Ben Jonson

Abrupt

The abrupt style, which hath many breaches.

Adultery

You might wrest the caduceus out of my hand to the adultery and spoil of nature.

An

Nay, an thou dalliest, then I am thy foe.

Angel

The dear good angel of the Spring, The nightingale.

Antiquity

You are a shrewd antiquity, neighbor Clench.

Aristocracy

In the Senate Right not our quest in this, I will protest them To all the world, no aristocracy.

Assassinate

If I had made an assassinate upon your father.

Avile

Want makes us know the price of what we avile.

Bedstaff

Hostess, accommodate us with a bedstaff.

Belong

More evils belong us than happen to us.

Birth

Poets are far rarer births than kings.

Blanket

We'll have our men blanket 'em i' the hall.

Boln

Thin, and boln out like a sail.

Bombardman

They . . . made room for a bombardman that brought bouge for a country lady.

Boot

Coated and booted for it.

Both-hands

He is his master's both-hands, I assure you.

Bouge

[They] made room for a bombardman that brought bouge for a country lady or two, that fainted . . . with fasting.

Brag

A brag young fellow.

Bride-ale

The man that 's bid to bride-ale, if he ha' cake, And drink enough, he need not fear his stake.

Bridestake

Divide the broad bridecake Round about the bridestake.

Brief

The brief style is that which expresseth much in little.

Broadseal

Thy presence broadseals our delights for pure.

Brock

Or with pretense of chasing thence the brock.

Brooch

Honor 's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat.

Candlewaster

A bookworm, a candlewaster.

Cane

Like light canes, that first rise big and brave.

Cant

The first and principal person in the temple was Irene, or Peace; she was placed aloft in a cant.

Cartel

You shall cartel him.

Cast

These verses . . . make me ready to cast.

Chevroned

[A garment] whose nether parts, with their bases, were of watchet cloth of silver, chevroned all over with lace.

Client

I do think they are your friends and clients, And fearful to disturb you.

Clocklike

Their services are clocklike, to be set Backward and forward at their lord's command.

Clown

Beshrew me, he clowns it properly indeed.

Cold

What a deal of cold business doth a man misspend the better part of life in!

Colly

Thou hast not collied thy face enough.

Come

On better thoughts, and my urged reasons, They are come about, and won to the true side.

Comfortress

To be your comfortress, and to preserve you.

Comic

I can not for the stage a drama lay, Tragic or comic, but thou writ'st the play.

Commerce

Beware you commerce not with bankrupts.

Commodity

Drawn by the commodity of a footpath.

Concise

The concise style, which expresseth not enough, but leaves somewhat to be understood.

Conduct

I will be your conduct.

Congruent

The congruent and harmonious fitting of parts in a sentence.

Considerative

I love to be considerative.

Controverter

Some controverters in divinity are like swaggerers in a tavern.

Convent

A usual ceremony at their [the witches] convents or meetings.

Convert

O, which way shall I first convert myself?

Which story . . . Catullus more elegantly converted.

Copeman

He would have sold his part of paradise For ready money, had he met a copeman.

Copy

She was blessed with no more copy of wit, but to serve his humor thus.

Cost

Betwixt the costs of a ship.

Cotquean

What, shall a husband be afraid of his wife's face? We are a king, cotquean, and we will reign in our pleasures.

Counterpane

Read, scribe; give me the counterpane.

Craft

A poem is the work of the poet; poesy is his skill or craft of making.

Cross

Heaven prepares a good man with crosses.

Crowd

A lackey that . . . can warble upon a crowd a little.

Dell

Sweet doxies and dells.

Diamondize

Diamondizing of your subject.

Digestive

Digestive cheese and fruit there sure will be.

dignify

Your worth will dignify our feast.

Disbase

Nor you nor your house were so much as spoken of before I disbased myself.

Discompany

It she be alone now, and discompanied.

Disesteem

What fables have you vexed, what truth redeemed, Antiquities searched, opinions disesteemed?

Disgraceful

The Senate have cast you forth disgracefully.

Disguise

Disguise was the old English word for a masque.

Dispunct

That were dispunct to the ladies.

Diverse

Eloquence is a great and diverse thing.

