_Here, sir_] Not knowing how this second piece of
knavery is managed (see note, p. 251), I have not
attempted to supply any stage-directions. Goldstone
seems to have removed the goblet from the place where
it “hung” (see p. 261), and to have hid it somewhere,
till all except himself and Fulk had left the room.
# 582:
_Act III._] Old ed. “Actus 4:” see note, p. 248.
# 583:
_be ready_] i.e. dress himself: compare p. 224 and
note.
# 584:
_toward_] See note, p. 177.
# 585:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 586:
_Combe Park_] Lands so called in the parish of
Kingston upon Thames: see Manning and Bray’s _Hist.
of Surrey_, vol. i. p. 401.—In _The Black Book_
(reprinted in the last vol. of Middleton’s _Works_),
Lucifer makes “a high thief on horseback” the
“keeper of Combe Park.”
# 587:
_purchase_] See note, vol. i. p. 319.
# 588:
_Scene II._] Here in the old ed. no new scene is
marked: after Pursenet had spoken the words “there
will I meet him,” and thrown a scarf over his face
(see what follows), the audience were to suppose that
the stage represented Combe Park: vide note, p. 147.
# 589:
_ne’er_] Old ed. “never.”
# 590:
_injury_] So in _The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll_,
1600;
“Ashamed that you should _iniurie_ your estate
To kneele to me.”
Sig. H 2.
# 591:
_marks_] See note, p. 226.
# 592:
_any_] Has a word, which followed this, dropt out?
# 593:
_covetous_] Old ed. “courteous.”
# 594:
_purchase_] See note, vol. i. p. 319.
# 595:
_spur-royals_] See note, p. 260.
# 596:
_fire-drakes_] i.e. a sort of fire-works.
# 597:
_thy_] Qy. “my.”
# 598:
_pasture_] Qy. “pastime.”
# 599:
_her_] Old ed. “him.”
# 600:
_hist_] Old ed. “pist.”
# 601:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 602:
_pax_] See note, p. 24.
# 603:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 604:
_know_] Old ed. “knowes.”
# 605:
_standing_] A word that followed this seems to have
dropt out.
# 606:
_again_] See note, p. 255.
# 607:
_I’m_] Old ed., “I am.”
# 608:
_Enter Fitsgrave and Gentleman_] Old ed. “_Enter two
Gentlemen_:” but one of them is certainly Fitsgrave,
who has put into the hands of his companion the letter
which Pursenet had dropt: see the last line of sc. ii.
of this act. Besides, the first speaker here declares
that he has found “_three_ of the gallants;” and
Fitsgrave, in act iv. sc. 5, says,
"The broker-gallant and the cheating-gallant,
_Now I have found ’em all_."
# 609:
_shame_] Qy. “charm.”
# 610:
_faints_] Old ed. “faires.”
# 611:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 612:
_Yea, at your book so hard_] Perhaps it is hardly
worth noticing, that, in the _Third Part of Henry
VI._, act v. sc. 6, Gloster says to Henry,
“Good day, my lord: _what, at your book so hard_?”
# 613:
_Ex for ex_] Can this expression mean “_ecce_, for
example?”
# 614:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 615:
_are_] Old ed. “were.”
# 616:
_Mitre-night_] See note, p. 248.—Had the giving of
suppers to these ladies at the Mitre grown now to a
custom?
# 617:
_struggling_] Old ed. “he thumps.”
# 618:
_lined_] May be right,—but qy. “limed.”
# 619:
_a chrisom_] i.e. an infant,—one who dies within the
month of its birth, and is buried in the _chrisome_, a
white cloth, an emblem of Christian innocency, which
was thrown over it at baptism, and which it was to
wear till the mother came to be purified, when the
cloth was returned to the church.
Before the Reformation, in the old baptismal office,
the _chrisom_ cloth was put on the child’s head, to
prevent, according to Ducange _in Chrismate_, the holy
oil (χρισμα) from running off.
Compare Shakespeare’s _Henry V._ act ii. sc. 3, where
dame Quickly says of Falstaff, "’a made a finer end,
and _went away an it had been any christom child_."
# 620:
_watchet_] i.e. light blue.
# 621:
_Enter a Servant_, &c.] The old ed. (in which the
commencement of act iv. is marked much earlier, see
note, p. 263) has, “_In the midst of the musick enter
one bringing in_,” &c.
# 622:
_Wigmore’s galliard_] Is frequently mentioned by our
early writers: see a galliard minutely described,
note, vol. i. p. 65.
# 623:
_the chamber_] After these words the stage-direction
in the old ed. is, “_The musicke plaies on a while,
then enter Tailbee his man after trussing him_.”
# 624:
_trussing him_] i.e. tying his points: see note, vol.
i. p. 367.
# 625:
_now down_] Old ed. “nowne.”
# 626:
_that’s_] Old ed. “whats.”
# 627:
_All-holland-tide_] i.e. All-hallows-tide: see note,
p. 165.
# 628:
_Take_] Old ed. “Takes.”
# 629:
_disgested_] See note, p. 259.
# 630:
_lead_] Old ed. “lend.”
# 631:
_at her house_] Old ed. “at home, _at her house_;” see
notes 241 and 244, p. 134.
# 632:
_Gol._] Old ed. “_Bung_.”
# 633:
_fig-frails_] i.e. fig-baskets.
# 634:
_steaks_] Compare vol. i. p. 336, where, as the
present passage shews, the reading “_steaks_ of
velvet” is right.
# 635:
_Pax_] See note, p. 24.
# 636:
_hangers_] See note, p. 227.
# 637:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 638:
_filed_] i.e. polished.
# 639:
_men’s_] Qy. "mends"—i.e. helps.
# 640:
_The Middle Aisle_, &c.] See note, vol. i. p. 418.
# 641:
_ram’s head_] As a crest, I suppose.
# 642:
_I’d know_] Old ed. “I knew.”
# 643:
_Do you walk, sir_?] Is in the old ed. the conclusion
of Pursenet’s speech, whose exit with the Boy is not
marked. As we subsequently learn (see pp. 297, 298)
that the sharper had succeeded in his design on
Pyamont’s gold, by falling into a pretended swoon, I
cannot help suspecting that a portion of this scene
has dropt out, and that the incident of the swoon took
place here on the stage, after Pursenet had tried all
other means of surprising Pyamont’s caution.
# 644:
_guess_] i.e. guests: see note, vol. i. p. 326.
# 645:
_vild_] See note, vol. i. p. 94.
# 646:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 647:
_a’ life_] See note, vol. i. p. 272.
# 648:
_jealous_] See note, p. 216.
# 649:
_Why, ye shall see a pretty story of a humour_] These
words are given to Bungler in the old ed.
# 650:
_stay_] Old ed. “stray.”
# 651:
_maple-faced_] Whether this epithet is to be explained
rough-faced, or brown-faced, or broad-faced, seems
doubtful: see Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_,
vol. vi. p. 156.
# 652:
_goldsmith_] When this drama was written, and indeed
long after, goldsmiths acted as bankers:
“_Enter Trainsted with a purse of gold in his hand._
TRAINST. I have been with my goldsmith, and am well
furnished to start hence.” Sir E. Howard’s _Man of
Newmarket_, 1678, act i. sc. i.
# 653:
_how often I swooned_] See note, p. 291.
# 654:
_a good caudle_, &c.] Here again (see note, p. 151),
Middleton seems to consider _caudle_ and a _cullis_ as
the same thing. According to ancient receipts, fine
gold and orient pearl are among the ingredients of the
latter.
# 655:
_are_] Old ed. “is.”
# 656:
_I’d_] Old ed. “I would.”
# 657:
_conveyance_] i.e. sleight of hand,—a delicate term
for stealing.
# 658:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 659:
_carkanet_] i.e. a collar of jewels, a necklace.
# 660:
_laid_] See note, p. 11.
# 661:
_goldsmith_] Old ed. “goldsmits.”
# 662:
_leese_] i.e. lose—(lose sight of Goldstone, I
presume).
# 663:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 664:
_spur-royals_] See note, p. 260.
# 665:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 666:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 667:
_Let go, ’tis_] Old ed. “lets _go_ this.”
# 668:
_I’m glad in my soul, sir_] In the old ed. this speech
is followed by a word printed in italics,—"_Gnawes_,"—
which I presume is a stage-direction.
# 669:
_spur-royals_] See note, p. 260.
# 670:
_look, a’ ’s way_] Old ed. “lookt asway.”
# 671:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 672:
_Admirable_] Old ed. “Admirall.”
# 673:
_likes_] See note, p. 47.
# 674:
_stag’d_, &c.] Old ed. “_sta’gde? why what lacks
Bowser, are you too well, too safe, an absolute
scholler._”
# 675:
_We shall thrive_] An imperfect couplet: see notes, p.
7 of this vol., p. 424 of vol. i.
# 676:
_Pur._ _Little master Bouser_, &c.] Old ed. “_All._
_Little maister Bowser, sweete maister Bowser welcome
ifaith._”
# 677:
_properties_] i.e. necessaries for the scene: in
strict theatrical language, however, the term is
applied to things, not to persons.
# 678:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 679:
_A Chamber_] The commencement of the scene would
lead us to suppose that the place of action is
Primero’s house: but that Fitsgrave’s friends should
conceal themselves in a gallery there, to watch the
proceedings of “the gallants,” is surely somewhat
absurd.
# 680:
_twilight_, _twitter-lights_] Are, I believe,
synonyms; and perhaps one of them ought to be
struck out of the text. The latter is a word of
rare occurrence; but we find it in our author’s
_More Dissemblers besides Women_, “Come not till
_twitter-light_,” act iii. sc. 1; and in the old
play called _Wily Beguilde_, “What mak’st thou
heere this _twatter light_?” Sig. E 3, ed. 1623.
# 681:
_You have a privilege from your hat_, &c.] An allusion
to some regulation about dress, which I cannot
explain: the reader may turn to Strutt’s _Dress and
Habits_, &c., vol. ii. p. 316.
# 682:
_bean-flour bags_] Compare Eugenia’s speech in _The
Old Law_, vol. i. p. 38.
# 683:
_others_] Old ed. “us.”
# 684:
_Third C._] Is perhaps the “Novice.”
# 685:
_When that good news_, &c.] Is given to “3.” in old
ed.
# 686:
_Goldstone_, &c.] So the lines are divided in the old
ed.: the measure is lost in the corruption of the
text.
# 687:
_So will I_] Is given to “3.” in old ed.; but the
Third Court. had “set her affections” on Tailby.
# 688:
_Here’s my_, &c.] Is given to “4.” in old ed.
