"jagged" as well, as in the rough edges of the paper that would be visible when the central part, or wit, is in-folded?  These ragged edges would themselves get "filthy" with time and wear.

I also wonder, given the associations in the poem, at how the jakes might become a privy place for sharing of messages by closeted priests/recusants, esp. given the propensity for two-seaters in the day, thus making such places closets for whispering messages of "martyrdom" as well as a place of filthy passing of true messages from (filthy)  hand to hand (the religious message being written on mere rags to begin with --as our flesh houses the spirit-- being the main point here).    I've heard stories of how messages were also dropped into the jakes, so as to challenge any intruder to find them.  Christ also crucified or mauled in rags.   (I'm likely reading too much into it.)

Sincerely, Thomas
________________________________________
From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Colin Burrow [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 5:03 AM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Re: Ragging paper

I would guess that ‘Iagges’ is a form (unrecorded by OED) of ‘jakes’—so the best fruits of wit end up as lavatory paper. The crap (so to speak) rhyme is quite good in the context of a poem that so pointedly does not use the word ‘shit’.
Elevatedly,

Colin Burrow,
Senior Research Fellow,
All Souls College,
Oxford
OX1 4AL

From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of ANNE PRESCOTT
Sent: 16 March 2011 18:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Ragging paper

Dear list--I was distressed, when we were discussing paper, by those bad puns and by Beth Quitslund squeamish response to my reminder that paper (often? always?) came from rags and that rags, often, came from discarded old underwear (but not, I gather, from underpants for women, which had yet to be invented--something relevant to Donne's Elegy 19). What bad taste! What fear of centuries old germs! So to elevate the conversation and for those interested in early modern printing practices, I pass on a bit from John Davies' "The Muses Sacrifice" (1612 edition--I don't know if it's the first) from his "Proper Appendix," on the redemption of paper by the wit of what is printed on it. sig. T4v. I'm not sure what "lagges" are, though. Enjoy:

And as the Paper-mill, of rotten Raggs
tane from the Dung-hill, by still mauling it,
Makes so white Paper, as the filthy Iagges
may now infold the purest part of Wit,
Or purest things that come from Heart, or Hand:
so, we by Martyrdome, are made most fit
(How euer base) in glory still to stand:
And made more apt (diuinely) to comprise
Gods glorious Graces, and his Rarities.