The works of Thomas Middleton, Volume 2 (of 5)
act ii. sc. 1.
# 30:
_motions of Fleet Street, and visions of Holborn_] The editor of 1816 says that he “knows not _exactly_ what these visions were:” nor do I: they are evidently used here as a cant term, like the words with which they are coupled—_tramplers_ (see note in the preceding page), and _motions_ (i.e. puppet-shows, puppets: see note, vol. i. p. 229.)
# 31:
_trashed_] The following passage of _The Puritan_, “a guarded lackey to run before it [a coach], and pied liveries to come _trashing_ after it,” act iv. sc. 1, which is cited here by the editor of 1816, is given by Todd in his additions to Johnson’s _Dict._ as an example of _trash_ in the sense of—to follow with bustle, to tramp about with fatigue; and such seems to be the meaning of the word in our text.
# 32:
_bull-beggars_] i.e. hobgoblins—a word of uncertain derivation.
# 33:
_he calls me thief_] Because _good fellow_ was one of the cant terms for a thief.
# 34:
_take me with you_] i.e. let me understand you.
# 35:
_resolve_] i.e. satisfactorily inform.
# 36:
_pax_] For pox,—perhaps an affected mode of pronouncing the word: it occurs frequently in Middleton. See my note on Webster’s _Works_, vol. iii. p. 195.
# 37:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 38:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 39:
_sir_] So ed. 1616. Not in first ed.
# 40:
_companions_] i.e. scurvy fellows,—in which sense the word was often used.
# 41:
_blue coats have been turned into cloaks_] Every reader of our early dramas is aware that blue was the colour usually worn by servants: from the present passage it appears that their coats had been recently exchanged for cloaks, like those which gentlemen then wore.
# 42:
_trow_] i.e. think you.
# 43:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 44:
_brothel-master_] See note, p. 5.
# 45:
_’Twas_] Old eds. “It was.”
# 46:
_kept it_] So ed. 1616. First ed. “_it kept_.”
# 47:
_push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 48:
_somner_]—_sumner_, _summoner_—i.e. apparitor.
# 49:
_Cole-Harbour_] See note on act iv. sc. 1.
# 50:
_a’ life_] See note, vol. i. p. 272.
# 51:
_beholding_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 52:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 53:
_beholding_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 54:
_about_] So ed. 1616. First ed. “above.”
# 55:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 56:
_again_] i.e. against.
# 57:
_of_] So ed. 1616. First ed. “a.”
# 58:
_make a bolt or a shaft on’t_] “This is a proverbial expression, and is enumerated by Ray in his Collection of Proverbial Phrases. The meaning is, that he would immediately try his fortune with the widow, and either be rejected or accepted. The same expression is used by Slender in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act. iii. sc. 4. See notes on the passage.” _Editor of 1816_.
# 59:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 60:
_Remove me, &c._] “This and the next speech of Witgood’s form a couplet, and are, I am inclined to think, a quotation.” _Editor of 1816_.
# 61:
_sure yet to_] Compare Brome:
“RA. Who do you think Has married fair Mistris Millicent? DI. Theophilus (I can name him, though his father Was fatal unto mine) was _sure to_ her.” _The English Moor_, p. 3.—_Five New Playes_, 1659. “ER. Then you are _sure to_ her. MAT. No, I never us’d A marriage-question, nor a wooing word,” &c. _The New Academy_, p. 19. _ibid._
# 62:
_resolved_] i.e. convinced, satisfied.
# 63:
_I am_] Old eds. “I’m.”
# 64:
_beholding_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 65:
_the better term_] “Ladies of easy virtue were, in the time of our poet, frequently called _termers_, from their visiting the city when the courts of justice were open, and the inns of court filled with young lawyers: to this, I conceive, Witgood alludes.” _Editor of 1816._—Witgood seems to use the word _term_ with a playful allusion to the double meaning of _suitors_.
# 66:
_blue coats_] see note, p. 26.
# 67:
_royals_] See note, vol. i, p. 345.
# 68:
_their_] i.e. Witgood’s and his uncle’s.
# 69:
_censure_] i.e. opinion, judgment.
# 70:
_So help us our best fortunes_ “The declaration of this gentleman somewhat resembles the oath taken by grand jurymen respecting their presentations, and was probably formed on that model.” _Editor of 1816._
# 71:
_lie_] Old eds. “lies.”
# 72:
_push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 73:
_slight_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 74:
_Cole-Harbour_] See note on act iv. sc. 1.
# 75:
_likes_] i.e. pleases.
# 76:
_Beholding_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 77:
_days_] Altered by the editor of 1816 to “delays:” but I believe the old text is right. So in act iv. sc. 5, Dampit says of one who owed him money, “he comes to have a longer _day_.”
