There seem to have been two Mermaid Taverns, one of which stood in Bread Street with passage entrances from Cheapside and Friday Street, and the other in Cornhill. They are often referred to by the dramatists. Cf. the famous lines written by _Francis Beaumont to Ben Jonson_, B. & Fl., _Wks._, ed. 1883, 2. 708; _City Match_, _O. Pl._ 9. 334, etc. Jonson often mentions the Mermaid. Cf. _Inviting a Friend_, _Wks._ 8. 205: Is a pure cup of rich Canary Wine, Which is the Mermaid’s now, but shall be mine. _On the famous Voyage_, _Wks._ 8. 234: At Bread-Street’s Mermaid having dined, and merry, Proposed to go to Holborn in a wherry. _Bart. Fair_, _Wks._ 4. 356-7: ‘your Three Cranes, Mitre, and Mermaid-men!’ =3. 3. 28 In veluet!= Velvet was introduced into England in the fifteenth century, and soon became popular as an article of luxury (see Hill’s _Hist. of Eng. Dress_ 1. 145 f.). =3. 3. 30 I’ the Low-countries.= ‘Then went he to the Low Countries; but returning soone he betook himself to his wonted studies. In his service in the Low Countries, he had, in the face of both the campes, killed ane enemie and taken _opima spolia_ from him.’--_Conversations with William Drummond_, _Wks._ 9. 388. In the Epigram _To True Soldiers_ Jonson says: --I love Your great profession, which I once did prove. _Wks._ 8. 211. =3. 3. 32 a wench of a stoter!= See variants. The word is not perfectly legible in the folios, which I have consulted, but is undoubtedly as printed. Cunningham believes ‘stoter’ to be a cheap coin current in the camps. This supplies a satisfactory sense, corresponding to the ‘_Sutlers_ wife, ... of two blanks’ in the following line. =3. 3. 33 of two blanks!= ‘Jonson had Horace in his thoughts, and has, not without some ingenuity, parodied several loose passages of one of his satires.’--G. Gifford is apparently referring to the close of Bk. 2. Sat. 3. =3. 3. 51 vn-to-be-melted.= Cf. _Every Man in_, _Wks._ 1. 36: ‘and in un-in-one-breath-utterable skill, sir.’ _New Inn_, _Wks._ 5. 404: you shewed a neglect Un-to-be-pardon’d.’ =3. 3. 62 Master of the Dependances!= See Introduction. pp. lvi, lvii. =3. 3. 69 the roaring manner.= Gifford defines it as the ‘language of bullies affecting a quarrel’ (_Wks._ 4. 483). The ‘Roaring Boy’ continued under various designations to infest the streets of London from the reign of Elizabeth until the beginning of the eighteenth century. Spark (Somer’s _Tracts_ 2. 266) says that they were persons prodigall and of great expence, who having runne themselves into debt, were constrained to run into factions to defend themselves from danger of the law.’ He adds that divers of the nobility afforded them maintenance, in return for which ‘they entered into many desperate enterprises.’