Act iii. sc. 2—_Works_, vol. i. p. 214, ed. Weber.

where, says M. Mason, “_bord_ means rim or circumference.”

Vol. iv. p. 32, l. 4.

_corps_] So the word is used as a plural in _Epigrams and Satyres_, by Richard Middleton, 1608;

“the Tyrants brazen bull Of Agrigentine, which being crammed full Of humane _corps_, did roare with such a maine,” &c. p. 34.

Vol. iv. p. 66, note, read

“11 _Rider’s Dictionary_] _A Dict. Engl. and Lat. and Lat. and Engl._, by John Rider, first printed at Oxford, 1589, was a work once in great repute.”

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THE SPANISH GIPSY.

Vol. iv. p. 145, last line but one.

“this she, trow;”

Read

“this she, trow?”

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A GAME AT CHESS.

Vol. iv. p. 310, l. 1.

_Roch, Main, and Petronill, itch and ague curers_] Compare Taylor the water-poet: “he must be content with his office, as ... Saint Roch with scabbes and scurfes ... Saint Petronella the Ague or any Feuer.” _A Bawd_, p. 93—_Workes_, 1630.

Vol. iv. p. 407, l. 6.

_Epistle to Nicholas the first_, &c.] Since writing the note on these words, I have found in the Κειμηλια _Literaria_ of Colomesius what he calls a confirmation of the absurd story of the six thousand infants’ heads. “Simile quid narratur a Joscelino, in Episcoporum Cantuariensium Vitis, p. 210. editionis Hanovianæ. _Anno 1309_, inquit, _Radulphus Bourn Augustinensis Ecclesiæ Abbas electus, cum ad Papam Avinioni agentem confirmandus accessisset, reversus domum, testatur se vidisse in itinere piscinam in quadam Monialium Abbatia, quæ_ PROVINES _dicebatur; in qua, cum educta aqua luto purgaretur, multa parvulorum ossa, ipsaque corpora adhuc integra reperiebantur. Unde ad criminalia judicia subeunda viginti septem Moniales Parisios ductæ et carceribus mancipatæ fuerunt, de quibus quid actum fuerit, nescivit_.” Col. _Opera_, p. 301, ed. Fabr.

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ANY THING FOR A QUIET LIFE.

Vol. iv. p. 489, l. 25.

_the new prophet, the astrological tailor_] Perhaps Ball, who is thus mentioned by Osborn: “And, if common Fame did not outstrip Truth, King James was by Fear led into this extreme; finding his Son Henry not only averse to any Popish Match, but saluted by the Puritans as one prefigured in the Apocalyps for Rome’s destruction. And to parallel this, one Ball, a Taylor, was inspired with a like Lunacy, tho’ something more chargeable; for not only he, but Ramsay his Majesty’s Watch-maker, put out Money and Clocks, to be paid (but with small Advantage, considering the Improbability) when King James should be crowned in the Pope’s chair.” _Trad. Memor. on the Reign of K. James_—_Works_, vol. ii. p. 153, ed. 1722; see also B. Jonson’s _Works_ by Gifford, vol. v. p. 242.

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WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN.

Vol. iv. p. 520, l. 20.

_To take out_] i. e. to copy—a not uncommon expression in our old writers.

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NO WIT, NO HELP LIKE A WOMAN’S.

Vol. v. p. 23, l. 30.

_the widow’s notch shall lie open to you_] This passage is, I think, explained by the following line in our author’s _Triumphs of Truth_;

“The very _nooks_ where beldams hide their gold.” p. 229 of the same vol.

Vol. v. p. 77, last line.

“To bid a _slander_ welcome than a truth.”

I did quite right in substituting “_slander_” for “slave.” These words were frequently confounded by the old printers.

“Revenge and Death Like _slander_ [read _slaves_] attend the sword of Calymath.” _The Travailes of The Three English Brothers_ (by Day, W. Rowley, and Wilkins), 1607, sig. C 4.

Vol. v. p. 131, l. 3.

_I from the baker’s ditch_] So in Brome’s _Sparagus Garden_, 1640, “Sheart, Coulter, we be vallen into _the Bakers ditch_.” Sig. K 3. The ancient way of punishing bakers, who did not give full weight, was by the cucking-stool (see Grey’s note on _Hudibras_, P. iii. C. iii. v. 609); qy. is that punishment alluded to in the above passages?