# 689:
_Bun._] Old ed. "3."—but Bungler, as we find, is one
of the party.
# 690:
_First G._ _What’s this?_ _Sec. G._ _Fooh_, &c.] One
speech, given to “1.” in old ed.
# 691:
_word_] See note, p. 258.
# 692:
_high-men_] A cant term for false dice loaded so as
always to produce high throws.
# 693:
_Bun._] Old ed. “3:” see note in the preceding page.
# 694:
_unvalued_] i.e. invaluable.
# 695:
_Pythagorical rascal_] Compare p. 85 and note.
# 696:
_This is my crown_, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see
notes, p. 7 of this vol., p. 424 of vol. i.
# 697:
_be contained_] i.e. restrain yourselves—be not so
impatient.
# 698:
_First the_, &c.] Given as part of Pursenet’s speech
in old ed.
# 699:
_Right, sir_] Given to Fitsgrave in old ed.
# 700:
_unvalued_] See note, p. 314.
# 701:
_The Welsh leiger_] Compare p. 88 and note. _Leiger_
is a resident or ambassador at a foreign court.
# 702:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 703:
_Fit._] Old ed. “_Bungl._”
# 704:
_Fit._] Old ed. “_Purs._”
# 705:
_Pur._] Old ed. “_Boy_.”
# 706:
_Proceed_] Is part of the Boy’s speech in old ed.
# 707:
_Boy_] Old ed. “_Fits._”
# 708:
_Boy_] Old ed. “_Fits._”
# 709:
_corporis_] Old ed. “corpus.”
# 710:
_Pur._] Qy. “_Pri._”
# 711:
_shrieve_] i.e. sheriff: old ed. “Sheerse.”
# 712:
_charms_] Old ed. “swarmes.”
# 713:
_bandora_] A musical instrument resembling a guitar:
see Sir J. Hawkins’ _Hist. of Music_, vol. iii. p.
345.
# 714:
_Enter the Masque_, &c.] Here, and a little after, I
have given the stage-direction as it stands in the old
ed., with some additions between brackets.
# 715:
_tell me_] i.e. acknowledge—if there be no corruption
of the text.
# 716:
_you’re_] Old ed. “you are.”
# 717:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 718:
_under covert-baron_] See note, vol. i. p. 370.
# 719:
_Fit._] This prefix has dropt out in old ed.
# 720:
_Whom_] Old ed. “To _whom_.”
# 721:
Prefixed to the ed. of 1640.
# 722:
_twenty years_] A mistake: see p. 327.
# 723:
_J. S._] For whom the ed. of 1640 is printed.
# 724:
_I was as well given_, &c.] "Imitated from
Shakespeare’s _First Part of K. Henry IV._ act iii.
sc. 3, where Falstaff says, ‘I was as virtuously given
as a gentleman need to be; virtuous enough: swore
little; diced not above seven times a-week; went to a
bawdy-house not above once in a quarter—of an hour;
paid money that I borrowed, three or four times; lived
well, and in good compass: and now I live out of all
order, out of all compass.’" REED.
# 725:
_the flag’s down_] “On the tops of our ancient
theatres were flags, which we may suppose to have been
taken down during the season of Lent, when plays were
not suffered to be represented.” STEEVENS.
# 726:
_no knight since one thousand six hundred_] “Alluding
to the number of necessitous people who were created
knights by king James after his accession.” REED.
# 727:
_the glory of his complement_] “i.e. the number of his
servants. We still say of a ship full manned, that she
has her full _complement_.” STEEVENS.
# 728:
_blue coats_] See note, p. 26.
# 729:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 730:
_fathoms_] See note, vol. i. p. 415.
# 731:
_first_] Dodsley and his editors read “_first_ rate.”
# 732:
_wittol_] i.e. tame cuckold.
# 733:
_to which himself gives aim_] i.e. which himself
directs: see Gifford’s note on Massinger’s _Works_,
vol. ii. p. 28, ed. 1813, where this passage is cited,
and where the difference between the expressions _cry
aim_ and _give aim_, both taken from archery, is
accurately shewn: “he who _gave aim_ was stationed
near the butts, and pointed out, after every
discharge, how wide or how short the arrow fell of the
mark.”
# 734:
_shirt_] Old eds. “skirt.”
# 735:
_common place_] A pun, I presume,—common-pleas.
# 736:
_slight_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 737:
_throw_] Old eds. “throwes.”
# 738:
_opinion_] “i.e. reputation.” REED.
# 739:
_recover’d_] Qy. “discover’d:” compare the third line
of Harebrain’s next speech.
# 740:
_There’s_] Old ed. “There is.”
# 741:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 742:
_There’s_] Old ed. “there is.”
# 743:
_the leather-winged bat_] From Spenser’s _Faerie
Queene_, b. ii. c. xii. st. 36.
"_The lether-winged batt_, dayes’ enimy."
# 744:
_Hero and Leander_, _Venus and Adonis_] The two
well-known poems of Marlowe and Shakespeare.
# 745:
_the Resolution_] A once-celebrated (and excellent)
work by Parsons the Jesuit, of which there are several
editions. The title of the ed. now before me is, _A
Book of Christian exercise apperteining to Resolution,
that is, shewing how that wee shoulde resolue our
selues to become Christians indeed. By R. P._ &c.
1585. 12mo. _Second Part_, 1591. 12mo. The 9th chapter
of Part I. Book 1. of the former portion treats of
hell-punishments.
# 746:
_I will_] Old eds. “Ile.”
# 747:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 748:
_Family_] i.e. the Family of Love: see p. 103.
# 749:
_She’s round with her, i’faith_] “i.e. she speaks
plainly, in earnest to her.” STEEVENS.
# 750:
_they’re_] Old ed. “they are.”
# 751:
_slights_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 752:
_coted_] i.e. quoted.
# 756:
_Fondly_] i.e. foolishly.
# 753:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 754:
_th’ Master’s side_] See note, vol. i. p. 392.
# 755:
_to the third pile_] An allusion to the finest kind of
velvet, called _three-pile_. “It seems to have been
thought,” says Nares, quoting the present passage,
“that there was a three-fold accumulation of the outer
substance, or pile.” _Gloss._
# 757:
_Pollcut_] So ed. 1640: ed. 1608, “Pelcut.”
# 758:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 759:
_pair of organs_] i.e. the old expression for _an
organ_.
# 760:
_Pooh!_ Laughs] Old eds. “Laughs, puh.”
# 761:
_call in my chief gentleman i’ th’ chain of gold_]
“Stewards of noblemen and gentlemen of property used
formerly to wear a gold chain.” REED.
# 762:
_bastard_] i.e. a sweet Spanish wine: there were two
sorts, white and brown.
# 763:
_lord’s_] Old eds. “loue’s.”
# 764:
_blue coats_] See note, p. 26.
# 765:
_house_] Old eds. “houses.”
# 766:
_pair_] See note, p. 346.
# 767:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 768:
_consort_] i.e. company of musicians.
# 769:
_A song_, &c.] During which, the audience were to
suppose that Sir Bounteous was feasting his guests.
# 770:
_Mawworm, Hoboy, and others_] Old eds. “_and his
consorts_ [i.e. companions] _toward his lodging_.” I
originally marked this scene “_a bed-chamber_;” but
Sir Bounteous seems to accompany Follywit only to the
door of his sleeping apartment.
# 771:
_for_] i.e. for fear of.
# 772:
_champion_] See note, p. 73.
# 773:
_champers_] i.e., perhaps, horses (bridle-_champers_).
Nares’s conjecture (in _Gloss._), that “_champers_” in
this passage means _eaters_, seems very absurd.
# 774:
_gilt_] Compare p. 197, where see note.
# 775:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 776:
_dag’s end_] “i.e. at a distance, as by a _sword_ or
_pistol_ advanced against me. _Dag_ is an ancient
word, signifying either the one or the other.”
STEEVENS. Most commonly it means _pistol_; see vol. i.
p. 249.
# 777:
_blacks_] “The common term formerly for mourning.”
REED.
# 778:
_a noble_] See note, 17.
# 779:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 780:
_chief gentleman i’ th’ chain of gold_] See note, p.
347.
# 781:
_Exeunt_] Is not marked in the old eds., which, after
Hoboy’s speech, have a stage-direction, “_Enter with
Sir Bounteous in his night-gowne_.”
# 782:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 783:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 784:
_a knight of Windsor_] “i.e. one of the poor knights
of Windsor.” REED.
# 785:
_purchase_] See note, vol. i. p. 319.
# 786:
_lie_] Old eds. “lies.”
# 787:
_take me with you, lady_] See note, p. 22.
# 788:
_sect_] See note, p. 134.
# 789:
_let gold_, &c.] See note, p. 298.
# 790:
_Footman_] That is, one of Follywit’s companions in
disguise: see p. 345.
# 791:
_risse_] i.e. risen.
# 792:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 793:
_commodity_] i.e. advantage, profit.
# 794:
_Enter_, &c.] The only stage-direction in old eds. is
“_Curtens drawn_.” See note, vol. i. p. 264.
# 795:
_spur-royals_] See note, p. 260.
# 796:
_guess_] i.e. guests: see note, vol. i. p. 326.
# 797:
_Exit_] After Mawworm’s speech in ed. 1640 is the
following stage-direction, “_A Song, sung by the
musitians, and after the Song, a Country dance, by the
Actors in their Vizards to a new footing_.”
# 798:
_swag_] i.e. sink down,—in the balance.
# 799:
_And so deflowers her that was ne’er deflower’d_] The
same play upon words we find in _Romeo and Juliet_, A.
4. S. 5.
——“See, there she lies,
_Flower_ as she was, _deflowered_ by him.
Death is my son-in-law,” &c. REED.
# 800:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 801:
_vild_] i.e. vile: see note, vol. i. p. 94.
# 802:
_luxury_] i.e. lewdness.
# 803:
_where_] i.e. whereas.
# 804:
_The Courtesan_, &c.] Old eds. “_The Curtizan on a
bed, for her counterfeit fitt._”
# 805:
_foot-cloth_] See note, vol. i. p. 396. “It is
observed by Mr. Steevens, that anciently _the
housings_ of a horse, and sometimes a horse himself,
were denominated _a foot-cloth_.” REED.
# 806:
_spiny_] i.e. thin, slender: see note, vol. i. p. 174.
# 807:
_refocillation_] “i.e. restoration of strength by
refreshment.” STEEVENS.
# 808:
_Ah, hah_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Ah.”
