Chapter 21

"If I would the fool were married to her grave!"

[331] i.e., Honest.

[332] i.e., Deny.

[333] Read, for the metre, _is it_.

[334] So second edit. First edit., _mistrurst_.

[335] Qy., _now I swear_:

[336] Edits., _confederates_.

[337] Occurs somewhat earlier in edits. (to warn the actors to be in readiness for coming on the stage).

[338] A well-known part of Oxford. "The principal street is the High Street, running from Magdalen Bridge to Carfax Church," &c --New Oxford Guide, p. 3, 8th edit.

[339] i.e., Fine.

[340] A common proverbial expression: "Beggars'-bush being a tree notoriously known, on the left-hand of the London road, from Huntingdon to Caxton." [Hazlitt'a "Proverbs," 1869, p. 401. See also pp. 82, 199.]

[341] i.e., Refuse.

[342] Is a common term for a small dagger, but here it seems to be used in contempt; see the next speech of Coomes.

[343] The origin of this corrupted oath is, I believe, unknown.

[344] i.e., Rabbit-burrow.

[345] i.e., Call me horse.

[346] A not uncommon proverbial expression. Nares ("Gloss." in _v_.) mentions three places which still retain the name--one between Oxford and Banbury, another close to Stafford, the third near Shrewsbury.

[347] i.e., Counsel, advice.

[348] i.e., Vile.

[349] So second edit. First edit., _upon_.

[350] i.e., Till.

[351] i.e., A kind of net for catching rabbits,--usually stretched before their holes.

[352] [The name of a popular game.]

[353] So second edit. First edit., _do_.

[354] i.e., A sucking, or young rabbit.

[355] Vile.

[356] So second edit. First edit., _you'r_.

[357] Second edit., _wilt not_.

[358] i.e., Honest.

[359] Edits. _glimpes_ (the two last letters transposed by mistake.)

[360] i.e., Gave notice of, discovered.

[361] So second edit. First edit. _metamorphesie_.

[362] So second edit. First edit. _these_.

[363] So second edit. First edit. _'Sbloud_.

[364] i.e., Nearer.

[365] So second edit. Not in first edit.

[366] Qy. "_Sir Ralph Smith_, I know."

[367] So second edit. These words are wanting in first edit.

[368] This stage direction occurs somewhat earlier in edits.

[369] I am not sure that this stage direction, which I have added, is the right one. It would seem, however, that Sir Ralph Smith remains on the stage, and is supposed not to overhear the dialogue which ensues between Francis and Will.

[370] Edits., _Sbloud_.

[371] So second edit. First edit., _whench_.

[372] Edits., _ask't_ and _aske_.

[373] Read, for the metre, _It is_.

[374] So second edit. Not in first edit.

[375] Qy., _order here_?

[376] i.e., Nearer.

[377] Perhaps he ought only to retire.

[378] So second edit. First edit., _asgoe_.

[379] [Old copies, _boye_.]

[380] It would seem that something is wanting after this speech, unless we are to suppose that here the Boy lies down and falls asleep, and that he wakens on the second entrance of Hodge,--where, however, the edits. distinctly mark "Enter Hodge _and Boy_"; see later: _Enter [severally]_ HODGE _and_ BOY.

[381] i.e., Excels.

[382] So second edit. First edit. _clowdes_.

[383] So second edit. Not in first edit.

[384] Second edit. _ye_.

[385] Qy. Is this a stage direction crept into the text?

[386] Second edit. _grope_.

[387] Second edit. _so_.

[388] [Old copies, _paint_.]

[389] So second edit. First edit. _buze_.

[390] Second edit. _lips_.

[391] So second edit. First edit. _I have had a Pumpe set up, as good_.

[392] i.e., (Perhaps) swore by our Lady of Walsingham, in Norfolk.

[393] [The name of a game, though here used as a bye-word. See "Popular Antiquities of Gr. Britain," ii. 341.]

[394] So second edit. First edit., _Tripe-cheeke_.

[395] i.e., Had I known the consequences; a common proverbial expression of repentance.

[396] See note [16].

[397] So second edit. First edit., _his_.

[398] [Edits., _me_.]

