_saker_, _basilisk_] Small pieces of ordnance.
# 412:
_Ast., Car., &c._] One of the many speeches to which
in the old ed. is the prefix “_Omnes_.”
# 413:
_Cap_] i. e. flat-cap: see note, p. 58.
# 414:
_Kneels_] “This [common] custom of 'kneeling and
drinking of healths’ kindled the wrath of various
puritanical writers. Stubbes, in his _Anatomy of
Abuses_, tells a story of a man in Almaine, who,
drinking a health to his Creator on his knees, was
fixed for ever like a statue, which horses could not
draw nor fire burn. R. Junius, in his _Drunkard’s
Character_, 1638, speaks of ‘a Lincolnshire man,
well known, that in his cups drank a health to the
devil, who had no sooner drank it off, but he fell
down dead.’ ‘To mend the matter (he says elsewhere),
lest Satan should want his due reverence, these
wine-worshippers will be at it on their knees,
especially if they drink a great man’s health,’ p.
313.” REED.
# 415:
_Thus ... thus_] How they indicated the price I know
not.
# 416:
_Billmen_] i. e. watchmen, who carried _bills_ (a sort
of pikes with hooked points), which were anciently the
weapons of the English foot-soldiers.
# 417:
_Is’t Shrove Tuesday, that these ghosts walk_] “From
this passage, I apprehend it was formerly a custom for
the peace-officers to make search after women of ill
fame on that day, and to confine them during the
season of Lent. So Sensuality says, in _Microcosmus_,
‘But now welcome a cart, or a _Shrove Tuesday’s_
tragedy.’” REED. “The progress of the constables on
Shrove Tuesday was for the purpose of checking
the outrages of the apprentices. See Taylor’s
_Jack-a-Lent_, 115.” O. GILCHRIST. Demolishing
houses of bad fame was one of the amusements of the
apprentices on Shrove Tuesday (see my note on
Webster’s _Works_, vol. iii. p. 225); and their riots
no doubt required the check of the constable and his
attendants: but it appears also, that on the same day
an official search was made for brothel-keepers, who
were either forthwith carted, or confined during Lent:
vide Nares’s _Gloss._ in v. _Shroving_.
# 418:
_Me, sir_] “This ‘Me, sir?’ and the Billmen’s echo of
it in the old copy are printed ‘Me, Sirrr?’ to
indicate, perhaps, the manner in which Bots spoke it.”
COLLIER.
# 419:
_sits in a blue gown_] “It appears from a passage in
_Promos and Cassandra_ [and from a dozen other
passages in various writers], that a _blue gown_ was
the habit in which a strumpet did penance. So too in
_The Northern Lass_, 1633, ‘All the good you intended
me was a lockram coif, a _blue gown_, a wheel,’ &c.
The _wheel_, as well as the _blue gown_, are mentioned
in subsequent scenes of this comedy.” STEEVENS.
# 420:
_any woman_, &c.] i. e. that has been carted, and
pelted with rotten eggs.
# 421:
_beats chalk, or grinds in the mill_] “To beat chalk,
grind in mills, raise sand and gravel, and make lime,
were among the employments assigned for vagrants who
were committed to Bridewell. See _Orders appointed to
be executed in the Cittie of London, for setting roges
and idle persons to worke, and for releefe of the
poore_. Printed by Hugh Singleton.” REED.
# 422:
_Your Bridewell_, &c.] “We have here a curious
specimen of the license which ancient writers
used to allow themselves of introducing facts and
circumstances peculiar to one country into another.
Every thing here said of Bridewell is applicable to
the house of Correction which goes by that name in
London. Changing the names of the duke and his son to
those of Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth, all
the events mentioned will be found to have happened in
the English Bridewell. The situation of the place is
also the same. In the time of Henry the Eighth princes
were lodged there; part of it being built in the year
1522, for the reception of Charles the Fifth, whose
nobles resided in it. In 1528, Cardinal Campeius had
his first audience there; and after Henry’s death,
Edward the Sixth, in the seventh year of his reign,
1552, gave to the citizens of London this his palace
for the purposes above mentioned. To complete the
parallel, it was endowed with land, late belonging to
the Savoy, to the amount of 700 marks a-year, with all
the bedding and furniture of that hospital. See
Stowe’s _Survey_, Strype’s edit. 1721, vol. i. p. 264.
There is also the like anachronism in the First Part
of this play, concerning Bethlem Hospital.” REED.
# 423:
_marks_] See note, p. 198.
# 424:
_war_] Old ed. “warres.”
# 425:
_agen_] See note, p. 182.
# 426:
_on_] Old ed. “or.”
# 427:
_and_] Old ed. “before.”
# 428:
_he_] Old ed. “she.”
# 429:
_anatomies_] i. e. skeletons:
“And rouse from sleep that fell _anatomy_.”
Shakespeare’s _King John_, act iii. sc. 4.
# 430:
_Sforza_] See note, p. 206.
# 431:
_atomies_] i. e. atoms.
# 432:
_mutton pasty_] See note, p. 102.
# 433:
_A barber’s cittern_] See note, vol. i. p. 174.
# 434:
_prize be play’d_] See note, p. 86.
# 435:
_a beetle_] “A mallet.” REED. See speech of First
Master, p. 233.
# 436:
_billmen_] See note, p. 217.
# 437:
_a squire of the body_] “A squire of the body, says
Mr. Steevens (note on the _First Part of Henry IV._)—
[Malone’s _Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. xvi. p.
191]—signified, originally, the attendant on a knight,
the person who bore his head-piece, spear, and shield.
It afterwards became a cant term for a _pimp_, and is
so used here.” REED. So also B. Jonson uses the single
word _squire_ for pimp or procurer: (see Gifford’s
note on _Every Man in his Humour_—_Works_, vol. i. p.
132.) See also our author’s _Fair Quarrel_, act iv.
sc. 4.
# 438:
_apple-squire_] In a note on Hall’s _Satires_, 1824,
p. 8, the editor remarks: “This cant phrase has been
erroneously explained as meaning a pander or pimp. The
fact is, that it meant what is in modern slang called
a _flash-man_: a _squire of the body_ had the same
meaning.” No doubt one of its meanings was a kept
gallant; but it generally signifies, as in our text, a
pimp. Greene, enumerating the professors of the
“sacking law,” mentions “_The Bawd_; if a man, an
_Apple squire_.” _Notable Discouery of Coosenage_,
1592, sig. c 2. See also the fourth line of the song
in our author’s _Fair Quarrel_, act iv. sc. 4.
# 439:
_brave_] See note, p. 190.
# 440:
_a wheel ... blue gown_] The use of both is presently
mentioned in the text; and see note, p. 220.
# 441:
_rosemary_] See note, p. 151.
# 442:
_marry muff_] See note, p. 36.
# 443:
_spittle_] See note, vol. ii. p. 465.
# 444:
_mought_] i. e. might.
# 445:
_chalk_, &c.] See note, p. 221.
# 446:
_guarded_] A play on the word—trimmed, faced.
# 447:
_God_] “In the old copy there is a blank left for this
word, to avoid the _prophanationem nominis Dei_, as T.
Bastard terms it in his _Epigrams_.... This vice, as
is well known, was, not many years afterwards,
reformed in a great degree, as far as the theatre was
concerned. See the statute 3. James I. chap. xxi.”
COLLIER.
# 448:
_loose-bodied gowns_] The common dress of courtesans:
see note, vol. i. p. 431.
# 449:
_chare_] “i. e. task-work.” REED.
# 450:
_flat-caps_] See note, p. 58.
# 451:
_a beadle beating a basin_] The First Master presently
tells the Duke that the basin “is an emblem of their
revelling.” Here Reed cites a parallel passage from B.
Jonson’s _New Inn_, act iv. sc. 3, and a remark of
Whalley, that it alludes “to the custom of old, when
bawds and other infamous persons were carted. A mob of
people used to precede them _beating basins_ and other
utensils of the same kind, to make the noise and
tumult the bigger,” &c. &c.
# 452:
_guarded_] See note, p. 236.
# 453:
_ancient_] i. e. “an ensign.” REED. “This point will
be better understood from the following [passage of
_The Fleire_, by Sharpham, sig. F 2, ed. 1615.]
‘FLEIRE. What, Signior! in loue with my Ladie’s
_Ancient_.
SPARKE. Why her Ancient?
FLEIRE. Because she carries her colours for her, but
’tis
in a boxe.’” COLLIER. I doubt if there be any such
point
in our text.
# 454:
_aqua vitæ_] “Formerly the general name for spirits.”
REED.
# 455:
_defy_] i. e. reject, disclaim.
# 456:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 457:
_brave_] See note, p. 190.
# 458:
_marry muff_] See note, p. 36.
# 459:
_placket_] See vol. ii. p. 497. The assertion of
Nares, there mentioned, is disproved by the present
passage.
# 460:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 461:
_let_] Old ed. “lets.”
# 462:
_Yet, good_, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see note, p.
52. In the passage which immediately precedes it,
Orlando seems to be seized with a fit of rhyming.
# 463:
_Then hear, Matheo: all_, &c.] Qy. “_Then_ here,
_Matheo, all_,” &c.
# 464:
_have_] Old ed. “hath.”
# 465:
_recovered_] From the playhouse probably, as Steevens conjectures.
# 466:
_a banquet towards_] i. e. a banquet at hand, ready.
_Banquet_ means here, as in many (though not all)
passages of our early writers, what we now call a
dessert. Our ancestors usually quitted the eating-room
as soon as they had dined, and removed to another
apartment, where the _banquet_ was set out.
# 467:
_duke’s_] MS. “king’s.”
# 468:
_know_] MS. “knew.”
# 469:
_suckets_] i. e. sweetmeats.
# 470:
_termers_] i. e. persons resorting to the capital
during term-time: compare vol. ii. pp. 107, 433.
# 471:
_Amsterdam_] See note, vol. i. p. 205.
# 472:
_she that sunk_, &c.] i. e. Queen Elinor, wife to King
Edward the First: see Peele’s drama entitled _Edward
I._, and the Ballad prefixed to it, in my sec. ed. of
his _Works_, vol. i. p. 69. 1829.
