Act 3 — ACT III.
Reading edition
Scene 6. Page 298.
2. Lord. If you give him not John Drum's entertainment.
The meaning of this phrase has been very well ascertained, but its origin remains to be traced. Is it a metaphor borrowed from the beating of a drum, or does it allude to the drumming a person out of a regiment? There can be no reference to a real person, because in many old writers we find both Jack and Tom Drum.