[399] Qy. a proverbial allusion to the famous Brazen-head?

[400] So second edit. First edit., _breath_.

[401] So second edit. Not in first edit.

[402] The hero of a popular German jest-book ("Eulenspiegel,") which was translated into English at a very early period: see Gifford's note on Jonson's "Works," iv. 60, and Nares' Gloss. in v.

[403] [First 4º, _silly_.]

[404] So second edit. First edit., _shew_.

[405] i.e., Bauble.

[406] Random.

[407] [i.e., Coomes and Nicholas both retire to the back of the stage.]

[408] Edits., _hap_.

[409] i.e., Ill-will.

[410] Second edit., _he a_; but _a_ is a common contraction for _he_.

[411] So second edit. First edit., _tell_,

[412] i.e., Blind-man's-buff.

[413] So second edit. Not in first edit.

[414] [Old copy, _thief_.]

[415] i.e., (I suppose) Buoys.

[416] [Old copy, _not envies fellon, not_.]

[417] [Old copies, _what_.]

[418] i.e., A dear lean and out of season.

[419] i.e., The alphabet.

[420] So second edit. First edit. _wandring_.

[421] i.e., suffer, endure. Edits. _stole_.

[422] So second edit. First edit. _Being_.

[423] Read, for the metre, _it is_.

[424] So second edit. First edit. _enforc'st_.

[425] Read, for the metre, _wife is_.

[426] So second edit. First edit. _same_.

[427] Second edit. _you_.

[428] So second edit. First edit. _weere_.

[429] [Old edits., _carerie_.]

[430] So second edit. First edit., _shrowdly_.

[431] Second edit., _me_--wrongly, as appears from what follows.

[432] Edits., _be_.

[433] i.e., Ill-will.

[434] i.e., Satisfy, convince.

[435] Edits., _mindes_.

[436] Qy., _you, mother_?

[437] Read, for the metre, _she is_.

[438] Something has dropt out here.

[439] [Edits., _A little_.]

[440] i.e., Vile.

[441] i.e., The one.

[442] [Old copies, _yond may help that come both together_.]

[443] So second edit. First edit., _fileds_.

[444] A common, familiar contraction of _mine uncle_.

[445] Second edit., _fie_.

[446] So second edit. First edit., _brings_.

[447] i.e., _Traitor_ or _felon_.

[448] i.e., Swoon.

[449] Second edit., _fauours_.

[450] So read for the metre. Old copies, _here's_.

[451] See also Collier's "Hist. of Eng. Dramatic Poetry," i. 3.

[452] See Dyce's "Shakespeare," 1868, ii. 2.

[453] Not in the old copy.

[454] [i.e., to Tyburn.]

[455] [Old copy, _thee_.]

[456] Old copy, _well a neere_. Well-a-year is an unusual phrase, _well_ being corrupted from _wail_. "Well-a-day" in the same sense is common enough.

[457] Old copy, _otimie_, I conjecture _otomy_ for anatomy, a common form of _anatomy_.

[458] Halliwell mentions the words _pubble_ and _puble_ in different senses, and the old copy reads puble; but here the context seems to require _bubble_. He has immediately before used the term _froth_.

[459] Fear.

[460] Divisions, conflicts.

[461] Old copy, _Henry_.

[462] Old copy, _Aveney_.

[463] But see Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 23.

[464] Old copy, _where stands in_.

[465] i.e., Mary, God's mother.

[466] See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 289.

[467] Possibly in reference to a tract, so called, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and (after him) by others.

[468] He means the stammer of Redcap, which he intends to imitate.

[469] Compare "Damon and Pithias," vol. iv., pp. 67-8.

[470] Old copy, _excepts_.

[471] He does not appear, however, to make himself visible, but stands aside, listening.

[472] Old copy, _times_. See Halliwell, v. _tine_, where the word is said to mean "the prong of a fork (second explanation)," thence, as in the text, a horn.

[473] [Old copy, _attempt_.]

[474] Block seems to refer jocularly to Sir Richard's long aside, under a sort of invisible cap.

[475] Old copy, _solicitie_.

[476] Old copy, _say_.

[477] Old copy, _you_.