# 78:
_prevent_] i.e. anticipate.
# 79:
_resolv’d_] See note, p. 39.
# 80:
_Gentlemen_] As Lamprey and Spichcock appear afterwards with Hoard at Cole-Harbour, they ought perhaps to be with him on the present occasion. I suspect, indeed, that some of the speeches given here, and in a former scene, to _Gentlemen_, belong, properly, to these two worthies.
# 81:
_a Dutch widow_] A cant term, sufficiently explained by what follows.
# 82:
_very_] So ed. 1616. Not in first ed.
# 83:
_prigging_] “_Prig_, in the cant language of that age, meant _thief_, or pickpocket. It is found in Shakespeare, and Beaumont and Fletcher.” _Editor of 1816._—_Prigging_ is used in this passage merely as a jocular term of reproach.
# 84:
_’Las_] Old eds. “asse,”—the initial letter having dropt out in the first ed.
# 85:
_Ay, boy_] Old eds. “I bee.”
# 86:
_making_] i.e. matching: in our early writers _make_ is often used for mate.
# 87:
_Luc._] Ed. 1616, “_Wit_.”
# 88:
_Cole-Harbour_] See note on act iv. sc. 1.
# 89:
_we’ve_] Old eds. “we have.”
# 90:
_anno_ 89] “Both the quartos read ‘99;’ but Stow does not mention any _very_ great storm in that year, although he has noticed one or two; whereas in the year 1589, he observes, that on ‘The 1st August, at night, was the greatest lightning and thunder that had, at any time, bin seene or heard about London in the memory of any man living; and yet, thankes be given to God, little hurt heard of.’” _Editor of 1816._—See Stow’s _Annales_, p. 757. ed. 1631.
# 91:
_mought, and_] i.e. might, if.
# 92:
_years_] Qy. “days?”
# 93:
_make you unready_] i.e. undress you.
# 94:
_cony-catching_] See note, vol. i. p. 290.
# 95:
_doubts_] i.e. fears.
# 96:
_Cole-Harbour_] The stage-direction in the old eds. is “_Enter at Cole-harbour, Hoord, the Widdow, and Gentlemen, he married now._”—_Cole-Harbour_ (a corruption of _Cold-Harbour_, or _Cold-Harborough_) was an ancient building, situated in the parish of All-hallows the Less, in Downgate Ward: see an account of it in Stow’s _Survey_, b. ii. p. 206. (vol. i.) ed. 1720. A good many years before the date of this play, the then Earl of Shrewsbury took it down, and built a number of small tenements in its stead, which were let at great rents, and served as a retreat for debtors, &c.; the place being considered a sort of sanctuary, probably because Tunstall, bishop of Durham, had resided there in Henry the Eighth’s reign. Lodge says, “It was pulled down by Earl Gilbert, about the year 1600.” _Illust. of Brit. Hist._ vol. i. p. 9: but its demolition must have been earlier; for, in Nash’s _Haue with you to Saffron Walden_, 1596, we find, “Or hast thou tooke thee a chamber in _Cole-harbour_?” &c. sig. D. 4. From the present scene, as the editor of 1816 observes in a note on act ii. sc. 1, “it may be inferred that it was notorious as a place where marriages were solemnised hastily and without the proper forms; such as the Fleet Prison and Keith’s Chapel were for some time previously to the passing the marriage-act.” He adds, that “the only [other] allusion he recollects to it among the dramatic writers of the time, is in our author’s _Roaring Girl_:” but half-a-dozen might easily be furnished.
# 97:
_pig-eater_] An odd term of endearment: _pigsnie_ is common enough.
# 98:
_Court._] Old eds. “_Luc._”
# 99:
_friends_] So ed. 1616. First ed. “friend.”
# 100:
_believe’t_] Old eds. “_believe_ it.”
# 101:
_I have no son_, &c.] See what I have said on couplets imperfect in the first line, notes p. 7 of the present vol., and p. 424 of vol. i.
# 102:
_you’re_] Old eds. “you are.”
# 103:
_Ha, ha!_] Old eds. “_ha_, _ha_, ha.”
# 104:
_And_] So ed. 1616. First ed. “I [ay] _and_.”—The speech is part of the first line of a couplet.
# 105:
_O man in lamentation_] In _The Old Wives’ Tale_, “the tune of _O man in desperation_” is mentioned: see Peele’s _Works_, vol. i. p. 208 (ed. 1829), and my note there.
# 106:
_now_] So ed. 1616. Not in first ed.
# 107:
_passion_] i.e. sorrow.
# 108:
_fie, fie_] So ed. 1616. First ed. “fie.”
# 109:
_Byrlady_] A corruption of _By our Lady_.
# 110:
_toy_] i.e. trifle.