# 473:
_charms_] Written in MS. “_charmes_”—is used as a
dissyllable in the next scene,
“Knit with these _charms_ and retentive knots.”
But perhaps I ought to have reduced the present
hobbling speech to prose.
# 474:
_a country house_, &c.] “The country house here
alluded to,” says Malone, “was at Brentford; and in
the plays written in 1607, and for some years
afterwards, there are frequent allusions to the
practice of carrying women of the town thither.” _Life
of Shakespeare_, p. 428 (_Sh. by Boswell_, vol. ii.)
# 475:
_conclusions_] i. e. experiments.
# 476:
_A banquet_] See note, p. 252.
# 477:
_have_] MS. “hath.”
# 478:
_The round_] See note, vol. ii. p. 190.
# 479:
_The abode of Hecate. Enter Hecate_] MS. has, “_Enter
Heccat; and other Witches_ (_with Properties, and
Habitts fitting_).“—I had originally prefixed to this
scene, ”_A Cave: Hecate discovered in front of the
stage: Stadlin, Hoppo, other witches, and Firestone,
in an inner cave, where a caldron is boiling_:” but
Hecate does not _see_ the caldron; and as we shall
presently find that Almachildes (vide p. 268) is on
the point of falling into it, _before_ he meets with
Hecate, it could not have been placed in an _inner_
cave.
# 480:
_Hoppo and Stadlin_] See quotation from R. Scot, note,
p. 265.
# 481:
_Hellwain_] MS. “Hellwin:” see note, p. 264.
# 482:
_Puckle_] MS. “Prickle.”
# 483:
_The nips of fairies_, &c.] This passage is explained
by the following lines of Browne:
“where oft the Fairy-Queene
At twy-light sate, and did command her Elues
To pinch those Maids that had not swept their shelues;
And further if by Maidens ouersight
Within doores water were not brought at night,
Or if they spread no Table, set no Bread,
_They should haue nips_ from toe vnto the head.”
_Britannia’s Pastorals_, b. i. song ii. p. 41, ed.
1625.
# 484:
_Why, when_] See note, p. 164.
# 485:
_There, take this unbaptised brat_, &c.] Here, and in
the next three speeches of Hecate, Middleton follows
Reginald Scot, using sometimes the very words of that
curious writer. In the _Discouerie of Witchcraft_,
Scot gives from “John Bapt. Neap.” i. e. Porta, the
following receipts for the miraculous transportation
of witches: “℞. _The fat of yoong children, and seeth
it with water in a brasen vessell_, reseruing the
thickest of that which remaineth boiled in the
bottome, which they laie vp and keepe, vntill
occasion serueth to vse it. _They put herevnto
Eleoselinum, Aconitum, frondes populeas, and soote._”
“℞. _Sium, acarum vulgare, pentaphyllon, the bloud of
a flitter-mouse, solanum somniferum et oleum_. They
stampe all these togither, and then they rubbe all
parts of their bodies exceedinglie, till they looke
red and be verie hot, so as the pores may be opened
and their flesh soluble and loose. They ioine
herewithall either fat or oile in steed thereof, that
the force of the ointment maie the rather pearse
inwardly, and so be more effectual. By this means
(saith he) _in a moone light night they seeme to be
carried in the aire, to feasting, singing, dansing,
kissing, culling, and other acts of venerie, with such
youthes as they loue and desire most_,” &c. B. x. c.
viii. p. 184, ed. 1584.—See the original of this in
Porta’s _Magiæ Naturalis, sive De Miraculis Rerum
Naturalium Libri iiii._, 1561, 12mo. p. 180. Porta
omitted the passage in (at least some) later and
enlarged editions of his work.
# 486:
_leek_] i. e. like—for the sake of the rhyme.
# 487:
_coll_] i. e. embrace, or clasp round the neck.
# 488:
_Whelplie’s_] What place is meant by this word I know
not.
# 489:
_his throat_] i. e. the dead child’s.
# 490:
_Pentaphyllon_] MS. “Dentaphillon.”
# 491:
_flitter-mouse_] Or _flicker_-mouse—i. e. bat.
# 492:
_churnings_] MS. “charmings.”
# 493:
_meet_] i. e. even.
# 494:
_dew-skirted_] MS. “dew’d-skirted.”
# 495:
_swathy feastings_] i. e. (I suppose) feastings among
the _swaths_—the mown rows of grass.
# 496:
_costermonger’s_] i. e. apple-seller’s.
# 497:
_Sylvans_] MS. “Silence.”—Here again Middleton borrows
from Reginald Scot: “And they haue so fraied vs with
bull beggers, spirits, witches, _vrchens_, _elues_,
_hags_, fairies, _satyrs_, _pans_, _faunes_, _sylens_
[sylvans], _kit with the cansticke_, _tritons_,
_centaurs_, _dwarfes_, giants, _imps_, calcars,
coniurors, nymphes, changlings, Incubus, Robin
good-fellowe, _the spoorne_, _the mare_, _the man in
the oke_, _the hell waine_, _the fierdrake_, _the
puckle_, Tom thombe, hob gobblin, Tom tumbler,
boneles, and such other bugs, that we are afraid of
our owne shadowes.” _Discouerie of Witchcraft_, b.
vii. c. xv. p. 153, ed. 1584.—Sir W. Scott, having
given the above quotation from the work of his
namesake, observes: “It would require a better
demonologist than I am to explain the various obsolete
superstitions which Reginald Scot has introduced, as
articles of the old English faith, into the preceding
passage. I might indeed say, the Phuca is a Celtic
superstition, from which the word Pook, or Puckle,
was doubtless derived; and I might conjecture,
that the man-in-the-oak was the same with the
Erl-König of the Germans; and that the hellwain were a
kind of wandering spirits, the descendants of
a champion named Hellequin, who are introduced
into the romance of Richard sans Peur. But most
antiquarians will be at fault concerning the spoorn,
Kitt-with-the-candlestick, Boneless, and some others.”
_Letters on Demonology, &c._, p. 174, sec. ed.—
Whatever “Hellwain” may be properly, Middleton meant
to express by the term some individual spirit: see p.
259, and the 3d scene of act iii.—The words with which
Hecate concludes this speech, “A ab hur hus!” are also
borrowed from R. Scot’s work, b. xii. c. xiv. p. 244,
where they are mentioned as a charm against the
toothache.
# 498:
_as_] MS. “and.”
# 499:
_Stadlin’s within_, &c.] From R. Scot: “It is
constantlie affirmed in M. Mal. that Stafus vsed
alwaies to hide himselfe in a monshoall [mouse-hole],
and had a disciple called Hoppo, who made Stadlin a
maister witch, and could all when they list inuisiblie
transferre the third part of their neighbours doong,
hay, corne, &c. into their owne ground, make haile,
tempests, and flouds, with thunder and lightning; and
kill children, cattell, &c.: reueale things hidden,
and many other tricks, when and where they list.”
_Discouerie of Witchcraft_, b. xii. c. v. p. 222, ed.
1584.—See Sprenger’s _Malleus Maleficarum_, Pars Sec.
quæst. i. cap. xv. p. 267, ed. 1576, where the name
_Stadio_, not _Stadlin_, is found; but the latter
occurs at p. 210.
# 500:
_tear_] MS. “teares”—and in the next line “Flyes,” and
“takes.”
# 501:
_Anno Domini_] i. e. the date of the house, frequently
affixed to old buildings.
# 502:
_reeks_] i. e. ricks.
# 503:
_charms_] See note, p. 255.
# 504:
_Chirocineta_, &c.] From R. Scot: “Pythagoras and
Democritus giue vs the names of a great manie magicall
hearbs and stones, whereof now both the vertue and the
things themselues also are vnknowne: as _Marmaritin_,
whereby spirits might be raised: _Archimedon_,
which would make one bewraie in his sleepe all the
secrets in his heart: _Adincantida_, _Calicia_,
Meuais, _Chirocineta_, &c.: which had all their
seuerall vertues, or rather poisons.” _Discouerie of
Witchcraft_, b. vi. c. iii. p. 117, ed. 1584.
# 505:
_sew and sock_] MS. “soawes _and_ socks.”
# 506:
_patient miracle_] i. e. Job.
# 507:
_agen_] See note p. 182.
# 508:
_I know he loves me not_] Steevens, enumerating the
parallel passages of _Macbeth_ and _The Witch_,
compares the present observation of Hecate with what
the same personage says in Shakespeare’s play;
“And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward son,
Spiteful and wrathful; who, as others do,
_Loves for his own ends, not for you_.” Act iii. sc.
5.
# 509:
_bravest_] i. e. fineliest dressed.
# 510:
_I pray, be covered_] I may just observe, that, in the
language of the time, these words meant, properly,—put
on your hat.
# 511:
_tremble_] MS. “trembles.”
# 512:
_a toad in marchpane_] Marchpane was a composition of
almonds and sugar, &c. pounded and baked together. It
was a constant article at _banquets_ [i. e. desserts],
and was wrought into various figures. Taylor, the
water-poet, mentions
“Conseru’s and _Marchpanes_, made in sundry shapes,
As Castles, Towres, Horses, Beares and Apes.”
_The Siege of Jerusalem_, p. 15—_Workes_, 1630.
# 513:
_beray’d_] i. e. befouled.
# 514:
_sucket_] i. e. sweetmeat.
# 515:
_cullis_] i. e. a strong broth, a savoury jelly: among
its ingredients the old receipt-books mention fine
gold and orient pearl.
# 516:
_nobles_] Gold coins worth 6_s._ 8_d._ each.
# 517:
_panado_] “A kind of caudle, made of water, grated
bread, currans, mace, cinnamon, sack, or white wine
and sugar, with yolks of eggs boiled.” R. Holme’s _Ac.
of Armory_, b. iii. c. iii. p. 84.
# 518:
_Some_, &c.] In this speech I have printed several
lines as prose, which might, perhaps, be tortured into
verse.
# 519:
_chewets_] “_Chewit_, or small pie, minced or
otherwise.” R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, b. iii. c.
iii. p. 82.
# 520:
_gamester_] i. e. debauched fellow.
# 521:
_toy_] i. e. trifle.
# 522:
_have_] MS. “has.”
# 523:
_spoil_] MS. “spoiles.”
# 524:
_watermen_] Compare p. 273, line 6.