# 809:
_that same oil of mace is a great comfort to both the
counters_] See note, vol. i. p. 392. “A pun, alluding
to the maces which were carried by the serjeants or
varlets when they arrested people.” REED.
# 810:
_angel_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 811:
_purchase_] See note, vol. i. p. 319.
# 812:
_in_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “of.”
# 813:
_band_] Ed. 1640, “hand.”
# 814:
_scab_] So ed. 1640. Not in first ed.
# 815:
_officers_] Ed. 1640, “_officers_ and Projectors.”
# 816:
_I’d_] Old eds. “I would.”
# 817:
_e’er_] Old eds. “euer.”
# 818:
_minute_] So 1640. Ed. 1608, “munit.”
# 819:
_have_] Old eds. “hath.”
# 820:
_snobbing_] i.e. violent sobbing. Todd, in his ed. of
Johns. _Dict._, gives “To _Snub_, to sob with
convulsion.”
# 821:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 822:
_cullis_] See notes, pp. 151, 298.
# 823:
_A Room_] In the house of one of Follywit’s friends,
as we learn during the scene.
# 824:
_muss_] “i.e. scramble.” REED.
# 825:
_rose-nobles_] See note, p. 253.
# 826:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 827:
_I’ve_] Old eds. “I haue.”
# 828:
_For his blanch’d harlot_] “i.e. his harlot, whose
skin is _made white_ by the use of cosmetics.”
STEEVENS.
# 829:
_gentleman_, &c.] See note, p. 347.
# 830:
_rounded_] i.e. whispered.
# 831:
_The rest_] Old eds. “_All._”
# 832:
_I’ve_] Old eds. “I haue.”
# 833:
_chinclout_] i.e. a sort of muffler, which covered the
lower part of the face: see Douce’s _Illust. of
Shakespeare_, vol. ii. p. 75.
# 834:
_kind_] i.e. nature.
# 835:
_making ready_] i.e. dressing: see note, p. 224.
# 836:
_half moons_] "The edition of 1640 has '_periwigs_,'
as if it was not then understood why they were called
_half moons_." COLLIER.
# 837:
_Cue_] “i.e. Kew.” REED.
# 838:
_a flag_] See note, p. 332.
# 839:
_bony scribes_] Ed. 1640, “_bony scribes_ and bony
rags.”
# 840:
_Brothel_] Old eds. "Once-Ill"—which was, no doubt,
the name originally given by Middleton to this
character, and which, through an oversight, had
remained unaltered in some parts of the MS. used for
the press.
# 841:
_ready_] i.e. dressed: see note, p. 224.
# 842:
_much like your German clock_] An allusion to the
cumbrous and complicated machinery of our first
clocks, which came from Germany: see Gifford’s note,
B. Jonson’s _Works_, iii. 432.
# 843:
_Enter Succubus in the shape of Mis. Harebrain_] Old
eds. have “_Enter the Diuell in her shape_,” but
prefix _Succubus_ to his speeches. Concerning the evil
spirits called _Succubæ_,
————"that are said
To put on feminine feature....
. \. . . . . .
To draw men headlong with them to perdition,"
see that very curious work by Heywood, _The Hierarchie
of the Blessed Angels_, 1635, pp. 500, 542.
# 844:
_Shield me_, &c.] “See _Hamlet_. [‘Angels and
ministers of grace defend us.’ Act i. sc. 4.]”
STEEVENS.
# 845:
_tic’d_] i.e. enticed.—Old eds.
“_Was I_ entis’st _for this? to be soone reiected_.”
# 846:
_her_] i.e. of the hour—which I notice, because in the
margin of an old copy now before me, some reader has
conjectured “our.”
# 847:
_fadom_] i.e. fathom—so written for the sake of the
rhyme.
# 848:
_Seiz’d_] "Both the quartos read _seard_; and again,
_seare_ [first ed. ‘_ceare_’] in the next line. The
alteration by Mr. Dodsley." REED. Compare p. 178 and
note.
# 849:
_Harebrain_] Old eds. here, and the next speech,
“Hargraue,” a name which Middleton had once given to
this lady, and which he had neglected to alter in some
parts of the MS. used by the printer: see also note,
p. 404.
# 850:
_bums_] See note, vol. i. p. 432.
# 851:
_a linen cloth about her jaw_] i.e. the chinclout: see
p. 381 and note.
# 852:
_It was suspected much in Monsieur’s days_] “By
_Monsieur’s days_, I apprehend, the author means the
time when the duke of Anjou resided in England. That
prince, brother to Charles the Ninth, king of France,
on the encouragement he had received from Queen
Elizabeth, visited the English court in the year 1581,
and expected to have been united to her majesty in
marriage. The queen, however, after many affected
delays, broke off the treaty; and the duke was obliged
to return to his own country, with the disgrace of a
direct refusal. _Monsieur’s days_ are mentioned again
in _The Blacke Booke_, 1604, sign. C. ‘—let mercers
then have conscionable thumbs when they measure out
that smooth glittering devil, sattin, and that old
reveller, velvet, in the _days of Monsieur_, both
which have devoured many an honest field of wheat and
barley.’” REED. The piece just cited is by Middleton,
and will be found in the last vol. of the present
work. So too in Marmyon’s _Fine Companion_, 1633, “Two
or three dances, as old as _Mounsier_.” Sig. G 2.
# 853:
_queasy_] i.e. squeamish.
# 854:
_know_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “knew.”
# 855:
_cullis_] See notes, pp. 151, 298.
# 856:
_chain_] See note , p. 381.
# 857:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 858:
_Pusha_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 859:
_I’ve_] Old eds. “I haue.”
# 860:
_Onyx cum prole, silexque_] “From _Propria quæ
maribus_.” STEEVENS.
# 861:
_pudding_] i.e. tobacco made up in a particular form.
# 862:
_vild_] Altered in the eds. of Dodsley’s Old Plays to
the modern spelling “vile,” which destroys the (very
poor) play on words.
# 863:
_waft_] i.e. flavour.
# 864:
_Knocking within_] Old eds. “Master Penitent Once-Ill
_knocking within_:” see note, p. 384.
# 865:
_Harebrain_] Here, and throughout the scene, she and
her husband are called “Hargraue” in the old eds.: see
notes, pp. 388, 404.
# 866:
_likes me_] “i.e. pleases me.” REED.
# 867:
_assum’d thee formally_] “i.e. assumed thy form.”
REED.
# 868:
_periwig_] When this play was written, _periwigs_ were
much worn by ladies.
# 869:
_clips_] “i.e. embraces.” REED.
# 870:
_his_] Old eds. “her.”
# 871:
_e’er_] Old eds. “euer.”
# 872:
_e’er I’ve_] Old eds. “euer I haue.”
# 873:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 874:
_by your favour, ladies_] "The players of James the
First’s time seem to have been as censurable for
addressing the audience as any of their successors
since. This speech is evidently not intended for the
bawd, who now enters _alone_. In the same manner sir
Bounteous speaks to the auditors, when he says, ‘An
old man’s venery is very chargeable, my masters;
there’s much cookery belongs to’t.’ [p. 390.]" REED.
# 875:
_peevish_] i.e. foolish.
# 876:
_have_] Old eds. “has.”
# 877:
_made women_] i.e. women whose fortunes are made.
# 878:
_hole_] i.e. hide.
# 879:
_She’ll_] Old eds. “she will.”
# 880:
_restraint upon_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “_restraint_
on’t _upon_.”
# 881:
_maid_] Old eds. “man.”
# 882:
_fear thee_] “i.e. affright thee.” REED.
# 883:
_resolv’d_] See note, p. 39.
# 884:
_no curious wooer_] For “_curious_” Dodsley chose to
substitute “_furious!_” and Reed remarks that
"_curious_ is probably the genuine reading; it may
mean _inquisitive, prying!_"—_No curious wooer_ is, no
wooer that uses nice, elegant, elaborate phrase.
# 885:
_trow_] See note, p. 26.
# 886:
_take her e’en_] Old eds. “_eene take her_.”
# 887:
_hundred_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “_hundred pound_.”
# 888:
_e’er_] Old eds. “euer.”
# 889:
_All Hollantide_] See note, p. 165.
# 890:
_clip_] See note, p. 397.
# 891:
_Enter Sir Bounteous_, &c.] Old eds. “_Enter_ busilie
_Sir Bounteous Progresse_ for the feast.”
# 892:
_blue coats_] See note, p. 26.
# 893:
_Harebrain_] Here, and in the next speech of sir
Bounteous, also in all the prefixes to Harebrain’s
speeches in the following scene, the old eds. have
“Shortrod;” one of the names which Middleton gave to
the character, before he finally changed it to
_Harebrain_: see note, p. 388.
# 894:
_share_] See Mr. Collier’s remarks “on the payment of
actors,” _Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry_, vol. iii. p.
427: there were whole sharers, three-quarter sharers,
half sharers, &c.
# 895:
_bastard_] See note, p. 347.
# 896:
_your_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “you.”
# 897:
_Mitre_] See note, p. 240.—In justice to Reed (see
note in the last ed. of Dodsley’s _Old Plays_), I must
observe, that _my_ copy of the first ed. has “Niter.”
# 898:
_Buz_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Buzy.”
# 899:
_Pox_] Old eds. “post.”
# 900:
_pilfer_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Gilfer.”
# 901:
_thee_] So ed. 1640. First ed. "him."
# 902:
_her_] So ed. 1640. First ed. "him."
# 903:
_Whew, whew_] So ed. 1640. First ed. "When, when,"
which, after all, may be right, as an exclamation of
impatience for the performance of the play: see notes,
vol. i. pp. 289, 361.
# 904:
FOL. _Excellent well, sir_] So ed. 1640. Not in first
ed.
# 905:
_and ne’er_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “and speake nere”.
# 906:
_shares_] See note, p. 406.
# 907:
_Har._] Old eds. in the prefixes to his speeches
throughout this scene, “Shortrod:” see note, p. 404.
# 908:
_ycleped_] i.e. called.
# 909:
_like a bold Beacham_] _As bold as Beauchamp_ is a
proverbial expression, said to have originated in
the valour of Thomas, first earl of Warwick of that
name, “who (says Ray, after Fuller), in the year
1346, with one squire and six archers, fought in
hostile manner with an hundred armed men, at Hogges
in Normandy, and overthrew them, slaying sixty
Normans, and giving the whole fleet means to land.”
_Proverbs_, p. 219, ed. 1742.—Follywit, however,
seems to allude to one of the characters in a
celebrated drama, produced before 1600, called _The
bold Beauchamps_, which is frequently mentioned by
our early writers: it no longer exists. The author
of the false _Second Part of Hudibras_, 1663, canto
1. (in some lines quoted by Collier, _Hist. of Engl.
