[98] _I.e._ of the audience as representing mankind.
[99] For use as a plural cf. l. 347 'besecheth,' 844 'ye doth.'
[100] The dispensers respectively of frost, sunshine, wind, and rain.
[101] placed on record.
[102] powers, not 'pores.'
[103] that which they have experienced.
[104] conclusion.
[105] _I.e._ some one in the audience.
[106] Said to one of the attendants.
[107] The phrase in alphabet-learning for a letter sounded by itself;
cf. _Wily Beguiled_: "A _per se_ A" (Hawkins' Origin of English Drama,
3: 357. Oxford: 1772).
[108] matters.
[109] frieze.
[110] sweeting, sweetheart.
[111] separated.
[112] impartial.
[113] out of good fellowship.
[114] the end.
[115] equivalent to stanza.
[116] clownish rascals.
[117] Louvain.
[118] In Herts.
[119] Perhaps one of the numerous Barfords.
[120] In Notts.
[121] In Essex.
[122] Tottenham.
[123] In Suffolk.
[124] Near Woolwich.
[125] Witham, in Essex.
[126] Bristol.
[127] Possibly Gravelye near Baldock.
[128] There is a parish of Buttsbury in Essex: 'ynge Gyngiang Jayberd'
defies explanation.
[129] Have given notice to the petitioners to appear. The 'cry' is
supposed to have been made outside.
[130] mastership.
[131] the audience.
[132] journeying.
[133] rouse the game.
[134] call off after a kill.
[135] avail.
[136] clyster, purge.
[137] parson.
[138] As the play was written before 1533, the clergy were still
celibates, and this is only Mery-reporte's 'humour.'
[139] immediately.
[140] Explained by 'thynges wherof there is plente.'
[141] available.
[142] heard more, or others.
[143] in the same rightness.
[144] Scio (Chios).
[145] Purlieus are technically the woods adjacent to a royal forest; a
chase is an unenclosed part.
[146] What on earth would it matter?
[147] dispensed with, missed.
[148] To give two pounds of wheat for grinding sixty-four.
[149] wheel.
[150] feeder of the mill.
[151] axletree.
[152] Jupiter's proclamation.
[153] making rejoice.
[154] too far at variance.
[155] given less freedom.
[156] the kingdom of saints.
[157] assembly.
[158] scatter, blow about.
[159] flying apart.
[160] murrain, plague.
[161] dispensed with.
[162] roundly, completely.
[163] the psalms appointed for the Hours of the Blessed Virgin.
[164] esteem.
[165] admit.
[166] hair-breadth.
[167] float.
[168] sent.
[169] moderate cool breezes.
[170] choir.
[171] _Sic_ in all editions.
[172] of not sufficient advantage.
[173] Indistinguishable from trifles.
[174] off.
[175] The earliest reference to a dearth of corn in the reign of Henry
VIII. which I can find in Holinshed is _sub anno_ 1523, when he states
that the price in London was 20 _s._ a quarter, but without assigning
any cause. The reference here is, I think, clearly to the great rains
of the autumn of 1527 and April and May, 1528, of which Holinshed
writes that they "caused great floods and did much harme namelie in
corne, so that the next yeare [1528?] it failed within the realme and
great dearth ensued."
[176] one.
[177] preliminary.
[178] moderate, adjust.
[179] morass.
[180] stands still.
[181] the flat fixed stone (or bed stone) over which the turning stone,
or _runner_, moved.
[182] reviling.
[183] decayed.
[184] be leaky; misprinted _belyke_ by Kitson.
[185] or _jet_ (l. 835), strut.
[186] parrot.
[187] simpletons.
[188] Jesus.
[189] trim.
[190] smart.
[191] guess.
[192] Mlle. Simper de Coquette.
[193] communicate.
[194] wanton.
[195] Cf. note on _Roister Doister_, I. iv. 12. _Merygreeke_: "But with
whome is he nowe so sadly roundyng yonder?" _Dougerie_: "With _Nobs
nicebecetur miserere_ fonde." Explained by Flügel as a contraction of
_Nescio quid dicitur_ = Mistress 'What's-her-name.' _Gen. Ed._
[196] At regard, _i.e._ as the object of.
[197] perils.
[198] sweeter.
[199] fetch.
[200] thee.
[201] In _The Play of Love_, Heywood writes of "bybbyll babbyll,
clytter clatter."
[202] hospital, lazar-house.
[203] rubbing.
[204] casualties, chance perquisites.
[205] swing to and fro with your heels before the sheriff, as a censer
is swung by a thurifer.
[206] made arrangements.
[207] once.
[208] Cardinal Wolsey suggests himself as the person most likely to be
thus referred to, but if the reference of l. 636 is to the excessive
rain of 1527-28, Wolsey's disgrace followed it rather too closely for
the phrase "within this seven yere."
[209] Rastell ed., 'whose.'
[210] provided.
[211] Usually a mere exclamation, but here apparently as if from _non_,
not.
[212] bargained for.
[213] assemblage.
[214] oyez, hearken.
[215] likely.
[216] foolish.
[217] plunder.
[218] Cf. l. 590, "meane cooles."
[219] reached.
[220] pressed, have hastened.
[221] in order.
[222] use.
[223] whole.
[224] solely.
[225] wholly.
[226] St. John's copy ends.