1. Ingenious
2. Imagination, creativeness
3. A card game.
4. Pun on 'novum' (new) and 'novem' (a dice game).
5. Throw of two aces, the lowest possible; or perhaps a dice game.
6. Pun on the sergeant or bailiff's mace.
7. As an initiation ceremony for undergraduates.
8. Tournai and Terouanne (1513).
9. 'We seek the heavens in our stupidity' (Horace).
10. Reference unknown
11. Heads.
12. 'Let us sing of matters a little more important' (Virgil).
13. A method of cheating at dice by throwing so that the die slides without
turning'
14. 'Something is hidden which is not obvious.'
15. Sacred to Bacchus.
16. Allusion to `tendit in ardua virtus' (Ovid).
17. 'Water of the heavens', name of a restorative drug.
18. Specks of dust.
19. By the two to three hundredweight.
20. A coin worth about a farthing.
21. A coin which varied in value.A little later than this it was worth only
one tenth of a penny.
22. Secrecy.
23. popular name of a conduit near the Royal Exchange at the junction of Threadneedle St
and Cornhill, which ran with a very small stream.
24. Brown study (M.), reverie, daze.
25. His sleep lasted forty years, or, according to Pliny, fifty-seven.
26. Skinflint.
27. A kind of shovel (M.).
28. spigots and faucets: Tops of beer and wine barrels.
29. Marrow bones, knees.
30. Tenancy of an almshouse.
31. out-brothership of brachet: 'What "mine host" is wanting is perhaps the
care of a kennel of bitch hounds in the country near one of the royal palaces'
(F.P.W.).
32. Vulgar.
33. Earnings, profits, ('the gains from false dice are compared to those from
clipping coin', (Maxwell).
34. 'And it [dice play] was accounted so great a reproach among the noblest
men, that the King of the Parthians sent golden dice to King Demetrius, for
a reproach of his lightness° (Cornelius Agrippa quoted by M.).
35. quater trey: Dice loaded so that four or three would conic lye (M.)
36. 'Believe me, to give is a mark of genius' (Ovid).
37. In tables used for learning Latin declensions the form would hen Nomin-
ative hic magister' (or dominus), not asinus.
38. Expulsion with violence.
39. False dice, longer on the three and four than other sides.
40. Dice loaded at the corner.
41. Idling, time-wasting.
42. Thoroughly.
43. Sycophant.
44. Kick restlessly or impatiently (NED).
45. Often, probably.
46. Residence.
47. Palamedes detected Ulysses' feigned madness.
48. Disguised himself as a woman to avoid conscription for the Trojan War.
49. Lycaon and his fifty godless sons were killed by Jove for attempting to
deceive him in this way.
50. Without a stop for food
51. Rhymed motto
52. 'Who goes there?'
53. Loosely fitting trousers.
54. On the back of many coins.
55. Club-foot.
56. With a bad smell.
57. Coined.
58. Scoundrel.
59. Out of bravado, as a 'dare'.
60. Tyrant of Syracuse, who fled and took up a teaching post.
61. 'Into our presence'.
62. Flogged (M.).
63. 'Grief prevents [my saying] more' (Ovid)).
64. Foretaste.
65. Knavery (NED); (to scutch = to beat, lash).
66. Base.
67. pinched ...provant: Stole from some godly, righteous folk.
68. Officers would draw the pay of dead soldiers.
69. Fastidious, finicking.
70. Carefully looked after, adorned.
71. Stone used for smoothing or polishing.
72. Fouled.
73. Deferred.
74. at all aventures: Whatever happened.
75. Braggarts.
76. King ...England: Towards the end of September 1513.
77. at hard meat: Put out to fodder, i.e.in confinement or retie ment.
78. Let out, cut.
79. 'Hose decorated with stripes of coloured cloth at the sides or does
"side" here mean "wide"?' (M.).
80. Buttocks.
81. Leather apron.
82. all a more: M.suggests 'a la mode'.
83. Tassel.
84. Quartos (1594) have `anckle'.
85. Large leather beer jugs.
86. M.lists five epidemics between 1485 and 1551.
87. to turn ...perch: 'To do for him' (M.).
88. Tubs used for curing venereal disease by sweating.
89. Budge is a cheap fur from lambskin; 'slaughter budge' perhaps fur from
the slaughter-house (M.).
90. Rabbit.
91. Medicines made out of one constituent.
92. C.A.D.130-200, Greek physician, most famous of ancient authorities
93. 'Undertake a useless or absurd task' (M.).
94. ft.c.400 B.C., 'the Father of Medicine'.
95. C.1490-1541, great German physician, also much involved in alchemy and
superstitious doctrine.
96. Familiar spirits supposed to be carried in the pommel of his sword.
97. 'There was more in the artificer than the artefact.'