# 525:
_toys_] i. e. trifles.
# 526:
_heal_] i. e. health—_Scotch_—at Ravenna!
# 527:
_agen_] See note, p. 182.
# 528:
_toy_] i. e. whim, fancy.
# 529:
_boughts_] i. e. knots, twists.
# 530:
_Here were a sweet_, &c.] See note, p. 272.
# 531:
_all split_] See note, vol. ii. p. 518.
# 532:
_were_] MS. “was.”
# 533:
_clipp’d_] Or _cleped_—i. e. called.
# 534:
_beholding_] For _beholden_—a common form in our old
writers.
# 535:
_safeguard_] See note, vol. ii. p. 459.
# 536:
_Here’s no sweet charge_] See note, vol. i. p. 169.
# 537:
_condition_] i.e. quality, disposition.
# 538:
_beholding_] See note, p. 286.
# 539:
_strangeness_] i. e. shyness, reserve.
# 540:
_cast_] i. e. contrived.
# 541:
_are_] MS. “is.”
# 542:
_depend_] MS. “depends.”
# 543:
_sweets_] MS. “pretious _sweetes_.”
# 544:
_flow_] MS. “flowes.”
# 545:
_Heard you the owl yet_, &c.
. . . . . . . .
_’Tis high time for us then_]
So in Shakespeare’s _Macbeth_:
“3. _Witch._ Harper cries:—’Tis time, ’tis time.”
Act iv. sc. 1.
# 546:
_noise_] i. e. company: see note, vol. ii. p. 498.
# 547:
_Song above._]
_Come away, come away_, &c.
. . . . . . . . .
_Or cannon’s throat our height can reach_]
In act iii. sc. 5 of Davenant’s alteration of
_Macbeth_, this passage is inserted, with some
variations. It is so highly fanciful, and comes in so
happily where Davenant has placed it (viz. immediately
after these lines of the original _Macbeth_—
“SONG [_within_]. _Come away, come away_, &c.
HECATE. Hark, I am call’d; my little spirit, see,
Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.”)
that one is almost tempted to believe it was written
by Shakespeare, and had been omitted in the printed
copies of his play. Till the MS. of _The Witch_ was
discovered, towards the end of the last century, the
passage in question was of course supposed to be the
composition of Davenant.
# 548:
_coll_] i. e. embrace.
# 549:
_Over steep_, &c.] Davenant gives,
“_Over_ steeples, _towers, and turrets_,”
which I suspect is the true reading: compare what
Hecate says at p. 260,
“In moonlight nights, on _steeple-tops_,” &c.
# 550:
_aqua-vitæ shop_] See note, p. 239.
# 551:
_A fair Warning_, &c.] So there is an old play
entitled _A Warning for faire Women_, 1599, 4to, the
author unknown.
# 552:
_Dearer_] i. e. more afflictive.
# 553:
_men_] MS. “man.”
# 554:
_disease_] i. e. disturb.
# 555:
_Enter Francisca above_] MS. has, “_Enter Francisca_
in her Chamber;” but it is evident that she entered on
what was called the upper stage: see note, vol. ii. p.
125.
# 556:
_slights_] i. e. artifices.
# 557:
_resolv’d_] i. e. satisfied, convinced.
# 558:
_He cries it hither: I must disease you straight,
sir.
For the maid-servants and the girls o’ th’ house,
I spic’d them lately with a drowsy posset_]
_Cries_ i. e. snores—_disease_, i. e. disturb, waken.
It was formerly a general custom to eat possets just
before bed-time.—Steevens compares this passage with
the following one of Shakespeare’s _Macbeth_, act ii.
sc. 2;
“the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with _snores_: I have _drugg’d
their possets_,” &c.
and observes, that Macbeth’s expression, act ii. sc.
1, “There’s no such thing,” is likewise used by
Francisca (see p. 317), when she undeceives her
brother.
# 559:
_Flo._] MS. “Fra.”
# 560:
_ruinous_] MS. “ruynes.”
# 561:
_knowledge_] Altered by Reed to “conscience.”
# 562:
_Antonio_] MS. has “Sebastian,” and prefixes “Seb.” to
the first and third speeches in this scene.
# 563:
_untruss’d_] i. e. the points or tagged laces by which
the hose or breeches were attached to the doublet,
being yet untied.
# 564:
_If she be_, &c.] The MS. makes these two lines a part
of Florida’s speech.
# 565:
_beholding_] See note, p. 286.
# 566:
_Cum. volui_, &c.] Ovid, _Met._ vii. 199, where the
first line is
“Quorum ope, _cum volui, ripis mirantibus amnes_:”
but I find it quoted, as in our text, by Corn.
Agrippa, _Occult. Philos._ lib. i. cap. lxxii. p. 113.
_Opp._ t. i. ed. Lugd.; by R. Scot, _Discouerie of
Witchcraft_, l. xii. c. vii. p. 225, ed. 1584; and by
Bodinus, _De Magorum Dæmonomania_, lib. ii. cap. ii.
p. 130, ed. 1590. From the last-mentioned work,
indeed, Middleton seems to have transcribed the
passage, since he omits, as Bodinus does, a line after
“_Vipereas rumpo_,” &c.
# 567:
_when_] See note, p. 164
# 568:
_acopus_] I am uncertain about the meaning of this
word. Pliny mentions an herb, and also a stone, called
_acopos_: see _Hist. Nat._ lib. xxvii. cap. iv. t. ii.
p. 423, and lib. xxxvii. cap. x. t. ii. p. 787, ed.
Hard. 1723.
# 569:
_Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray,
Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may_]
Preceded in MS. by the words “_A charme Song about a
Vessell_,”—is the “Song” of the witches “about the
caldron,” _Macbeth_, act iv. sc. 1. In the folios of
Shakespeare we find only “_Musicke and a Song. Blacke
Spirits, &c._;” in later editions the rest has been
supplied from Davenant’s alteration of _Macbeth_, (see
note, p. 303) where what follows in our text is
inserted, with some variations.
# 570:
_again_] Davenant gives “a grain”—a specious reading,
but not, I believe, the true one.
# 571:
_let the air_, &c.] So the 1st Witch says in
Shakespeare’s _Macbeth_;
“_I’ll charm the air to give a sound_,
While you perform your antic round:
That this great king may kindly say,
Our duties did his welcome pay.
_Musick._ _The Witches dance_, and vanish.”
Act iv. sc. 1.
In the passage just quoted, the modern editions
wrongly retain _antique_, the old spelling of _antic_.
“Though,” says Lamb, “some resemblance may be traced
between the Charms in Macbeth and the Incantations in
this Play, which is supposed to have preceded it, this
coincidence will not detract much from the originality
of Shakspeare. His Witches are distinguished from the
Witches of Middleton by essential differences. These
are creatures to whom man or woman plotting some dire
mischief might resort for occasional consultation.
Those originate deeds of blood and begin bad impulses
to men. From the moment that their eyes first meet
with Macbeth’s, he is spell-bound. That meeting sways
his destiny. He can never break the fascination. These
Witches can hurt the body; those have power over the
soul. Hecate in Middleton has a son, a low buffoon:
the hags of Shakspeare have neither child of their
own, nor seem to be descended from any parent. They
are foul Anomalies, of whom we know not whence they
are sprung, nor whether they have beginning or ending.
As they are without human passions, so they seem to be
without human relations. They come with thunder and
lightning, and vanish to airy music. This is all we
know of them. Except Hecate, they have no names; which
heightens their mysteriousness. The names and some of
the properties which Middleton has given to his Hags
excite smiles. The Weird Sisters are serious things.
Their presence cannot coexist with mirth. But, in a
lesser degree, the Witches of Middleton are fine
creations. Their power too is, in some measure, over
the mind. They raise jars, jealousies, strifes, _like
a thick scurf o’er life_.” _Spec. of Engl. Dram.
Poets_, p. 174.
# 572:
_Servants_] Here the MS. marks also the entrance of
“_Francisca_” and “_Aberzanes_;” but they have no
speeches during the present scene.
# 573:
_How_] Qy. “Who?”
# 574:
_passion_] i. e. violent grief.
# 575:
_Ever Almachildes now_] Something seems to be omitted
after these words.
# 576:
_Alexander Gough_] An actor, who, during the suppression of the
theatres, “helpt Mr. Mosely the bookseller to this and several other
dramatic Manuscripts.” Langbaine’s _Acc. of Engl. Dram. Poets_, p.
298.
# 577:
_merry_] Was altered by Weber to “gay,” for the sake of a better
rhyme.
# 578:
_A Room in Brandino’s House_] Weber marked this scene
“_The Country. An Inner Court of Brandino’s House_:”
and he did so, I presume, because Philippa and
Violetta presently “_appear at a window_.” But the
scene evidently takes place within the house. So in _A
Trick to catch the Old One_, vol. ii. p. 82, Joyce
“_appears above_,” and, like Philippa, throws down a
letter to Witgood, who is standing in a room of
Hoard’s house. See also p. 314 of this vol. On such
occasions the upper stage was used: vide note, vol.
ii. p. 125.
# 579:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 580:
_What posy’s_, &c.] Our ancestors were so fond
of _posies_, that they had them inscribed on
various parts of the house—nay, even on their
cheese-trenchers: see vol. i. p. 31, and the
present vol. p. 98.
# 581:
_Bring_] Old ed. “Brings.”
# 582:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 583:
_go_] Old ed. “goes.”
# 584:
_beholding_] See note, p. 286.
# 585:
_Astilio_] Qy. “Attilio?” one of the characters in the
play.
# 586:
_a’ life_] i. e. as my life, exceedingly.
# 587:
_proper_] i. e. handsome.
# 588:
_in my books_] i. e. in my favour: see more than
enough concerning this expression, in the notes on
Shakespeare’s _Much ado about Nothing_, act i. sc. 1,
and Nares’s _Gloss_.
# 589:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 590:
_exit_] Here Weber put a stage-direction, “_Drops a
letter, and exit_.” Wonderful that he should have read
the play, without perceiving that the letter was
thrown down by Philippa! The other editors adopted the
safer plan of adding nothing to the stage-directions
of the 4to.
