SCAR. What, slave? [Draws.

BUT. Put up your bird-spit, tut, I fear it not; In doing deeds so base, so vile as these, 'Tis but a kna, kna, kna—

SCAR. Rogue!

BUT. Tut, howsoever, 'tis a dishonest part, And in defence of these I throw off duty.

KATH. Good butler.

BUT. Peace, honest mistress, I will say you are wrong'd, Prove it upon him, even in his blood, his bones, His guts, his maw, his throat, his entrails.

SCAR. You runagate of threescore!

BUT. 'Tis better than a knave of three-and-twenty.

SCAR. Patience be my buckler! As not to file[429] my hands in villain's blood; You knave, slave, trencher-groom! Who is your master?

BUT. You, if you were a master.

SCAR. Off with your coat then, get you forth a-doors.

BUT. My coat, sir?

SCAR. Ay, your coat, slave.

BUT. 'Sfoot, when you ha't, 'tis but a threadbare coat, And there 'tis for you: know that I scorn To wear his livery is so worthy born, And live[s] so base a life; old as I am, I'll rather be a beggar than your man, And there's your service for you. [Exit.

SCAR. Away, out of my door: away! So, now your champion's gone, minx, thou hadst better Have gone quick unto thy grave—

KATH. O me! that am no cause of it.

SCAR. Than have suborn'd that slave to lift his hand against me.

KATH. O me! what shall become of me?

SCAR. I'll teach you tricks for this: have you a companion?

Enter BUTLER.

BUT. My heart not suffers me to leave my honest mistress and her pretty children.

SCAR. I'll mark thee for a strumpet, and thy bastards—

BUT. What will you do to them, sir?

SCAR. The devil in thy shape come back again?

BUT. No, but an honest servant, sir, will take this coat, And wear it with this sword to safeguard these, And pity them, and I am woe for you[430], too; But will not suffer The husband, viper-like, to prey on them That love him and have cherish'd him, as these And they have you.

SCAR. Slave!

BUT. I will outhumour you, [I will] Fight with you and lose my life, ere[431] these Shall taste your wrong, whom you are bound to love.

SCAR. Out of my doors, slave!

BUT. I will not, but will stay and wear this coat, And do you service whether you will or no. I'll wear this sword, too, and be champion To fight for her, in spite of any man.

SCAR. You shall: you shall be my master, sir.

BUT. No, I desire it not, I'll pay you duty, even upon my knee, But lose my life, ere these oppress'd I'll see.

SCAR. Yes, goodman slave, you shall be master, Lie with my wife, and get more bastards; do, do, do.

KATH. O me!

SCAR. Turns the world upside down, That men o'erbear their masters? it does, it does. For even as Judas sold his master Christ, Men buy and sell their wives at highest price, What will you give me? what will you give me? What will you give me? [Exit.

BUT. O mistress, my soul weeps, though mine eyes be dry, To see his fall and your adversity; Some means I have left, which I'll relieve you with. Into your chamber, and if comfort be akin To such great grief, comfort your children.

KATH. I thank thee, butler; heaven, when he please, Send death unto the troubled—a blest ease.

[Exit with children.

BUT. In troth I know not, if it be good or ill, That with this endless toil I labour thus: 'Tis but the old time's ancient conscience That would do no man hurt, that makes me do't: If it be sin, that I do pity these, If it be sin, I have relieved his brothers, Have played the thief with them to get their food, And made a luckless marriage for his sister, Intended for her good, heaven pardon me. But if so, I am sure they are great sinners, That made this match, and were unhappy[432] men; For they caus'd all, and may heaven pardon them.

Enter SIR WILLIAM SCARBOROW.

SIR WIL. Who's within here?

BUT. Sir William, kindly welcome.

SIR WIL. Where is my kinsman Scarborow?

BUT. Sooth, he's within, sir, but not very well.

SIR WIL. His sickness?

BUT. The hell of sickness; troubled in his mind.

SIR WIL. I guess the cause of it, But cannot now intend to visit him. Great business for my sovereign hastes me hence; Only this letter from his lord and guardian to him, Whose inside, I do guess, tends to his good; At my return I'll see him: so farewell. [Exit.

BUT. Whose inside, I do guess, turns to his good. He shall not see it now, then; for men's minds, Perplex'd like his, are like land-troubling-winds, Who have no gracious temper.

Enter JOHN SCARBOROW.

JOHN. O butler!

BUT. What's the fright now?

JOHN. Help, straight, or on the tree of shame We both shall perish for the robbery.

BUT. What, is't reveal'd, man?

JOHN. Not yet, good butler: only my brother Thomas, In spleen to me that would not suffer him To kill our elder brother had undone us, Is riding now to Sir John Harcop straight, To disclose it.

BUT. Heart! who would rob with sucklings? Where did you leave him?

JOHN. Now taking horse to ride to Yorkshire.

BUT. I'll stay his journey, lest I meet a hanging.

[Exeunt.

Enter SCARBOROW.

SCAR. I'll parley with the devil: ay, I will, He gives his counsel freely, and the cause He for his clients pleads goes always with them: He in my cause shall deal then; and I'll ask him Whether a cormorant may have stuff'd chests, And see his brother starve? why, he'll say, ay[433], The less they give, the more I gain thereby;

Enter BUTLER.

Their souls, their souls, their souls. How now, master? nay, you are my master; Is my wife's sheets warm? does she kiss well?

BUT. Good sir.

SCAR. Foh! make't not strange, for in these days, There's many men lie in their masters' sheets, And so may you in mine, and yet—your business, sir?

BUT. There's one in civil habit, sir, would speak with you.

SCAR. In civil habit?

BUT. He is of seemly rank, sir, and calls himself By the name of Doctor Baxter of Oxford.

SCAR. That man undid me; he did blossoms blow, Whose fruit proved poison, though 'twas good in show: With him I'll parley, and disrobe my thoughts Of this wild frenzy that becomes me not. A table, candles, stools, and all things fit, I know he comes to chide me, and I'll hear him: With our sad conference we will call up tears, Teach doctors rules, instruct succeeding years: Usher him in: Heaven spare a drop from thence, where's bounteous throng: Give patience to my soul, inflame my tongue.

Enter DOCTOR.

DOC. Good Master Scarborow.

SCAR. You are most kindly welcome, sooth, ye are.

DOC. I have important business to deliver you.

SCAR. And I have leisure to attend your hearing.

DOC. Sir, you know I married you.

SCAR. I know you did, sir.

DOC. At which you promis'd both to God and men, Your life unto your spouse should be like snow, That falls to comfort, not to overthrow: And love unto your issue should be like The dew of heaven, that hurts not, though it strike: When heaven and men did witness and record 'Twas an eternal oath, no idle word: Heaven, being pleased therewith, bless'd you with children, And at heaven's blessings all good men rejoice. So that God's chair and footstool, heaven and earth, Made offering at your nuptials as a knot To mind you of your vow; O, break it not.

SCAR. 'Tis very true[434].

DOC. Now, sir, from this your oath and band[435], Faith's pledge and seal of conscience you have run, Broken all contracts, and the forfeiture Justice hath now in suit against your soul: Angels are made the jurors, who are witnesses Unto the oath you took, and God himself, Maker of marriage, he that seal'd the deed, As a firm lease unto you during life, Sits now as judge of your transgression: The world informs against you with this voice: If such sins reign, what mortals can rejoice?

SCAR. What then ensues to me?

DOC. A heavy doom, whose execution's Now serv'd upon your conscience, that ever You shall feel plagues, whom time shall not dissever; As in a map your eyes see all your life, Bad words, worse deeds, false oaths, and all the injuries, You have done unto your soul: then comes your wife, Full of woe's drops, and yet as full of pity, Who though she speaks not, yet her eyes are swords[436], That cut your heart-strings: and then your children—

SCAR. O, O, O!

DOC. Who, what they cannot say, talk in their looks; You have made us up, but as misfortune's books, Whom other men may read in, when presently, Task'd by yourself, you are not, like a thief, Astonied, being accus'd, but scorch'd with grief.

SCAR. I, I, I.

DOC. Here stand your wife's tears.

SCAR. Where?

DOC. And you fry for them: here lie your children's wants.

SCAR. Here?

DOC. For which you pine, in conscience burn, And wish you had been better, or ne'er born.

SCAR. Does all this happen to a wretch like me?

DOC. Both this and worse; your soul eternally Shall live in torment, though the body die.

SCAR. I shall have need of drink then: Butler!

DOC. Nay, all your sins are on your children laid, For the offences that the father made.

SCAR. Are they, sir?

DOC. Be sure they are.

Enter BUTLER.

SCAR. Butler!

BUT. Sir.

SCAR. Go fetch my wife and children hither.

BUT. I will, sir.

SCAR. I'll read a lecture[437] to the doctor too, He's a divine? ay, he's a divine. [Aside.]

BUT. I see his mind is troubled, and have made bold with duty to read a letter tending to his good; have made his brothers friends: both which I will conceal till better temper. He sends me for his wife and children; shall I fetch them? [Aside.

SCAR. He's a divine, and this divine did marry me: That's good, that's good. [Aside.

DOC. Master Scarborow.

SCAR. I'll be with you straight, sir.

BUT. I will obey him, If anything doth happen that is ill, Heaven bear me record, 'tis 'gainst my will. [Exit.

SCAR. And this divine did marry me, Whose tongue should be the key to open truth, As God's ambassador. Deliver, deliver, deliver. [Aside.

DOC. Master Scarborow.