98. Marocco was the name of the wonderful performing horse trained by the
Scottish showman Bankes (fl.1588-1637).
99. 'Silently break wind' (NED).
100. Red-faced, as with drink
101. Pun on the term 'fieri facias', a writ served on a debtor.
102. 'In those days'.
103. Descendants of Brute, legendary founder of London (the New Troy).
104. Bag-shaped net, the mouth of which can be drawn togeehr, with cords.
105. Milan.
106. The Anabaptist uprising took place here in 1534.
107. Probably the cowl, or wooden covering over the chimney of a malt-house.
108. Body-armour.
109. Leather workers, colouring and dressing the leather after tanning.
110. Cowl-staves, sticks used for carrying burdens.
111. Adzes.
112. Armour in the form of a skull-cap.
113. Quilted.
114. Duncically, in the manner of a fool.
115. Familiar spirit.
116. Purgatory (OED); also meant a loose woman.
117. Commital, deliverance over.
118. On the spot, without more ado.
119. Stuck in the mud'.
120. 'What more [can I say]?'
121. Intermittently.
122. The Gigantes, eventually defeated by Hercules
123. Adapted from Lucan (Pharsalia, XVIII 504-5)
124. A confusion on Nashe's part, pointed out by M.(IV, 269).
125. Marlowe's translation of Ovid's Amores (Elegies), II, 3, 3-4.
126. Gelded.
127. 'Who was resourceful in devising his own punishment' (adapted
from Ovid, Tristia, II, 342).
128. Knipperdolink and Muncer, anabaptist leaders at Munster.
129. 'Love is my reason for following' (Ovid).
130. Ovid, Heroides, XVII, 70.
131. "They follow the worse path', adapted from Ovid (Metamorphoses, VII,
20-21: video meliora, probaque; Deteriora sequor : 'I see and applaud what
is better; I practise the worse'.
132. 'What is sought is punishment' (Ovid).
133. Adapted from Seneca, Hercules Furens, 313.
134. Enlightened reformers.
135. Synonyms.
136. Young knights errant.
137. 1517?-47 (executed). Never in Italy (M.).
138. M.quotes Surrey's 'Geraldine' sonnet, starting 'From Tuscany came my
lady's worthy race: Fair Florence was sometime her ancient seat.'
139. Catherine of Aragon or Catherine Parr, though Elizabeth Fitzgerald was
in the household of neither but in that of Catherine Howard (M.).
140. Executioner.
141. Discussion
142. 'Hence those tears' (Terence).
143. Erasmus and More met in England (1497 and 15o8), and at Calais (I520)
but are not known to have met in Rotterdam (M.).
144. a book ...folly: Encomium Moriae, 1509.
145. First published in Latin, 15 x 6. Translated into English, 1551.
146. 'According to the form of the decree'.
147. Picke-davant, short pointed beard.
148. quemadmodums and quapropters: 'In-so-far-ases' and 'wherefores'.
149. Imitators of Cicero sought to achieve this particular rhythm at the end
of their periods.
150. Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus, Hector, Alexander, Julius Comsat, Arthur,
Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon.
151. Term of abuse.
152. 'As long as the wild boar loves the mountain ridges' (i.e.forever)
(Virgil).
153. 'I have spoken.'
154. Members of the Corporation.
155. Taverns, places of resort.
156. Used as a name for Gabriel Harvey in Have with You in Saffron Walden,
III, 31, 10.
157. M.suggests variant of `braking', a vague term of abuse.
158. Gadding about.
159. Frisking, flaunting equivocations.
160. Contemptuous term for academics.
161. Moechi (Greek): adulterers (with a punning reference later to men of
Mecca, where Mahomet's body in its iron coffin was said to have been drawn
up to the temple roof by great loadstones).
162. 'What an artist perishes in me' (Suetonius).
163. A play by Culielmus Gnapheus, or Fullonius, a Dutch ,scholar
written in Latin, translated into English for schools, 1540. ('Acolastus'
means 'The unpunished'.)
164. Snapping.
165. scolded level coil: argued, 'shouted the odds' ('level coil' from French
lever le cul, a party game).Luther and Carolostadius are said
to have met in a disputation at Lipsia, 1519.
166. 'Things which are above us do not concern us' (proverb).
167. Expressed himself so ingeniously.
168. He is reckoned the world champion.
169. Marius Nizolius (?1498-1576), author of Thesaurus Cicer, anus, 1535.
170. Imaginative, quick-witted.
171. Terrace.
172. 1486-1535 b.Cologne, his lectures on the Cabala gaining him reputation
as a magician.
173. An Italian juggler and conjurer who visited England between 1576 and 1583.
174. half a month's mind: An inclination, or fancy, to.
175. Famous oration of the youthful Cicero.
176. About fifty gallons.
177. This was printed in England's Parnassus, l600, signed T. Nash (reading
"paint" for "paints" v.3. "falls" for "flows" v.3).