Dram. Poetry_, vol. iii. p. 425), attributes it to
Heywood; but his authority is of little weight.
# 910:
_ah, hah_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “_ah_.”
# 911:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 912:
_send for him to a supper_] “The custom for the
prostitutes at a theatre afterwards to sup with the
players, though not to invite them home to supper, is
alluded to in Field’s _Amends for Ladies_, 1639 [act
iii. sc. 4—first ed. in 1618]: a Drawer says, ‘I have
been at Bess Turnup’s, and she swears all the
gentlewomen went to see a play at the Fortune, and are
not come in yet; and she believes they _sup with the
players_.’” COLLIER.
# 913:
_two-penny room_] Or two-penny gallery: see Collier’s
_Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry_, vol. iii. p. 343.
# 914:
_full of gentlemen_] That it was a common practice for
youths of fashion to sit on stools upon the stage
during the performance, is known from many passages of
our old literature.
# 915:
_trow_] See note, p.26.
# 916:
_A_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Ha.”
# 917:
_vild_] See note, p. 393.
# 918:
_ditch_] i.e. worthless, vile. Ed. 1640 has “_an_
excellent _example for all_ dizzy _constables_.”
# 919:
_lets you_] “i.e. hinders you.” REED.
# 920:
_Gum._] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Nub.”
# 921:
_aches_] A dissyllable: see notes, vol. i. pp. 28, 45.
# 922:
_I’m ... I’m_] Old eds. “I am ... I am.” This line
makes a couplet with what follows.
# 923:
_Faith, they were some counterfeit rogues ... they
said they’d play_ The Slip] “We have here a play
upon words very common in our ancient writers, and
which will be totally unintelligible, unless it is
remembered that _a slip_ was formerly the name of a
piece of _counterfeit_ money.... Robert Greene’s
_Thieves falling out, True Men come by their own_:
‘And therefore he went and got him certain _slips_,
which are _counterfeit_ pieces of money, being
brass, and covered over with silver, which the
common people called _slips_.’” REED. See also
Gifford’s note on Ben Jonson’s _Works_, vol. vi. p.
77.
# 924:
_mark_] See note, p. 226.
# 925:
_push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 926:
_kneeling after the play_] It was formerly the custom
for the players, at the conclusion of the play, to
kneel down and pray for their patrons: the royal
companies for the king or queen, those of noblemen for
the particular lord to whom they belonged.
# 927:
_vild_] See note, p. 393.
# 928:
_How_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Home.”
# 929:
_properties_] See note, p. 308.
# 930:
_A prize, a prize_] Old eds. “_a_ peece, _a_ peece,”
which in Dodsley’s _Old Plays_ is altered to “a peace,
a peace.”
# 931:
_I’ve_] Old eds. “I haue.” This line is meant to form
a couplet with the conclusion of Sir Bounteous’s
speech and Harebrain’s question.
# 932:
_what is she for a fool_] i.e. what fool is she: see
Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. iii. p.
397.
# 933:
_mark_] See note, p. 226.
# 934:
_We’ve_] Old eds. “We have.”
# 935:
_Exeunt omnes_] Ed. 1640 has “_Exeunt._
“_The end of the fifth and last Act: marching over
the Stage hand in hand._”
# 936:
_The Catch_, &c.] Not found in first ed., is printed
on the last leaf of ed. 1640.
# 937:
_Aristippus_] A sort of wine: see Randolph’s drama
called _Aristippus, or the Jovial Philosopher_, 1635.
# 938:
_The Life and Death of Mrs. Mary Frith. Commonly
Called Mal Cutpurse. Exactly Collected and now
Published for the Delight and Recreation of all
Merry disposed Persons._ _London_, 1662, 12mo.
Prefixed to it is her portrait in a male dress
(with an eagle, a lion, and an ape beside her),
under which are these lines;
“See here the Presidesse o’th pilfring Trade,
Mercuryes second, Venus’s onely Mayd,
Doublet and breeches, in a Un’form dresse,
The Female Humurrist, a Kickshaw messe:
Heres no attraction that your fancy greets,
But if her Features please not, read her Feats.”
Of this rare and curious volume a portion at
least seems to be authentic.
# 939:
Note on _Twelfth Night_, act i. sc. 3,—
_Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. xi. p. 357.
# 940:
Note on _id._, ibid.
# 941:
Smith’s _Lives of Highwaymen, &c._ vol. ii. p.
142, ed. 1719.
# 942:
See a note, signed N., _From a MS. in the
British Museum_, (what a reference!) in
Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, vol. xii. p. 398, ed.
1780.
# 943:
_Biog. Hist. of Engl._ vol. ii. p. 408, ed.
1775.
# 944:
Note on _Twelfth Night_, act i. sc. 3,—Malone’s
_Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. xi. p. 356.
# 945:
This excellent comedy has been reprinted by Mr.
Collier in a supplementary volume to Dodsley’s
_Old Plays_.
# 946:
“Mulsack the chimney-sweeper” is mentioned as
one of Moll’s companions in her _Life_, p. 82.
# 947:
_were_] Old ed. “was.”
# 948:
_termers_] Here Reed cites a passage from
Dekker’s _Belman of London_, concerning those
rogues that “_are called_ TERMERS _and they ply
Westminster-hall: Michaelmas Terme is their
harvest_:” see also my note, p. 107. I may
observe, however, that _termer_ did not always
mean a person of ill repute: “with a countrey
gentleman or _Tearmer_.” _Greene’s Ghost
Haunting Conicatchers_, 1626, sig. D 3.
# 949:
_for sixpence_] “The price of a play at this
time.” _Id._
# 950:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 951:
_vast theatre_] i.e. the Fortune, in Golden or
Golding Lane, St. Giles’s, Cripplegate. It was
built by Henslowe, and Alleyn (the founder of
Dulwich College), in 1599-1600. It was eighty
feet square on the outside, and fifty-five feet
square within. It was destroyed by fire in 1621.
See Collier’s _Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry_,
vol. iii. p. 302.
# 952:
_beside_] Old ed. “besides.”
# 953:
_a trencher_] "At this time pewter was not introduced
into common use. Our ancestors were content with
wooden trenchers, and these were even to be found at
the tables of our nobility and persons of good
fashion. Among the orders for household servants,
devised by John Haryngton, 1566, and renewed by his
son, 1592, it is directed, ‘That no man waite at the
table without _a trencher_ in his hand, except it
be uppon good cause, on paine of 1_d._’ _Nugæ
Antiquæ_, vol. ii. p. 267, ed. 1779. See also the
_Northumberland Household-Book_, p. 354. _Trenchers_
are still used in some colleges and inns-of-court,
particularly in Lincoln’s-Inn." REED.
# 954:
_falling bands_] See note, p. 218.—“In Evelyn’s
_Discourse on Medals_, 1697, p. 108, is the head of
Charles I. crowned, in the garter-robes, and wearing
_a falling band_; ‘which new mode,’ says Mr. Evelyn,
‘succeeded the cumbersome ruff: but neither did the
bishops or judges give it over so soon, the Lord
Keeper Finch being, I think, the very first.’” REED.
# 955:
_ingeniously_] i.e. sincerely: _ingenious_ is
frequently used for _ingenuous_ by our old writers:
“reasons ... which, I must _ingeniously_ confesse,
were both many and weighty.” Brathwait’s _Honest
Ghost_, 1658, p. 46.
# 956:
_dined_] Old ed. “dyed.”
# 957:
_bond_] Was formerly synonymous with _band_. See
notes, vol. i. pp. 245, 481.
# 958:
_marks_] See note, p. 226.
# 959:
_that_] Old ed. “that’s.”
# 960:
_Adam Bell_] An outlaw, famous for his archery: see
the beautiful ballad of _Adam Bel, Clym of the Cloughe
and Wyllyam of Cloudesle_, of which the most correct
text is in Ritson’s _Pieces of An. Pop. Poetry_.
# 961:
_naughty pack_] In a note on this passage Reed says,
“a _pack_ was formerly a name given to a lewd woman,”
and that “it was also sometimes applied to the male
sex.” The fact is, _naughty pack_ was a term of
reproach applied commonly both to men and women.
# 962:
_fond_] i.e. foolish.
# 963:
_baffle_] Meant formerly to treat with insult, or
mockery, or contempt. “Our names should be _baffuld_
on euery booke-sellers stall.” Nash’s _Pierce
Pennilesse_, sig. D 4, ed. 1595. “When he had
_baffuld_ mee in print throughout England.” Nash’s
_Haue with you to Saffron-walden_, sig. T 2, 1596.
“Prithee, good Fido, goe and baffull him:
Put an affront vpon him.”
Marmyon’s _Fine Companion_, sig. F, 1633.
# 964:
_watermen_] “Taylor the water-poet asserts, that at
this time, between Windsor and Gravesend, there were
not fewer than forty thousand watermen.” REED.
# 965:
_goll_] A cant term for hand—fist, paw.
# 966:
_roaring boy_] See prefatory matter, p. 427.
# 967:
_what is’t you lack_] See note, vol. i. p. 447.
# 968:
_minces tobacco_] When this play was written tobacco
was sold by apothecaries:
"Or in th’ Apothicaryes shop bee seene
To wrap Druggs, or to dry Tobacco in."
_Certain Elegies, with [Fitz Geffrey’s] Satyrs
and Epigrams_, 1620, sig. G 4.
# 969:
_bankrout_] i.e. bankrupt.
# 970:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 971:
_striker_] i.e. wencher.
# 972:
_as a naked boy in a phial_] “I suppose he means an
abortion preserved in spirits.” STEEVENS.
# 973:
_make_] Old ed. “makes.”
# 974:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 975:
_bear her in hand_] i.e. keep her in expectation.
# 976:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 977:
_But is this, &c._] “She gives him money, and he
pretends that he receives only tobacco from Mrs.
Gallipot.” COLLIER.
# 978:
_drink_] To _drink_ (i.e. smoke) tobacco was a very
common expression.
# 979:
_Paul’s_] See note, vol. i. p. 418.
# 980:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 981:
_the twelvepenny-stool gentlemen_] i.e. gentlemen who
pay twelvepence for a stool to sit upon the stage
during the performance: see note, p. 412. This is one
of the passages which led Malone to think that
“persons were suffered to sit on the stage only in the
private playhouses (such as Blackfriars, &c.)” _Hist.
Acc. of Engl. Stage_, p. 78—_Shakespeare_ (by
Boswell), vol. iii.: but Mr. Collier has shewn that
the practice was not confined to private theatres:
_Hist. of Engl. Dr. Poetry_, vol. iii. p. 352.