SCAR. I'll be with you straight, sir: Salvation to afflicted consciences, And not give torment to contented minds, Who should be lamps to comfort out our way, And not like firedrakes[438] to lead men astray, Ay, I'll be with you straight, sir.

Enter BUTLER, [with Wife and Children].

BUT. Here's your wife and children, sir.

SCAR. Give way, then, I have my lesson perfect; leave us here.

BUT. Yes, I will go, but I will be so near, To hinder the mishap, the which I fear. [Exit BUTLER.

SCAR. Now, sir, you know this gentlewoman?

DOC. Kind Mistress Scarborow.

SCAR. Nay, pray you keep your seat, for you shall hear The same affliction you have taught me fear, Due to yourself.

DOC. To me, sir?

SCAR. To you, sir. You match'd me to this gentlewoman?

DOC. I know I did, sir.

SCAR. And you will say she is my wife then.

DOC. I have reason, sir, because I married you.

SCAR. O, that such tongues should have the time to lie, Who teach men how to live, and how to die; Did not you know my soul had given my faith, In contract to another? and yet you Would join this loom unto unlawful twists.

DOC. Sir?

SCAR. But, sir, You that can see a mote within my eye, And with a cassock blind your own defects, I'll teach you this: 'tis better to do ill, That's never known to us, than of self-will. Stand these[439], all these, in thy seducing eye, As scorning life, make them be glad to die.

DOC. Master Scarborow—

SCAR. Here will I write that they, which marry wives, Unlawful live with strumpets all their lives. Here will I seal the children that are born, From wombs unconsecrate, even when their soul Has her infusion, it registers they are foul, And shrinks to dwell with them, and in my close I'll show the world, that such abortive men Knit hands without free tongues, look red like them Stand you and you to acts most tragical: Heaven has dry eyes, when sin makes sinners fall.

DOC. Help, Master Scarborow.

CHIL. Father.

KATH. Husband.

SCAR. These for thy act should die, she for my Clare, Whose wounds stare thus upon me for revenge. These to be rid from misery, this from sin, And thou thyself shalt have a push amongst them, That made heaven's word a pack-horse to thy tongue, Quot'st Scripture to make evil shine like good! And as I send you thus with worms to dwell, Angels applaud it as a deed done well.

Enter BUTLER.

DOC. Stay him, stay him.

BUT. What will you do, sir?

SCAR. Make fat worms of stinking carcases. What hast thou to do with it?

Enter ILFORD and his Wife, the two Brothers, and SIR WILLIAM SCARBOROW.

BUT. Look, who are here, sir?

SCAR. Injurious villain! that prevent'st me still.

BUT. They are your brothers and alliance, sir.

SCAR. They are like full ordnance then who, once discharg'd, Afar off give a warning to my soul, That I have done them wrong.

SIR WIL. Kinsman.

BRO. AND SIS. Brother.

KATH. Husband.

CHIL. Father.

SCAR. Hark, how their words like bullets shoot me thorough, And tell me I have undone them: this side might say, We are in want, and you are the cause of it; This points at me, y'are shame unto your house: This tongue says nothing, but her looks do tell She's married, but as those that live in hell: Whereby all eyes are but misfortune's pipe, Fill'd full of woe by me: this feels the stripe.

BUT. Yet look, sir, Here's your brothers hand in hand, whom I have knit so.

SIS. And look, sir, here's my husband's hand in mine, And I rejoice in him, and he in me.

SIR WIL. I say, cos, what is pass'd is the way to bliss, For they know best to mend, that know amiss.

KATH. We kneel: forget, and say if you but love us, You gave us grief for future happiness.

SCAR. What's all this to my conscience?

BUT. Ease, promise of succeeding joy to you; Read but this letter.

SIR WIL. Which tells you that your lord and guardian's dead.

BUT. Which tells you that he knew he did you wrong, Was griev'd for't, and for satisfaction Hath given you double of the wealth you had.

BRO. Increas'd our portions.

WIFE. Given me a dowry too.

BUT. And that he knew, Your sin was his, the punishment his due.

SCAR. All this is here: Is heaven so gracious to sinners then?

BUT. Heaven is, and has his gracious eyes, To give men life, not life-entrapping spies.

SCAR. Your hand—yours—yours—to my soul: to you a kiss; In troth I am sorry I have stray'd amiss; To whom shall I be thankful? all silent? None speak? whist! why then to God, That gives men comfort as he gives his rod; Your portions I'll see paid, and I will love you, You three I'll live withal, my soul shall love you! You are an honest servant, sooth you are; To whom? I, these, and all must pay amends; But you I will admonish in cool terms, Let not promotion's hope be as a string, To tie your tongue, or let it loose to sting.

DOC. From hence it shall not, sir.

SCAR. Then husbands thus shall nourish with their wives. [Kiss.

ILF. As thou and I will, wench.

SCAR. Brothers in brotherly love thus link together [Embrace. Children and servants pay their duty thus. [Bow and kneel. And are all pleas'd?

ALL. We are.

SCAR. Then, if all these be so, I am new-wed, so ends all marriage woe; And, in your eyes so lovingly being wed, We hope your hands will bring us to our bed.

FINIS.



FOOTNOTES:

[1] Baldwin's "Old English Drama," 2 vols. 12mo.

[2] From the similarity of the names, it seems the author originally intended to make Young Lusam the son of Old Lusam and brother of Mistress Arthur, but afterwards changed his intention: in page 13 the latter calls him a stranger to her, although he is the intimate friend of her husband.

[3] [Old copy, walk.]

[4] Busk-point, the lace with its tag which secured the end of the busk, a piece of wood or whalebone worn by women in front of the stays to keep them straight.

[5] [Old copies, Study.]

[6] [Old copy, watch.]

[7] [Old copies, dream.]

[8] [All Fuller's speeches must be supposed to be Asides.]

[9] [Old copies give this line to Fuller.]

[10] Old copies, she.

[11] Old copies, bene; but the schoolmaster is made to blunder, so that bene may, after all, be what the author wrote.

[12] The rod, made of a willow-wand.

[13] Old copy, how.

[14] [Old copies, laid.]

[15] [A quotation.]

[16] Christ-cross, the alphabet.

[17] [The sense appears to be, for this not being perfect poison, as his (the pedant's) meaning is to poison himself, some covetous slave will sell him real poison.]

[18] [Old copies, seem'd.]

[19] [Old copies, First.]

[20] [Massinger, in his "City Madam," 1658, uses this word in the sense of above the law. Perhaps Young Arthur may intend to distinguish between a civil and religious contract.]

[21] [See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 90.]

[22] [i.e., The hoar-frost.]

[23] [Old copy, flies upon.]

[24] [This line has been seriously corrupted, and it might be impossible to restore the true reading. The old copies have: Ask, he knew me, a means, &c.]

[25] [Having, however, been written and acted some years before it was printed in 1606.]

[26] Sloughing hotcockles is a sport still retained among children. The diversion is of long standing, having been in use with the ancients. See Pollux, lib. ix. In the copy it is spelt slauging.

[27] Old copy, which.

[28] [So in Wybarne's "New Age of Old Names," 1609, p. 12: "But stay, my friend: Let it be first manifest that my Father left Land, and then we will rather agree at home, then suffer the Butler's Boxe to winne all." The phrase occurs again in "Ram Alley," 1611.]

[29] [So the old copy, and rightly. Forne is a contracted form of beforne, a good old English word. Hawkins printed fore.]

[30] Query, if this be not a fling at Shakespeare? See "Cymbeline." —Hawkins. [Scarcely, for there are two sons recovered in that play, and the incident of finding a long-lost child is not an uncommon one in the drama. We have a daughter thus found in Pericles.—Ebsworth.]

[31] [Some of the old copies read make.]

[32] Old copy, furens.

[33] Old copy, lanching.

[34] [Old copies, is.]

[35] [It is probably well known that on the early stage vinegar was used where there was a necessity for representing bloodshed. Compare the passage in Preston's "Cambyses," iv. 217.]

[36] Old copy, utensilies.

[37] Old copy, sly.

[38] Old copy, soure.

[39] [Old copy, clear the vsuall, &c.]

[40] "Belvidere; or, The Garden of the Muses," 8vo, 1600, in which are quoted sentences out of Spenser, Constable, and the rest, digested under a commonplace. [Another edition in 1610. It is a book of no value or interest.]

[41] [Left blank in the old copy. The ostensible editor of "Belvidere" was John Bodenham, but he is evidently not the person referred to here.]

[42] [Alluding to the device on the title of the volume.]

[43] [Two of the old copies read swifter.]

[44] [Some copies read S.D.]

[45] As the works of some of the poets here cited are become obscure, it may not be unacceptable to the reader to see a few specimens of their several abilities. Constable was esteemed the first sonneteer of his time, and the following sonnet, prefixed to King James I.'s "Poetical Exercises" was the most admired—

TO THE KING OF SCOTLAND.

"When others hooded with blind love do fly Low on the ground with buzzard Cupid's wings, A heavenly love from love of love thee brings, And makes thy Muse to mount above the sky: Young Muses be not wont to fly so high, Age school'd by time such sober ditties sings, But thy love flies from love of youthful things, And so the wings of time doth overfly. Thus thou disdain'st all worldly wings as slow, Because thy Muse with angels' wings doth leave Time's wings behind, and Cupid's wings below; But take thou heed, lest Fame's wings thee deceive, With all thy speed from fame thou canst not flee,— But more thou flees, the more it follows thee."