# 111:
_would I might be truss’d up_] Brome has the same poor play on words:
“when Lodovico Does not prove _trustie_, then let me be _truss’d_.” _The Queen and Concubine_, p. 106.—_Five New Playes_, 1659.
# 112:
_so_] First ed. “to.” Sec. ed. “too.”
# 113:
_envy_] i.e. bear ill will.
# 114:
_agen_] So written for the sake of the rhyme: compare vol. i. p. 416.
# 115:
_thrum-chinned_] i.e. rough-chinned: see note, vol. i. p. 431.
# 116:
_a’ life_] See note, vol. i. p. 272.
# 117:
_hole i’ th’ counter_] See notes, vol. i. p. 392.
# 118:
_froating_] “May mean _freting_ or adorning with fretwork. But Witgood’s vices, according to his own confession in a former scene, were those of sensuality, and not of foppery; and it is possible that this was the demand of the keeper of some brothel,” &c. &c. _Editor of 1816._—Perhaps so; but, I think, _froating_ means here nothing more than dressing up, repairing.
# 119:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 120:
_desire_] Old eds. “desires.”
# 121:
_First C._] Old eds. “_Cit._”
# 122:
_nonce_] i.e. occasion.
# 123:
_watchet_] i.e. blue: see note, p. 26.
# 124:
_capes_] The editor of 1816 prints “_caps_,” which may be right.
# 125:
_champion_] i.e. champaign.
“These many ruts and furrows in thy cheek Proves thy old face to be but _champion_ ground Till’d with the plough of age.” RANDOLPH’S _Hey for Honesty_, 1651, p. 36.
# 126:
_beholding_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 127:
_like_] See note, p. 47.
# 128:
_marquesse_] i.e. marchioness.
# 129:
_pax_] See note, p. 24.
# 130:
_venture_] Old eds. “ventures.”
# 131:
_vild_] i.e. vile: see note, vol. i. p. 94.
# 132:
_peevish_] i.e. foolish, trifling.
# 133:
_set the hare’s head to the goose-giblet_] A not uncommon proverbial expression:
“Since tit for tat (quoth I) on euen hand is set, _Set the hares head agaynst the goose ieblet_.” HEYWOOD’S _Dialogue, &c._, sig. G.—_Workes_, ed. 1598.
# 134:
_pax_] See note, p. 24.
# 135:
_come_] Old eds. “came.”
# 136:
_mark_] i.e. 13_s._ 4_d._
# 137:
_immoveables_] So ed. 1616. First ed. “immouerables.”
# 138:
_some access_] “The quarto of 1616 reads, ‘some _above_ access;’ and the niece [Joyce] speaks without a notice of her having entered: whereas in the first quarto there is a stage-direction, ‘She is _above_;’ and I suppose the word caught the printer’s eye, and was erroneously introduced into the text.” _Editor of 1816._
# 139:
_a thousand year_] “Our poet alludes here [very irreverently] to a passage in the Revelation of St. John, chap. xx. ver. 2.” _Editor of 1816._
# 140:
_But I think_] “It is unnecessary to observe there was something particular about Dampit’s bed; the reader, however, will collect all the information I could give him from this scene.” _Editor of 1816._
# 141:
_muckinder_] i.e. a handkerchief.
# 142:
_trampler_] See note, p. 18.
# 143:
_the tavern bitch_, &c.] “One of the many proverbs expressive of inebriety.” _Editor of 1816._
# 144:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 145:
_Ay, he changes_, &c.] “I scarcely need notice that Dampit’s explanation of the name is in allusion to the doctrine of _metempsychosis_, first taught by that philosopher.” _Editor of 1816._
# 146:
_longer day_] “Dampit means to insinuate, I conceive, that he had borrowed money of him, and only called to postpone the payment.” _Editor of 1816._—
“You know this meeting Was for the creditors to give longer day.” BROME’S _City Wit_, act i. sc. 1.—_Five New Playes_, 1653.
# 147:
_farewell, and a thousand_] i.e. a thousand times farewell: see Peele’s _Works_, vol. i. p. 217. ed. 1829, and my note there.
# 148:
_device_] “For _advice_; I suppose it intentional.” _Editor of 1816._—Of course it is: so a clown in Randolph’s _Hey for Honesty_, 1651; “Ile tell you what I do _devise_ you now, this is my pinion,” act i. sc. 1.
# 149:
_this geer will fadge well_] i.e. this matter will fit well, succeed well.
# 150:
_dive-dapper_] i.e. dabchick.
# 151:
_a Dutch widow_] See note, p. 50.
# 152:
Virg. _Æn._ iii. 658.
# 153:
_trampling_] See note, p. 18.