# 591:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 592:
_has had opportunity_] In Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, and
Weber’s _B. and F._, we find (among many similar
improvements of the metre), “he _has had_ an
_opportunity_.”
# 593:
_Here’s no villany_] See note, vol. i. p. 169.
# 594:
_improv’d_] Qy. “approv’d?”
# 595:
_roarer_] See note on _A Fair Quarrel_, act ii. sc. 2.
in this vol.
# 596:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 597:
_have_] Old ed. “has.”
# 598:
_cannot tell_] i. e. know not what to say, or think,
of it: see Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol.
i. p. 125.
# 599:
_condition_] See note, p. 292.
# 600:
_hose_] i. e. breeches.
# 601:
_come_] Old ed. “comes.”
# 602:
_gom_] i. e. man, fellow: _Anglo-Sax._ The word
occurs frequently in our earliest poetry.
# 603:
_have at your plum-tree_] So in Nash’s _Haue with you
to Saffron-Walden_, 1596; “Yea Madam Gabriela, you are
such an old ierker, then Hey ding a ding ... _haue at
your plum-tree_.” Sig. R 4.
# 604:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 605:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 606:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 607:
_put up_] i. e. sheathe my sword.
# 608:
_byrlady_] See note, p. 9.]
# 609:
_were_] Old ed. “was.”
# 610:
_the_ ——] So old ed., a blank being left for some
word.
# 611:
_oil of ben_] “‘_Been_ or _behen_, in pharmacy,
denotes a medicinal root, celebrated, especially among
the Arabs, for its aromatic, cardiac, and alexiterial
virtues.’ Chambers’s _Dictionary_. The same writer
says, there are two kinds of _been_, white and red,
and that they are both brought from the Levant, and
have the same virtues, being substituted for each
other.” REED.
# 612:
_posts_] See note, p. 58.
# 613:
_beholding_] See note, p. 286.
# 614:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 615:
_have_] Old ed. “has.”
# 616:
_and]_ i. e. if.
# 617:
_stamp_] i. e. “halfpenny.” REED.
# 618:
_borne me in hand_] i. e. kept me in expectation.
# 619:
_could_] Old ed. “would.”
# 620:
_what are you ... for a coxcomb_] i. e. what coxcomb
are you? compare vol. ii. p. 421, and note.
# 621:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 622:
_i’ th’ Hole_] See note, vol. i. p. 392.
# 623:
_You may go; who lets you_] Given in old ed. to
Ricardo: _lets_, i. e. hinders.
# 624:
_against the hair_] See note, vol. i. p. 163.
# 625:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 626:
_And_] i. e. if.
# 627:
_blue coats_] In which they were to disguise
themselves as servants: see note, p. 146.
# 628:
_cock-shoot_] Properly, _cock-shut_—was a large net,
suspended between two poles, employed to catch, or
_shut_ in, woodcocks, and used chiefly in the
twilight—hence _cock-shut_ came to signify twilight.
(See Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. vi.
p. 473.) Perhaps “_a fine cock-shoot evening_” means
here—a fine evening for taking our game.
# 629:
_chamberlin_] So written for the sake of the rhyme.
# 630:
_purchase_] See note, p. 199.
# 631:
_keep_] Old ed. “keeps.”
# 632:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 633:
_A song_] The songs are frequently omitted in the
printed copies of our early dramas; but the present
direction seems to mean, that the actor who played
Latrocinio was to sing a few words of any song he
might choose.
# 634:
_agen_] See note, p. 182
# 635:
_perceiverance_] Or as the word is usually found,
_perceivance_--i. e. power of perceiving. Old ed.
“perseverance.”
# 636:
_at Philip_] i. e. when one calls to it _Philip_--a
familiar name for a sparrow.
# 637:
_sirrah_] See note, p. 44.
# 638:
_mar’l_] i. e. marvel.
# 639:
_whittles_] i. e. knives. Old ed. “whistles,” a
reading which did not startle preceding editors.
# 640:
_prodigious_] See note, p. 5.
# 641:
_fond_] i. e. foolish.
# 642:
_And_] i. e. if.
# 643:
_conceit_] i. e. quickness of apprehension.
# 644:
_ask that seriously_] Thus improved in Dodsley’s _Old
Plays_, and Weber’s _B. and F._, “_ask_ me _that_
question _seriously_!”
# 645:
_both_] i. e. shirts and smocks: see our author’s
_More Dissemblers besides Women_, act i. sc. 4.
# 646:
_child of Egypt_] i. e. gipsy.
# 647:
_resolve_] i. e. satisfy, convince.
# 648:
_make him ready_] i. e. dress himself: compare p. 35.
# 649:
_agen_] See note, p. 182.
# 650:
_Byrlady_] See note, p. 9.
# 651:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 652:
_a’ life_] See note, p. 348—altered, in Dodsley’s _Old
Plays_ and Weber’s _B. and F._, to “I love a wrangling
life!”
# 653:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 654:
_copy_] “i. e. plenty, a sense in which Ben Jonson
frequently used _copy_, from _copia_. Hence we may
infer that he wrote this portion of the play. The
next scene is in his best manner.” COLLIER. Surely
in the text “copy upon copy” is to be understood of
law-papers.
# 655:
_to quit_] i. e. to be even—equal with.
# 656:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 657:
_gally-gascoyns_] “i. e. wide hose or slops”
[trousers]. REED.
# 658:
_Le’ me see,
I’ll send him a whole musket-charge of
gunpowder_, &c. &c.]
So in _The Honest Lawyer. Acted by the Qveenes
Maiesties Servants. Written by S. S._ 1616. 4to.;
“VALENTINE. What is’t Sir, that my Art cannot
extend to?
GRIPE. The stone, the stone: I am pittifully
grip’d with the stone....
VALENTINE. ...
Let’s see. Me thinks a little Gun-powder
Should haue some strange relation to this fit.
I haue seene Gun-powder oft driue out stones
From Forts and Castle-walls,” &c. Sig. F 2.
Concerning this passage, see my remark, p. 340.
# 659:
_byrlady_] See note, p. 9.
# 660:
_the first part written last_] “This alludes to the
first and second parts of historical plays and
tragedies, which had been so much in fashion. It has
been ascertained in more than one instance, that the
first part of a successful play was written after the
second had met with applause.” COLLIER.
# 661:
_Byrlady_] Se note, p. 9.
# 662:
_hose_] i. e. breeches—altered in Dodsley’s _Old
Plays_, and Weber’s _B. and F._, to “coat!”
# 663:
_space_] Altered by editors to “pace”—but, I believe,
wrongly.
# 664:
_Byrlady_] See note, p. 9.
# 665:
_scald_] See note, p. 15.
# 666:
_Over I was_] i. e. above, beyond what I was—absurdly
altered by Weber to “As e’er _I was_.”
# 667:
_we_] Old ed. “he.”
# 668:
_come off roundly_] i. e. pay well.
# 669:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 670:
_The fig_, &c.] See the latter part of Gifford’s note
on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. i. p. 51, and Douce’s
_Illust. of Shakespeare_, vol. i. p. 492.
# 671:
_yellow bands_] i. e. bands dyed with _yellow starch_,
which was once very fashionable, and is said to have
been invented by Mrs. Turner, who was executed Nov.
1615, for having been concerned in the murder of Sir
Thomas Overbury, and wore at the gallows a ruff of her
favourite colour,—the hangman, we are told, having his
bands and cuffs also yellow. Hence the epithet
“hateful” in the text. Yet B. Rich, in _The Irish
Hubbub_, declares that “yellow starcht bands ...
beganne even then [i. e. immediately after Mrs.
Turner’s death] to be more generall than they were
before;” and they were certainly worn in 1621: see
note on _Albumazer_—Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, vol. vii.
p. 133, last ed.
# 672:
_hose_] i. e. breeches.
# 673:
_sirrah_] See note, vol. ii. p. 491.
# 674:
_beholding_] See note, p. 286.
# 675:
_being_] Qy. “blessing?”
# 676:
_mere_] i. e. whole.
# 677:
_Byrlady_] See note, p. 9.
# 678:
_mutton_] See note, p. 102.
# 679:
_hackney-man_] In Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, and Weber’s
_B. and F._, “_hackney-coachman!_”
# 680:
_come_] Old ed. “came.”
# 681:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 682:
_prettiest_] Old ed. “pretiliest.”
# 683:
_lin_] i. e. cease.
# 684:
_sadness_] i. e. seriousness.
# 685:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 686:
_chain of gold_] See p. 402.
# 687:
_resolv’d_] i. e. convinced, satisfied.
# 688:
_feeling_] Altered, in Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, to
“felling,” which Weber _corrected_ into “selling.”
# 689:
_conditions_] See note, p. 292.
# 690:
_master_] Old ed. “me” (a misprint for M.).
# 691:
_Thou hast no charge_, &c.] See p. 373.
# 692:
_Here they come_, &c.] Gifford observes that there is
a somewhat similar incident in _The New Inn_—note on
Ben Jonson’s _Works_, vol. v. p. 433, where he cites
the present passage very incorrectly.
# 693:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 694:
_here_] After this word, the old ed. has “_Exeunt_,”
and gives the next speech of Ricardo, on another page,
as “_Epilogue_,”—which in fact it is.
# 695:
_do_] Old ed. “do’s.”
# 696:
_William Rowley_] Whose name stands together with Middleton’s on the
title-pages of several plays, is generally considered as a dramatist
of the third class. He appears also to have been an actor,—one of the
company of players belonging to the Prince of Wales,—and to have
excelled more in comedy than tragedy. An alteration of his best piece,
_A New Wonder, a Woman never vext_, was performed with success at
Covent Garden theatre in 1824.
# 697:
_other_] Old eds. “t’other.”
# 698:
_niceness_] i. e. scrupulousness.
# 699:
_give aim_] See note, vol. ii. p. 335.
# 700:
_consort_] See note, vol. ii. p. 350—equivalent here
to _concert_.
# 701:
_shooting at these butts ... pricks ... rove_] A
succession of puns. The _prick_ was the point or mark
in the centre of the butts: to _rove_ meant to shoot
an arrow with an elevation, not point blank.
# 702:
_disgest_] Frequently used for _digest_ by our old
writers.
# 703:
_twixt_] Old eds. “Betwixt.”