[46] Lodge was a physician as well as a poet; he was the author of two plays, and eminent, in his day, for writing elegant odes, pastoral songs, sonnets, and madrigals. His "Euphues' Golden Legacy" was printed 4to, 1590, from which some suppose Shakespeare took his "As You Like It." Description of spring by Lodge—

"The earth late choak'd with showers, Is now array'd in green, Her bosom springs with flowers, The air dissolves her teen; The woods are deck'd with leaves, And trees are clothed gay, And Flora, crown'd with sheaves, With oaken boughs doth play; The birds upon the trees Do sing with pleasant voices, And chant, in their degrees, Their loves and lucky choices."

[47] Watson was contemporary with, and imitator of, Sir Philip Sydney, with Daniel, Lodge, Constable, and others, in the pastoral strain of sonnets, &c. Watson thus describes a beautiful woman—

"Her yellow locks exceed the beaten gold, Her sparkling eyes in heav'n a place deserve. Her forehead high and fair, of comely mould; Her words are music all, of silver sound. Her wit so sharp, as like can scarce be found: Each eyebrow hangs, like Iris in the skies, Her eagle's nose is straight, of stately frame, On either cheek a rose and lily lies, Her breath is sweet perfume or holy flame; Her lips more red than any coral stone, Her neck more white than aged swans that moan: Her breast transparent is, like crystal rock, Her fingers long, fit for Apollo's lute, Her slipper such, as Momus dare not mock; Her virtues are so great as make me mute: What other parts she hath I need not say, Whose face alone is cause of my decay."

[48] [This passage is a rather important piece of evidence in favour of the identity of the poet with the physician.]

[49] [Sir] John Davis [author of "Nosce Teipsum," &c.]

[50] Old copy, sooping.

[51] Lock and Hudson were the Bavius and Maevius of that time. The latter gives us this description of fear—

"Fear lendeth wings to aged folk to fly, And made them mount to places that were high; Fear made the woful child to wail and weep, For want of speed on foot and hands to creep."

[Hudson, however, enjoyed some repute in his time, and is known as the translator from Du Bartas of the "History of Judith," 8vo, 1584. Lock published in 1597 a volume containing an English version of "Ecclesiastes" and a series of sonnets.]

[52] John Marston, a bold and nervous writer in Elizabeth's reign: the work here censured was, no doubt, his "Scourge of Villanie, 3 Books of Satyrs," 1598.

[53] Marlowe's character is well marked in these lines: he was an excellent poet, but of abandoned morals, and of the most impious principles; a complete libertine and an avowed atheist. He lost his life in a riotous fray; for, detecting his servant with his mistress, he rushed into the room with a dagger in order to stab him, but the man warded off the blow by seizing Marlowe's wrist, and turned the dagger into his own head: he languished some time of the wound he received, and then died, [in] the year 1593.—A. Wood.

[54] [Omitted in some copies.]

[55] [Omitted in some copies.]

[56] Churchyard wrote Jane Shore's Elegy in "Mirror for Magistrates," 4to, [1574. It is reprinted, with additions, in his "Challenge," 1593.]

[57] Isaac Walton, in his "Life of Hooker," calls Nash a man of a sharp wit, and the master of a scoffing, satirical, merry pen. His satirical vein was chiefly exerted in prose; and he is said to have more effectually discouraged and nonplussed Penry, the most notorious anti-prelate, Richard Harvey the astrologer, and their adherents, than all serious writers who attacked them. That he was no mean poet will appear from the following description of a beautiful woman—

"Stars fall to fetch fresh light from her rich eyes, Her bright brow drives the sun to clouds beneath, Her hairs' reflex with red streaks paint the skies, Sweet morn and evening dew falls from her breath."

[58] Ital. stocco, or long rapier.

[59] A tusk.

[60] [Some copies read turne.]

[61] [John Danter, the printer. Nash, it will be remembered, was called by Harvey Danter's man, because some of his books came from that press. See the next scene.]

[62] [A few corrections have been ventured upon in the French and Latin scraps, as the speaker does not appear to have been intended to blunder.]

[63] [Old copies, procures.]

[64] [Old copies, thanked.]

[65] [Old copies, Fly—revengings.]

[66] [Old copy, gale.]

[67] [Old copy, gracis.]

[68] [Old copy, filthy.]

[69] [Old copies, seat.]

[70] [In the old copy the dialogue is as usual given so as to make utter nonsense, which was apparently not intended.]

[71] [Furor Poeticus apostrophises Apollo, the Muses, &c., who are not present.]

[72] [Old copy, Den.]

[73] [Alluding to the blindness of puppies.]

[74] [Man.]

[75] [Old copy, skibbered.]

[76] [i.e., my very mate.]

[77] [In old copy this line is given to Phantasma.]

[78] [i.e., face. Old copy, race.]

[79] [Rent or distracted. A play is intended on the double meaning of the word.]

[80] [So in the old copy, being an abbreviation, rhythmi causa, of Philomusus.]

[81] [Old copy, Mossy; but in the margin is printed Most like, as if it was an afterthought, and the correction had been stamped in.]

[82] [Old copy, playing.]

[83] No omitted.

[84] [This is the old mythological tradition inverted.]

[85] The bishop's examining chaplain, so called from apposer. In a will of James I.'s reign, the curate of a parish is to appose the children of a charity-school. The term poser is still retained in the schools at [St Paul's,] Winchester and Eton. Two Fellows are annually deputed by the Society of New College in Oxford and King's College in Cambridge to appose or try the abilities of the boys who are to be sped to the fellowships that shall become vacant in the ensuing year.

[86] [The old copy gives this to the next act and scene; but Amoretto seems to offer the remark in immediate allusion to what has just passed. After all, the alteration is not very vital, as, although a new act and scene are marked, Academico and Amoretto probably remain on the stage.]

[87] Good.

[88] [Old copy, caches. A rache is a dog that hunts by scent wild beasts, birds, and even fishes; the female is called a brache.]

[89] [See Halliwell's "Dictionary," i. 115.]

[90] [He refers to Amoretto himself.]

[91] [Halliwell, in his "Dictionary," v. rheum (s.), defines it to mean spleen, caprice. He does not cite it as a verb. I suppose the sense here to be ruminating.]

[92] Old copy, ravished.

[93] [A play on personage and parsonage, which were formerly interchangeable terms, as both had originally one signification.]

[94] [Queen Elizabeth was born September 7, 1533; not her birthday, therefore, but her accession (17th November 1558), at the death of her sister Mary, is referred to by Immerito and Sir Raderic. Elizabeth died March 24, 1602-3. Inasmuch as there is this special reference in "The Return from Parnassus" to the Queen's day, and not to King James's day, we have a certain evidence that the play was written by or before the end of 1602-3. See also what may be drawn from the reference to the siege of Ostend, 1601-4, at the close of act iii. sc. 3 post —additional evidence for 1602.—Ebsworth.]

[95] [Old copy, I tooke of, which seems nonsense.]

[96] [So old copy. Hawkins altered the word unnecessarily to thatched.]

[97] [Bespeaketh. Old copies, rellish.]

[98] Old copy, bites a lip.

[99] [So in old copy, but should we not read London?—Ebsworth.]

[100] [There are three references to Ostend in this play. The town bore a siege from 1601 to 1604, when it surrendered by capitulation. The besieged lost 50,000 men, and the Spaniards still more. The expression, "He is as glad as if he had taken Ostend," surely proves that this play was written after the beginning of 1601 and the commencement of the siege. It does not prove it to have been written after 1604, but, I think, strongly indicates the contrary.—Ebsworth. Is it not possible that the passage was introduced into the play when printed, and was not in the original MS.?]

[101] [So the old copies. Hawkins altered it to delicacies.]

[102] [Poor must be pronounced as a dissyllable.]

[103] [From marry to terms is omitted in one of the Oxford copies and in Dr Ingleby's.]

[104] [Old copy, puppet.]

[105] [One of the copies at Oxford, and Dr Ingleby's, read nimphs. Two others misprint mips.]

[106] [Old copy, wail.]

[107] Old copy, and.

[108] [Both the Oxford copies read teate.]

[109] [Both the Oxford copies have beare.]

[110] [Some of the copies, break.]

[111] To moot is to plead a mock cause; to state a point of law by way of exercise, a common practice in the inns of court.

[112] Old copy, facility.

[113] [Old copy, high.]

[114] [A slight departure from Ovid.]

[115] To come off is equivalent to the modern expression to come down, to pay sauce, to pay dearly, &c. In this sense Shakespeare uses the phrase in "Merry Wives of Windsor," act iv. sc. 6. The host says, "They [the Germans] shall have my horses, but I'll make them pay, I'll sauce them. They have had my house a week at command; I have turned away my other guests. They must come off; I'll sauce them." An eminent critic says to come off is to go scot-free; and this not suiting the context, he bids us read, they must compt off, i.e., clear their reckoning.

[116] Old copy, Craboun.

[117] [Talons.]

[118] Gramercy: great thanks, grand merci; or I thank ye, Je vous remercie. In this sense it is constantly used by our first writers. A very great critic pronounces it an obsolete expression of surprise, contracted from grant me mercy; and cites a passage in "Titus Andronicus" to illustrate his sense of it; but, it is presumed, that passage, when properly pointed, confirms the original acceptation—

CHIRON. Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius, He hath some message to deliver us.

AARON. Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.

BOY. My lords, with all the humbleness I may, I greet your honours from Andronicus— And pray the Roman gods confound you both. [Aside.

DEMETRIUS. Gramercy, lovely Lucius; what's the news?

