Matthew, “the town gull” (that is, a foolish young man living in London), visits the boastful Captain Bobadil in a room that he rents from Cob, a working-class water-bearer. Their conversation alludes to The Spanish Tragedy, a play first written and performed in London in the previous decade:
BOBADIL
What new book ha' you there? What! 'Go by, Hieronymo'?MATTHEW
Aye, did you ever see it acted? Is't not well penned?BOBADIL
Well penned? I would fain see all the poets of these times pen such another play as that was! They'll prate and swagger, and keep a stir of art and devices, when (as I am a gentleman) read 'em, they are the most shallow, pitiful, barren fellows that live upon the face of the earth, again!MATTHEW
Indeed, here are a number of fine speeches in this book! 'Oh eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears'! There's a conceit!
Curious about the book that Matthew is reading, Bobadil identifies it as “Go by, Hieronymo.” The name of the character Hieronymo and the lines quoted by Matthew identify the play as Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, written and staged in the 1580s. The play was massively popular, sparking the rise of the revenge-tragedy on the Elizabethan Stage. Bobadil and Matthew heap praise upon the play, but these characters are foolish and their judgment is questionable, leaving Jonson’s own feelings towards the play ambiguous.
When Kitely asks Cash to keep an eye on his wife, Dame Kitely, Cash agrees but does not swear to it, prompting Kitely to express his doubts in an aside. In doing so, Kitely alludes to various Christian denominations while expressing his skepticism regarding Cash's trustworthiness:
He will not swear, he has some reservation,
Some concealed purpose, and close meaning, sure;
Else (being urged so much) how should he choose
But lend an oath to all this protestation?
He's no precisian, that I am certain of.
Nor rigid Roman Catholic. He'll play
At Fayles, and Tick-tack, I have heard him swear.
What should I think of it? Urge him again,
And by some other way? I will do so.
Well, Thomas, thou hast sworn not to disclose;
Yes, you did swear?
Kitely notes that Cash agreed to carry out his request but “will not swear” to it, which suggests to him that Cash “has some reservation” or “concealed purpose” for refusing to do so. Attempting to uncover the source of Cash’s hesitation, Kitely notes that Cash is “no precisian,” nor is he a “rigid Roman Catholic.” Here, Cash alludes to the “precisians” (otherwise known as the Puritans, a Protestant religious sect) and to the Catholic Church. Both of these forms of Christianity were outside the official Church of England, the only state-approved denomination in Elizabethan England. More importantly, followers of Puritanism and Catholicism were understood in Jonson’s day to be reluctant to “swear” (to make a vow or oath). Cash, who is neither a Puritan nor a Catholic, has no excuse for his reluctance, which contributes to Kitely’s suspicions.
In a scene in which a crowd of guests gathers in the home of the absent Kitely, the play alludes to “Hero and Leander,” a poem by Elizabethan poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe:
MATTHEW
'Rare creature, let me speak without offence,
Would God my rude words had the influence,
To rule thy thoughts, as thy fair looks do mine,
Then should'st thou be his prisoner, who is thine.'
EDWARD
This is in Hero and Leander?
WELLBRED
Oh, ay! Peace, we shall have more of this.
MATTHEW
'Be not unkind and fair, misshapen stuff
Is of behaviour boisterous, and rough [...]
But observe the catastrophe, now:
'And I in duty will exceed all other,
As you in beauty do excel love's mother.'
EDWARD
Well, I'll have him free of the wit-brokers, for he utters nothing but stol'n remnants.
Matthew, who has pretensions of being a great and original poet, begins to recite some of the lines of poetry that he claims to have written. The more intelligent Edward, however, realizes that Matthew is paraphrasing several lines from “Hero and Leander,” an unfinished tragic poem by Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe was a prominent English writer who died just a few years before the play was written. Matthew’s attempt to plagiarize Marlowe’s verse shows both his unoriginality but also his ignorance, as Marlowe was a very well-known writer, and so this plagiarism was very likely to be identified as such by others.