178. "Circuitous ways leading nowhither"
179. In spite of
180. Perhaps a reference to a character called Bruquell, a dwarf servant in
Palmendos, a play popular in England from 1589 (M.).
181. Plausible.
182. Swooned.
183. Murdered. 184. Counterfeit coin.
184. Counterfeit coin
185. Noose for hanging, (also meant truant).
186. In spite of everything.
187. Rigmarole.
188. intrinsical legerdemain: Secretive trickery.
189. (?) A name for Puritans (M.).
190. The opening verse of Psalm 57, often repeated before an execution.
191. Informer, spy.
192. 'Old so-and-so' (M.).
193. Was called.
194 Bergomask, native of Bergamo (M.).
195. Cuckold him.
196. Pawn of wax and parchment: Written security.
197. Confederates.
198. Cheap prostitute.
199. To one side.
200. 'Thalia [one of the Muses] gave me a mind easily moved' (Ovid).
201. The lowest throw in a dice game.
202. Encircling.
203. beat the hush . . . caught the bird: M. quotes Heywood's Proverbs: 'And
while I at length
debate and beat the bush, there shall step in other men and catch the bird.'
204. Simple, plain.
205. Cuckolded.
206. 'Understand' (as used in old grammar books).
207. (?1486-1555) accompanied Howard (Surrey) in a naval expedition against
the French in 1522.
208. Was ledger (resident) ambassador.
209. (1492-1554) dedicated Volume II of his letters to Henry VIII in 1542.
There appears no evidence for the appointment Nashe specifies, and
Henry's gift was of 300 scudi sent through the ambassador. Later N. confuses
Pietro with the poet Bernardo Accolti, called
Punico Aretino.
210. Pedantic expression.
211. Perhaps a reference to the Epigrams, XI, 6, 12-13. (Translation: 'I can't
achieve anything when too sober, but when in my cups fifteen poets will come
to my aid.')
212. Despised.
213. An imperfect edition of 1598 contains attacks upon Moses, Christ and
Mahomet.
214. An Italian verse translated 'Here lies Aretino, a bitter poison to the
human race, whose tongue pierced both the living and deead. He said nothing
ill of God, excusing himself by saying he did not know Him.'
215. 'The Scourge of Princes', "The Truthful', `The Divine', 'The Unique Are-
tino' (properly the title of Bernardo Accolti)
216. La Umanita di Christo, 1535.
217. 'The seven penitential psalms': I sette Salmi de la Penitentia di David,
1534.
218. La Vita di San Tomaso, Signor d'Aquino, 1543.
219. La Vita di Maria Vergine, 1539.
220. Theodore de Beze, who repented later of the Latin poems written in his
dissipated youth.
221. Splendour.
222. Literally very high-pitched, above e-la, the highest note of the scale;
therefore 'immoderately'.
223. 'Shame and love do not tend in the same direction' (Ovid).
224. Piece of wood fastened to the leg.
225. First mover: this sonnet was printed in England's Parnassus, 1600, sign-
ed Th.N.
226. 'Gods of the earth'.
227. Sayings from Ovid's Amores, Heroides and Metamorpl translated: 'A girl
is a sweet evil', 'I pursue what flies from 'Love is the reason for my fol-
lowing', '0 unhappy me', 'Why h; seen? Why have 1 perished?', do not love pa-
tiently', 'Only let be patient to be loved'.
228. `From tears, more tears'.
229. Leap in a curvet.
230. Swollen, inflated.
231. Fitted, suited.
232. 'Winged by a sting'.
233. 'Every lover is a soldier' (Ovid).
234. 'Ultimately it is sufficient'.
235. 'Wonderful because monstrous'.
236. 'Liberality carries the seeds of its own destruction' (St Jerome).
237. 'You can't take anything at face value' (Juvenal).
238. 'Care is a thing of the future' (Ovid).
239. 'My white hairs are my fetters.'
240. A light shield or buckler.
241. Fauxbourdon (here 'theme' or 'motto').
242. 'We hope, they shine.'
243. Jaundice.
244. Device, motto.
245. Word, 'mot'.
246. Ovid, Metamorphoses, XV, 40.
247. 'I am sustained by hope.'
248. 'Monuments of grief will remain.'
249. 'I flourish not without wound' (from Plautus).
250. 'Wisdom, the conqueror of fortune'.
251. Literally 'No one else unfolds'.
252. 'Abundance has made me needy' (Ovid).
253. Adapted from Ovid, Metamorphoses, III, 470.
254. Ill-tempered, shrewish.
255. What use are kingdoms without the ability to enjoy them?' (Ovid).
256. Cowlstaff.
257. 'Leavings' (M.).
258. Either Alexander del Medici, ruler of Florence from 1530 1537, or Cos-
imo (1537-74) (M.).