# 704:
_cousin_] See note, vol. i. p. 499.
# 705:
_diminiting_] i. e. diminishing.
# 706:
_parle_] i. e. parley.
# 707:
_armorer_] Old ed. “armourers.”
# 708:
_Col.’s Fr._] Old eds. “Capt. friend.”
# 709:
_brabbling matter_] i. e. matter of broil.
# 710:
_before me_] An exclamation: so towards the conclusion
of this act, Russell says,
——“_'Fore me_, and thou lok’st half-ill indeed!”
# 711:
_enter in_] i. e. shew in—but qy. “_enter_ 'em?” So at
p. 81, “I would not _enter_ his man,” &c.
# 712:
_beshrow_] i. e. (as ed. 1622 has) “beshrew.”
# 713:
_good_] i. e. as Shylock explains it, _sufficient_—in
a pecuniary sense.
# 714:
_remora_] “The Latin name of a fish that adheres to
the sides and keels of ships, and retards their way.”
Whalley’s note, Ben Jonson, _Works_, vol. ii. p. 442,
ed. Gifford.—The word is often used by our early
dramatists. See p. 269 of this vol.
# 715:
_beget_] Old ed. “begets.”
# 716:
_footcloth_] See note, vol. i. p. 396.
# 717:
_'fore me_] See note, p. 459.
# 718:
_murdering-piece_] Was the name of a very destructive
piece of ordnance: see Nares’s _Gloss._ in v.
Shakespeare uses the word, _Hamlet_, act iv. sc. 5.
# 719:
_fears_] i. e. frightens.
# 720:
_frailty_] First ed. “fraileto;” ed. 1622, “frailtie
to.”
# 721:
_resolve_] i. e. assure, satisfy, convince.
# 722:
_vild_] See note, vol. ii. p. 393.
# 723:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 724:
_censure_] i. e. opinion.
# 725:
_conditions_] i. e. dispositions.
# 726:
_vild_] See note, vol. ii. p. 393.
# 727:
_vild_] See note, vol. ii. p. 393.
# 728:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 729:
_mistress_] Old eds. “Master”—the original MS. having
had merely “M.”
# 730:
_fine_] Old eds. “fiue.”
# 731:
_Points_] Old eds. “Appoints.”
# 732:
_yellow_] i. e. jealousy: see note, p. 134.
# 733:
_what’s_] So ed. 1622. First ed. “what.”
# 734:
_circular_] i. e. roundabout.
# 735:
_niceness_] See note, p. 451.
# 736:
_make yourself unready_] i. e. undress yourself:
compare pp. 35, 396, and notes.
# 737:
_jugal_] i. e. nuptial.
# 738:
_have_] Old eds. “has.”
# 739:
_whisper_] i. e. whisper to your brother the cause of
my] sorrow.
# 740:
_Cornish hug_] A particular lock, practised by the
Cornish wrestlers.
# 741:
_Chough, a Cornish gentleman_] Old eds. “Chawgh,” &c.—
Chough or chuff is a sea-bird, generally thought a
stupid one, common in Cornwall: and a _Cornish chough_
appears to have been a name for a silly fellow from
the country;
“For here I might obserue _a Country gull_,
Whose fathers death had made his pockets full,
Mount Ludgate-hill to buy a Spanish felt,
Pull out his money, bid the Knaue go tel’t.
Notes from Black-fryers I presently might gather,
For now _this Cornish Chough_ mourns for his father
In a Carnation feather,” &c.
Brathwait’s _Honest Ghost_, 1658, p. 167.
# 742:
_Red-shanks_] An appellation of contempt given to the
Scottish Highlanders and to the native Irish. “Both
summer and winter (except when the frost is most
vehement), going always bare-legged and bare-footed,
our delight and pleasure is not only in hunting of
red-deer, wolves, foxes, and graies [i.e. badgers],
whereof we abound and have great plenty, but also in
running, leaping, swimming, shooting, and throwing of
darts. Therefore in so much as we use, and delight
so to go always, the tender delicate gentlemen
of Scotland call us _Redshanks_.” MS. quoted by
Pinkerton—_Hist. of Scot._ vol. ii. p. 396.
# 743:
_quarrels_] A play on the word—squares of glass in
windows.
# 744:
_beholding_] See note, p. 286.
# 745:
_the Mount_] i. e. St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall.
# 746:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 747:
_you’ll_] So ed. 1622. First ed. “you.”
# 748:
_the roaring school_] See act iv. sc. 1.—_Roarers_,
or _roaring-boys_ (repeatedly mentioned by our
early dramatists), were the bullying bucks who, in
Middleton’s time and long after, infested the streets
of London. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to remark, that
the picture of them in the present play is a comic
exaggeration; and that “roaring” was never reduced to
a science, or taught in a school.
# 749:
_roaring Meg_] See note, vol. i. p. 263.
# 750:
_near 'em_] i. e. in the Tower.
# 751:
_the bears_] In Paris Garden, Southwark: see note,
vol. i. p. 407.
# 752:
_Hercules and thou_, &c.] I recollect no mention
elsewhere of these worthies having been “on the
Olympic Mount together;” but for an account of the
wrestling between Corineus and the giant Goemagot, or
Gogmagog, see A. Thompson’s translation of Jeffry of
Monmouth’s _British History_, p. 35, and Drayton’s
_Poly-olbion, First Song_, p. 12, ed. 1622.
# 753:
_come_] Old eds. “com’d.”
# 754:
_Turk, though not worth tenpence_] So in
Dekker’s _Satiromastix_, 1602, “wilt fight,
_Turke-a-tenpence_?” sig. H 2; and in Dekker and
Webster’s _Westward Ho_, 1607, the great Turk is
called “_the ten-penny_ infidel:” see my ed. of
Webster’s _Works_, iii. 95.
# 755:
_Insufferably_] Old eds. “Insufferable.”
# 756:
_remembrance_] To be read as if written
_rememberance_: but qy. “remembrancer?”
# 757:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 758:
_first esteem’d_] This scene, and nearly the whole of
the first scene of the second act, are given in the
_Spec. of Engl. Dram. Poets_ by Lamb, whose remarks on
them are too weighty to be omitted here: “The insipid
levelling morality to which the modern stage is tied
down would not admit of such admirable passions as
these scenes are filled with. A puritanical obtuseness
of sentiment, a stupid infantile goodness, is
creeping among us, instead of the vigorous passions,
and virtues clad in flesh and blood, with which
the old dramatists present us. Those noble and
liberal casuists could discern in the differences,
the quarrels, the animosities of man, a beauty
and truth of moral feeling, no less than in the
iterately inculcated duties of forgiveness and
atonement. With us all is hypocritical meekness. A
reconciliation scene (let the occasion be never so
absurd or unnatural) is always sure of applause. Our
audiences come to the theatre to be complimented
on their goodness. They compare notes with the
amiable characters in the play, and find a wonderful
similarity of disposition between them. We have a
common stock of dramatic morality, out of which a
writer may be supplied, without the trouble of copying
it from originals within his own breast. To know the
boundaries of honour, to be judiciously valiant, to
have a temperance which shall beget a smoothness in
the angry swellings of youth, to esteem life as
nothing when the sacred reputation of a parent is to
be defended, yet to shake and tremble under a pious
cowardice when that ark of an honest confidence is
found to be frail and tottering, to feel the true
blows of a real disgrace blunting that sword which the
imaginary strokes of a supposed false imputation had
put so keen an edge upon but lately; to do, or to
imagine this done in a feigned story, asks something
more of a moral sense, somewhat a greater delicacy of
perception in questions of right and wrong, than goes
to the writing of two or three hackneyed sentences
about the laws of honour as opposed to the laws of the
land, or a common-place against duelling. Yet such
things would stand a writer now-a-days in far better
stead than Captain Ager and his conscientious honour;
and he would be considered as a far better teacher of
morality than old Rowley or Middleton if they were
living.” P. 136.
# 759:
_Reduce_] i. e. Bring back.
# 760:
_stings_] Old eds. “strings.”
# 761:
_fro_] Or frow—i. e. woman.
# 762:
_for_] Old eds. “from.”
# 763:
_quit_] i. e. requite.
# 764:
_condition_] See note, p. 469.
# 765:
_No_] Old eds. “Not” (a misprint for “Noe”).
# 766:
_Is’t_] Old eds. “If.”
# 767:
_Achilles’ spear_] So in Shakespeare’s _Second Part of
Henry VI._;
“Whose smile and frown, like to _Achilles’ spear_,
Is able with the change to kill and cure.”
Act v. sc. 1.
# 768:
_niceness_] See note, p. 451.
# 769:
_certes_] i. e. certainly.
# 770:
_agrees_] I have not altered this word into the
plural, because a rhyme is intended.
# 771:
_sleights_] i. e. artifices.
# 772:
_When in a new glass_, &c.]
“Flet quoque, ut in speculo rugas adspexit aniles,
Tyndaris.”
Ovid. _Met._ xv. 232.
In _The Second Part of the Iron Age_, 1632, by
Heywood, Helen strangles herself, after surveying the
ruins of her beauty in a looking-glass.
# 773:
_canker_] i. e. wild rose, or dog-rose.
# 774:
_earns_] i. e. _yearns_, grieves. So Lilly;
“Their sad depart would make my hart to _earne_.”
_The Woman in the Moone_, sig. c ii. 1597.
So Spenser also writes the word.
# 775:
_The Roaring School_] See note, p. 485.
# 776:
_the Colonel’s Friend_] Old eds. “_the Colonels_
Second”—i.e. one of the gentlemen who attended the
Colonel in the duel with Captain Ager; and who (if I
rightly understand the last lines of this scene) has
set up for a teacher of “roaring” during peace-time.
# 777:
_do_] Old eds. “does.”
# 778:
_welkin_] i. e. sky.
# 779:
_cheat_] Was certainly wheaten bread of the second
sort; but qy., is the word used here for a fine sort
of bread—as it seems also to be in a passage quoted by
Nares, _Gloss_, in v.?
# 780:
_First Roar._] Old eds. “2. Roar.”—but he is _second_
only with reference to the person who spoke last.
# 781:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 782:
_tables_] i. e. tablets, memorandum-books.