BOY. That you are both decipher'd (that's the news) For villains mark'd with rape. [Aside] May it please you, My grandsire, well advis'd, hath sent by me The goodliest weapon of his armoury, To gratify your honourable youth, The hope of Rome: for so he bid me say; And so I do, and with his gifts present Your lordships, that whenever you have need, You may be armed and appointed well. And so I leave you both—like bloody villains. [Aside.

—Hanmer's 2d edit., act iv. sc. 2. [The text is the same in Dyce's 2d edit., vi. 326-7.]

[119] "Poetaster," act v. sc. 3. [Gifford's edit. ii. 524-5, and the note.]

[120] [So in the old copy Kemp is made, perhaps intentionally, to call Studioso. See also infra, p. 198.]

[121] [See Kemp's "Nine Daies Wonder," edit. Dyce, ix.]

[122] Sellenger's round, corrupted from St Leger, a favourite dance with the common people.

[123] Old copy reads—

"As you part in kne

KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with sice kne," &c.

The genuine reading, it is presumed, is restored to the text—

"As your part in cue.

KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with size cue," &c.

A pun upon the word cue, which is a hint to the actor to proceed in his part, and has the same sound with the letter q, the mark of a farthing in college buttery-books. To size means to battle, or to be charged in the college accounts for provisions. [A q is so called because it is the initial letter of quadrans, the fourth part of a penny.]

[124] This seems to be quoted from the first imperfect edition of "The Spanish Tragedy;" in the later (corrected) impression it runs thus—

"What outcries pluck me from my naked bed, And chill," &c.

—[v. 54.]

[125] [Old copy points this sentence falsely, and repeats thing.]

[126] Old copy, woe.

[127] [Old copy, birds. Perhaps, however, the poet may have meant swans.]

[128] Old copy, sooping.

[129] [I think this is much more likely to be an allusion to Shakespeare, than the passage in the prologue to which Hawkins refers.—Ebsworth.]

[130] [Old copy, some.]

[131] [There were several Greek literati of this name. Amoretto's page, personating his master, is so nicknamed by the other, who personates Sir Raderic—unless the passage is corrupt.]

[132] [Old copy, Irenias.]

[133] [Old copy, Nor.]

[134] [Old copy, we have.]

[135] [Old copy, run. Mr Ebsworth's correction.]

[136] Old copy, cluttish.

[137] Old copy, trus.

[138] One of the old copies reads repay'st.

[139] Old copy, seeling.

[140] This play is not divided into acts.

[141] [Cadiz.]

[142] [Shear-penny.]

[143] [Extortion.]

[144] [Old copies, waves.]

[145] [Old copy, fates to friend.]

[146] [Old copy, springold.]

[147] [Old copy, as before, springold.]

[148] [Old copy, doff off.]

[149] [Old copy, wat'ry.]

[150] [Resound.]

[151] Edit. 1606 has: Mi Fortunate, ter fortunate Venus. The 4to of 1623 reads: Mi Fortunatus, Fortunate Venter.

[152] [Intend.]

[153] She means to say eloquence, and so it stands in the edition of 1623.

[154] [Robin Goodfellow.]

[155] [See p. 286.]

[156] [This must allude to some real circumstance and person.]

[157] [Attend.]

[158] [Bergen-op-Zoom.]

[159] [Old copy, our.]

[160] [Lap, long. See Nares, edit. 1859, v. Lave-eared.]

[161] [Old copy, seas.]

[162] [Orcus.]

[163] [Worried.]

[164] [An answer to a summons or writ. Old copy, retourner.]

[165] [This most rare edition was very kindly lent to me by the Rev. J.W. Ebsworth, Moldash Vicarage, near Ashford.]

[166] [Cromwell did not die till September 3, 1658, a sufficient reason for the absence of the allusion which Reed thought singular.]

[167] [i.e., The human body and mind. Microcosmus had been used by Davies of Hereford in the same sense in the title of a tract printed in 1603, as it was afterwards by Heylin in his "Microcosmus," 1621, and by Earle in his "Microcosmography," 1628.]

[168] Skene or skane: gladius, Ensis brevior.—Skinner. Dekker's "Belman's Night Walk," sig. F 2: "The bloody Tragedies of all these are onely acted by the women, who, carrying long knives or skeanes under their mantles, doe thus play their parts." Again in Warner's "Albion's England," 1602, p. 129—

"And Ganimaedes we are," quoth one, "and thou a prophet trew: And hidden skeines from underneath their forged garments drew, Wherewith the tyrant and his bawds with safe escape they slew."

—See the notes of Mr Steevens and Mr Nichols on "Romeo and Juliet," act ii. sc. 4.

[169] The edition of 1657 reads, red buskins drawn with white ribband. —Collier.

[170] Musical terms. See notes on "Midsummer's Night's Dream," vol. iii. p. 63, and "King Richard III." vol. vii. p. 6, edit. 1778.—Steevens.

[171] A metaphor drawn from music, more particularly that kind of composition called a Ground, with its Divisions. Instead of relish, I would propose to read flourish.—S.P.

[172] Mr Steevens supposes this to be a musical term. See note on "Richard II." act ii. sc. 1—

"The setting sun and music at the close."

[173] Fr. for whistlings.—Steevens.

[174] i.e., Petitionary.—Steevens.

[175] [Altered by Mr Collier to girls; but gulls is the reading of 1607.]

[176] Like an ordinary page, gloves, hamper—so the first edition; but as the two last words seem only the prompter's memoranda, they are omitted. They are also found in the last edition.—Collier.

[177] Ready.

[178] Graceful. See Mr Malone's note on "Coriolanus," act ii. sc. 1.

[179] [Edits., blasting.] I would propose to read the blushing childhood, alluding to the ruddiness of Aurora, the rosy morn, as in act iii. sc. 6—

"Light, the fair grandchild to the glorious sun, Opening the casements of the rosy morn," &c.

—S. Pegge.

[180] So in "Hamlet," act i. sc. 1—

"But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill."

[181] A fool's bauble, in its literal meaning, is the carved truncheon which the licensed fools or jesters anciently carried in their hands. See notes on "All's Well that Ends Well," act iv. sc. 5. —Steevens.

[182] Winstanley has asserted that Oliver Cromwell performed the part of Tactus at Cambridge: and some who have written the life of that great man have fixed upon this speech as what first gave him ideas of sovereignty. The notion is too vague to be depended upon, and too ridiculous either to establish or refute. It may, however, not be unnecessary to mention that Cromwell was born in 1599, and the first edition of this play [was printed in 1607, and the play itself written much earlier]. If, therefore, the Protector ever did represent this character, it is more probable to have been at Huntingdon School.

[183] [Old copies, scarve, and so the edit. of 1780. Mr Collier substituted change as the reading of the old copies, which it is not. See Mr Brae's paper read before the Royal Society of Literature, Jan. 1871, 8vo edit. 1873, p. 23, et seq.]

[184] Edits., deeds. Pegge thought that by deeds was intended Tactus himself; but it is hard to say how this could be made out, as Tactus cannot be translated deeds, though Auditus might be rendered by metonymy ears.

[185] [Edit., fear'd.]

[186] In Surphlet's "Discourses on the Diseases of Melancholy," 4to, 1599, p. 102, the case alluded to is set down: "There was also of late a great lord, which thought himselfe to be a glasse, and had not his imagination troubled, otherwise then in this onely thing, for he could speake mervailouslie well of any other thing: he used commonly to sit, and tooke great delight that his friends should come and see him, but so as that he would desire them, that they would not come neere unto him."

[187] Hitherto misprinted conclaves.—Collier. [First 4to, correctly, concaves.]

[188] See Surphlet, p. 102.

[189] [An allusion to the myth of the werewolf.]

[190] [This proverb is cited by Heywood. See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 392.]

[191] [All the editions except 1657, bidden, and all have arms for harms.]

[192] Presently, forthwith.

[193] [Edits., wax.]

[194] Some of the old copies [including that of 1607] read—

"Here lies the sense that lying gull'd them all."

—Collier.

[195] Auditus is here called Ears, as Tactus is before called Deed.—Pegge. [But see note at p. 349.]

[196] Circles. So in Milton—

"Throws his steep flight in many an airy wheel."

—Steevens.

[197] [It is Mendacio who speaks.]

[198] Old copies, Egyptian knights. Dr Pegge's correction.

[199] [Edits., I.]

[200] [Edits., safe.]

[201] A pun; for he means Male aeger.—Pegge.

[202] The [first edit.] gives the passage thus: brandish no swords but sweards of bacon, which is intended for a pun, and though bad enough, need not be lost.—Collier.

[203] Glaves are swords, and sometimes partisans.—Steevens.

[204] Lat. for phalanxes.—Steevens.

[205] [Edits., dept.]

[206] Mars.

[207] See Note 2 to the "First Part of Jeronimo," [v. 349].

[208] [Edits., kist. The word hist may be supposed to represent the whistling sound produced by a sword passing rapidly through the air.]

[209] i.e., Exceeds bounds or belief. See a note on "The Merry Wives of Windsor," act iv. sc. 2.—Steevens.

[210] "Graecia mendax Audet in historia."—Steevens.

[211] [His "History," which is divided into nine books, under the names of the nine Muses.]

[212] i.e., Whispered him. See note to "The Spanish Tragedy," [vi. 10.]

[213] [Peter Martyr's "Decades."]

[214] A luncheon before dinner. The farmers in Essex still use the word.—Steevens.