# 982:
_hench-boy_] i.e. page.
# 983:
_mouse_] See note, p. 137.
# 984:
_resolve_] i.e. satisfy.
# 985:
_gear_] i.e. stuff.
# 986:
_saveguard_] i.e., properly, a sort of large
petticoat, worn by women over the other clothes, to
protect them from soiling.
# 987:
GOS. _Moll, Moll!_ ]One speech in old ed., with the
GREEN. _Pist, Moll!_ ]prefix "_All._"—The exclamation
“pist” again occurs at p. 468. I unnecessarily altered
it into “hist” at p. 268.
# 988:
_beholding_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 989:
_buona roba_] See note, vol. i. p. 258.
# 990:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 991:
_sew_] Old ed. “sowes.”
# 992:
_Brainford_] The old form of _Brentford_.
# 993:
_push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 994:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 995:
_Saint Antling’s bell_] See note, vol. i. p. 503.—“At
St. Antholin’s church there used to be a lecture early
in the morning, which was much frequented by the
puritans of the times.” REED.
# 996:
_spittle_] i.e. hospital. “The reuenge was common as
the Law, or as the blowes of a _Spittle_ whore.” _The
Owles Almanacke_ (by Dekker), 1618, p. 18.—Gifford
wished to make a distinction between _spittle_ and
_spital_ (note on Massinger’s _City Madam_, act iii.
sc. 1); but see Todd’s Johnson’s _Dict._, and Nares’s
_Gloss._ in v.
# 997:
_burgh_] Or _burre_ is “a broad ring of iron behind
the handle [of a tilting lance], which burre is
brought into the sufflue or rest, when the tilter is
ready to run against his enimy, or prepareth himself
to combate or encounter his adverse party.” R. Holme’s
_Acad. of Armoury_, cited by Nares, _Gloss._ in v.
# 998:
_the high German’s size_] So afterwards, in act iii.
sc. 1, Moll exclaims,
"a name which I’d tear out
From _the high German’s_ throat &c.,
where Reed remarks, “He seems to have been noted for
his extraordinary strength, and is probably the same
person mentioned in _The Curtaine Drawer of the
World_, 1612, 4to. p. 27. ‘Aske but this Curtaine
Drawer and he will tell you, that few there are, and
those escape very hardly like the bird out of the
snare, like _the German_ out of Woodstreet, or those
that commit murder, or like him that escapes the
hangman from the tree of execution.’” Nares (_Gloss._
in _German_, _High_,) says, he was "probably a tall
German, shown for a sight ... I do not agree with the
editor [Reed], that the same person is meant by the
German ‘who escaped out of Woodstreet.’ The _high
German_ must have been some man generally known for
strength or size; that the same person should also
have had a very narrow escape from Wood Street, is
possible to be sure, but very improbable. Perhaps the
_high German_ was the famous fencer, whose feats are
thus recorded: ‘Since the _German fencer_ cudgelled
most of our English fencers, now about 5 moneths
past.’ ["a moneth past"—in my copy, p. 7.] _Owle’s
Almanacke_ [by Dekker], publ. 1618, p. 6. High German
may, however, be only in opposition to low German, or
Dutch; as, for a long time, _high German_ quack
doctors were in repute."
# 999:
_same wine_] i.e. bastard: see note, p. 347.
# 1000:
_pist_] See note, p. 460.
# 1001:
_pigsnie_] i.e. little pig—a term of endearment.
# 1002:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 1003:
_at Parlous Pond_] “This, I imagine, is the same place
now called _Peerless Pool_. It is situated near
Old-street Road, and was formerly a spring that,
overflowing its banks, caused a very dangerous pond,
which, from the number of persons who lost their lives
there, obtained the name of _Perilous Pool_. To
prevent these accidents, it was in a manner filled up
until the year 1743, when it was enclosed, and
converted into a bathing-place.” REED. _Parlous_ is a
corruption of _perilous_.
# 1004:
_Hey, trug_, &c.] “I suppose _Trug_ is the name of the
spaniel whom he is sending into the water to hunt
ducks; or else that he means to say _trudge, trudge_.”
STEEVENS. Perhaps _trug_ is equivalent to bitch: see
note, p. 222.
# 1005:
_Come, let’s away_, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see
notes, p.7 of this vol. and p. 424 of vol. i.
# 1006:
_two-leav’d tongues_] Old ed. “_two leaud tongues_.”
The last editor of Dodsley’s _Old Plays_ printed “two
lewd tongues,”—_leaud_ being, as he thinks, the old
spelling of _lewd_. Qy. “_two_ loud?”
# 1007:
_Virginia_] “Great efforts were used about this time
to settle Virginia.” REED.
# 1008:
_And so_, &c.] A quotation, probably.
# 1009:
_long coats_, &c.] i.e. petticoats: in some parts of
Scotland they are still worn by male idiots of the
lowest class.
# 1010:
_great Dutch slop_] i.e. large wide breeches.
# 1011:
_towards_] i.e. in preparation.
# 1012:
_Many one_, &c.] A word, perhaps a line, wanting here.
# 1013:
_good man’s_] This seems to be an allusion to the
proverbial saying, “God’s a good man:” see _Much ado
about Nothing_, act iii. sc. 5, Malone’s _Shakespeare_
(by Boswell), vol. vii. p. 104, and Steevens’s note.
# 1014:
_give but aim_] See note, p. 335.
# 1015:
_tester_] i.e. a sixpence: see note, vol. i. p. 258.
# 1016:
_phrampel_] “_Phrampel_ here appears to signify
_fiery_ or _mettlesome_.” REED. It is written also
_frampold_, _frampul_, &c., and generally signifies
vexatious, saucy, peevish, &c.
# 1017:
_vild_] See note, p. 393.
# 1018:
_baffle_] See note, p. 449. In _The Devil is an Ass_,
act iv. sc. 3, is a stage-direction, “_Baffles_ him
[i.e. passes him with some act of contempt] and exit.”
B. Jonson’s _Works_, by Gifford, vol. v. p. 127.
# 1019:
_Exit_] Old ed. “_Exit_ Coachman with his whip.”
# 1020:
_safeguard_] See note, p. 459.
# 1021:
_bankrout_] i.e. bankrupt.
# 1022:
_Brainford_] See note, p. 463. The inn called _The
Three Pigeons_ was resorted to by company of an
inferior rank. At a later period, when puritanism had
silenced the stage, it was kept by the celebrated
actor, Lowin.
# 1023:
_untruss a point_] See note, vol. i. p. 367.
# 1024:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 1025:
_liberal_] i.e. too free.
# 1026:
_high German’s throat_] See note, p. 466.
# 1027:
_leiger_] See note, p. 316. That the last editor of
this play should have had any doubts about the meaning
of the word, is somewhat strange.
# 1028:
_wedlocks_] “i.e. wives. So in _The Poetaster_ [by B.
Jonson], act iv. sc. 3, ‘Which of these is thy
_wedlock_, Menelaus?’” REED.
# 1029:
_familiar_] i.e. a demon—properly, such as attends on
a sorcerer or witch.
# 1030:
_viage_] i.e. voyage (see Todd’s Johnson’s _Dict_. in
v.), excursion.
# 1031:
_Three Pigeons_] See note, p. 479. I suspect that this
speech was intended to close with a hobbling couplet.
# 1032:
_beholding_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 1033:
_to his umbles_] “i.e. his inside. _Umbles_ are the
entrails of a deer.” STEEVENS.
# 1034:
_kyes_] “i.e. cries. She imitates the jargon talked by
nurses to infants.” STEEVENS.
# 1035:
_mouse_] See note, p. 137.
# 1036:
_water_] Old ed. “waters.”
# 1037:
_apron husbands_] “i.e. husbands who follow their
wives as if tied to their _apron_-strings.” STEEVENS.
# 1038:
_cotqueans_] i.e. men who meddle with female affairs.
# 1039:
_Laxton, with bays_, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see
notes, p. 7 of this vol. and p. 424 of vol. i.
# 1040:
_Pan-da-rus ... Cres-sida_] So in old ed., to mark the
difficulty with which such hard names were read by
mistress Gallipot.
# 1041:
_bankrout_] i.e. bankrupt.
# 1042:
_steal, steal_] Qy. ought these words to be considered
as a stage-direction?
# 1043:
_Where_] i.e. whereas.
# 1044:
_made sure_] i.e. affianced: compare vol. ii. p. 39.
# 1045:
_Since last I saw him_, &c.] Perhaps this scene is by
Dekker: in his _Whore of Babylon_, 1607, we find
“Fiue summers haue scarce _drawn_ their glimmering
nights
_Through the Moons siluer bowe_.”
Sig. A 4.
# 1046:
_slight_] See note, p. 250.
# 1047:
_sirrah_] When this play was written, and long after,
a female was frequently so addressed: see my note on
Webster’s _Works_, vol. iii. p. 23.
# 1048:
_sadness_] i.e. seriousness.
# 1049:
_Byrlady_] Old ed. “Be lady:” see note, vol. i. p.
365.
# 1050:
_ramp_] i.e. ramping, rampant creature: “although she
were a lustie _bounsing rampe_, somewhat like
Gallemella,” &c. G. Harvey’s _Pierces Supererogation_,
1593, p. 145.
# 1051:
_saveguard ... slop_] See notes, pp. 459, 472.
# 1052:
_placket_] Has been variously explained—the opening of
the petticoat—the forepart of the shift or petticoat:
Nares (_Gloss._ in v.) insists that it meant only a
petticoat, generally an under one.
# 1053:
_a noise of fiddlers_] i.e. a company of musicians,—an
expression frequently occurring: “those terrible
_noyses_, with thredbare cloakes, that liue by red
lattises and Iuy-bushes, hauing authority to thrust
into any mans roome, onely speaking but this, Will you
haue any musicke?” Dekker’s _Belman of London_, 1608,
sig. B 4.
# 1054:
_roaring boys_] See p. 427.
# 1055:
_ningles_] Or _ingles_ (the former being an
abbreviation of _mine ingles_), i.e. favourites. The
word was used (and perhaps originally) in a worse
sense: see vol. i. p. 301.
# 1056:
_the Counters ... Why, ’tis an university_] See note,
vol. i. p. 392.
# 1057:
_Then is he held a freshman and a sot,_
_And never shall commence_]
“The speaker is here employing terms in use only at
the university.” STEEVENS.
# 1058:
_Master’s side_, &c.] See note, vol. i. p. 392.
# 1059:
_beg plac’d_] i.e. beg to be plac’d: but qy. “be
_plac’d_?”
