UNIVERSITY
(Us. = Universities). The two Universities in England were at Oxford and Cambridge respectively. See for details under OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE, and the names of the various COLLEGES. The Inns of Court in Lond., (q.v. at GRAY'S INN, MIDDLE TEMPLE, INNER TEMPLE, LINCOLN'S INN) were sometimes spoken of as a U. There are many references to the Us. on the continent of Europe, such as Paris, Padua, Florence, Bologna, etc. Jonson dedicates Volpone "To the most noble and most equal sisters, the 2 famous Us." On the title page of the 1603 quarto of Hamlet it is said to have been acted "in the 2 Us. of Cambridge and Oxford, and elsewhere." In Greene's Friar vii., Ralph undertakes to "make a ship that shall hold all your Colleges and so carry away the Niniversity with a fair wind to the Bankside in Southwark "; Niniversity being an obvious and intentional mis-spelling. In Shrew v. 1, 72, Vincentio complains, "While I play the good husband at home, my son and my servant spend all at the U.," sc. of Padua; though Vincentio's experience would appeal to many English fathers. In Two Gent. i. 3, 10, Panthino, enumerating the various employments of young men, says, "Some [go] to the studious Us." The English Us. played an important part in the history of the Drama, and plays, at first in Latin and later in English, were performed in the various Colleges from the latter part of the 15th cent. onwards. Details will be found under CAMBRIDGE and OXFORD. In Ham. iii. 2, 104, Hamlet asks Polonius, "You played once i' the U., you say?" and Polonius avers, "I did enact Julius Caesar; I was killed i' the Capitol; Brutus killed me." A Latin Julius Caesar by Geddes was acted at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1582. In Jonson's Volpone i. 2, Nano sings, "Now room for fresh gamesters, who do will you to know They do bring you neither Play nor U. show."

UNTHRIFT'S RENT
A nickname for some quarter where debtors found lodging. Rent, or Rents, is often used to mean a tenement rented from someone; as in Ely Rents, Nasynges Rents, etc. In John Evangel. 361, Evil Counsel says, "I have been in U. R."

UTOPIA
The Land of Nowhere, a name adopted by Sir Thomas More for his imaginary commonwealth. Hence Utopian is used in the sense of extravagantly hopeful, absurdly optimistic, impossible. The scene of Lyly's Woman in Moon is laid "in the bounds of fair U." In Brome's M. Beggars iv. 2, the poet says, "I would present a Commonwealth: U., With all her branches and consistencies "; and Rachel volunteers to act the part: "I'll be U." In Brewer's Lingua ii. 6, Memory says, "I remember, in the country of U., they use no other kind of artillery" than cannons of hollow canes, with rape seed for powder, and turnips for shot. Jonson, in Case ii. 4, uses U. as a pseudonym for England. Milton, in Areopagitica, p. 25 (Hales), says, "To sequester out of the world into Atlantick and Eutopian politics . . . will not mend our condition." In W. Rowley's Match Mid. v. 1, Alexander says that Moll has "2 chests of silver and 2 Utopian trunks full of gold and jewels"; where doubtless the suggestion is that these trunks are "nowhere."

UXBRIDGE
A town in Middlesex on the Coln, 15 m. W. of Lond. In Jonson's Ev. Man O. iii. 1, Shift professes in his bill to teach the art of taking tobacco; "as also the rare corollary and practice of the Cuban ebullition, Euripus, and Whiff; which he shall receive or take in here at Lond., and evaporate at U., or farther, if it please him." In Jonson's Barthol. v. 4., Waspe has been to see a bull with five legs: "he was a calf at U. Fair, two years agone." Fairs were held there on March 25th and Sept. 29th.