So in the "Woman-hater," by Beaumont and Fletcher, act i. sc. 3, Count Valore, describing Lazarillo, says—

"He is none of these Same Ordinary Eaters, that'll devour Three breakfasts, as many dinners, and without any Prejudice to their Beavers, drinkings, suppers; But he hath a more courtly kind of hunger. And doth hunt more after novelty than plenty."

Baret, in his "Alvearic," 1580, explains a boever, a drinking betweene dinner and supper; and a boier, meate eaten after noone, a collation, a noone meale.

[215] See Note 19 to "The Ordinary."

[216] [In 1576 Ulpian Fulwell published "The First Part of the Eighth Liberal Science, Entituled Ars Adulandi."]

[217] This word, which occurs in Ben Jonson and some other writers, seems to have the same meaning as our numps. I am ignorant of its etymology.—Steevens. [Compare Nares, 1859, in v.]

[218] i.e., Other requisites towards the fitting out of a character. See a note on "Love's Labour Lost," vol. ii. p. 385, edit. 1778. —Steevens.

[219] A busk-point was, I believe, the lace of a lady's stays. Minsheu explains a buske to be a part of dress "made of wood or whalebone, a plated or quilted thing to keepe the body straight." The word, I am informed, is still in common use, particularly in the country among the farmers' daughters and servants, for a piece of wood to preserve the stays from being bent. Points or laces were worn by both sexes, and are frequently mentioned in our ancient dramatic writers.

[220] [Edits., hu, hu.]

[221] [i.e., Our modern pet, darling, a term of endearment.] Dr Johnson says that it is a word of endearment from petit, little. See notes on "The Taming of the Shrew," act i. sc. 1.

Again, in "The City Madam," by Massinger, act ii. sc. 2—

"You are pretty peats, and your great portions Add much unto your handsomeness."

[222] Shirley, in his "Sisters," ridicules these hyperbolical compliments in a similar but a better strain—

"Were it not fine If you should see your mistress without hair, Drest only with those glittering beams you talk of? Two suns instead of eyes, and they not melt The forehead made of snow! No cheeks, but two Roses inoculated on a lily, Between a pendant alabaster nose: Her lips cut out of coral, and no teeth But strings of pearl: her tongue a nightingale's! Would not this strange chimera fright yourself?"

—Collier.

[223] [i.e., Doff it in salutation.]

[224] Alluding to the office of sheriff.

[225] "Cassock," says Mr Steevens, "signifies a horseman's loose coat, and is used in that sense by the writers of the age of Shakespeare. It likewise appears to have been part of the dress of rusticks." See note to "All's Well that Ends Well," act iv. sc. 3.

[226] "A gimmal or gimbal ring, Fr. gemeau, utr. a Lat. Gemellus, q.d. Annulus Gemellus, quoniam, sc. duobus aut pluribus orbibus constat."—Skinner.

Gimmal rings are often mentioned in ancient writers.

[227] "Quis nescit primam esse Historiae legem, ne quid falsi dicere audeat; deinde, ne quid veri non audeat."—Cicero "De Orat." lib. ii. 15.

[228] This was called "The Clouds," in which piece Socrates was represented hanging up in a basket in the air, uttering numberless chimerical absurdities, and blaspheming, as it was then reputed, the gods of his country. At the performance of this piece Socrates was present himself; and "notwithstanding," says his biographer, "the gross abuse that was offered to his character, he did not show the least signs of resentment or anger; nay, such was the unparalleled good nature of this godlike man, that some strangers there, being desirous to see the original of this scenic picture, he rose up in the middle of the performance, stood all the rest of the time, and showed himself to the people; by which well-placed confidence in his own merit and innocence, reminding them of those virtues and wisdom so opposite to the sophist in the play, his pretended likeness, he detected the false circumstances, which were obtruded into his character, and obviated the malicious designs of the poet who, having brought his play a second time upon the stage, met with the contempt he justly merited for such a composition." —Cooper's "Life of Socrates," p. 55.

[229] [Old copies, page's tongue; but Mendacio, Lingua's page, is intended. Perhaps we should read Tongueship's page.]

[230] [This is marked in the editions as the opening of a new scene, but wrongly, as it should seem, as the same persons remain on the stage, and the conversation is a sequel to what has gone before.]

[231] These were the names of several species of hawks. See an account of them in the "Treatises on Falconry," particularly those of Turbervile and Latham.

[232] i.e., Hedgehogs. See a note on Shakespeare's "Tempest," i. 28, edit. 1778.—Steevens.

Again, in Erasmus's "Praise of Folie," 1549, sig. Q 2: "That the soule of Duns woulde a litle leve Sorbone College, and enter into my breast, be he never so thornie, and fuller of pricles than is any urcheon."

[233] Perhaps, instead of the masks are made so strong, we ought to read, the mesh is made so strong. It clearly means the mesh of the net, from what is said afterwards.—Collier. [But mask, in Halliwell's "Dictionary," is said to be used for mesh. What is intended above is not a net, but a network ladder.]

[234] [Hazard, the plot of a tennis-court.—Halliwell's "Dictionary."]

[235] This is one of the many phrases in these volumes which, being not understood, was altered without any authority from the ancient copies. The former editions read odd mouthing; the text, however, is right; for old, as Mr Steevens observes, was formerly a common augmentative in colloquial language, and as such is often used by Shakespeare and others. See notes on the "Second Part of Henry IV." act ii. sc. 4, and "The Taming of the Shrew," act iii. sc. 2.

Again, in Tarlton's "Newes out of Purgatory," 1630, p. 34: "On Sunday at Masse there was old ringing of bells, and old and yong came to church to see the new roode."

[236] A sneer at the Utopian Treatises on Government.—Steevens.

[237] The latest of the old copies, [and the first edition, have] wine instead of swine, which is clearly a misprint, as the hogs of Olfactus are subsequently again mentioned.—Collier.

[238] [Old copies, he.]

[239] [A flogging.]

[240] [i.e., A blockhead, a fool.—Steevens.]

[241] Nor I out of Memory's mouth is the correct reading, although the pronoun has been always omitted. Anamnestes is comparing his situation with that of Mendacio.—Collier.

[242] [See "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," ii. 296.]

[243] [Another name of Jupiter.]

[244] [Edits., belly.]

[245] Chess.

[246] A favourite game formerly, and apparently one of the oldest in use. The manner in which it was played will appear from the following epigram of Sir John Harington, the translator of Ariosto—

The Story of Marcus's Life at Primero.

"Fond Marcus ever at Primero playes, Long winter nights, and as long summer dayes: And I heard once to idle talke attending The story of his times and coins mis-spending At first, he thought himselfe halfe way to heaven, If in his hand he had but got a sev'n. His father's death set him so high on flote, All rests went up upon a sev'n and coate. But while he drawes from these grey coats and gownes, The gamesters from his purse drew all his crownes. And he ne'er ceast to venter all in prime, Till of his age, quite was consum'd the prime. Then he more warily his rest regards, And sets with certainties upon the cards, On sixe and thirtie, or on sev'n and nine, If any set his rest, and saith, and mine: But seed with this, he either gaines or saves, For either Faustus prime is with three knaves, Or Marcus never can encounter right, Yet drew two Ases, and for further spight Had colour for it with a hopeful draught But not encountred, it avail'd him naught. Well, sith encountring, he so faire doth misse, He sets not, till he nine and fortie is. And thinking now his rest would sure be doubled, He lost it by the hand, with which sore troubled, He joynes now all his stocke unto his stake, That of his fortune he full proofe may make. At last both eldest hand and five and fifty, He thinketh now or never (thrive unthrifty.) Now for the greatest rest he hath the push: But Crassus stopt a club, and so was flush: And thus what with the stop, and with the packe, Poore Marcus and his rest goes still to wracke. Now must he seek new spoile to rest his rest, For here his seeds turne weeds, his rest, unrest. His land, his plate he pawnes, he sels his leases, To patch, to borrow, and shift he never ceases. Till at the last two catch-poles him encounter, And by arrest, they beare him to the Counter. Now Marcus may set up all rests securely: For now he's sure to be encountred surely."

Minsheu thus explains Primero:—"Primero and Primavista, two games at cards. Primum et primum visum, that is, first and first seene, because he that can show such an order of cards first, winnes the game." [See Dyce's "Shakespeare Glossary," in v.]

[247] See Note 30 to "The Dumb Knight."

[248] [See "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," ii. 318-19.] So in Dekker's "Belman's Nights-walke," it is alluded to:—"The set at Maw being plaid out."

Henslowe in his Diary mentions a play under the title of "The Maw," which probably had reference to the game at cards so called. It was acted on the 14th December 1594. He also names a play entitled "The Macke," under date of Feb. 21, 1594-5; but it is doubtful if they were not the same.—Collier.

[249] In the old editions this is given as a part of what is said by Anamnestes.—Collier.

[250] [See Dyce's "Middleton," iii. 106. There's no ho, there are no bounds or restraints with them.—Reed. They are not to be restrained by a call or ho. The expression is common.—Dyce.]

[251] Rather Ptolemy.—Pegge.

[252] Latten, as explained by Dr Johnson, is "Brass; a mixture of Copper and Caliminaris stone." Mr Theobald, from Monsieur Dacier, says, "C'est une espece de cuivre de montagne, comme son nom mesme le temoigne; c'est ce que nous appellons au jourd'huy du leton. It is a sort of mountain copper, as its very name imports, and which we at this time of day call latten." See Mr Theobald's note on "The Merry Wives of Windsor," act i. sc. 1.