[478] Old copy, _Richard's_.

[479] [Old copy, _us_.]

[480] Succeed.

[481] Perhaps the dance so called is meant.

[482] [Old copy, _them_.]

[483] [Old. copy, _ye spoke_.]

[484] Old copy, _rove_.

[485] i.e., From the time of the Confessor.

[486] i.e., Spain; old copy, _Gads_.

[487] A word or words left blank in the old copy.

[488] His gown.

[489] Old copy, _Levarnian_.

[490] Old copy, _It_.

[491] Old copy, _ane_.

[492] The word _search_ is here, and again a little further on used in the sense of _searchers_.

[493] Old copy, _another_; but Redcap is evidently accompanied by two assistants.

[494] This appears to stand for officers of the peace, as the _watch_ and the _search_.

[495] Old copy, _King_.

[496] A brothel.

[497] [Old copy, _age_.]

[498] [Old copy, _Fau_, for _Fauconbridge_.]

[499] [This might appear to be a corruption of _go out_, or of _God's gut (God's guts_ is an ejaculation found elsewhere); but from a subsequent passage we can but conclude that the disease so called is intended.]

[500] Old copy, _fill'd_, the compositor's eye, perhaps, having strayed to the next line.

[501] Strong. See a long note in Nares, edit. 1859, p. 606.

[502] Old copy; _here_.

[503] A room in the Salutation so called.

[504] Guests.

[505] Old copy, _at_.

[506] Old copy, _Raynald_.

[507] [Old copy, _me of_.]

[508] i.e., Terms, as mentioned before. Old copy, _then_.

[509] To _meet with_ is a very common phrase for to _serve_ out, _requite_.

[510] Skink issues from the hermit's house in the disguise of the man whom he is supposed to have cured, and as he leaves, addresses parting words to the hermit within.

[511] Breviary.

[512] Old copy, _them_.

[513] Brand.

[514] Old copy, _of_.

[515] Old copy, _Glo_.

[516] [Old copy, _last_.]

[517] [Old copy, _this_.]

[518] Old copy, _salutes he_.

[519] Old copy, _you for_.

[520] Old copy, _in_.

[521] [Old copy, _we_.]

[522] [Old copy, _we'll_.]

[523] [Old copy, _sighs and songs_.]

[524] In this passage the phrase, _to wear the yellow_, seems hardly to bear the ordinary construction of, _to be jealous_.

[525] Old copy, _pining_.

[526] Old copy gives this line to the lady, i.e., the merchant's wife.

[527] This seems to be some popular and well-understood allusion--well understood then, but now obscure enough; nor does Steevens's explanation help us much. See "Pop. Antiq. of Gr. Britain," 1870, iii. 322.

[528] An allusion to an old proverb.

[529] Old copy gives this line to Gloster.

[530] Old copy, _weak_.

[531] Halliwell says, "a squall."

[532] Fear.

[533] Old copy, _wray_.

[534] Old copy, _not thou art_.

[535] i.e., Gloster, disguised also as a hermit.

[536] Old copy, _he's_.

[537] Old copy gives as the stage-direction here merely, _Enter John_.

[538] Old copy, _Lan_.

[539] Compare "First Part of Jeronimo," vol. iv., p. 349, and the note.

[540] [Old copy, _breath_.]

[541] [Compare Courthope's "Historic Peerage," 1857, _v_. Hereford.]

[542] [In allusion to the proverb, _Threatened men live long_.]

[543] [Old copy, _William_.]

[544] Old copy, _them_.

[545] Something seems to have dropped out of the text.

[546] I do not find this phrase anywhere.

[547] Old copy, _may_.

[548] i.e., Gloster.

[549] There is an evident corruption here. Query, _Life kneels to thrones_.

[550] Old copy, _thy_.

[551] Old copy, _not_.

[552] Old copy, _is_.

[553] Old copy, _set_.

[554] i.e., _Mort de Dieu_.

[555] Old copy, _ye_.

[556] Old copy, _Sarasons_.

[557] An exclamation of doubtful meaning and origin. See a long note in Nares, edit. 1859, _v. Rivo_.

[558] Old copy, _for_.