(257,1) The story of this play is taken from the _Pleasaunt History
of Dorastus and Fawnia_, written by Robert Greene. (1773)
I.i.9 (258,2) [Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be
justified in our loves] Though we cannot give you equal entertainment,
yet the consciousness of our good-will shall justify us.
I.i.30 (258,3) [royally attornied] Nobly supplied by substitution
of embassies, &c.
l.i.43 (259,4) [physicks the subject] Affords a cordial to the state;
has the power of assuaging the sense of misery.
I.ii.13 (259,5) [that may blow No sneaping rinds] _That may blow_ is a
Gallicism, for _may there blow_. (1773)
I.ii.31 (261,6) [All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction The bygone day
proclaim'd] We had satisfactory accounts yesterday of the
state of Bohemia. (1773)
I.ii.123 (266,6) [We must be neat] Leontes, seeing his son's nose
smutched, cries, _We must be neat_, then recollecting that _neat_ is the
term for _horned_ cattle, he says, _not neat, but cleanly_.
I.ii.125 (266,7) [Still virginalling] Still playing with her fingers,
as a girl playing on the _virginals_.
I.ii.132 (266,8) [As o'er-dy'd blacks] Sir T. Hammer understands,
blacks died too much, and therefore rotten.
I.ii.136 (267,9) [welkin-eye] Blue eye; an eye of the same colour
with the _welkin_, or sky.
I.ii.139 (267,2) [Thou dost make possible things not so held] i.e.
thou dost make those things possible, which are conceived to be
impossible. (1773)
I.ii.161,3 (268,3) [will you take eggs for mony?] This seems to be a
proverbial expression, used when a man sees himself wronged and
makes no resistance. Its original, or precise meaning, I cannot
find, but I believe it means, will you be a _cuckold_ for hire. The
cuckow is reported to lay her eggs in another bird's nest; he
therefore that has eggs laid in his nest, is said to be _cocullatus_,
_cuckow'd_, or _cuckold_.
I.ii.163 (268,4) [happy man be his dole!] May his _dole_ or _share_ in life
be to be a _happy man_.
I.ii.176 (269,5) [he's Appareat to my heart] That is, _heir apparent_.or
the next claimant.
I.ii.186 (269,6) [a fork'd one] That is, a _horned_ one; a _cuckold_.
I.ii.217 (270,9) [whispering, rounding] _To round in the ear_, is to
_whisper_, or _to tell secretly_. The expression is very copiously
explained by H. Casaubon, in his book _de Ling. Sax_.
I.ii.227 (271,1) [lower messes] _Mess_ is a contraction of _Master_, as
_Mess_ John. Master John; an appellation used by the Scots, to those
who have taken their academical degree. _Lower Messes_, therefore are
graduates of a lower form.
The speaker is now mentioning gradations of understanding, and
not of rank, (see 1765, II,244,9)
I.ii.260 (372,2) [Whereof the execution did cry out Against the
nonperformance] This is one of the expressions by which Shakespeare
too frequently clouds his meaning. This sounding phrase means, I
think, no more than _a thing necessary to be done_. [_Revisal_; the
now-performance] I do not see that this attempt does any thing
more, than produce a harsher word without on easier sense, (see
1765, II,245,1)
I.ii.320 (275,5) [But with a ling'ring dram, that should not work,
Maliciously, like poison] [Hammer: Like a malicious poison] _Rash_
is _hasty_, as in another place, _rash gunpowder. Maliciously_ is
_malignantly_, with effects _openly hurtful_. Shakespeare had no
thought of _betraying the user_. The Oxford emendation is harmless and
useless.