# 783:
_bronstrops_] In _A Cure for a Cuckold_, by Webster
and W. Rowley (first printed in 1661), is the
following passage, which appears to contain an
allusion to _A Fair Quarrel_;
“_Pettifog_. ...This informer comes into Turnbull
street to a victualling-house, and there falls in
league with a wench.
_Compass._ A tweak or bronstrops? _I learned that name
in a play._”
See my ed. of Webster’s _Works_, iii. 327.
Both _tweak_ and _bronstrops_ (the former being a word
of more frequent occurrence than the latter) seem to
be equivalent to punk; but in act iv. sc. 4 of the
present play, a distinction is made between them:
“mayst thou first serve out thy time as a _tweak_
[harlot], and then become a _bronstrops_ [bawd] as she
is.”
# 784:
_obtrect_] i. e. slander.
# 785:
_fucus_] Equivalent, perhaps, to painted jade: our
early writers repeatedly use this Latin term to
signify the colours with which ladies improved their
complexions.
# 786:
_Trim._] First ed. “Chau.” Sec. ed. “Sec.”
# 787:
_Dislocate thy bladud_] i. e., I suppose, draw thy
sword. The reply of the Usher, “Bladud shall conjure,”
&c., seems to allude to the story of King Bladud, who
was famous for “his craft of nygromancy:” see _Mirror
for Magistrates_, I. 106. ed. Haslewood, and note
there.
# 788:
_gentlemen_] Old eds. “gentleman.”
# 789:
_choughs_] See note, p. 481.
# 790:
_whiffler_] i. e. whiffer, puffer—of tobacco, which
Vapour sold. “Taking the _whiff_” (an expression of
which the meaning is uncertain) was one of the
accomplishments of a smoker: see B. Jonson’s _Every
Man out of his Humour—Works_, ii. 9, 97. ed. Gifford.
# 791:
_mark_] A play on the word—a _mark_ was 13_s._ 4_d._
# 792:
_roll ... pudding_] Tobacco made up in particular
forms; so were _ball_, _leaf_, &c., mentioned
presently in the epitaph.
# 793:
_rosemary_] Used at funerals: see note, vol. i. p.
231.
# 794:
_censure_] i. e. opinion.
# 795:
_enters_] The only stage-direction in old eds. is
“_Enter the Colonels Sister, meeting the Surgeon._”
# 796:
_chilis_] Old eds. “Chillis.” “Also out of the
gibbosyte or bounch of the liuer there issueth a veyne
called concaua or _chilis_,” &c. Vigon’s _Workes of
Chirurgerie_, 1571, fol. ix.
# 797:
_œsophag_] Old eds. “orsophag.”
# 798:
_syncope_] Old eds. “syncops.”
# 799:
_tumefaction_] Old eds. “turmafaction.”
# 800:
_sarcotic_] Old eds. “sarcotricke.”
# 801:
_opoponax_] Old eds. “apopanax.”
# 802:
_sarcocolla_] Old eds. “sacrocolla,” which, perhaps
(see the lady’s reply), was an error of the author,
not of the printer.
# 803:
_ginglymus_] Old eds. “Guiguimos.”
# 804:
_enemies fly_] Old eds. “enemy flies.”
# 805:
_First Fr. of Col._ [_reads_] Old eds. “1 Liefetenant
_reads_”—but the person called here _Lieutenant_ is
one of the Colonel’s two friends who had acted as his
seconds in the duel: towards the conclusion of the
play we find,
“_Enter Colonel with his two Friends_,”
and presently after,
“COL. O _Lieutenant_,” &c.
The other friend who attended him in the duel, having
figured in the preceding scene as a teacher of
roaring, is not present, it should seem, in the sick
chamber.
# 806:
_mark_] See note, p. 512.
# 807:
_vild_] See note, vol. ii. p. 393.
# 808:
_the other_] Old eds. “_the_ tother.”
# 809:
_a noise of “hem” within_] Compare p. 205, where
Bellafront says that during her days of vice, when she
appeared in the street, “though with face mask’d,” she
“could not scape the _hem_.”
# 810:
_hem_, _evax_, _vah_] Latin interjections.
# 811:
_carnifexes_] i. e. scoundrels—Lat. _carnifex_, a
hangman, or rogue.
# 812:
_are_ Old. eds. “is.”
# 813:
_bulchins_] Or _bulkins_—i. e. bull-calves.
# 814:
_bronstrops_ ... _fucus_] See notes, p. 508.
# 815:
_my country breeds no poison_] The captain’s country
was Ireland: see note, p. 177.
# 816:
_O Toole_] Was a person notorious for his romantic
bravery, vanity, and eccentricity. There is a rare
print of him—_Arthurus Severus O Toole None-such, Æt.
80_—representing an old man in armour, carrying in his
hand a sword ornamented with crowns, and having at
bottom verses,
“Great Moguls landlord, both Indies king,” &c.
It was prefixed to the first edition of a poem by
Taylor, 1622, _To the Honour of the Noble Captaine O
Toole_, which is reprinted in the water-poet’s Works,
1630. In this ironical panegyric his exploits against
the Irish rebels are celebrated;
“Thou shewdst thy selfe a doughty wight at Dublin:
When Irish Rebells madly brought the trouble in,
At Baltimore, Kinsale, at Corke and Yoghall,” &c.
But his own country was not the only one in which O
Toole figured; he served as a volunteer, and displayed
his courage and absurdities in various parts of
Europe. The _Argument_ to the poem just quoted informs
us, that his “Youth was Dedicated to Mars and his Age
to Westminster, which ancient Cittie is now honour’d
with his beloued Residance.”
# 817:
_tweaks_] Equivalent to punks:
“A rare sense-seazing _Tweake_.”
Brathwait’s _Honest Ghost_, 1658, p. 95,
in which work the word also occurs at pp. 110, 111,
173, 262. Brome uses it in a very different sense: “O
they are a brace of subtle dry Tweakes” [i. e.
whoremongers], says Careless, speaking of Thrivewell
and Saveall,—_A Mad Couple well matched_, sig. E 2,
(_Fiue New Playes_,) 1653.
# 818:
_apple-squire_] See note, p. 232.
# 819:
_provant_] i. e. provender, provision.
# 820:
_flat-caps_] See note, p. 58.
# 821:
_gander-mooners_] i. e. married gallants—
“_Gander-month_, that month in which a man’s wife lies
in,” &c. &c. Grose’s _Clas. Dict. of the Vulgar
Tongue_.
“I’le keep her at the least this _Gander-moneth_,
While my fair wife lies in,” &c.
Brome’s _English-Moor_, p. 40—_Fiue New Playes_,
1659.
# 822:
_sweet-breasted_] i. e. sweet-voiced.
# 823:
_golls_] See note, p. 23.
# 824:
_squire_] See note, p. 232.
# 825:
_may I see_, &c.] i. e. may I see thee carted: vide
note, p. 238.
# 826:
_footmen ... Irish dart_] See note, p 131. An allusion
to the darts carried by the Irish running footmen
occurs at p. 176. In Field’s _Amends for Ladies_, 1618
(reprinted by Mr. Collier in a supplementary volume to
Dodsley’s _Old Plays_), is a stage-direction, “Enter
Maid, like _an Irish foot-boy with a dart_,” act ii.
sc. 3, where the editor observes, “the dart ... was
perhaps intended as an indication of the country from
which they came, as being part of the accoutrements of
the native Irish: thus, in the description of the
dumb-shew preceding act ii. of _The Misfortunes of
Arthur_, we find the following passage; ‘after which
there came a man bare-headed, with long black shagged
hair down to his shoulders, apparelled with an Irish
jacket and shirt, having an Irish dagger by his side,
and a dart in his hand.’”
# 827:
_barber’s basins_] See note, p. 238.
# 828:
_ruff starched yellow_] See note, p. 422.
# 829:
_tweak ... bronstrops_] See notes, pp. 508, 527.
# 830:
_Alas, he has ... their graves_] Forms part of
Chough’s speech in old eds.—_kept the door_, i. e.
been a pander.
# 831:
_three_] Old eds. “two.”
# 832:
_Brandon_] From a tract dated 1649, and entitled _The
Last Will and Testament of Richard Brandon_, &c. (the
executioner who is supposed to have beheaded King
Charles the First: see Ellis’s _Letters Ill. of Engl.
Hist._ vol. iii. p. 341, Second Series), we learn that
“he was the only son of Gregory Brandon, and claimed
the Gallows by inheritance,” p. 7. The Brandon
mentioned in the text was probably Gregory.
# 833:
_lancepresadoes_] i. e. the lowest officers of foot,
under the corporals: see Nares’s _Gloss._ in v.
_Lancepesado_ (for the word is variously written), and
my note on Webster’s _Works_, vol. ii. p. 269.
# 834:
_but_] Old eds. “by.”
# 835:
_You are_, &c.] Ed. 1622 has “_You_ that _are_,” &c.
# 836:
_escape_] First ed. “pursue,” the compositor’s eye
having caught the word immediately above. The line is
wanting in ed. 1622.
# 837:
_rosemary_] Used at weddings. See note, vol. i. p.
231.
# 838:
_while_] i. e. until.]
# 839:
_peevish niceness_] i. e. foolish scrupulousness.
# 840:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 841:
_bastard_] See note, p. 45.
# 842:
_tenty-nine_] i. e. ten and nine.—Perhaps it is
unnecessary to remark, that what Chough has just said,
“this is the nineteenth of August, look what day of
the month ’tis,” is intended to exhibit the confusion
of his ideas.
# 843:
_the word_] i. e. the motto, or short sentence,
annexed to each day.
# 844:
_Bretnor_] This person was a celebrated pretender to
soothsaying and an almanac-maker: see Gifford’s note
on B. Jonson’s _Devil is an Ass—Works_, vol. v. p. 17.
He is again mentioned in our author’s _Inner Temple
Masque_.
# 845:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 846:
_the Mount_] See note, p. 482.
# 847:
_bastard_] See note, p. 45.
# 848:
_Pe’ryn_] i. e. Penryn.
# 849:
_Ivel_] Or Yeovil. Old eds. “Euill.”
# 850:
_Wookey-Hole_] Old eds. “Hoc-kye _hole_.”
# 851:
_Mauz avez_] Is this Cornish?