# 154:
_Welch ambassador_] “A jocular name for the cuckoo, I presume from its migrating hither from the west.” NARES’S _Gloss. in v._—Perhaps it was so called because
“the note which his hoarse voice doth beare Is harsh and fatall to the wedded eare.” _The Cuckow_ (by NICCOLS), 1607, sig. A 3.
# 155:
_make haste to give up thy verdict_, &c.] Did Pope remember this passage?
“The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, _And wretches hang, that jurymen may dine_.” _The Rape of the Lock_, iii. 21.
# 156:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 157:
_Now make your best_] Another couplet, of which the first line is imperfect: see notes, p. 7 of this vol. and p. 424 of vol. i.
# 158:
_cupboard of plate_] i. e. a moveable sideboard, or buffet containing the plate.
# 159:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 160:
_too_] Qy. was this originally a couplet?
# 161:
_other ancient gentlemen_] Old eds. “an _other ancient_ gentleman:” but see what follows; and note, p. 9.
# 162:
_guess_] i.e. guests: see note, vol. i. p. 326.
# 163:
_smack_] Old eds. “smerck.”
# 164:
_a Dutch widow_] See note, p. 50.
# 165:
_junt_] i.e. harlot.
# 166:
_pursu’d, nay_] Old eds. “_pursued_ me, _nay_.”
# 167:
_where_] i.e. whereas.
# 168:
_nuncle_] With this corruption of the word Shakespeare has made all readers acquainted.
# 169:
_defy_] i.e. renounce.
# 170:
_The glances of a sinful eye, Waving of fans_, . . . . . . _All secret friends_]
Here Middleton recollected the Palinode which closes _Cynthia’s Revels_:
“From _secret friends_, . . . . . . _From waving fans_, coy _glances_.” JONSON’S _Works_, vol. ii. p. 380, ed. Giff.
# 171:
_fancy_] i.e. love.
# 172:
_sign_] The editor of 1816 altered this word to “sin.”—According to the directions for bleeding in old almanacs, blood was to be taken from particular parts under particular planets.
“_Alen._ When is the time to let the weathers blood? The forward spring that had such store of grasse, Hath fild them full of ranke vnwholesome blood, Which must be purg’d, else when the winter comes, The rot will leaue me nothing but their skinnes. _Fall._ Chil let on blood, but yet it is no time, Vntill _the zygne be gone below the hart_.” YARINGTON’S _Two Lamentable Tragedies_, 1601, sig. H 4.
# 173:
_Stabbing of arms_ . . . . . . _Dutch flapdragons_]
Here again (see note, p. 97) Middleton has an eye to Jonson:
“_From stabbing of arms, flapdragons._” _Works_, ibid.
To stab their arms with daggers, and drink off the blood mixed with wine, to the health of their mistresses, was formerly a frequent practice among gallants.—For _flapdragons_, see note, vol. i. p. 66: from several passages in our early dramas, it appears that the Dutch were celebrated for swallowing them.— Drinking _healths in urine_ was another and more disgusting feat of gallantry.
# 174:
_defy_] See note, p. 97.
# 175:
_termers_] i.e. persons (generally of ill repute) who resorted to London during term-time.
# 176:
_Prologue_] The first line of it and a word in the fourth line have dropt out at press.
# 177:
The old ed. has (what is generally wanting in early 4tos) a list of the characters. The only alteration I have made in it is the substitution of “SHRIMP” for “SMELT,” the precocious youth being always throughout the play introduced under, and addressed by, the former name.
# 178:
_’a_] For _he_ occurs over and over again in this drama.
# 179:
_great-breeched gallants_] i.e. gallants who wear _trunk-hose_—breeches swelled out to a preposterous size by stuffings of rags, wool, hair, &c.
# 180:
_a cold heat_, &c.] Here, perhaps, the doctor meant to rhyme.
# 181:
_affections_] Qy. here and in the next line but two, for the sake of the verse, _affects_—which in our early poetry has the same meaning.
# 182:
_ask_] Old ed. “axe,” which, though the genuine Saxon form of the word, and perhaps used here by Middleton, is now considered so ludicrous a vulgarism, that I have substituted the modern spelling.
# 183:
_overture_] i.e. overthrow.
# 184:
_vadeth_] Brathwait (_Strappado for the Diuell_, 1615, p. 53) has,
“Thy form’s diuine, no _fading_, _vading_ flower;”
and Spenser and other poets use _vade_ as a rhyme to _fade_: but though the words were considered as different, it would not be easy to assign a distinct meaning to each.
# 185:
_And it like_] i.e. if it please.
# 186:
_Maria ascends_] So old ed.—i.e. goes into the upper chamber which Glister has just mentioned.
# 187:
_tall_] i.e. brave, bold.
# 188:
_a cross_, &c.] Old ed. “_to cross_,” &c.—_Creeping to the cross_ was a ceremony of penance imposed by the Romish Church.
