[115] [Old copy, _toucheth_, which may, of course, be right; but the more probable word is that here substituted.] [116] [The "Ebrietatis Encomium."] [117] [Perhaps the "Image of Idleness," of which there was an edition in 1581. See Hazlitt's "Handbook," p. 291, and ibid. Suppl.] [118] Nash alludes to a celebrated burlesque poem by Francisco Copetta, entitled (in the old collection of productions of the kind, made in 1548, and many times afterwards reprinted), "Capitolo nel quale si lodano le Noncovelle." Some of the thoughts in Rochester's well-known piece seem taken from it. A notion of the whole may be formed from the following translation of four of the _terze rime_-- "_Nothing_ is brother to primaeval matter, 'Bout which philosophers their brains may batter To find it out, but still their hopes they flatter. "Its virtue is most wondrously display'd, For in the Bible, we all know, 'tis said, God out of _nothing_ the creation made. "Yet _nothing_ has nor head, tail, back, nor shoulder, And tho' than the great _Dixit_ it is older, Its strength is such, that all things first shall moulder. "The rank of _nothing_ we from this may see: The mighty Roman once declared that he Caesar or _nothing_ was resolv'd to be." [But after all, had not Nash more probably in his recollection Sir Edward Dyer's "Praise of Nothing," a prose tract printed in 1585?] [119] [See Hazlitt's "Handbook," v. Fleming.] [120] [Alluding to the "Grobianus et Grobiana" of Dedekindus.] [121] Ovid's lines are these-- "Discite, qui sapitis, non quae nos scimus inertes, Sed trepidas acies, et fera castra sequi." --"Amorum," lib. iii. el. 8. [122] The author of "The World's Folly," 1615, uses _squitter-wit_ in the same sense that Nash employs _squitter-book_: "The _primum mobile_, which gives motion to these over-turning wheels of wickedness, are those mercenary _squitter-wits_, miscalled poets." In "The Two Italian Gentlemen," the word _squitterbe-book_, or _squitter-book_, is found, and with precisely the same signification which Nash gives it-- "I would mete with the scalde _squitterbe-booke_ for this geare." [123] His _nown_, instead of his _own_, was not an uncommon corruption. So Udall--"Holde by his yea and nay, be his _nowne_ white sonne." [124] [Old copy, _Fuilmerodach_.] [125] _Regiment_ has been so frequently used in the course of these volumes, in the sense of government or rule, that it is hardly worth a note. [126] This is, of course, spoken ironically, and of old, the expression _good fellow_ bore a double signification, which answered the purpose of Will Summer. Thus, in Lord Brooke's "Caelica," sonnet 30-- "_Good fellows_, whom men commonly doe call. Those that do live at warre with truth and shame." Again, in Heywood's "Edward IV. Part I.," sig. E 4-- "KING EDWARD. Why, dost thou not love a _good fellow_? "HOBS. No, _good fellows_ be _thieves_."