[657] moment, time.
[658] A common contraction for _master_.
[659] 'Broche' and 'spit' are synonymous.
[660] set of people, company; cf. Heywood, _Play of the Wether_, l. 94.
[661] I am. The rustic dialect in the piece is conventional, but its
general peculiarities are those of the southwestern counties; _iche_
= I, reduced to _ch_ in _cham_, _chould_, or _chwold_ (I would),
_chwere_, etc. The southwestern _v_ for _f_ is not generally used, but
occurs below in _vylthy_, in _vast_ (I. iv. 8), and in _vathers_ (II.
i. 52); _glaye_ for clay is probably not genuine dialect.
[662] Misprinted _what_.
[663] H. prints 'halse aker,' with the following absurd note: "I
believe we should read _halse anchor_, or _anker_, as it was anciently
spelt; a naval phrase."
[664] Ed. 1575 _till_.
[665] Printed _sayth_.
[666] I hold, _i.e._ 'I wager.'
[667] owed.
[668] 'Pess,' a hassock (Rye's _East Anglian Glossary_, English Dialect
Society).
[669] the ground attached to the house. (Cf. Sc. toun.)
[670] with vigour and speed, promptly.
[671] Commonly supposed to mean St. Osyth.
[672] wager, bet; compare note 2, page 101. Ed. 1575 _held_.
[673] a fool, jester.
[674] For the older and better form of this song, see Appendix.
[675] A roasted crab-apple was placed in a bowl of ale to give it a
flavour and take off the chill. Compare _Midsummer Night's Dream_, II.
i. 48, and Nashe, _Summer's Last Will and Testament_:--
Sitting in a corner turning crabs,
Or coughing o'er a warmed pot of ale.
[676] Ed. 1575 _will_.
[677] entrails.
[678] Ed. 1575 _Godgs_.
[679] Ed. 1575 _dogde_.
[680] deceived.
[681] Ed. 1575 _thonge_.
[682] Ed. 1575 _syme._
[683] give thee thanks.
[684] offspring, brat.
[685] Ed. 1575 'is'; the reading adopted seems better than _is burste_.
[686] Ed. 1575 _will_.
[687] I hope.
[688] room.
[689] first-rate.
[690] spurrier's, harness-maker's.
[691] dear.
[692] Read 'lese,' for the rime.
[693] slip, neglect. Perhaps we should read 'yon' for 'you[r].'
[694] by nature.
[695] Ed. 1575 has _thynge_.
[696] awl.
[697] Apparently a proverbial phrase, meaning 'to expedite matters.'
[698] abominable.
[699] 'Friar Rush,' the chief personage in a popular story translated
from the German, which relates the adventures of a devil in the
disguise of a friar.
[700] Ed. 1575 _no_.
[701] Ed. 1575 _on_.
[702] leave, permission.
[703] aught.
[704] Ed. 1575 _pray_.
[705] Probably a misprint for 'chware,' I would be.
[706] we shall.
[707] _Chave_ is either a blunder of the author's in the use of
dialect, or a misprint for 'thave' = thou have.
[708] quickly.
[709] tail, backside.
[710] sulking (compare _glum_, and _R. R. D._, I. i. 66).
[711] Ed. 1575 _Tyb._
[712] Ed. 1575 _bauet not i_.
[713] Ed. 1575 _moned_.
[714] (I) make.
[715] t'other, the other.
[716] Ed. 1575 _The ii Acte. The iiii Sceane._
[717] anxiety.
[718] In Colwell's edition this scene extends to the end of the act.
There should probably be a division after line 63, and again after
line 105 (as in Professor Manly's edition), but we have retained the
original arrangement.
[719] went.
[720] Ed. 1575, _worthe_.
[721] ere, before.
[722] M. begins a new scene here; H. says it should begin at line 68.
[723] Brewing trough.
[724] M. begins a new scene here.
[725] H. inserts '_with_' before 'them.' But 'beares' means 'support,
uphold.'
[726] Printed _of_, ed. 1575.
[727] This is said to Scapethryft, who is nowhere mentioned in the
text. 'Fellow' (equivalent to 'comrade') was originally a courteous
mode of addressing a servant, like the French _mon ami_.
[728] Ill may he thrive; the phrase is common in the fourteenth
century. Cf. also "y-the," _Hickscorner_, l .187.
[729] Ed. 1575 _you_.
[730] roost.
[731] poultry.
[732] God yield you, God reward you. Compare _Good den_, _God deven_ =
good e'en.
[733] moved, disturbed.
[734] behave.
[735] neck.
[736] Perhaps we should read 'recetter,' for the sake of the rime.
[737] saving your reverence.
[738] as thou.
[739] Toad; the same phrase occurs in Gosson, _Ephimerides of Phialo_
(Arber) 63, "I have neither replyed to the writer of this libel ...
nor let him go scot free ... but poynted to the strawe where the padd
lurkes."
[740] Ed. 1575 gives this line to Chat.
[741] cloaks or smothers.
[742] what shall I call (it). Compare "_nicebecetur_," _R. D._ I. iv.
12.
[743] 'cut' is often used in the sixteenth century as a term of abuse,
especially for women.
[744] Printed _mery_.
[745] spit.
[746] 'stoure,' uproar. Printed _scoure_.
[747] served out, done for.
[748] to 'leap at a daisy,' to be hanged. The allusion is to a story of
a man who, when the noose was adjusted round his neck, leapt off with
the words, "Have at yon daisy yonder" (_Pasquil's Jests_, 1604).
[749] Ed. 1575 _where_.
[750] Ed. 1575 _on_.