Déjeuné

Take a déjeuné of muskadel and eggs.

economy

In the Greek poets, as also in Plautus, we shall see the economy . . . of poems better observed than in Terence.

Edgelong

Three hundred thousand pieces have you stuck Edgelong into the ground.

Enflower

These odorous and enflowered fields.

Enginous

The mark of all enginous drifts.

Engle

I 'll presently go and engle some broker.

Ensign

Henry but joined the roses that ensigned Particular families.

Envy

To lay the envy of the war upon Cicero.

Epithalamium

The kind of poem which was called epithalamium . . . sung when the bride was led into her chamber.

Errant

Would make me an errant fool.

Error

The rest of his journey, his error by sea.

Explat

Like Solon's self explatest the knotty laws.

Express

Halters and racks can not express from thee More than by deeds.

Facile

I meant she should be courteous, facile, sweet.

Fact

A project for the fact and vending Of a new kind of fucus, paint for ladies.

Faithful

You are not faithful, sir.

Farce

If thou wouldst farce thy lean ribs.

Figgum

The devil is the author of wicked figgum.

Finify

Hath so pared and finified them [his feet.]

Firk

A wench is a rare bait, with which a man No sooner's taken but he straight firks mad.

fizzle

It is the easiest thing, sir, to be done, As plain as fizzling.

Fly

A trifling fly, none of your great familiars.

Forewit

Nor that the forewits, that would draw the rest unto their liking, always like the best.

Forsooth

You sip so like a forsooth of the city.

Frapler

Unpolished, a frapler, and base.

Frequent

'T is Cæsar's will to have a frequent senate.

Fum

Follow me, and fum as you go.

Glassen

And pursues the dice with glassen eyes.

Glibbery

Thy lubrical and glibbery muse.

Glorious

I speak it not gloriously, nor out of affectation.

Gourmand

That great gourmand, fat Apicius.

Grammaticaster

My noble Neophite, my little grammaticaster.

Gyrland

Their hair loose and flowing, gyrlanded with sea grass.

Here

Here comes Virgil.

Hold

Thou should'st lay hold upon him.

Hurr

R is the dog's letter, and hurreth in the sound.

Impecunious

An impecunious creature.

Impudence

Where pride and impudence (in fashion knit) Usurp the chair of wit.

Indenizen

Words indenizened, and commonly used as English.

Iniquity

Acts old Iniquity, and in the fit Of miming gets the opinion of a wit.

Inofficious

Thou drown'st thyself in inofficious sleep.

Irp

Smirks and irps and all affected humors.

It

It knighthood shall do worse. It shall fright all it friends with borrowing letters.

Jeer

And if we can not jeer them, we jeer ourselves.

Jerk

His jade gave him a jerk.

Juice

The juice of July flowers.

Knack

The fellow . . . has not the knack with his shears.

Ladyship

Your ladyship shall observe their gravity.

Lay

The learned have no more privilege than the lay.

Leash

[I] kept my chamber a leash of days.

Lightly

The great thieves of a state are lightly the officers of the crown.

Luculent

Most debonair and luculent lady.

mammothrept

O, you are a more mammothrept in judgment.

Mastery

O, but to have gulled him Had been a mastery.

Matter

He is the matter of virtue.

Moot

There is a difference between mooting and pleading; between fencing and fighting.

Mort

Male gypsies all, not a mort among them.

Noise

The king has his noise of gypsies.

Nostril

Methinks a man Of your sagacity and clear nostril should Have made another choice.

Obstreperous

Beating the air with their obstreperous beaks.

Other

Bind my hair up: as 't was yesterday? No, nor t' other day.

Outterm

Not to bear cold forms, nor men's outterms.

Pay

For which, or pay me quickly, or I'll pay you.

Peer

See how his gorget peers above his gown!

Pickedness

Too much pickedness is not manly.

Pleasurable

O, sir, you are very pleasurable.

Popularity

This gallant laboring to avoid popularity falls into a habit of affectation.

Pragmatic

My attorney and solicitor too; a fine pragmatic.

Private

Nor must I be unmindful of my private.

Prizer

Appeareth no man yet to answer the prizer.