# 189:
_giglot_] i.e. wanton.
# 190:
_gill_] i.e. girl, wench.
# 191:
_A valued price_, &c.] i.e. a price equal in value to her inestimable worth.
# 192:
_unvalued_] Old ed. “in valued,”—which, as one word, might stand; but see the next speech.
# 193:
_unvalued worth_, &c.] This passage seems to be corrupted. For the benefit of those who are not familiar with “small 4tos,” I subjoin it as exhibited in the old ed.
“Vnvalued worth, ha ha ha! Why? shees but a woman, And they are windy turning veins, loue light as chaffe which when Our nourishing graynes are winnow’d from them, Vnconstantly they flye at the least wind of passion A womans eye, can turne it selfe with quick dexterity.”
# 194:
_friend_] Old ed. “fend.”
# 195:
_pitchy_] Old ed. “pithie.”
# 196:
_Wo’t_] Or Wu’t—a corruption of _will_.
# 197:
_Farewell_] An imperfect couplet: see notes, p. 7 of this vol. and p. 424 of vol. i.
# 198:
_Lip. A plague_, &c.] What I have here assigned to Lipsalve is given to Gerardine in the old ed.
# 199:
_under colour of dissuasion_] Like another young lady, in Chapman’s _May Day_, 1611:
“_Æmilia._ But good cuze, if you chance to see my chamber window open, that is upon the tarrasse, doe not let him come in at it in any case.
_Lodovico._ ’Sblood how can he? can he come over the wall think’st?
_Æmilia._ O sir, you men have not devices with ladders of ropes to scale such walles at your pleasure, and abuse us poore wenches!” p. 22.
# 200:
_apparance_] i.e. appearance.
# 201:
_instance_] i.e. proof.
# 202:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 203:
_country_] Old ed. “cuntries.”
# 204:
_feast_] Old ed. “feasts.”
# 205:
_Bocardo_] i.e. a dungeon, a prison,—properly, the old north gate of Oxford, which served as a prison. The gate no longer exists, having been pulled down in 1771; but the syllogism from which it seems to have derived its name still torments the students of that university, in the pages of Aldrich’s _Logic_.
# 206:
_grincomes_] i.e. the venereal disease.
# 207:
_great breeches_] See note, p. 111.
# 208:
_honesty_] Old ed. “honestyes.”
# 209:
_then_] Old ed. “that.”
# 210:
_a cross_] See note, vol. i. p. 246.
# 211:
_by_ ( )] So the old ed., the author having used some expression which the printer was afraid to insert. Copies of early plays frequently occur in which words have been struck through with a pen, perhaps by some public authority. I possess several pieces by Marston, from which the objectionable words have been cut out.
# 212:
_refused their_] Old ed. “_refused_ them _their_.”
# 213:
_cony-skins_] i.e. rabbit-skins.
# 214:
_statutes staple_] “The mercer, hee followeth the young vpstart gentleman, that hath no gouernement of himselfe, and he feedeth his humour to goe braue: hee shall not want silkes, sattins, veluets, to pranke abroad in his pompe; but with this prouiso, that hee must binde ouer his land in a _statute-merchant or staple_: and so at last forfeit all vnto the mercilesse mercer, and leaue himselfe neuer a foot of ground in England.” GREENE’S _Quip for an Vpstart Courtier_, sig. F 3. ed. 1620.
# 215:
_how go the squares_] Old ed. “_how goes_,” &c.—i.e. how goes on the game?—(chess-boards being full of squares). “What, fellow Robin, _how goes the squares_ with you?” _Wily Beguilde_, sig. E 4. ed. 1623.
# 216:
_a play, where we saw most excellent Sampson_, &c.] From Henslowe’s MSS. we learn that “_Sampson_, by Samuel Rowley and Edw. Iubye,” was acted in July 1602: see Malone’s _Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. iii. p. 327. To this drama (which has not come down to us) Middleton perhaps alludes.
# 217:
_the youths_] i.e. the children of Paul’s, or some of the other theatrical children then performing.
# 218:
_the upper stage_] Was a balcony at the back of the stage, its platform being raised probably eight or nine feet from the ground. It served for a window, &c. &c. &c.—the frequently occurring direction in our early plays, “enter _above_,” meaning “enter _on the upper stage_.”
# 219:
_tongues_] Old ed. “bones.”
# 220:
_presents_] Old ed. “presence.”
# 221:
_sustain_] Old ed. “sustained.”
# 222:
_shoes_] Old ed. “showes:” in act ii. sc. 4, mistress Glister says, “I pray, let’s have no _polluted feet_ nor rheumatic chaps enter the house; I shall have my floor look more greasy,” &c.: and a little after, “Let them come in, _if their feet be clean_.”