# 1060:
_Lies_] i.e. He lies, he shall lie.
# 1061:
_puttocks_] i.e. kites.
# 1062:
_sprites_] Old ed. “spirits.”
# 1063:
_blue coat_] See note, p. 26.
# 1064:
_mace_] See note, p. 372.
# 1065:
_walk_] Old ed. “walkes.”
# 1066:
_these men-widwives_, &c.] So in _The Whore of
Babylon_, 1607, by Dekker (see note, p. 490): “Doe not
you know, mistresse, what Serieants are? ... why they
are certaine _men-midwiues, that neuer bring people to
bed_, but when they are sore in labour, that no body
els can deliuer them.” Sig. D.
# 1067:
_Trap._ _Honest servant_, &c.] Old ed. “BOTH. _Honest_
Serieant _fly, flie Maister Dapper_,” &c.
# 1068:
_marks_] See note, p. 226.
# 1069:
_my German watch_] See note, p. 385.
# 1070:
_marks_] See note, p. 226.
# 1071:
_court-cupboard_] i.e. a moveable sideboard, or
buffet, for displaying plate or other valuables: it
was also called “_cupboard of plate_,” see p. 91.
# 1072:
_lets_] i.e. hinders.
# 1073:
_mysteries_] i.e. arts: but qy. “miseries?”
# 1074:
_hose_] i.e. breeches.
# 1075:
_owe_] Old ed. “owes.”
# 1076:
_lays_] i.e. wagers.
# 1077:
_beholding_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 1078:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 1079:
_swan above bridge_] When this play was written, the
Thames abounded with swans.
# 1080:
_the viol_, &c.] See note, p. 11.
# 1081:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 1082:
_th’ Burse_] i.e. the New Exchange in the Strand.
“Over this building, in the time of Middleton, were
many shops where women’s finery was sold.” STEEVENS.
# 1083:
_cavell’d_] So spelt in old ed. for the sake of the
rhyme.
# 1084:
_Between_, &c.] The old ed. gives this speech partly
as prose, partly as verse. I have done what I could to
arrange the lines.
# 1085:
_sigh_] Old ed. "sight,"—which, perhaps, Middleton
wrote; for I think I have seen that form of the word.
The preterite of the verb _sigh_ was often written
_sight_.
# 1086:
_plunge_] i.e. difficulty, straits.
# 1087:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 1088:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 1089:
_puttock_] i.e. a kite.
# 1090:
_roses_] “i.e. roses anciently worn in shoes.”
STEEVENS. They were made of ribbons gathered into a
knot, and were sometimes of a preposterous size.
# 1091:
_sirrah_] See note, p. 491.
# 1092:
_fline_] i.e. flown.
# 1093:
_a cramp ring_] i.e. a ring, which having been
solemnly consecrated on Good Friday, was supposed to
have the power of preventing the cramp. See in
Waldron’s _Literary Museum_, 1792, a reprint of _The
Ceremonies of Blessing Cramp-Rings on Good Friday,
used by the Catholick Kings of England_.
# 1094:
_Three Pigeons_] See note, p. 479.
# 1095:
_incontinently_] i.e. immediately.
# 1096:
_poking my ruff_] See note, vol. i. p. 279.
# 1097:
_rest_] i.e. a support,—without it the soldiers could
not manage to fire the old muskets, which were very
heavy and unwieldy.
# 1098:
_pursenets_] i.e. nets, the mouths of which were drawn
together by a string.
# 1099:
_cog_] i.e. lie, wheedle.
# 1100:
_ingle_] i.e. coax.
# 1101:
_a riven dish_] “i.e. a broken dish.” REED.
# 1102:
_frumped_] i.e. mocked.
# 1103:
_till all split_] “This expression occurs in many old
plays. See the notes of Dr. Farmer, Mr. Steevens, and
Mr. Malone, on _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, act i. sc.
2.” REED. It occurs in several old plays at least; and
(as Nares observes in _Gloss._) denotes violence of
action.
# 1104:
_Brainford_] See note, p. 463.
# 1105:
_gib_] Is, properly, a male cat—but sometimes applied,
as a term of reproach, to a woman: “She is a tonnysh
_gyb_,” says old Skelton, in _Elynour Rummyng_, v. 99.
# 1106:
_a mumming_] i.e. a masquing, in which originally the
performers used gesticulation only, without speaking:
mistress Openwork puns on the different meanings of
_mask_ and _masque_.
# 1107:
_vildest_] i.e. vilest: see note, p. 393.
# 1108:
_sprites_] Old ed. “spirits.”
# 1109:
_Your two flags_] “Alluding to the flags which were
placed formerly on the tops of playhouses.” REED.
# 1110:
_Mis. G._] Old ed. “Mist. Open.”
# 1111:
_Westward ho_] A comedy, by Dekker and Webster, which
was first printed in 1607, and which may be found in
my edition of Webster’s _Works_, vol. iii. The scene
lies partly in London and partly in Brentford; and a
“western voyage” from the former to the latter place
gives the title to the play—_westward ho!_ being one
of the exclamations used by the watermen who plied on
the Thames.
# 1112:
_A stale_, &c.] i.e. a pretence or cover under which
he keeps a harlot: the _stale_, or _stalking-horse_,
was the real or artificial horse behind which
sportsmen approached their game.
# 1113:
_Cold Harbour_] See note, p. 58.—Nares (_Gloss._),
citing the present passage, says, that _Cold Harbour_
“seems to be used as a kind of metaphorical term for
the grave.”
# 1114:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 1115:
_western pug_] “I doubt the sand-eyde asse will kicke
like a _Westerne Pugge_, if I rubbe him on the gall.”
Greene’s _Theeves falling out_, &c., sig. C, ed.
1637.—“In so much that [during the plague] euen the
_Westerne Pugs_ receiuing mony here, have tyed it in a
bag at the end of their barge, and so trailed it
through the Thames,” &c. Dekker’s _Wonderfull Yeare_,
1603, sig. F 3.
# 1116:
_Open._] Old ed. “Mist. Open.”
# 1117:
_brave girls, worth gold_] The expression seems to
have been proverbial; one of Heywood’s plays is
entitled _The Fair Maid of the West, or A Girle worth
gold_, 1631.
# 1118:
_the Brazen Head_] See _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_
(first printed in 1594) in my ed. of Greene’s _Dram.
Works_, and the extract there given from the prose
tract, _The Famous Historie of Friar Bacon_ (on which
that play is founded), “How Fryer Bacon made a Brazen
Head to speake, by the which hee would have walled
England about with Brasse,” vol. i. pp. 141, 215. The
friars lost all their labour through the folly of a
servant named Miles, who having been set to watch the
Head while they retired to rest, neglected to call
them when at last it spoke.
# 1119:
_Open._] Old ed. “Mist. Open.”
# 1120:
_sumner_] See notes, pp. 29, 170.
# 1121:
_aloof off_] See note, vol. i. p. 427.
# 1122:
_Open._ ] Old ed. here, and afterwards, “_Omnes_.”
_Gos._, _&c._ ]
# 1123:
_snuffling_] Old ed. “snafling;” but see his next
speech.
# 1124:
_fagary_] i.e. vagary.
# 1125:
_if you be remember’d_] i.e. if you recollect.
# 1126:
_tawny-coat_] “_Tawny_ was the usual dress of a
summoner or apparitor.” REED.
# 1127:
_I must lose my hair_, &c.] “Alluding to the
consequences of lewdness, one of which, in the first
appearance of the disease in Europe, was the loss of
hair.” REED.
# 1128:
_A knack to know an honest man_] _A Pleasant Conceited
Comedie, called, A knacke to know an honest Man, As it
hath beene sundrie times plaied about the Citie of
London_, was printed in 1596, the author unknown.
# 1129:
_gelt feathers_] i.e. golden feathers. But I am by no
means confident that I have restored the right
reading. Old ed. “Get _fethers_.”
# 1130:
_scape_] Old ed. “scapt.”
# 1131:
_Irish_] “Is a game which differs very slightly from
backgammon. The manner of playing it is described in
_The Compleat Gamester_, 1680, p. 109.” REED.
# 1132:
_bearing_] “_Bear_ as fast as you can ... when you
_come to bearing_, have a care,” &c. _The Compleat
Gamester_, pp. 155-6, ed. 1674.
# 1133:
_And that_, &c.] A line preceding this one seems to
have dropt out: perhaps another is wanting after _And
yet to try_, &c.
# 1134:
_Meg of Westminster’s courage_] Meg of Westminster, or
long Meg of Westminster, was a virago, of whom
frequent mention is made by our early dramatists; and
indeed, like the heroine of the present piece, she had
the honour of figuring in a play called after her, in
1594 (see Malone’s _Shakespeare_, by Boswell, vol.
iii. p. 304). At that period, however, she is supposed
to have been dead. She is introduced in an ante-masque
in B. Jonson’s _Fortunate Isles_—_Works_, vol. viii.
p. 79, ed. Giff. A 4to tract, entitled _The Life of
Long Meg of Westminster: containing the mad merry
prankes she played in her life time, not onely in
performing sundry quarrels with divers ruffians about
London; but also how valiantly she behaued her selfe
in the warres of Bolloingne_, was printed (perhaps not
for the first time) in 1635; and forms part of
_Miscellanea Antiqua Anglicana_, 1816, 4to.
# 1135:
_puttocks_] i.e. kites.
# 1136:
_like a firework_, &c.] So Dekker (see notes, pp. 490,
503) in his _Whore of Babylon_, 1607;
“Let vs behold these _fire-workes, that must run
Vpon short lines of life_.”
Sig E 4.
# 1137:
_linstock_] Or _lintstock_—a stick with the match (the
lint) at one end of it, used in firing cannon.
# 1138:
_galley-foist_] i.e. a long barge with oars: it
frequently means that of the lord mayor.
# 1139:
_shovel-board shilling_] i.e. a shilling used at the
game of _shovel-board_, and which was always smooth,
that it might “slide away” easily.
# 1140:
_strouts_] i.e. struts.
# 1141:
_boot-halers_] “Cotgrave explains _Picoreur_ to be ‘a
_boot-haler_ (in a friend’s country), a ravening or
filching souldier.’” REED. Freebooters, plunderers,
_halers_ of _boot_ (profit), or _booty_.
# 1142:
_ging_] i.e. gang. “This substitution of _i_ for _a_,”
says Gifford, in a note on the word, “was common in
our author’s days.” B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. iv. p.
161. But the fact is, _ging_ is of great antiquity:
“The gouernour of this _gyng_.” _Gawayn and the Green
Knight_, _MS. Cott. Nero A. X._ fol. 94.
