Note 480 — Chapter V · SATIRIC REPRESENTATIONS OF THE LEARNED LADY IN COMEDY

The word "college" was loosely used in the seventeenth century as signifying any company or collective body. Burton, in Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), says, "They have whole colleges of Curtezans in their Towns and Cities." Randolph, in The Muse's Looking-Glass (1638), calls play-houses "colleges of transgression," and speaks of "Black-Friar's College." Jonson, in Staple of News, says "a canter's college is proposed." Dryden even speaks of a "college of bees" (Flower and Leaf), and Amory, in John Buncle, uses the same phrase more than half a century later. It becomes evident, then, that the words "college" and "collegiate" might be used without any thought of an organization founded for purposes of learning. (See Jonson: Epicœne, Ed. Henry, Aurelia, p. 138.)