# 223:
_consort_] i.e. company of musicians.
# 224:
_tickles the minikin_] “Minikin,” says Nares (_Gloss._ in v.), "seems sometimes to have meant _treble_ in music."—It certainly also meant a fiddle: “when I was a young man and could _tickle the Minikin_ ... but now ... I am falne from the Fiddle,” &c. “A Fidler, when he hath crackt his _Minikin_.” _Jacke Drums Entertainement_, sigs. A 3, E 3, ed. 1616.
# 225:
_what d’ye lack_] See note, vol. i. p. 447.
# 226:
_lovely_] Old ed. “liuely.”
# 227:
_thine_] Old ed. “then.”
# 228:
_rogation_] From the preceding words, “thou hast been a long vagrant,” I suspect that a pun is intended here: to _rogue_ meant—to play the vagrant.
# 229:
_gird_] i.e. cut, gibe.
# 230:
_leave him_] Old ed. “loues theame.”
# 231:
_bounty obliges_, &c.] Old ed. “_bounty obliges men too’t, giues mony for scrips and scrolls, and liberality seald_,” &c.
# 232:
_make_] Old ed. “makes.”
# 233:
_lectuary_] i.e. electuary.
# 234:
_angle_] i.e. corner.
# 235:
_prevent_] See note, p. 49.
# 236:
_&c._] See note, vol. i. p. 252.
# 237:
_liver_] Was supposed to be the seat of love.
# 238:
_I pray_, &c.] The first part of this speech is addressed to a servant off the stage.
# 239:
_the prick and praise_] So in _The London Prodigall_, 1605: “tho she had _the pricke and praise_ for a prettie wench.” Sig. E 3. Spenser has, _Faery Queene_, ii. xii. 1,
“her adorned head To _prick of highest praise_ forth to advance.”
The _prick_ was the point or mark in the centre of the butts in archery.
# 240:
_niceness_] i.e. scrupulousness, over-delicacy.
# 241:
_Of no proportion_, &c.] Old ed.
“Respectlesse, _of no proportion_,” &c.
“_Respectless_” is probably a word which the author had originally written, but forgot to erase. In the address _To the Reader_ (p. 107) he mentions the “faults in the printing.”
# 242:
_No marvel_] May be right perhaps, if mistress Glister is speaking ironically; but qy. “_Now I_ marvel.”
# 243:
_sect_] i.e. sex: the word in this sense is of frequent occurrence in old writers.
# 244:
_Society_, &c.] Old ed.
“_Society in_ nuptiall beds aboue these _joys_.”
In the MS., I suppose, the word “_beds_,” for which Middleton had substituted “_nuptials_,” was not deleted: see note 244 supr.
# 245:
_satiety_] Old ed. “society.”
# 246:
_Vial_] Here, and afterwards in this scene, the old ed. prefixes _Nun_. (i.e. _Nuntius_) to his speeches.
# 247:
_passions_] i.e. sorrowings.
# 248:
_untrussing of his hose_] i.e. untying the points of his hose: see note, vol. i. p. 367.
# 249:
_resolve_] See note, p. 23.
# 250:
_mouse_] Was formerly a common term of endearment.
# 251:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 252:
_footcloth_] See note, vol. i. p. 396.
# 253:
_What should he be for a man?_] i.e. What man should he be?
# 254:
_mistress_] Old ed. “master.”
# 255:
_bruited_] i.e. reported.
# 256:
_endear_] Old ed. “endeauour:” compare our author’s _Michaelmas Term_; “I’ll _be dear to you_, do but perform it,” vol. i. p. 478.
# 257:
_resolve_] See note, p. 23.
# 258:
_feed_] Old ed. “fed.”
# 259:
_Servant_] Old ed. "One."—Perhaps Vial should be the person who enters.
# 260:
_thou_] i.e. one of the whips: the other he presently gives to Gudgeon.
# 261:
_resolves_] See note, p. 23.
# 262:
_Re-enter Maria_] The stage-direction in the old ed. is “_Enter Maria ouer the trunke_;” and Middleton probably intended the spectators to suppose (for, as there was no moveable painted scenery when he wrote, they were obliged to suppose a great deal,) that the trunk, left on the stage by the apprentices, had been removed to Maria’s apartment since the exit of Glister. When she enters at the commencement of scene iv. (p. 133), the room is certainly not her own apartment: Gerardine is thought to have left the country, and she has the free range of the house.
# 263:
_peize_] i.e. weigh down.
# 264:
_thou’st_] Old ed. “thou hast.”
# 265:
_prevented_] See note, p. 49.
# 266:
_cautelous_] i.e. artfully cautious.
# 267:
_Place_] Old ed. “Peace.”
