The tone of Every Man in His Humour is flippant and irreverent, as is the case in many of Jonson’s comedies. In the play, he playfully skewers various social classes and institutions, including family and lineage. In one scene, for example, Cob, a working-class water-bearer, tells Matthew, a middle-class “gull,” or fool, about his own family history:
COB
Aye, sir, I and my lineage ha' kept a poor house here, in our days.
MATTHEW
Thy lineage, Monsieur Cob, what lineage? What lineage?
COB
Why, sir, an ancient lineage, and a princely. Mine ance'try came from a king's belly, no worse man; and yet no man neither (by your worship's leave, I did lie in that) but Herring the King of fish, from his belly I proceed, one o' the monarchs o' the world, I assure you. The first red herring that was broiled in Adam and Eve's kitchen do I fetch my pedigree from, by the harrots' books. His cob was my great-great-mighty-great grandfather.
In Jonson’s day, lineage was generally understood as central to a person’s social identity. Matthew expects Cob to brag about his illustrious ancestors, but instead he makes a series of silly jokes and puns that suggest that he is descended from a herring, which he colloquially identifies as the “King of fish.” Cob’s joke relies upon another common colloquialism, in which “Cob” means the head of a “cod,” a type of fish. Cob jokingly insists that he descends not just from any fish, but from the very first fish eaten by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This scene exemplifies the irreverent tone that Jonson adopts throughout the play.
