Jonson mentions rug as an article of apparel several times. In _Alch._, _Wks._ 4. 14, it is spoken of as the dress of a poor man and _ibid._ 4. 83 as that of an astrologer. In _Ev. Man out_ (_Wks._ 2. 110) a similar reference is made, and here Gifford explains that rug was ‘the usual dress of mathematicians, astrologers, &c., when engaged in their sublime speculations.’ Marston also speaks of rug gowns as the symbol of a strict life (_What You Will_, _Wks._ 2. 395): Lamp-oil, watch-candles, rug-gowns, and small juice, Thin commons, four o’clock rising,--I renounce you all. =5. 2. 1 ff. put me To yoaking foxes,= etc. Several at least of the following employments are derived from proverbial expressions familiar at the time. Jonson speaks of ‘milking he-goats’ in _Timber,_ ed. Schelling, p. 34, which the editor explains as ‘a proverbial expression for a fruitless task.’ The occupation of lines 5-6 is adapted from a popular proverb given by Cotgrave: ‘J’aymeroy autant tirer vn pet d’un Asne mort, que. I would as soone vndertake to get a fart of a dead man, as &c.’ Under _Asne_ he explains the same proverb as meaning ‘to worke impossibilities.’ This explains the passage in _Staple of News_ 3. 1., _Wks._ 5. 226. The proverb is quoted again in _Eastward Ho_, Marston, _Wks._ 3. 90, and in Wm. Lilly’s Observations,’ _Hist._, pp. 269-70. ‘Making ropes of sand’ was Iniquity’s occupation in 1. 1. 119. This familiar proverb first appears in Aristides 2. 309: ἑκ ψάμμου σχοινίον πλέκειν. In the _New Inn_, _Wks._ 5. 394, Lovel says: ‘I will go catch the wind first in a sieve.’ Whalley says that the occupation of ‘keeping fleas within a circle’ is taken from Socrates’ employment in the _Clouds_ of Aristophanes (ll. 144-5). Gifford, however, ridicules the notion. Jonson refers to the passage in the _Clouds_ in _Timber_ (ed. Schelling, 82. 33), where he thinks it would have made the Greeks merry to see Socrates ‘measure how many foot a flea could skip geometrically.’ But here again we seem to have a proverbial expression. It occurs in the morality-play of _Nature_, 642. II (quoted by Cushman, p. 116): I had leiver keep as many flese, Or wyld hares in an opyn lese, As undertake that. =5. 2. 32.= Scan: And three/ pence. ͝/ Give me/ an an/swer. Sir. Thos. Keightley, _N. & Q._ 4. 2. 603, suggests: And your threepence, etc. =5. 2. 35 Your best songs Thom. O’ Bet’lem.= ‘A song entitled “Mad Tom” is to be found in Percy’s _Reliques_; Ballad Soc. Roxb. Ball., 2. p. 259; and Chappell’s _Old Pop. Mus._ The exact date of the poem is not known.’--H. R. D. Anders, _Shakespeare’s Books_, p. 24-5. Bethlehem Royal Hospital was originally founded ‘to have been a priory of canons,’ but was converted to a hospital for lunatics in 1547. In Jonson’s time it was one of the regular sights of London, and is so referred to in Dekker’s _Northward Hoe_, _Wks._ 3. 56 f.; _Sil. Wom._, _Wks._ 3. 421; _Alch._, _Wks._ 4. 132.