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THE INNER-TEMPLE MASQUE.

Vol. v. p. 148, l. 5.

_Ill May-Day_] i. e. Evil May-day—so called from the rising of the London apprentices against the foreigners, on the first of May, 1517: see _The Story of Ill May-Day, &c._, and the editor’s illustrations, in Evans’s _Old Ballads_, vol. iii. p. 76, ed. 1810.

Vol. v. p. 148, l. 9.

_Midsummer-Eve, that watches warmest_] Perhaps this is an allusion to the setting out of the Midsummer watch: see Herbert’s _Hist. of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London_, vol. i. p. 196, sqq.

Vol. v. p. 149, note 213.

“i. e. wife.”

Read

“i. e. city-wife.”

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THE TRIUMPHS OF INTEGRITY.

Vol. v. p. 310, l. 1.

“pegmes.”

Read

“pegms.”

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THE BLACK BOOK.

Vol. v. p. 543, l. 15.

_ketlers_] This word occurs in Kemp’s _Nine daies wonder_, 1600; “Those that haue shewne themselues honest men, I wil set before them this Caracter, H. for honesty; before the other Bench-whistlers shal stand K. for _ketlers_ and keistrels, that wil driue a good companion without need in them to contend for his owne.”

THE OLD LAW.

_The Excellent Comedy, called The Old Law, or A new way to please you._

{ _Phil. Massinger._ _By_ { _Tho. Middleton._ { _William Rowley._

_Acted before the King and Queene at Salisbury House, and at severall other places, with great Applause. Together with an exact and perfect Catalogue of all the Playes, with the Authors Names, and what are Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Pastoralls, Masks, Interludes, more exactly Printed then ever before. London, Printed for Edward Archer, at the signe of the Adam and Eve, in Little Britaine._ 1656. 4to.

Steevens (Malone’s _Shakespeare_, by Boswell, ii. 425.) remarks, that this drama was acted in 1599, founding the statement most probably on a passage in Act iii. Sc. 1., where the Clerk having read from the church-book, “_Agatha, the daughter of Pollux—born in an. 1540_,” adds, “and _now ’tis 99_.” From similar notices in several other old dramas, the periods at which they were first produced have been clearly ascertained; and Gifford (_Introd._ to Massinger, p. lv. 2d ed.) inclines to believe that _The Old Law_ was really first acted in 1599, and that Massinger (who was then only in the fifteenth year of his age) was employed, at a subsequent period, to alter or to add a few scenes to the play. What portion of it was written by Middleton cannot be determined.

The 4to. abounds in the grossest typographical errors. I have followed, except in some trifling particulars, the text of Gifford, who published _The Old Law_ in the ivth vol. of his Massinger.

“There is an exquisiteness of moral sensibility, making one to gush out tears of delight, and a poetical strangeness in all the improbable circumstances of this wild play, which are unlike any thing in the dramas which Massinger wrote alone. The pathos is of a subtler edge. Middleton and Rowley, who assisted in this play, had both of them finer geniuses than their associate.”—LAMB, _Spec. of Engl. Dram. Poets_, p. 453.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

EVANDER, _duke of Epire_. CRATILUS, _the executioner_. CREON, _father to_ SIMONIDES. SIMONIDES, } _young courtiers_. CLEANTHES, } LYSANDER, _husband to_ EUGENIA, _and uncle to_ CLEANTHES. LEONIDES, _father to_ CLEANTHES. GNOTHO, _the clown_. _Lawyers._ _Courtiers._ _Dancing-master._ _Butler_, } _Bailiff_, } _Tailor_, } _Coachman_, } _Servants to_ CREON. _Footman_, } _Cook_, } _Clerk._ _Drawer._

ANTIGONA, _wife to_ CREON. HIPPOLITA, _wife to_ CLEANTHES. EUGENIA, _wife to_ LYSANDER, _and mother to_ PARTHENIA. PARTHENIA. AGATHA, _wife to_ GNOTHO. _Old women_, _wives to_ CREON’S _servants_. _Courtezan._

_Fiddlers_, _Servants_, _Guard_, _&c._

SCENE, EPIRE.

THE OLD LAW.

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