(...) By this time had they reach'd the Stygian pool,
By which the masters swear, when on the stool
Of worship, they their nodding chins do hit
Against their breasts. Here, several ghosts did flit
About the shore, of farts but late departed,
White, black, blue, green, and in more forms out-started,
Than all those atomi ridiculous
Whereof old Democrite, and Hill Nicholas,
One said, the other swore, the world consists.
These be the cause of those thick frequent mists
Arising in that place, through which, who goes,
Must try the unused valour of a nose (...)
Ben Jonson, "Of the Famous Voyage", Epigrammes cxxxiii (1616)
out-start: To rush out suddenly, to spring or jump out; to protrude or project; transitive: to go beyond
Nicholas Hill (1570-1610): Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, proponent of the corpuscular philosophy, on which he published a book entitled Philosophia Epicurea, Democritana, Theophrastica, proposita simpliciter, non edocta (1601)