# 1143:
_corago_] “A corruption of _coraggio_, Ital.” COLLIER.
# 1144:
_Bononia ... Bologna_] One and the same place!
# 1145:
_Volterra_] Old ed. “Valteria.”
# 1146:
_jobbering_] i.e. jabbering.
# 1147:
_Not a cross_] i.e. not a penny.—_Cross_, a piece of
money, many coins having a _cross_ on one side.
# 1148:
_skeldering_] “A cant term, generally applied to a
vagrant, and often used by our ancient poets. It
appears to have been particularly appropriated to
those vagabonds who wander about under the name of
soldiers, borrowing or begging money.” REED. See also
Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. ii. p. 8:
“_Skeldring_ was a cant term for impudent begging,”
&c.:—and Dekker’s _Gull’s Horn-book_, p. 129, reprint;
“whom he may _skelder_ [i.e. cheat, defraud], after
the genteel fashion, of money.”
# 1149:
_glasiers_] i.e. “eyes.” Dekker’s _Lanthorne and
Candlelight_, 1612, sig. C 2.
# 1150:
_black patches_] Were used as an ornament, not only by
ladies, but also by some effeminate gallants of those
days.
# 1151:
_Isle of Dogs_] Opposite Greenwich. It seems to have
been a place where persons took refuge from their
creditors and the officers of justice.
# 1152:
_whip-jack_] In Dekker’s _Belman of London_, 1608,
sig. D 2, the description of “A Whipiacke” is much the
same as that which Moll gives here.
# 1153:
_horns for the thumb_] Pickpockets were said to place
a case, or thimble, of horn on their thumbs, to
support the edge of the knife in the act of cutting
purses: see Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_,
vol. iv. p. 413.
# 1154:
_nipping Christian_] i.e. cutpurse.
# 1155:
_maunderer upon the pad_] “_Mawnding_, asking
(begging).” “_Pad_, a way.” Dekker’s _Lanthorne and
Candlelight_, 1612, sig C 2.
# 1156:
_an upright man_] “Is a sturdy big-bonde knaue, that
neuer walkes but (like a Commander) with a short
truncheon in his hand, which hee cals his Filchman. At
Markets, Fayres, and other meetings his voice amongst
Beggars is of the same sound that a Constables is of,
it is not to be controld. He is free of all the shiers
in England, but neuer stayes in any place long, &c.
&c.... These [upright men] cary the shapes of
soldiers, and can talke of the Low Countries, though
they neuer were beyond Dover.” Dekker’s _Belman of
London_, 1608, sig C. 3.
# 1157:
_a wild rogue_] “Is a spirit that cares not in what
circle he rises, nor into the company of what Diuels
hee falles: in his swadling clouts is he marked to be
a villaine, and in his breeding is instructed to be
so.... These Wilde Rogues (like wilde geese) keepe in
flocks, and all the day loyter in the fields, if the
weather bee warme, and at Bricke-kils, or else
disperse themselues in cold weather, to rich mens
doores, and at night haue their meetings in Barnes or
other out places,” &c. _Id._ sig. D.
# 1158:
_an angler_] “Is a lymb of an Vpright man, as beeing
deriued from him: their apparell in which they walke
is commonly frieze Jerkins and gally slops: in the day
time, they beg from house to house, not so much for
reliefe, as to spy what lyes fit for their nets, which
in the night following they fish for. The Rod they
angle with is a staffe of fiue or six foote in length,
in which within one inch of the top is a little hole
boared quite thorough, into which hole they put an
yron hooke, and with the same doe they angle at
windowes about midnight, the draught they pluck vp
beeing apparell, sheetes, couerlets, or whatsoeuer
their yron hookes can lay hold of,” &c. _Id._ sig. C
4.
# 1159:
_a ruffler_] “The next in degree to him [the
Vpright man] is cald a Ruffler: the Ruffler and
the Vpright-man are so like in conditions, that
you would sweare them brothers: they walke with
cudgels alike; they profess armes alike.... These
commonly are fellowes that haue stood aloofe in
the warres, and whilst others fought, they tooke
their heeles and ran away from their Captaine, or
else they haue bin Seruing-men, whome for their
behauiour no man would trust with a liuery,” &c.
_Id._ _ibid._
# 1160:
_the salomon_] i.e. “the masse.” Dekker’s _Lanthorne
and Candlelight_, 1612, sig. C 3.
# 1161:
_kinchin mort in her slate_] Old ed.
"kitchin-_mort_."—“Kinching-morts are girles of a
yeare or two old, which the Morts (their mothers) cary
at their backes in their Slates (which in the
Canting-Tongue are Sheetes) if they haue no children
of their owne, they will steale them from others, and
by some meane disfigure them, that by their parents
they shall neuer be knowne.” Dekker’s _Belman of
London_, 1608, sig. D 3.
# 1162:
_my dell and my dainty wild dell_] Dell is a girl yet
undebauched: “these Dells are reserued for the
Vpright-men, &c.... Of these Dells, some are termed
Wilde Dells, and those are such as are born and
begotten vnder a hedge: the other are yong wenches
that either by death of parents, the villainie of
Executors, or the crueltie of maisters and mistresses,
fall into this infamous and damnable course of life.”
_Id._ sig. D 3, 4.
# 1163:
_I’ll tumble this next darkmans in the stromme_l, &c.]
i.e. I’ll tumble this next night in the straw, and
drink good drink (_baufe_ being probably, as Reed has
observed, a mistake for _bouse_), and eat a fat pig, a
cock (or capon), and a duck. See Dekker’s _Lanthorne
and Candlelight_, 1612, sig. C 2, 3.
# 1164:
_old_] i.e. abundant.
# 1165:
_bousing ken_] i.e. ale-house. See Dekker’s _Lanthorne
and Candlelight_, 1612, sig. C 2.
# 1166:
_You are no pure rogues_] See note, vol. i. p. 169.
# 1167:
_lib ken or our stalling ken_] i.e. our house to lie
in, or our house to receive stolen goods. See Dekker’s
_Lanthorne and Candlelight_, 1612, sig. C 2, 3 (where
“Stuling _ken_.”)
# 1168:
_queer cuffin ... ben cove_, &c.] Old ed. “_ben_
caue.” “The word Coue or Cofe, or Cuffin, signifies a
man, a fellow, &c. But differs something in his
propertie, according as it meetes with other wordes:
For a Gentleman is called A Gentry Coue, or Cofe: A
good fellow is a Bene Cofe: a Churle is called a Quier
Cuffin; Quier signifies naught,” &c. _Id._ sig. C.
# 1169:
_pedlar’s French_] “That pedlers french, or that
Canting language, which is to be found among none but
Beggars.” Dekker’s _Belman of London_, 1608, sig. C.
# 1170:
_Ben mort_, &c.] i.e. Good wench, shall you and I rob
a booth, rob a house, or cut a purse, and then we’ll
lie down asleep under the woods (or bushes), &c.—Old
ed. here, and in Moll’s repetition of the words,
“_heaue a booth_.” See Dekker’s _Lanthorne and
Candlelight_, 1612, sig. C 2, 3.
# 1171:
_Cut benar_, &c.] i.e. Speak better words, and hold
your hands and your legs. See _Id._ ibid.
# 1172:
_heave a bough_] Moll, or rather the printer, has
omitted the explanation of these words: see note, p.
539.
# 1173:
_Song by Moll and Tearcat_] The old ed. gives the
first two lines to Moll, and prefixes “_T. Cat._” both
to the third and tenth lines.
# 1174:
_A gage_, &c. &c.] i.e. A quart pot of good wine in an
ale-house of London is better than a cloak, meat,
bread, butter-milk (or whey), or porridge, which we
steal in the country. O I would lie all the day, O I
would lie all the night, by the mass, under the woods
(or bushes), by the mass, in the stocks, and wear
bolts (or fetters), and lie till a palliard lay with
my wench, so my drunken head might quaff wine well.
Avast to the highway, let us hence, &c. See Dekker’s
_Lanthorne and Candlelight_, 1612, sig. C 2, 3; and
_The Groundworke of Conny-catching_, 1592, sig. A 2.
In the fourth line, as Reed observes, “_lay_” should
probably be “_lap_.” A _palliard_ is a beggar born:
“he likewise is cald a Clapperdugeon: his vpper
garment is an old cloake made of as many pieces
patch’d together, as there be villanies in him,” &c.
&c. Dekker’s _Belman of London_, 1608, sig. D.
# 1175:
_stalled to the rogue_] “This done, the Grand Signior
called for a Gage of Bowse, which belike signified a
quart of drinke, for presently a pot of Ale being put
into his hand, hee made the yong Squire kneele downe,
and powring the full pot on his pate, vttered these
wordes, I doe _stall thee to the Rogue_ by vertue of
this soueraigne English liquor, so that henceforth it
shall be lawfull for thee to Cant (that is to say) to
be a Vagabond and Beg,” &c. Dekker’s _Belman of
London_, 1608, sig. C. “_Stalling_, making or
ordeyning.” Dekker’s _Lanthorne and Candlelight_,
1612, sig. C 3.
# 1176:
_bestow_] Old ed. “bestowes.”
# 1177:
_boards_] “_Borde_, a shilling.” Dekker’s _Lanthorne
and Candlelight_, 1612, sig. C 2.
# 1178:
_cut ben whids_] i.e. speak good words. See _Id._
ibid.
# 1179:
_trine me on the cheats_] i.e. hang me on the gallows.
See _Id._ sig. C 2, 3.
# 1180:
_maundering_] See note, p. 536—but here it means—
muttering, talking.
# 1181:
_mouse_] See note, p. 137.
# 1182:
_gallant ... brave_] i.e. smartly dressed.
# 1183:
_strike_] “The act doing, is called striking.”
Dekker’s _Belman of London_, 1608, sig. H 2.
# 1184:
_shells_] “The money, the Shelles.” _Id._ ibid.
# 1185:
_L. Nol._ ] Old ed. here, and afterwards, “_Omnes_.”
_S. Beau._, _&c._ ]
# 1186:
_figging-law_, &c.] "In making of which law, two
persons haue the chiefe voices, that is to say, the
Cutpurse and the Pickpocket, and all the branches of
this law reach to none but them and such as are made
free denizens of their incorporation....
“He that cuts the purse is called the Nip.
He that is halfe with him is the Snap or the Cloyer.
. . . . . . .
He that picks the pocket is called a Foist.
He that faceth the man, is the Stale.”
Dekker’s _Belman of London_, 1608, sig. H.