Among the Harleian MSS. is a tract, No. 6395, entitled "Merry Passages and Jeasts," written in the seventeenth century, [printed by Thoms in "Anecdotes and Traditions," 1839,] in which is the following story of Shakespeare, which seems entitled to as much credit as any of the anecdotes which now pass current about him: "Shake-speare was god-father to one of Ben Jonson's children, and after the christning, being in a deepe study, Jonson came to cheere him up, and ask't him why he was so melancholy? No, faith, Ben (sayes he) not I, but I have been considering a great while, what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my god-child, and I have resolv'd at last; I pr'y thee what, says he? I faith, Ben, Ile e'en give him a douzen good Lattin spoones, and thou shall translate them."

[253] Deft is handy, dexterous. So in "Macbeth," act iv. sc. 1—

"Thyself and office deftly show."

See note on "Macbeth," edit. 1778.—Steevens.

[254] [Concert.]

[255] [Summoners, officers of the old ecclesiastical court.]

[256] [Ignorant of arts.]

[257] A jangler, says Baret, is "a jangling fellowe, a babbling attornie. Rabula, ae, mas. gen. [Greek: Dikologos] Vn pledoieur criard, une plaidereau."

[258] This speech is in six-line stanzas, and beforn should rhyme to morn, as it does in the old copies, which were here abandoned. —Collier.

[259] i.e., "Going. Gate, in the Northern Dialect, signifies a way; so that agate is at or upon the way."—Hay's "Collection of Local Words," p. 13, edit. 1740.

[260] Here again, as in the passage at p. 354, we have arms for harms. In the old copies this speech of the Herald is printed as prose.—Collier.

[261] A monster feigned to have the head of a lion, the belly of a goat, and the tail of a dragon.

[262] "If at any time in Rolls and Alphabets of Arms you meet with this term, you must not apprehend it to be that fowl which in barbarous Latine they call Bernicla, and more properly (from the Greek) Chenalopex—a creature well known in Scotland, yet rarely used in arms; but an instrument used by farriers to curb and command an unruly horse, and termed Pastomides."—Gibbons's "Introductio ad Latinam Blasoniam," 1682, p. 1.

[The allusion here is to the barnacle of popular folk-lore and superstition, which, from a shell-fish, was transformed into a goose.—See "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," iii. 309.]

[263] [A reference to the belief in prodigies reported from Africa. "Africa semper aliquid oportet novi."—S. Gosson's "School of Abuse," 1579. See also Rich's "My Ladies Looking-glass," 1616, sig. B 3.]

[264] [Edits. give this speech to the Herald.]

[265] [The head.]

[266] A celebrated puppet-show often mentioned by writers of the times by the name of the Motion of Nineveh. See Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair," act v. sc. 1; "Wit at Several Weapons," act i.; "Every Woman in her Humour," 1609, sig. H, and "The Cutter of Coleman Street," act v. sc. 9.

[267] So in "Twelfth Night," act i. sc. 1.

"That strain again; it had a dying fall."—Steevens.

[268] [Edits., bitter.]

[269] [See Dyce's "Beaumont and Fletcher," ii. 225, note.] Theobald observes in his edition of "Beaumont and Fletcher," that this ballad is mentioned again in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," and likewise in a comedy by John Tatham, 1660, called "The Rump, or Mirrour of the Times," wherein a Frenchman is introduced at the bonfires made for the burning of the Rump, and catching hold of Priscilla, will oblige her to dance, and orders the music to play Fortune my foe. Again, in "Tom Essence," 1677, p. 37.

[270] A dance. Sir John Davies, in his poem called "Orchestra," 1596, stanza 70, thus describes it—

"Yet is there one, the most delightfull kind, A loftie jumping, or a leaping round, Where arme and arme two dauncers are entwind, And whirle themselues with strict embracements bound, And still their feet an anapest do sound: An anapest is all their musicks song, Whose first two feet are short, and third is long."

71.

"As the victorious twinnes of Laeda and Ioue, That taught the Spartans dauncing on the sands, Of swift Eurotas, daunce in heauen aboue, Knit and vnited with eternall hands, Among the starres their double image stands, Where both are carried with an equall pace, Together iumping in their turning race."

[271] "Or, as it is oftener called, passa mezzo, from passer to walk, and mezzo the middle or half; a slow dance, little differing from the action of walking. As a Galliard consists of five paces or bars in the first strain, and is therefore called a Cinque pace; the passa mezzo, which is a diminutive of the Galliard, is just half that number, and from that peculiarity takes its name."—Sir John Hawkins's "History of Music," iv. 386. [Compare Dyce's second edition of Shakespeare, iii. 412.]

[272] i.e., St Leger's round. "Sellinger's round was an old country dance, and was not quite out of knowledge in the last century. Morley mentions it in his Introduction, p. 118, and Taylor the Water Poet, in his tract, entitled, 'The World runs on Wheels;' and it is printed in a 'Collection of Country Dances,' published by John Playford in 1679."—Sir John Hawkins's "History of Music," iii. 288, where the notes are engraved.

[273] See Plinii "Nat. Hist.," lib. v. c. 9.

[274] The author certainly in writing this beautiful passage had Spenser ("Faerie Queene," b. ii. c. 12) in his mind.

"The joyous birds shrouded in cheerful shade," &c.

—Collier.

[275] Alluding to the fish called the Sole, and the musical note Sol.—Pegge.

[276] See note [235].

[277] Mixed metal, from the French word mesler, to mingle, mix.

[278] [Lightning-bolt.]

[279] [Camphored.]

[280] Plin. "Nat. Hist." lib. xxxvi. c. 16. "Sideritin ob hoc alio nomine appellant quidam Heracleon: Magnes appellatus est ab inventore (ut auctor est Nicander) in Ida repertus."—Pegge.

[281] So in "The Merchant of Venice," act i. sc. 1—

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."

See also the notes of Bishop Warburton and Dr Farmer on "Love's Labour's Lost," act v. sc. 4.—Steevens.

[282] This quotation from Plautus, and that which follows from Terence, were assigned by Mr Reed to Communis Sensus, when, in fact, they belong to Comedus. The initials Com. in the old copies led to the error.—Collier.

[283] The first lines of the prologue to Plautus's "Menechmi."

[284] See Terence's "Eunuch," act i. sc. 1.

[285] At the universities, where degrees are conferred.

[286] i.e., A porch which has as many spiral windings in it as the shell of the periwinkle, or sea-snail.—Steevens.

[287] i.e., Bottles to cast or scatter liquid odours.—Steevens.

[288] The custom of censing or dispersing fragrant scents seems formerly to have been not uncommon. See Ben Jonson's "Every Man out of his Humour," act ii. sc. 4.

[289] Pomanders were balls of perfume formerly worn by the higher ranks of people. Dr Gray, in his "Notes on Shakespeare," vol. i. p. 269, says "that a pomander was a little ball made of perfumes, and worn in the pocket, or about the neck, to prevent infection in times of plague." From the above receipt, it appears they were moulded in different shapes, and not wholly confined to that of balls; and the like direction is given in another receipt for making pomanders printed in Markham's "English Housewife," p. 151, edit. 1631.

[290] Non bene olet, qui semper bene olet.

[291] Probably some character notorious in the University of Cambridge at the time when this play was written or represented.—Steevens.

[292] Turquois.

[293] [Sharpen.]

[294] [Edits., musing.]

[295] [Primary.]

[296] [The wine so called.]

[297] Finer, more gaudily dressed. So in "Wily Beguiled"—

"Come, nurse, gather: A crown of roses shall adorn my head, I'll prank myself with flowers of the prime; And thus I'll spend away my primrose time."

And in Middleton's "Chast Mayd in Cheapside," 1630 [Dyces "Middleton," iv. 59]—

"I hope to see thee, wench, within these few yeeres Circled with children, pranking up a girl, And putting jewels in their little eares, Fine sport, i'faith."

[298] i.e., Whisper, or become silent. As in Nash's "Pierce Penilesse, his Supplication to the Divell," 1592, p. 15: "But whist, these are the workes of darknesse, and may not be talkt of in the daytime." [The word is perfectly common.]

[299] While he is speaking, Crapula, from the effects of over-eating, is continually coughing, which is expressed in the old copies by the words tiff toff, tiff toff, within brackets. Though it might not be necessary to insert them, their omission ought to be mentioned. —Collier.

[300] i.e., Glutton; one whose paunch is distended by food. See a note on "King Henry IV., Part I," v. 304, edit. 1778.—Steevens.

[301] i.e., Whisper.

[302] [Visus fancies himself Polyphemus searching for Outis—i.e., Ulysses, who had blinded him.]

[303] [Edits., Both.]

[304] [Row.]

[305] [Nearest.]

[306] [Edits., ambrosian.]

[307 [Fiddle.]

[308] A voiding knife was a long one used by our indelicate ancestors to sweep bones, &c., from the table into the voider or basket, in which broken meat was carried from the table.—Steevens.

[309] Reward.

[310] [Edits., him.]

[311] [Edits., sprites.]

[312] The edition of 1657 reads—

"A greater soldier than the god of Mars."

—Collier. [The edition of 1607 also has Mars.]

[313] i.e., Hamstring him.—Steevens.

[314] "Gulchin, q.d. a Gulckin, i.e., parvus Gulo; kin enim minuit. Alludit It. Guccio, Stultus, hoc autem procul dubio a Teut. Geck, Stultus, ortum ducit."—Skinner. Florio explains Guccio, a gull, a sot, a ninnie, a meacock. Ben Jonson uses the word in "The Poetaster," act iii. sc. 4: "Come, we must have you turn fiddler again, slave; get a base violin at your back, and march in a tawny coat, with one sleeve, to Goose-fair; then you'll know us, you'll see us then, you will gulch, you will."

