 14? , 1606).
=Plutarchus Guilthead. = Fleay's identification with Edmund Howes I am
prepared to accept, although biographical data are very meagre. Fleay
says: 'Plutarchus Gilthead, who is writing the lives of the great
men in the city; the captain who writes of the Artillery Garden "to
train the youth", etc. [3. 2. 45], is, I think, Edmond Howes, whose
continuation of Stow's Chronicle was published in 1615. '
Howes' undertaking was a matter of considerable ridicule to his
acquaintances. In his 1631 edition he speaks of the heavy blows and
great discouragements he received from his friends.
He was in the habit
of signing himself 'Gentleman' and this seems to be satirized in 3. 1,
where Guilthead says repeatedly: 'This is to make you a Gentleman' (see
_N. & Q. _ 1st Ser. 6. 199. ).
=The Noble House. = Two proposed identifications of the 'noble house',
which pretends to a duke's title, mentioned at 2. 4. 15-6. have been
made. The expenditure of much energy in the attempt to fix so veiled
an allusion is hardly worth while. Jonson of course depended upon
contemporary rumor, for which we have no data.
Cunningham's suggestion that Buckingham is referred to is not
convincing. Buckingham's father was Sir George Villiers of Brooksby in
Leicestershire.
Monie-man as a projector who was able to 'jump a business quickly'
because 'he had great friends'. That Popham is referred to seems not
unlikely from the fact that he was the most important personage who
had embarked upon an enterprise of this sort, that his scheme was one
of the earliest, that he was not a strict contemporary (d. 1607), and
that his scheme had been very unpopular. This is proved by an anonymous
letter to the king, in which complaint is made that 'the "covetous
bloody Popham" will ruin many poor men by his offer to drain the fens'
(_Cal. State Papers_, Mar. 14? , 1606).
=Plutarchus Guilthead. = Fleay's identification with Edmund Howes I am
prepared to accept, although biographical data are very meagre. Fleay
says: 'Plutarchus Gilthead, who is writing the lives of the great
men in the city; the captain who writes of the Artillery Garden "to
train the youth", etc. [3. 2. 45], is, I think, Edmond Howes, whose
continuation of Stow's Chronicle was published in 1615. '
Howes' undertaking was a matter of considerable ridicule to his
acquaintances. In his 1631 edition he speaks of the heavy blows and
great discouragements he received from his friends.
He was in the habit
of signing himself 'Gentleman' and this seems to be satirized in 3. 1,
where Guilthead says repeatedly: 'This is to make you a Gentleman' (see
_N. & Q. _ 1st Ser. 6. 199. ).
=The Noble House. = Two proposed identifications of the 'noble house',
which pretends to a duke's title, mentioned at 2. 4. 15-6. have been
made. The expenditure of much energy in the attempt to fix so veiled
an allusion is hardly worth while. Jonson of course depended upon
contemporary rumor, for which we have no data.
Cunningham's suggestion that Buckingham is referred to is not
convincing. Buckingham's father was Sir George Villiers of Brooksby in
Leicestershire.