# 268:
_little-ease_] Was a cant term, used long before Middleton’s time, for the pillory, stocks, or bilboes, (and, as I suspect from several passages in our early writers, for some apartment in a prison);
“You dare not make discovery For feare of _Little-ease_. That were a prison Too fearful for such bravery to stoop into.” BROME’S _New Academy_, p. 58.—_Five New Playes_, 1659.
# 269:
_uneven_] i.e. unjust.
# 270:
_unreduct_] i.e. unreduced.
# 271:
_act_] Old ed. “art.”
# 272:
_But who comes here_] In the old ed. these words are preceded by the stage-direction “_Enter Lipsalve and Shrimp his Page_;” and at the end of the speech Gerardine and Maria _exeunt_. I have already noticed (p. 142) the want of moveable painted scenery in Middleton’s days. Here the spectators were to suppose that Gerardine and Maria, standing on the upper-stage (see note, p. 125), were either in the apartment of the latter, or in the gallery communicating with it (see p. 112): when Lipsalve had entered, they were to suppose that the stage represented a street; and when Gerardine and Maria had re-appeared “_above_,” they were to suppose that the upper-stage was a window. Having found it necessary to begin a new scene with the entrance of Lipsalve, I hope my readers will be kind enough to _suppose_ that, when Gerardine says “_who comes here_,” he happens to turn his eye towards the window, and catches a glimpse of that gallant.
# 273:
_loose_] Means, in archery, the discharging of the arrow.
# 274:
_Maria appears_, &c.] The stage-direction in the old ed. is "_Enter Gerardine and Maria above_."—I may observe, that as curtains were suspended before the upper-stage (see note, p. 125), to conceal, if necessary, those who occupied it, they were probably used here for that purpose by Gerardine.
# 275:
_o’ercomes_] Old ed. “ouercomes.”
# 276:
_bruited_] See note, p. 138.
# 277:
_cottens well_] i.e. succeeds, goes on well—an expression drawn, as the present passage indicates, from the manufacturing of cloth.
# 278:
_hose_] i.e. breeches.
# 279:
_in lavender_] i.e. in pawn.
# 280:
_new for a_] Old ed. “_for a new_.”
# 281:
_take her counsel, sir; get a cullis_] Maria had recommended a caudle (see p. 150): but we find in old writers a distinction made between cullises and caudles. A _cullis_ (which will be more particularly noticed hereafter) was a strong broth, a savoury jelly.
# 282:
_flutterers_] Old ed. “flatterers.”
# 283:
_petronel-flashes_] A _petronel_ is a carbine, a horseman’s gun.
# 284:
_abrupt_] i.e. separated.
# 285:
_small-ease_] See note, p. 145.
# 286:
_our_] Some copies of the old ed. “or,” others “nor:” I have already noticed that, though they occasionally present different readings, there is but _one_ edition of the play: see p. 103.
# 287:
_collowest_] i.e. begrimest, blackenest: she alludes to the smoke of the link. _Collow_ is smut from burnt coals.
# 288:
_rine_] A vulgar corruption of _rind_: old ed. “rhyne;”
“Whose eyes doe shine Like bacon rine.” _Wily Beguilde_, sig C 2, ed. 1623.
# 289:
_exercise_] See note, vol. i. p. 211.
# 290:
_I hope my body has no organs_] “But the most dangerous of all was a Puritan Chandler ... he thought a man in a surplesse to be the Ghost of Heresy, _and was out of love with his owne members, because they were called Organs_.” MARMYON’S _Fine Companion_, 1633, sig. I 4.
# 291:
_exercise_] See note, vol. i. p. 211.
# 292:
_byrlady_] See note, p. 66.
# 293:
_the red letter_] Qy. does he allude to the rubrick distinctions in the Prayer-book, or to those in the Calendar?
# 294:
_clergy_] i.e. doctrine.
# 295:
_gear_] i.e. matter, business.
# 296:
_in the Family_] The old ed. adds, as part of the text, “Let in;” but the words are a stage-direction.— In _The Displaying of the Family of Loue_, &c. (already mentioned, see p. 106), we are told: “They are called together euer in the night time: and commonly to suche houses as be far from neighbours, one of them doth alwayes warne an other: and when they come to the house of meeting, they knocke at the doore, saying, here is a Brother in Christ, or a Sister in Christ.” Sig. H iiii.
# 297:
_peevish_] i.e. silly.
# 298:
_exercise_] See note, vol. i. p. 211.
# 299:
_trunks_] i.e. tubes. We find the word used in this sense even during Charles the Second’s time;
“Through optic _trunk_ the planet seem’d to hear.” _To the King_—MARVELL’S _Works_, vol. ii. p. 124, ed. 1726.
# 300:
_hit_] Old ed. “hits.”