[315] Bawsin, in some counties, signifies a badger. I think I have heard the vulgar Irish use it to express bulkiness. Mr Chatterton, in the "Poems of the Pseudo-Rowley," has it more than once in this sense. As, bawsyn olyphantes, i.e., bulky elephants.—Steevens.

[316] [Edits., weary. I wish that I could be more confident that weird is the true word. Weary appears to be wrong, at any rate.]

[317] [Edits., bedewy.]

[318] [This and Chanter are the names of dogs. Auditus fancies himself a huntsman.]

[319] Counter is a term belonging to the chase. [Gascoigne,] in his "Book of Hunting," 1575, p. 243, says, "When a hounde hunteth backwardes the same way that the chase is come, then we say he hunteth counter. And if he hunt any other chase than that which he first undertooke, we say he hunteth change." So in "Hamlet," act iv. sc. 5—

"How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs."

See Dr Johnson's note on this passage.

[320] [The author may have had in his mind an anecdote related of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Edward Dyer. See the "New London Jest Book," p. 346.]

[321] [Flatulent.]

[322] [Rett and Cater appear to be the names of dogs. Edits. print ware wing cater.]

[323] [See note at p. 367.]

[324] Idle, lazy, slothful. Minsheu derives it from the French lasche, desidiosus.

[325] [See a review of, and extracts from, this very curious play in Fry's "Bibliographical Memoranda," 1816, pp. 345-50.]

[326] Catalogue of the library of John Hutton. Sold at Essex House, 1764, p. 121. The whole title of the tract, which Mr Reed does not appear to have seen, as he quotes it only from a sale catalogue, is as follows:—"Three Miseries of Barbary: Plague, Famine, Ciuill warre. With a relation of the death of Mahamet the late Emperour: and a briefe report of the now present Wars betweene the three Brothers. Printed by W.I. for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold in Pater noster rowe, at the signe of the Sunne." It is without date, and the name of the author, George Wilkins, is subscribed to a dedication, "To the right worshipfull the whole Company of Barbary Merchants." The tract is written in an ambitious style, and the descriptions are often striking; but there is nothing but the similarity of name to connect it with "The Miseries of Enforced Marriage."—Collier.

[327] [Hazlitt's "Handbook," 1867, p. 656.]

[328] [Not in the old copies.]

[329] "This comedy (as Langbaine improperly calls it) has been a great part of it revived by Mrs Behn, under the title of 'The Town Fop, or Sir Timothy Tawdry.'"

[330] These were among the articles of extravagance in which the youth of the times used to indulge themselves. They are mentioned by Fennor, in "The Compters Commonwealth," 1617, p. 32: "Thinkes himselfe much graced (as to be much beholding to them) as to be entertained among gallants, that were wrapt up in sattin suites, cloakes lined with velvet, that scorned to weare any other then beaver hats and gold bands, rich swords and scarfes, silke stockings and gold fringed garters, or russett bootes and gilt spurres; and so compleate cape ape, that he almost dares take his corporal oath the worst of them is worth (at least) a thousand a yeare, when heaven knows the best of them all for a month, nay, sometimes a yeare together, have their pockets worse furnished then Chandelors boxes, that have nothing but twopences, pence, halfe pence, and leaden tokens in them."

[331] The following quotation from the "Perfuming of Tobacco, and the great abuse committed in it," 1611, shows, in opposition to Mr Gilchrist's conjecture, that drinking tobacco did not mean extracting the juice by chewing it, but refers to drawing and drinking the smoke of it. "The smoke of tobacco (the which Dodoneus called rightly Henbane of Peru) drunke and drawen, by a pipe, filleth the membranes (meninges) of the braine, and astonisheth and filleth many persons with such joy and pleasure, and sweet losse of senses, that they can by no means be without it." In fact, to drink tobacco was only another term for smoking it.—Collier.

[332] Alluding to the colour of the habits of servants.

[333] i.e., Owns. See note to "Cornelia" [v. 232].

[334] The omission of this stage direction, which is found in the old copies, rendered what follows it unintelligible. Perhaps Who list to have a lubberly load is a line in some old ballad.—Collier.

[335] [Anthony Munday.]

[336] A custom still observed at weddings.

[337] Himself, omitted by Mr Reed, and restored now from the old copy of 1611.—Collier.

[338] [Edits., pugges.]

[339] [Edits, read—

"They are sovereigns, cordials that preserve our lives."

[340] See Mr Steevens's note on "Othello," act ii. sc. 1. [But compare Middleton's "Blurt, Master Constable," 1602 ("Works," by Dyce, i. 280).]

[341] [Edits., his. Even the passage is now obscure and unsatisfactory.]

[342] [Separate.] This is obviously quoted from the marriage ceremony: as Mr Todd has shown, the Dissenters in 1661 did not understand depart in the sense of separate, which led to the alteration of the Liturgy, "till death us do part." In the "Salisbury Manual" of 1555 it stands thus: "I, N, take thee, M, to my wedded wyf, to have and to holde fro this day forwarde, for better for wors, for richer for poorer, in sicknesse and in hele, tyl deth us departe."—Collier.

So in "Every Woman in her Humour," 1609: "And the little God of love, he shall be her captain: sheele sewe under him 'till death us depart, and thereto I plight thee my troth." And Heywood, in his "Wise Woman of Hogsdon," iii., makes Chastley also quote from the marriage ceremony: "If every new moone a man might have a new wife, that's every year a dozen; but this 'till death us depart is tedious."

[343] [Edits., two sentinels.]

[344] Edits., them one.

[345] [Edits., lives.]

[346] [Remind.]

[347] [Edits., know him great, which could only be made sense by supposing it to mean, knowing him rich, and not a person to be offended. Scarborow afterwards repudiates the idea of being ungrateful.]

[348] By a misprint the three following lines have been till now given to Harcop.—Collier.

[349] [Edits., your presence.]

[350] First edit., even.

[351] [Edits., is.]

[352] [Edits., what.]

[353] That is, acquainted, or informed him. So in "Every Man in his Humour," act i. sc. 5, Bobadil says, "Possess no gentleman of our acquaintance with notice of my lodging." And again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Honest Man's Fortune," act ii. sc. 1—

"Sir, I am very well possess'd of it."

[354] Edits. 1629 [and 1637], honoured.

[355] First edit., how.

[356] [Edits., they.]

[357] The word sir was inserted here as if only to spoil the measure. —Collier.

[358] i.e., Amerce.—Steevens.

[359] [i.e., the bond.]

[360] [Edits., pergest, which Steevens in a note explained goeth on, from Lat. pergo; and Nares cites the present passage for the word. I do not believe that it was ever employed in English, though Shakespeare uses the original Latin once. Purgest is surely preferable, since Ilford has been just giving a list of those he has undone.]

[361] [Apparently a play on the double meaning of talent is intended.]

[362] [Bonds.]

[363] In a similar vein of humour, but much more exquisite, Addison, speaking of Sir Roger de Coverley, says, "He told me some time since that, upon his courting the perverse widow, he had disposed of an hundred acres in a diamond ring, which he would have presented her with, had she thought fit to accept it; and that upon her wedding-day she should have carried on her head fifty of the tallest oaks upon his estate. He further informed me that he would have given her a coalpit to keep her in clean linen; that he would have allowed her the profits of a windmill for her fans, and have presented her once in three years with the shearing of his sheep for her under-petticoats."—Spectator, No. 295.

In Wilson's "Discourse uppon Usurye," 1572, the subsequent passage occurs:—"Thus master merchant, when he hath robbed the poore gentleman and furnisht him in this manner to get a little apparel upon his back, girdeth him with this pompe in the tail: Lo, sayethe hee, yonder goeth a very strong stowt gentleman, for he cariethe upon his backe a faire manour, land and all, and may therefore well be standard-bearer to any prince Christian or heathen."

[364] [Chicken.]

[365] The place most commonly used for exposing the heads of traitors.

[366] [Edits.—

"O! but what shall I write? Mine own excuse."

[367] [Edits., large, full.]

[368] [Edits., appearance, and so as they are, I hope we shall be, more indeer'd, intirely, better, and more feelingly acquainted.]

[369] [Either whets their appetite, or prostrates them. The speaker alludes probably to the early forenoon meal then in vogue.]

[370] The line was formerly mispointed, and misprinted thus—

"Then live a strumpet. Better be unborn."

Clare means, that it were better never to have been born than to live a strumpet.—Collier.

[371] Edit. 1611, would; and in the next line, did.

[372] [Edits., That.]

[373] [Edits., writes.]

[374] Pitiless, without pity.

[375] [Edits., her.]

[376] [This line is assuredly corrupt, but the true reading is a matter of question.]

[377] [Edits., and.]

[378] Their exit is not marked, but as their re-entrance is noticed afterwards, it is to be presumed that they followed, the old man out.

[379] Perhaps misprinted for haven.—Collier.

[380] Example by, &c.—second and third edits.

[381] [Edits.], stare-wearer, which means no doubt stair-wearer, or wearer of the stairs by going up and down them so frequently at call. —Collier.

[382] [Edit. 1607, ha't for you.]