# 852:
_a_] So ed. 1622. Not in first ed.
# 853:
_wine and sugar_] Formerly sugar was almost always
mixed with wine.
# 854:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 855:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 856:
_charm_] i. e. make silent (as if by a strong charm).
# 857:
_for and_] An expression which sometimes occurs in
old poetry: so in Skelton’s second poem _Against
Garnesche_ (_Harl. MS. 367_);
“Syr Gy, Sir Gawen, Sir Cayus, _for and_ Sir Olyuere.”
# 858:
_Pancridge_] A corruption of _Pancras_: “Otherwise
they must keepe aloofe at _Pancredge_, and cannot
come neare _the liberties_,” &c. Nash’s _Pierce
Pennilesse_, sig. E 4, ed. 1595.
# 859:
_prevented_] i. e. anticipated.
# 860:
_gastrolophe_] Probably a misprint for “gastroraphe;”
see the quotation from Sharp’s _Surgery_ in Todd’s
Johnson’s _Dict._ v. _Gastroraphy_.
# 861:
_sutures_ ] Old eds. “surteures.”
# 862:
_kind_] Ed. 1622 “_kind_ of”—wrongly, I believe.
# 863:
_unvalu’d_] i. e. invaluable.
# 864:
_of_] i. e. on: so a little after, “I take him _of_
thy word.”
# 865:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 866:
_I dare believe her. Face_] Was altered by the editor
of 1816 to “_I dare believe her_ faith.” Compare
Shakespeare, _First P. of Henry VI._, act v. sc. 3;
“That Suffolk doth not flatter, _face_, or feign.”
# 867:
_slights_] i. e. artifices.
# 868:
_wish_] Old ed. “with.”
# 869:
_censures_] i. e. judgments.
# 870:
_agen_] See note, p. 182.
# 871:
_Hei mihi_] “The young hypocrite alludes here to a
well-known line in Ovid. [_Met._ i. 523]” Editor of
1816.—Old ed. “Heu _mihi_.”
# 872:
_fond_] i. e. foolish.
# 873:
_where_] i. e. whereas.
# 874:
_Page_] As the name of the lady who is thus disguised
is not given, I have followed the old ed. in
designating her _Page_.
# 875:
_hangers_] See note, vol. ii. p. 227.
# 876:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 877:
_on a balcony_] Old ed. “above,” which meant on the
upper stage: see note, vol. ii. p. 125.
# 878:
_agen_] See note, p. 182.
# 879:
_resolv’d_] i. e. satisfied.
# 880:
_have_] Old ed. “has.”
# 881:
_of cross_] “Across, I presume.” Ed. of 1816.
# 882:
_Page_] See note, p. 562.
# 883:
_ka me, ka thee_] i. e. “if you’ll do me one favour,
I’ll do you another. Mr. Gifford believes it to be a
Scotch proverb.” Editor of 1816. See Jamieson’s _Et.
Dict. of Scott. Lang._ (_Suppl._) in v. _Kae_.
# 884:
_keep cut with_] “i. e. follow the example of. The
word is used by Sterne, in the same sense, in the 5th
vol. of his _Tristram Shandy_.” Editor of 1816.
# 885:
_byrlady_] See note, p. 9.
# 887:
_canions_] Or _cannions_—equivalent here to breeches.
“_Cannions_ of breeches,” says Minsheu, so called
“because they are like cannons of Artillery, or Cans
or pots.” _Guide into the Tongues_, 1617.—“_Cannions_,
boot-hose tops.” Kersey’s _Dict._—According to Strutt,
“ornamental tubes or tags at the ends of the ribbands
and laces, which were attached to the extremities of
the breeches.” _Dress and Habits_, &c. vol. ii. p.
263. See also my note on Webster’s _Works_, vol. iii.
p. 165.
# 888:
_All your young gallants_, &c.] Compare p. 394.
# 889:
_Cupid is Venus’_] Forms part of a song in our
author’s _Chaste Maid in Cheapside_, act iv. sc. 1,
where, however, the 8th and 9th lines are not found.
# 890:
_sweet a breasted_] i. e. sweet a voiced.
# 891:
_gain_] Qy. “guile?”]
# 892:
_fellow_] Old ed. “fellows.”
# 893:
_the_] Altered by editor of 1816 to “thy”—perhaps
rightly.
# 894:
_tall_] i. e. fine, great.
# 895:
_Good fellow_, &c.] Compare vol. ii. p. 21, and note.
# 896:
_conceit_] See note, p. 393.
# 897:
_tents_] A play on the word.—_Tent_, say the
dictionaries, is “a roll of lint put into a sore:” but
according to the old books of surgery, _tents_ were
also made of various other materials: see Vigon’s
_Workes of Chirurgerie_, &c., 1571, fol. cxiii.
# 898:
_Page_] See note, p. 562.
# 899:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 900:
_toy_] i.e. trifle.
# 901:
_hose_] i. e. breeches.
# 902:
_no sweet villain_] See note, vol. i. p. 169.
# 903:
_twitterlight_] i. e. twilight: compare vol. ii. p.
309, and note.
# 904:
_to_] i. e. in comparison with—altered by the editor
of 1816 to “as.”
# 905:
_lin_] i. e. cease.
# 906:
_make him ready_] i. e. dress himself: compare pp. 35,
396.
# 907:
_truss his points_] See note, p. 319.
# 908:
_urchin_] Signified both a hedgehog and a particular
kind of fairy or spirit. In the present passage,
“prick’d” would seem to refer to the former, “pinch’d”
to the latter—the two significations being perhaps
confounded in the author’s mind.
# 909:
_dandiprat_] “This term is, in all probability,
derived from a small coin of that name.” Editor of
1816.—_Dandiprat_, a dwarf, a little man, a word of
uncertain origin, evidently gave the name to the coin:
see note, vol. i. p. 246.
# 910:
_dive-dapper_] Or _didapper_—i. e. dab-chick.
# 911:
_squall_] Seems to mean here—effeminate thing: see
note, p. 55.
# 912:
_byrlady_] See note, p. 9.
# 913:
_fondness_] i. e. foolishness.
# 914:
_fond_] i. e. foolish.
# 915:
_My blood dances_] “Is the only part of the speech in
the original given to Lactantio; the first part is
there the conclusion of the cardinal’s.” Editor of
1816.
# 916:
_book’d it_] i.e. pretended to be devoted to books.
Compare p. 561.
# 917:
_to seek_] i. e. at a loss.
# 918:
_waste_] Was altered to “_miss’d_” by the editor of
1816, who thinks “there can be no doubt of the
propriety of the alteration.”
# 919:
_vild_] See note, vol. ii. p. 393.
# 920:
_Byrlady._] See note, p. 9.
# 921:
_condition_] See note, p. 292.
# 922:
_colon_] i. e. the largest of the human intestines.
# 923:
_The rendezvous of the Gipsies_] From Andrugio’s
mention of “this _house_,” the scene would seem to be
laid within doors; yet the meeting between Aurelia’s
father, the governor, and the gipsies, appears to be
accidental, and to take place in the open air.
# 924:
_plunge_] i. e. strait, difficulty.
# 925:
_And so ... money_] So these three lines stand in old
ed.: nor do I see how the metre can be rectified by
any arrangement.
# 926:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 927:
_woman_] Old ed. “one _woman_.”
# 928:
_scorn your motion_] Compare vol. i. p. 172, and note.
# 929:
_pullen_] i. e. poultry.—Old ed. “pully,” which,
indeed, may be another form of the word.
# 930:
_dells_] See note, vol. ii. p. 538.
# 931:
_sport_] Qy. “_snort_”—as before.
# 932:
_Ousabel_, &c.] So this gibberish is divided in old
ed., rhymes, perhaps, being intended.
# 933:
_magot-o'-pie_] i. e. magpie.
# 934:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 935:
_money_, &c.] “This is an allusion to a popular
superstition, that the fairies, from their love of
cleanliness, used at night to drop money into the
shoes of good servants as a reward.” Editor of 1816.
# 936:
_table_] See note, p. 116.
# 937:
_dell_] See note, vol. ii. p. 538.
# 938:
_pullen_] i. e. poultry.
# 939:
_slights_] i. e. dexterous tricks.
# 940:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 941:
_Wit, whither will thou_] A kind of proverbial
expression: it occurs in Shakespeare’s _As you like
it_, act iv. sc. 1; where see Steevens’s note.
# 942:
_in dock, out nettle_] “The words '_in dock, out
nettle_,' allude, I believe, to a practice still
sometimes found among children, of laying the leaf of
the butter-dock upon a place that has been stung by a
nettle, and repeating, as a kind of charm, the words
'_in dock, out nettle_,' as long as the application is
continued.” Editor of 1816.—Compare Sir Thomas More;
“and thus playe in and out, like _in docke out netle_
that no man shoulde wytte whan they were in and whan
they were oute.” _Workes_, 1557, fol. 809. In our text
the words are used with some punning allusion.
# 943:
_sirrah_] See note, p. 44.
# 944:
_canter_] Compare vol. ii. pp. 536, 539.
# 945:
_cross_] i. e. silver coin: see note, vol. i. p. 246.
# 946:
_cough o’ th’ lungs_] i. e. “the symptoms of age and
infirmity in the lover proposed by the father.” Editor
of 1816.
# 947:
_dell_] See note, vol. ii. p. 538.
# 948:
_censure_] i. e. judgment.
# 949:
_Page_] See note, p. 562.
# 950:
_sprawling_] “As applied to the voice seems devoid of
meaning; perhaps we should read _squalling_.” Editor
of 1816.
# 951:
_fond_] i. e. foolish.
# 952:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 953:
_condition_] See note, p. 292.
# 954:
_up_] Old ed. “_up_ to.”
# 955:
_puck-foist_] i. e. “a sort of mushroom filled with
dust.” Editor of 1816.
# 956:
_censure_] i. e. opinion.
# 957:
_niceness_] See note, p. 451.
# 958:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 959:
_condition_} See note, p. 292.
# 960:
_passion_ i. e. grief.
# 961:
_Page_] See note, p. 562.
# 962:
_who_] Old ed. “whose.”
# 963:
_Why_, _when_] See note, p. 164.
# 964:
_ela_] i. e. the highest note in the scale of music.