# 1187:
_at the Fortune_] See note, p. 435.
# 1188:
_The rest_] Old ed. here, and afterwards, “_Omnes_.”
# 1189:
_boiled_] “The spying of this villanie is called
Smoaking or Boiling.” Dekker’s _Belman of London_,
1608, sig. H 2.
# 1190:
_the Swan_] One of the theatres on the Bankside.
# 1191:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 1192:
_a synagogue_, &c.] According to Dekker, those who
were under the figging-law had occasionally “solemne
meetings in their hall.” _Belman of London_, 1608,
sig. H 3.
# 1193:
_pacus palabros_] _Pocas palabras_ (Spanish), i.e. few
words—an expression which is found under various
corrupted forms in our old writers. It is usually put
into the mouths of low people, among whom it seems to
have been current: “With this learned oration the
Cobler was tutord: laid his finger on his mouth, and
cried _paucos palabros_.” Dekker’s _Wonderfull Yeare_,
1603, sig. E 4.
# 1194:
_Of cheators, lifters, nips, foists, puggards,
curbers_] “The Cheating Law, or the Art of winning
money by false dyce: Those that practise this studie
call themselues Cheators, the dyce Cheaters, and the
money which they purchase Cheates.” Dekker’s _Belman
of London_, 1608, sig. E 2.—“The Lifting Law ...
teacheth a kind of lifting of goods cleane away.”
Id. sig. G 3, where various kinds of lifters are
described.—Concerning _nips_ and _foists_, see note,
p. 544.—Of _puggards_ I can find no mention: _pugging_
seems to mean thieving in the _Winter’s Tale_, act iv.
sc. 2, Malone’s _Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. xiv.
p. 334; and, according to Steevens (_ad loc._), "is
used by Greene in one of his pieces."—“The Curbing Law
[teaches] how to hooke goodes out of a windowe.... He
that hookes is cald the Curber.... The Hooke is the
Courb.” Dekker, _ubi supra_, sig. G.
# 1195:
_black-guard_] Meant, properly, the lowest drudges of
the kitchen, turnspits, carriers of wood, coal, &c.,
who attended the progresses of the court: see
Gifford’s notes on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. ii. p.
169; vii. p. 250.
# 1196:
_love_] Old ed. “loues.”
# 1197:
_have_] Old ed. “has.”
# 1198:
_than your six wet towns_] “These I should apprehend
to be Fulham, Richmond, Kingston, Hampton, Chertsey,
Staines.—The other intermediate towns are, Chelsea,
Battersea, Kew, Isleworth, Twickenham, and Walton. N.”
Note in Reed’s ed. of Dodsley’s _Old Plays_.
# 1199:
_ramp_] See note, p. 496.
# 1200:
_gascoyne-bride_] i.e. a bride who wears _gascoynes_,—
gaskins, or galligaskins.
# 1201:
_plunges_] i.e. difficulties, perplexities.
# 1202:
_cast_] Old ed. “casts.”
# 1203:
_monthly_] “i.e. madly; as if under the influence of
the moon.” STEEVENS.
# 1204:
_resolv’d_] i.e. satisfied.
# 1205:
_thumb_] See note, p. 536.
# 1206:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 1207:
_Cheats_] Qy. “cheaters:” see p. 546 and note; but
compare p. 554, last line but one.
# 1208:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 1209:
_me_] Old ed. “hee.”
# 1210:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 1211:
_cuck_] i.e. put me in the cucking-stool: see note, p.
185.
# 1212:
_gentlewomen_] i.e. Mrs. Gallipot, &c.—Old ed.
“Gentlewoman.”
# 1213:
_a book_] “Alluding, no doubt, to some tract of the
time. Dekker himself wrote several of the kind; but it
is not to be supposed that any of these are here so
roughly handled.” COLLIER. Not to be supposed indeed;
since Dekker wrote a portion of the present play.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s Note
The author shifted between prose speech and blank verse, sometimes in
mid-speech. In this rendering, verse sections are given without blank
lines between speeches, with an indentation for each speech. Prose
speeches are given with a blank line between them.
The footnote scheme used lettered references, repeating a-z. On numerous
of occasions, letters were repeated, and sometimes skipped. The numeric
resequencing of notes here resolves those lapses. Footnotes are
sometimes referred to directly in a footnote by its letter designation.
The few direct references to a lettered note use the new numeric value.
Footnotes frequently refer to other notes, usually only by referring the
the page where they can be found. Sometimes those cross-references are
not accurate and the correct location cannot be ascertained.
Footnote 655 on p. 298 was misplaced. It should have followed the word
‘are’ rather than ‘gold and pearl’.
Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and
are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.
63.32 part of the first line of a couplet.[”] Removed.
194.34 put [t]hem together Added.
144.31 _prevented_] See note, p. 4[0/9]. Replaced.
233.1 I’ll work it so[,] Removed.
290.22 [good.] Boy, be ready, boy. _sic_
431.6 Moon-like changing dayes.[”] Added.
508.2 is worth a pair of two[.] Added.
365.32 [“]The same play upon words Removed.
ERRATA from Volume I.
A TRICK TO CATCH THE OLD ONE.
Vol. ii. p. 3.
We learn from Downes’s _Roscius Anglicanus_ that this play was one of
the early dramas revived between 1662 and 1665, p. 36, ed. Waldron.
Vol. ii. p. 5, l. 10.
_Longacre_] The editor of 1816 is mistaken: this word was used for an
estate in general; compare _Lady Alimony_, 1659, “It will run like
Quicksilver over all their Husbands Demains: and in very short time make
a quick dispatch of all his _Long acre_.” Sig. B 3.
A passage of _Gammer Gurton’s Needle_, which stands thus in the various
editions of Dodsley’s _Old Plays_,
“Tome Tannkard’s cow (be gog’s bones) she set me up her sail,
And flynging about his _halse aker_, fysking with her taile,”
&c.
has drawn forth the following extraordinary note from Steevens: “I
believe we should read _halse anchor_, or _anker_, as it was anciently
spelt; a naval phrase. The _halse_ or _halser_ was a particular kind of
cable,” &c., vol. ii. p. 11, last ed.—If Steevens, or the other editors,
had only taken the trouble to look at the 4to of 1575, they would have
found the true reading—“_halfe aker_,” i.e. small bit of ground.
--------------
THE FAMILY OF LOVE.
Vol. ii. p. 106, l. 32.
_Weber remarks_, &c.] The mistake of Weber may be traced to Langbaine,
who says, “This Play is mentioned by Sir Thomas Bornwel in _The Lady of
Pleasure_, Act 1. Sc. 1.” _Acc. of English Dram. Poets_, p. 372.
Vol. ii. p. 118, note.
“a corruption of _will_.”
Read
“a corruption of _wilt_.”
Vol. ii. p. 125, l. 1.
_We saw Samson bear the town-gates on his neck from the lower to the
upper stage, with that life and admirable accord, that it shall never be
equalled, unless the whole new livery of porters set [to] their
shoulders_] Middleton seems to have had in his recollection a passage of
Shakespeare’s _Love’s Labour’s Lost_: “Sampson, master: he was a man of
good carriage, great carriage; for he carried the town-gates on his
back, like a porter.” Act i. sc. 2.
Vol. ii. p. 148, l. 28.
_familiar_] i.e. attendant demon.
Vol. ii. p. 178, l. 21.
_Europa’s sea-form_] Probably “sea-form” is used in the sense of
sea-seat,—the bull on which she sat.
Vol. ii. p. 194, l. 8.
_play Ambidexter_] I was wrong, I believe, in saying that this
expression has an allusion to Preston’s _Cambises_: it is by no means
uncommon.
YOUR FIVE GALLANTS.
Vol. ii. p. 255, l. 16.
“_Hist!_ a supply.”
Read, with old ed.,
“_Pist!_ a supply.”
See notes, vol. ii. pp. 460, 468.
Vol. ii. p. 264, l. 20.
_E’en where his fear lies most, there will I meet him._
After this line insert “_Exit_;” and in the note, for “and thrown a
scarf over his face (see what follows), the audience,” &c., read “and
having made his exit at one door, had re-entered at the other with a
scarf thrown over his face, the audience,” &c.
Vol. ii. p. 268, l. 27.
“Master, _hist_, master!”
Read, with old ed.,
“Master, _pist_, master!”
See notes, vol. ii. pp. 460, 468.
Vol. ii. p. 290, l. 7.
PUR. _Thy father gave the ram’s head, boy?_
BOY. _No, you’re deceived; my mother gave that, sir._
The boy means that she made his father a cuckold: compare Dekker’s
_Owles Almanacke_, 1618; “Men whose wiues haue light heeles, are called
_Ramme-headed Cuckolds_,” p. 10.
--------------
A MAD WORLD, MY MASTERS.
Vol. ii. p. 333, l. 25.
_the glory of his complement_] I doubt if Steevens’s explanation of this
passage be the right one, or if _complement_ mean here any thing more
than courtly address.
Vol. ii. p. 369, note.
Steevens’s remark, cited here by Reed, that a horse was sometimes
denominated a _footcloth_, is certainly wrong. “Sir Bounteous,” observes
Nares (_Gloss._ in v.), “is said to [be] alight[ed] from his
_footcloth_, as one might say, alighted from his saddle.”
--------------
THE ROARING GIRL.
Vol. ii. p. 466, last line.
_the high German’s size_] This person is probably alluded to in the
following passage of Dekker’s _Newes from Hell_, &c. 1606: “As for
Rapier and dagger, the Germane may be his journeyman.” Sig. B. See also
Beaumont and Fletcher’s _Knight of the Burning Pestle_—_Works_, vol. i.
p. 215, ed. Weber; and Shirley’s _Opportunity_—_Works_, vol. iii. p.
407, where Gifford observes, that “he seems to have been ‘a master of
fence,’ or common challenger.”
Vol. ii. p. 511, l. 27.
“’Twas like a _sigh_ of his.”
Since writing the note on this passage, I have met with the following
lines in _The Travailes of the Three English Brothers_, _&c._ (by Day,
W. Rowley, and Wilkins), 1607;
“Pray Turke, let thy heart _sigth_ and thine eyes weepe.”
Sig. B 3.
“To whose continuall kneelings, teares, and _sighthes_.”
Sig. B 4.
Vol. ii. p. 530, note 1134.
I am told that a gentleman in London possesses an edition of the _Life
of Long Meg of Westminster_, printed in 1582.
Vol. ii. p. 541, l. 1.
“Peck, pennam, _lay_, or popler.”
I ought to have substituted “lap” for “lay,” as Reed (see note)
suggests.