[383] "Red lattice at the doors and windows were formerly the external denotements of an alehouse; hence the present chequers." Mr Steevens observes (note to "Merry Wives of Windsor," act ii. sc. 2) that "perhaps the reader will express some surprise when he is told that shops with the sign of the chequers, were common among the Romans. See a view of the left-hand street of Pompeii (No. 9) presented by Sir William Hamilton (together with several others equally curious) to the Antiquary Society." [Compare "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," ii. 277-8.] Marston, in the "First Part of Antonio and Mellida," act v., makes Balurdo say: "No, I am not Sir Jeffrey Balurdo: I am not as well known by my wit as an alehouse by a red lattice."

[384] i.e., Defiles. See note on "Macbeth," edit. 1778, iv. 524. —Steevens.

[385] [See note at p. 470.]

[386] The first edit, reads, and any man else and he.

[387] Three different departments of a prison, in which debtors were confined according to their ability or incapacity to pay for their accommodations: all three are pretty accurately described by Fennor in "The Compter's Commonwealth," 1617.

[388] [Edits., importance.]

[389] Sack with sugar was formerly a favourite liquor. Although it is mentioned very often in contemporary writers, it is difficult to collect from any circumstances what the kind of wine then called sack was understood to be. In the Second Part of "Henry IV.," act iv. sc. 3, Falstaff speaks of sherris sack; and Dr Johnson supposes the fat knight's admired potation was what we now call sherry, which he says is drunk with sugar. This last assertion is contradicted by Mr Steevens, who with more truth asserts that sherry is at this time never drunk with sugar, whereas Rhenish frequently is. Dr Warburton seems to be of opinion that the sweet wine still denominated sack was that so often mentioned by Falstaff, and the great fondness of the English nation for sugar rather countenances that idea. Hentzner, p. 88, edit. 1757, speaking of the manners of the English, says, In potu copiosae immittunt saccarum—they put a great deal of sugar in their drink; and Moryson, in his "Itinerary," 1617, p. 155, mentioning the Scots, observes, "They drinke pure wines, not with sugar, as the English;" again, p. 152, "But gentlemen garrawse onely in wine, with which many mixe sugar, which I never observed in any other place or kingdome to be used for that purpose: and because the taste of the English is thus delighted with sweetnesse, the wines in tavernes (for I speak not of merchants or gentlemen's cellars) are commonly mixed at the filling thereof, to make them pleasant." Sack and sugar are mentioned in "Jack Drum's Entertainment," sig. G 3; "The Shoemaker's Holiday," sig. E; "Everie Woman in Her Humour," sig. D 4; and "The Wonderful Yeare," 1603. It appears, however, from the following passage in "The English Housewife," by Gervase Markham, 1631, p. 162, that there were various species of sack: "Your best sacke are of Seres in Spaine, your smaller of Galicia and Portugall: your strong sackes are of the islands of the Canaries and of Malligo, and your Muscadine and Malmseys are of many parts of Italy, Greece, and some speciall islands." [But see an elaborate note on sack (vin sec) in Dyce's "Shakespeare Glossary," in v.]

[390] [Edit., courses.]

[391] [A room in the inn so called.]

[392] The second edition has it, my master hopes to ride a cockhorse by him before he leaves him.—Collier.

[393] Such is Master Scarborow; such are his company—edit. 1611. —Collier.

[394] [A room so called.]

[395] [Old copies, time.]

[396] See note to "The City Nightcap," act iii.

[397] Move, or stir. Bouger, Fr.

[398] I believe an Epythite signifies a beggar—[Greek: epithetaes].— Steevens.

[399] [Alluding to a tapestry representing the story of Susanna.]

[400] [Edits., father's old man.]

[401] [Edits., to.]

[402] [Booty, earnings.]

[403] This is a corruption of the Italian corragio! courage! a hortatory exclamation. So, in the Epilogue to "Albumazer," 1615—

Two hundred crowns? and twenty pound a year For three good lives? cargo! hai, Trincalo!"

—Steevens.

[404] A Fr. G. Cigue, utr. a Lat. Cucuta.—Skinner.

Cigue f. Hemlocke, Homlocke, hearbe Bennet, Kex.—Cotgrave.

[405] Dry-meat is inserted from the copy of 1611.—Collier.

[406] Heir and heiress were formerly confounded in the same way as prince was applied to both male and female. So in Cyril Tourneur's "Atheist's Tragedy," 1612, we have—

This Castabella is a wealthy heire."

—Collier.

[407] We must here suppose that butler whispers to Ilford the place where the lady lies or lodges.—Collier.

[408] The following extracts from Stubbes's "Anatomie of Abuses," 4to, 1595, p. 57, will show the manners of the English in some particulars which are alluded to in the course of these volumes: "Other some (i.e., of the women of England) spend the greatest part of the day in sitting at the dore, to show their braveries, and to make knowne their beauties, to beholde the passengers by, to view the coast, to see fashions, and to acquaint themselves with the bravest fellows; for if not for these causes, I see no other causes why they should sit at their dores, from morning till noon (as many do), from noon to night, thus vainly spending their golden dayes in filthy idleness and sin. Againe, other some being weary of that exercise, take occasion (about urgent affaires you must suppose) to walke into the towne, and least anything might be gathered, but that they goe about serious matters indeed, they take their baskets in their hands, or under their arms, under which pretence pretie conceits are practized, and yet may no man say black is their eye.

"In the field's and suburbes of the cities they have gardens either paled or walled round about very high, with their harbers and bowers fit for the purpose. And least they might be espied in these open places, they have their banquetting-houses with galleries, turrets, and what not, therein sumptuously erected: wherein they may (and doubtless do) many of them play the filthy persons. And for that their gardens are locked, some of them have three or four keys a piece, whereof one they keep for themselves, the other their paramours have to goe in before them, least happily they might be perceived, for then were all the sport dasht. Then to these gardens they repair, when they list, with a basket and a boy, where they meeting their sweet harts, receive their wished desires."

[409] See note to "The Parson's Wedding," iii. 3.

[410] [A woman of loose character. Such was its ordinary acceptation, yet not its invariable one. See Lovelace's Poems, by Hazlitt, 1864, pp. xl., xli., and 133, notes.] See note to "King Henry IV., Part II.," edit. 1778, v. 522.—Steevens.

[411] [Edits., throw.]

[412] "Towards the rear of the stage there appears to have been a balcony or upper stage, the platform of which was probably eight or nine feet from the ground. I suppose it to have been supported by pillars. From hence, in many of our old plays, part of the dialogue was spoken; and in front of it curtains likewise were hung, so as occasionally to conceal the persons in it from the view of the audience."—Malone's "History of the Stage." See his edition of "Shakespeare" by Boswell, iii. 79.

[413] [The two brothers, disguised for the purpose, pretend to be their sister's uncles, and engage in a conversation about her marriage, intended to be overheard by Ilford and the others below.]

[414] [Edits., beyond discourse, she's a paragon for a prince, than a fit implement for a gentleman; beyond my element.]

[415] [Edit. 1607] says, Exit Ilford with his Sister, but this is obviously an error: it means with Scarborow's sister.—Collier.

[416] Indeed, second and third editions.

[417] [Edits., for.]

[418] [Edits., flourish.]

[419] [i.e., Which make.]

[420] Them is the reading of the quarto, 1611, and perhaps Thomas refers to "nature and her laws," mentioned not very intelligibly, in his preceding speech.—Collier. [The first edit. of 1607 reads rightly thee.]

[421] The grammar and language of this line are alike obscure and incorrect; but the sense is tolerably clear—"Thou hast been so bad, the best thing I can say is, &c."

[422] [Edits., finisht.]

[423] i.e. Measure it out. Hesperiam metire jacens.—Virgil. —Steevens.

[424] i.e., Facility; [Greek: euergos], facilis.—Steevens.

[425] "Apud eosdem nasci Ctesias scribit, quam mantichoram appellat, triplici dentium ordine pectinatim coeuntium, facie et auriculis hominis, oculis glaucis, colore sanguineo, corpore leonis, cauda scorpionis modo spicula infigentem: vocis ut si misceatur fistulae et tubae concentus: velocitatis magnae, humani corporis vel praecipue appetentem."—C. Plinii "Nat. Hist." lib. viii. c. 21.

[426] The edit. 1611, reads—

"Do as the devil does, hate panther-mankind."—Collier.

[427] All—breath, edits. 1611 and 1629.

[428] The old copy of 1611 reads, unto their wives, and it has been supposed a misprint for wines; but this seems doubtful taking the whole passage together, and the subsequent reference to the children. —Collier.

[429] i.e., To defile. So in Churchyard's "Challenge," 1593, p. 251—

"Away foule workes, that fil'd my face with blurs!"

Again, "Macbeth," act iii. sc. 1—

"If it be so, For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind."

See also Mr Steevens's note on the last passage.

[430] Sorry for you.

[431] [Edits., or, which is merely the old form of ere.]

[432] Mischievous, unlucky. So in "All's Well that Ends Well," act i. sc. 5—

"A shrewd knave and an unhappy."

See also Mr Steevens's note on "Henry VIII.," act i. sc. 4.

[433] I formerly was the mode of writing, as well as pronouncing, this word.

[434] ["The fine effect which is produced through the foregoing scenes by the idea of the 'Enforced Marriage' hanging on them like the German notion of Fate, is destroyed by this happy ending."—MS. note in one of the former edits.]

[435] [Bond.]

[436] [So in the ballad of "Auld Robin Gray"—

"My mother did na speak, But she look'd me in the face," &c.

—MS. note in one of the former edits.]

[437] '51 edit. 1607, letter.

[438] Ignes fatui, Wills o' th' Wisp. See Mr Steevens's Note on "King Henry VIII.," act v. sc. 3.

[439] [Edits., And these. The emendation is conjectured.]

THE END