Pucelle

Lady or pucelle, that wears mask or fan.

Rag

The other zealous rag is the compositor.

Raillery

Let raillery be without malice or heat.

Remonstrate

I will remonstrate to you the third door.

Respect

To whom my father gave this name of Gaspar, And as his own respected him to death.

Rosmarine

That purer brine And wholesome dew called rosmarine.

Round

Worm-eaten gentlemen of the round, such as have vowed to sit on the skirts of the city, let your provost and his half dozen of halberdiers do what they can.

Rover

All sorts, flights, rovers, and butt shafts.

Salt

His fashion is not to take knowledge of him that is beneath him in clothes. He never drinks below the salt.

Seed

A sable mantle seeded with waking eyes.

Since

We since become the slaves to one man's lust.

Sinister

All the several ills that visit earth, Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.

Slander

[We] make the careful magistrate The mark of slander.

Slip

And slip no advantage That my secure you.

Snap

He's a nimble fellow, And alike skilled in every liberal science, As having certain snaps of all.

Soil

O, sir, have you taken soil here? It is well a man may reach you after three hours' running.

Spirit

Be it a letter or spirit, we have great use for it.

Stark

The north is not so stark and cold.

Consider the stark security The common wealth is in now.

Stateswoman

A rare stateswoman; I admire her bearing.

Strumpet

Out on thy more than strumpet impudence.

Stum

Let our wines, without mixture of stum, be all fine.

Surreption

Fame by surreption got May stead us for the time, but lasteth not.

Swad

There was one busy fellow was their leader, A blunt, squat swad, but lower than yourself.

Table

Mistress of a fairer table Hath not history for fable.

Tartarous

The Tartarous moods of common men.

Temper

Restore yourselves to your tempers, fathers.

Thread

A neat courtier, Of a most elegant thread.

Tire

Ye dregs of baseness, vultures among men, That tire upon the hearts of generous spirits.

To

Marks and points out each man of us to slaughter.

All that they did was piety to this.

Tod

The wolf, the tod, the brock.

Totalis

I look on nothing but totalis.

Trick

They forget that they are in the statutes: . . . there they are tricked, they and their pedigrees.

Trifoly

She was crowned with a chaplet of trifoly.

Truchman

And after, by the tongue, Her truchman, she reports the mind's each throw.

Turnpike

I move upon my axle like a turnpike.

Twire

Which maids will twire at 'tween their fingers.

Undermeal

I think I am furnished with Cattern [Catharine] pears for one undermeal.

Underneath

Underneath this stone lie As much beauty as could die.

Unknowledged

For which bounty to us lent Of him unknowledged or unsent.

Unquestioned

Their unquestioned pleasures must be served.

Use

He useth every day to a merchant's house.

Valor

Fear to do base, unworthy things is valor.

Vapor

He'd laugh to see one throw his heart away, Another, sighing, vapor forth his soul.

Vice

How like you the Vice in the play? . . . I would not give a rush for a Vice that has not a wooden dagger to snap at everybody.

Vinegar

Hoping that he hath vinegared his senses As he was bid.

Virtue

In the Greek poets, . . . the economy of poems is better observed than in Terence, who thought the sole grace and virtue of their fable the sticking in of sentences.

Vituperative

Vituperative appellations derived from their real or supposed ill qualities.

Vively

If I see a thing vively represented on the stage.

Vulgarity

The reprobate vulgarity of the frequenters of Bartholomew Fair.

Wafer

A woman's oaths are wafers -- break with making

Walk

Do you think I'd walk in any plot?

Want

You have a gift, sir (thank your education), Will never let you want.

Wanton

Peace, my wantons; he will do More than you can aim unto.

Wardship

It was the wisest act . . . in my wardship.

Wealthy

The wealthy witness of my pen.

Whelp

Unless she had whelped it herself, she could not have loved a thing better.

Whiff

Old Empedocles, . . . who, when he leaped into Etna, having a dry, sear body, and light, the smoke took him, and whiffed him up into the moon.

Windfall

He had a mighty windfall out of doubt.

Wish

I would be glad to thrive, sir, And I was wished to your worship by a gentleman.

Youth

It is fit to read the best authors to youth first.