Curiosities of Puritan NomenclatureBardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
History
Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature
Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
Names, Personal -- English
Still more severe, again, is this same dramatist in "Bartholomew Fair,"
which was performed in London, October, 1614, by the retinue of Lady
Elizabeth, James's daughter. Pouring ridicule upon the butt of the day,
whose name of "Puritan" was by-and-by to be anagrammatized into "a
turnip," from the cropped roundness of his head, this drama became the
play-goers' favourite. It was suppressed during the Commonwealth, and one
of the first to be revived at the Restoration.[58] The king is said to
have given special orders for its performance. Whether his grandfather
liked it as much may be doubted, for it once or twice touches on doctrinal
points, and James thought he had a special gift for theology.
Zeal-of-the-land Busy is a Banbury man, which town was then even more
celebrated for Puritans than cakes. _Caster_, in "The Ordinary," says--
"I'll send some forty thousand unto Paul's:
Build a cathedral next in Banbury:
Give organs to each parish in the kingdom."
Zeal-of-the-land is thus inquired of by Winwife:
"What call you the reverend elder you told me of, your Banbury man?
_Littlewit._ Rabbi Busy, sir: he is more than an elder, he is a
prophet, sir.
_Quarlous._ O, I know him! a baker, is he not?
_Littlewit._ He was a baker, sir, but he does dream now, and see
visions: he has given over his trade.
_Quarlous._ I remember that, too: out of a scruple that he took, in
spiced conscience, those cakes he made were served to bridales,
maypoles, morrices, and such profane feasts and meetings. His
christian name is Zeal-of-the-land?
_Littlewit._ Yes, sir; Zeal-of-the-land Busy.
_Winwife._ How! what a name's there!
_Littlewit._ O, they all have such names, sir: he was witness for Win
here--they will not be called godfathers--and named her Win-the-fight:
you thought her name had been Winnifred, did you not?
_Winwife._ I did indeed.
_Littlewit._ He would have thought himself a stark reprobate if it
had."
All this would be caviare to the Cavalier, and it is doubtful whether he
did not enjoy it more than his grandparents, who could but laugh at it as
a hit religious, rather than political. The allusion to _witnesses_
reminds us of Corporal Oath, who in "The Puritan," published in 1607 (Act
ii. sc. 3), rails at the zealots for the mild character of their
ejaculations. The expression "Oh!" was the most terrible expletive they
permitted themselves to indulge in, and some even shook their heads at a
brother who had thus far committed himself:
"Why! has the devil possessed you, that you swear no better,
You half-christened c----s, you un-godmothered varlets?"
The terms godfather and godmother were rejected by the disaffected clergy,
and they would have the answer made in the name of the sponsors, not the
child. Hence they styled them witnesses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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