259. 'Kiss the hands' (Spanish: `beso las memos").
260. Plural of cimex, a bed-bug.
261. Augustine.
262. Meaning unknown. The Sistine Chapel has five sibyls with Krolls, paint-
ed by Michelangelo; Dover Wilson suggests Nashe may be drawing on a travel-
ler's story referring to these.
263. Emendation of 'the jems piazza', suggested by M., referring to the Pi-
azza Giudea.
264. Probably a printer's mistake for Gregory XI (suggestion E. S. de Beer
and J. C. Maxwell).
265. De Beer suggests this may be a mistake for the burial place of S. Fran-
cesca Romana.
266. The Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions, a poetical miscellany by
Thomas Proctor, 1578 (M.).
267. M.'s suggested emendation for 'lineally'.
268. Like a syringe.
269. Sycophants
270. The horn was held to be an antidote for poison.
271. 'Ver erat aeternum' (Metamorphoses, 1, 107).
272. Gerardus Mercator designed a pair of globes, 1541-51, in common use
in England in 1592.
273. In case.
274. Fiery.
275. T. Lanquet (1545) M. quotes 'a pestilence in Rome which consumed an
100 thousand' under the year 1522.
276. Into practice.
277. Mattress.
278. At his mercy (the period for prayer and confession bets execution).
279. Tried, tempted.
280. Without delay
281. As long as it takes to say the Lord's Prayer.
282 Crush.
283. Hell
284. Pander
285. Puritanical
286. Literally a swelling of the abdomen
287. Ovid, Metamorphoses, H. 447.
288. M. quotes Cornelius Agrippa: 'King Agamemnon, also going to the Tro-
jan war, left at home a musician that played the Dorian tune, who with the
foot spondeus preserved his wife Clitemnestra in chastity and honesty,
wherefore she could not be deflowered by Aegisthus before he had wickedly
slain the musician.'
289. Release, free.
290. The slip knot
291. Fawning, jeering.
292. Epicharmus, Greek comedian, born c. 540 ac.
293. Fed in their humours: Encouraged in their peculiarities.
294 'A poisoned fig used as a secret way of destroying an obnoxious person'
(NED).
295. Ovid, Ars Amatoris, II, 123.
296. cf 'Patientia longa memorum' (Ovid, Tristia, V, 12, 31).
297. Wizened, sickly-looking.
298. Tumult, disturbance.
299. 'Loops or straps on a sword-belt from which the sword was hung' (OED).
300. Grogram, coarse silk fabric.
301. Strutting.
302. Sop made with breadcrumbs.
303. play ... aloft: Recite mumbo-jumbo as before conjurer's il. kn.
304. The forty-nine daughters of Danaus murdered their husbands and were
condemned to collect water in sieves for ever.
305. Pitch and pay: Pay cash.
306. Ovid, Tristia, III, 3, 53.
307. Penthouses
308. Arrested.
309. A legal charge, a difficulty, a scrape.
310. blood-letting, 'bleeding'.
311. Usually medicines to help a wound to heal.
312. Pimple
313. Antidote against poisons.
314. A doit, small Dutch coin of little value (i.e. he would any time to
study).
315. Overthwart, a side-blow.
316. Gargles.
317. Bumpkins, fools.
318. Harlot's attendant (M.).
319. A forward youth, a coxcomb.
320. Role, part in a play.
321. Trumpet sound, but used colloquially to suggest lecherous
feeling.
322. M. refers to a ballad entered in the Stationers Register, 16 February
1590/1: 'A Ballad entitled all the merry pranks of him that whips men in the
highways'.
323. Proverbially dishonest and brutal. The practice of whipping I chained
blind bear after bull-baiting or bear-baiting was not uncommon. F.P.W.
points out that Dekker associated it with colliers.
im Work for Armourers, 1609.
324. Bankrupts.
325. As a trouble-maker.
326. A noisy, burlesque hymn.
327. (?) Mix, (NED gives 'to discharge as urine').
328. With little appetite.
329. Scratching.
330. Charles de Bourbon, killed in an assault on Rome, 1527.
331. Legal term, used by a sheriff unable to make an arrest.
332. Mercuric chloride.
333. From the forge, sometimes used medicinally.
334. 29 June.
335. Adapted from Virgil, Aeneid, HI, 56-7.
336, size ace and the dice: 'All they possess' (a reference to a game;
precise meaning unknown).
337. Choking in the throat (cf. Lear's 'hysterica passio').
338. (?) Great to-do (M.).
339. Misused legal term, here meaning inadvertent.
340. Begrudged.
341. Wizened.
342. Tool for cutting holes.
343. Errand.
344. Move, flinch.
345. Crushed, squeezed
346. Cruel, savage.
347. Field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520, the English camp being at Guisnes, the
French at Ard.

Notes