# 965:
_Why_, _when_] See note, p. 164.
# 966:
_A large_, _a long_] Characters in old music—one large
contained two longs, one long two breves.—The editor
of 1816 observes, that he does not remember to have
seen the name of the first note any where else; it is
not, however, a very uncommon word;
“But with _a large_ and _a longe_,
To kepe iust playne-songe,
Our chaunters shalbe the Cuckoue,” &c.
Skelton’s _Phyllyp Sparowe_.
# 967:
_prick-song_] i. e. music written or _pricked_ down,
full of flourish and variety, opposed to _plain song_,
which was melody without ornament.
# 968:
_Song_] See note, p. 385.
# 969:
_alamire_] i. e. “the lowest note but one in Guido
Aretino’s scale of music.” Todd’s _John. Dict._ in v.
# 970:
_foot-cloth_] See note, p. 197.
# 971:
_coranto pace_] i. e. a very swift pace: a _coranto_
was a quick and lively dance.
# 972:
_scourse_] Or _scorce_—i. e. exchange.
# 973:
_barber ... cittern_] See note, vol. i. p. 174.
# 974:
_lavoltas_] See note, vol. i. p. 261.
# 975:
_Metereza_] Or _metreza_—is, as Nares observes
(_Gloss_, in v.), a sort of Frenchified Italian, found
in our old dramatists.
# 976:
_His_] Old ed. “’Tis.”
# 977:
_brave_] i. e. finely dressed.
# 978:
_starches yellow_] See notes, pp. 134, 422.
# 979:
_coranto_] See note, p. 627.
# 980:
_handfulls_] Altered by editor of 1816 to the more
correct form “hands full.”
# 981:
_passa-measures galliard_] A corruption of _passamezzo
galliard_. “The _Passamezzo_,” says Sir John Hawkins,
“(from _passer_, [_passare?_] to walk, and _mezzo_,
the middle or half,) is 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 _passamezzo_,
which is a diminutive of the galliard, has just half
that number, and from that peculiarity takes its
name.” _Hist. of Music_, vol. iv. p. 386. In another
place of the same work, vol. ii. p. 134, Sir John
states that “every _pavan_ has its _galliard_, a
lighter kind of air made out of the former,” which,
observes Nares (_Gloss._ in v. _Pavan_), “leads
to the suspicion that _passy-measure pavan_ and
_passy-measure galliard_ were correlative terms, and
meant the two different measures of one dance.”
# 982:
_boy! dainty, fine springal!_] Old ed. “Boys—_Dainty
fine_ Springals;” but here Nicholao is the only
dancer: and so afterwards (p. 633), when he again
dances, Sinquapace exclaims “_dainty_ stripling!”—
_Springal_, i. e. youth, lad.
# 983:
_fortuna della guerra_] Old ed. “Fortune de la
guardo.” Editor of 1816 gives “fortune de la guerre.”
# 984:
_&c._] See note, vol. i. p. 252.
# 985:
_hose_] i. e. breeches.
# 986:
_sinquapace_] Properly _cinque-pace_: see note, p.
631.
# 987:
_coranto_] See note, p. 627.
# 988:
_her_] Old ed. “his.”
# 989:
_showrly_] i. e. surely—Aurelia affecting a rustic or
gipsy dialect.
# 990:
_likes_] i. e. pleases.
# 991:
_byrlady_] See note, p. 9.
# 992:
_property_] In Shirley’s _Wedding_ (_Works_, vol. i.
p. 397), “_property_ of your lust” is explained by
Gifford, “disguise, cloak for it.” In the present
passage, therefore, it may mean “the cloak for your
love to Lactantio;” but I believe it signifies nothing
more than—a thing to use at will for your convenience:
compare p. 598, l. 14.
# 993:
_temple_] “By ‘this temple’is meant her person: the
expression is taken from Scripture, but is rather too
solemn for the occasion.” Editor of 1816.
# 994:
_Page_] See note, p. 562: she enters, probably, on
some sign given by the duchess. The old ed. has no
stage-direction here.
# 995:
_villain_] Old ed. “villainy.”
# 996:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 997:
_womankind_] Old ed. “women_kind_.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Stage directions, except for entrances, can be:
in-line
in the middle of a line and delimited with ‘[ ]’,
end of line
right-justified on the same line (where there is room), with
only the leading ‘[’,
next line
right-justified on the following line, where there is
insufficent room, with a hanging indent, if necessary.
The same convention is followed here. Since this version is wider than
the original, most directions are on the same line as the speech.
Entrances were centered and separated slightly from lines above and
below. This is rendered here as a full blank line.
The footnote scheme used lettered references, repeating a-z. On numerous
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. They are
left unlinked.
Note 568 (_when_]) refers to a note on p. 164 of Volume I. The correct
reference is to p. 164 in the current volume.
Note 1172 on p. 539 seems to refer to itself.
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.
223.35 See note, p. 1[0/9]8. Wrong page.
327.31 _when_] See note, [vol. i.] p. 164. Removed.
547.33 _Dict._ v. _Gastroraphy_.[”] Removed.
--------------
THE HONEST WHORE.
Vol. iii. p. 9, l. 16.
_Curs’d be that day for ever_, &c.] In a note on Shakespeare’s _King
John_, act iii. sc. 1, Henderson has pointed out the resemblance between
this speech of Hippolito and that of Constance which begins,
“A wicked day, and not a holy day!” &c.
Vol. iii. p. 42, l. 20.
“CAS. Please you be here, my lord? [_Offers tobacco._”
This appears to have been the customary expression on such an occasion:
in _Wine, Beere, Ale, and Tobacco, Contending for Superiority, a
Dialogue_, we read,
“_Enter Tobaco._
_Tobaco._ Be your leaue gentlemen—wilt _please you be here_, sir?”
Sig. C 4. ed. 1630.
Vol. iii. p. 60, last line.
_ningle_] I have observed, in my note, that all the eds. except that of
1605 have “mingle.” Nares (who had not seen that rare edition), citing
this passage, gives _Mingle_ in his _Gloss._ as a legitimate word; but I
do not recollect to have met with such a form.
Vol. iii. p. 80, l. 26.
_turn Turk_] “Was,” says Gifford, “a figurative expression for a change
of condition, or opinion.” Note on Massinger’s _Works_, vol. ii. p. 222,
ed. 1813.
Vol. iii. p. 83, l. 9.
_orangado_] Should be “oringado” or “eringado:” _oringo_ was an old form
of _eringo_.
Vol. iii. p. 91, l. 7.
“_A sister’s thread_, i’faith, had been enough.”
In Ford’s _Lady’s Trial_ is the same expression:
“A flake, no bigger than _a sister’s thread_,”
which Gifford too hastily altered to “a _spider’s_ thread,” _Works_,
vol. ii. p. 306.—That “sister’s” is not a misprint, there can be no
doubt: it seems to be a form of _sewster’s_.
“At euery twisted _thrid_ my rock let fly
Unto the _sewster_.”
B. Jonson’s _Sad Shepherd_—_Works_, vol. vi. p. 282, ed. Giff.
Vol. iii. p. 108, l. 25.
_We see you, old man, for all you dance in a net_] An allusion to the
proverbial saying, “You dance in a net, and think nobody sees you.”
Ray’s _Proverbs_, p. 5, ed. 1768.
Vol. iii. p. 115, l. 21.
_Bow a little_] i. e. bend your hand a little: so in _The Spanish
Gipsy_, Alvarez, while telling the fortune of Louis, says to him, “Bend
your hand thus:” see vol. iv. p. 149.
--------------
THE SECOND PART OF THE HONEST WHORE.
Vol. iii. p. 152, l. 12.
_I’ll fly high, wench, hang toss!_] In this passage, says Gifford,
“_toss_ is used in a way that would induce one to think it meant low
play, or a hazard of petty sums.” Note on Massinger’s _Works_, vol. iii.
p. 160, ed. 1813.
Vol. iii. p. 197, l. 9.
_a cob_] “A [silver] _Cob_ of Ireland, or a Peece of Eight, is worth
four shilling eight pence. It is a Spanish Coin, not round but cornered,
or nuke shotten, and passith according to its weight for more or less.”
R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, b. iii. c. ii. p. 30.
Vol. iii. p. 199, l. 3.
_Must I be fed with chippings? you’re best get a clapdish, and say
you’re proctor to some spittle-house_] “It was once,” says Gifford, “the
practice for beadles and other inferior parish officers, to go from door
to door with a clap-dish, soliciting charity for those unhappy
sufferers, who are now better relieved by voluntary subscriptions.” Note
on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. i. p. 44.
Vol. iii. p. 200, l. 3.
_old Cole_] Is the name of the sculler in the puppet-show of _Hero and
Leander_, introduced into B. Jonson’s _Bartholomew Fair_, act v. sc. 3:
see _Works_, vol. iv. p. 509 (note), and p. 520, ed. Gifford.
--------------
THE WIDOW.
Vol. iii. p. 354, l. 3.
_improv’d_] Is right; meaning, as it frequently does, proved.
Vol. iii. p. 373, l. 22.
_And they’re both well provided for, they’re i’ th’ hospital_]
“_Hospital_” ought to have been printed with a capital letter: for
though the scene of the play is laid in Italy, yet the allusion (as
Gifford observes, note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. i. p 41), is to
Christ’s Hospital, whither, when it was first established, the
foundlings taken up in the city were sent for maintenance and education.
Vol. iii. p. 383, l. 19.
_Come, my dainty doxies?_] I neglected to notice that this song is found
entire in our author’s _More Dissemblers besides Women_: see p. 606 of
the same volume.
--------------
A FAIR QUARREL.
Vol. iii. p. 510, l. 11.
_from the six windmills to Islington_] “The third great Field from
Moorgate, next to _the six Windmills_.” Stow’s _Survey_, b. iii. p. 70,
ed. 1720.
Vol. iii. p. 514, l. 17.
_a quadrangular plumation_] Compare Vigon’s _Workes of Chirurgerie_,
&c., 1571, where, treating of “tentes, lyntes, and bolsters” for wounds,
he tells us that “some [_bolsters_] _bene quadrate_;” and a little
after, “some moreouer vse _bolsters made of fethers_,” fol. cxiii.