# 301:
_Scene V._] I have marked a new scene here, and another after Gudgeon has entered the chamber, contrary to the old ed. and the arrangements (or rather, non-arrangements) of our early stage: see note, p. 147.
# 302:
_exercise_] See note, vol. i. p. 211.
# 303:
_Hei mihi_, &c.] _Met._ i. 523.
# 304:
_play at barriers_] i.e. fight within lists.
# 305: LIP. _Hold_, &c.; GUD. _Gogs_, &c.; LIP. _A pox_, &c.; GUD. _Truce_, &c.] Form only one speech in the old ed., with the prefix “_Ambo._”
# 306:
_Cornelius’ tub_] i.e. the heated tub in which patients were sweated for the cure of the venereal disease: the origin of the term (see Douce’s _Illust. of Shake._ vol. ii. p. 70) is uncertain.
# 307:
_suppositor_] i.e. suppository.—Old ed. "suppositar."— “I hold my life hee is a pottecarie, doe you neuer make no _suppositors_ sir?” _Cupids Whirligig_, sig. C 4, ed. 1616.
# 308:
_cockatrice_] A cant term for a harlot.
# 309:
_Phitonessa’s power_] The word _Phitoness_—i.e. _Pythoness_—is of frequent occurrence in the works of our earliest poets. It generally means the witch of Endor:
“And speke as renably, and faire, and wel, As to _the Phitonesse_ did Samuel.” CHAUCER’S _Freres Tale_, v. 7091, ed. Tyr.
See also Gower’s _Conf. Am._ fol. lxxiii. ed. 1554; Skelton’s “Adicyon” to _Phyllyp Sparowe_; Sir D. Lyndsay’s _Monarchie, Works_, vol. iii. p. 151, ed. Chal. Sometimes it is used in a more extended sense;
“And _Phetonisses_, Charmeresses,” &c. CHAUCER’S _House of Fame_, fol. 267, _Works_, ed. 1602.
See also Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, sig. K vi. ed. 1555.
# 310:
_corpse of her friend_] Qy. “corps of her friends:” at p. 135, l. 6, _corps_ is used for bodies.
# 311:
_thine aim_] Old ed. “thy plot, _thyne ayme_:” see note, p. 134.
# 312:
_surcease_] i.e. cease.
# 313:
_on_] Old ed. “in.”
# 314:
_those_] Old ed. “these.”
# 315:
_our clothes_] He means the dresses in which they were to pass for Familists: see what follows.
# 316:
_Guttide_] i.e. Shrovetide.
# 317:
_Hollantide_] A common corruption of Hallowstide.
# 318:
_courtlike_] Old ed. “courttake.”
# 319:
_make_] Old ed. “makes.”
# 320:
_Lip._] Old ed. here and before the next speech which I have given to Lipsalve, “_Sa._”
# 321:
_Master_, &c.] This speech has no prefix in the old ed.
# 322:
_resolved_] See note, p. 39.
# 323:
_nice_] See note, p. 134.
# 324:
_private._ Whispers] Old ed. “_priuate_ whisper:” but the second word is a stage-direction.
# 325:
_Galen_] Old ed. “Gallus.”
# 326:
_eke_] i.e. also.
# 327:
_five_] Old ed. “fine.”
# 328:
_gear_] See note, p. 155.
# 329:
_qd_——] Those who are acquainted with the sayings of _Titus Silus_ will probably understand this hieroglyphic.
# 330:
_disguised as a porter_] These words are not in the old ed. From what follows in this scene we find that he wears a disguise, and we may justly conclude that it is no other than the porter’s dress in which he appears during the next scene.
# 331:
_throne_] Qy. “shrine:” compare p. 163, l. 10.
# 332:
_star-like_] Old ed. “warlike:” but see the next line.
# 333:
_His_] Old ed. “This.”
# 334:
_a bell and a clack-dish_] A _clack-dish_, or _clap-dish_, was a wooden dish with a moveable cover, which was carried by beggars, and which they _clacked_ to shew that it was empty: see Steevens’s note on Shakespeare’s _Measure for Measure_, act iii. sc. 2. The _bell_ was another means of attracting attention.
# 335:
_paritor_] i.e. apparitor—a messenger employed to cite persons to appear in the spiritual courts. The word is found so contracted not only in prose but in verse:
“Belike thou art the Diuell’s _Parrator_, The basest officer that liues in Hell.” _Wily Beguilde_, sig. H 3, ed. 1623.
# 336:
_I play_] Old ed. “he plaies.”
# 337:
_crier_] Old ed. “parritor.”
# 338:
_crier_] Old ed. "sumner"—(i.e. apparitor). That the alterations which I have made in this dialogue between Gerardine and Dryfat are absolutely necessary, will appear from subsequent scenes. Of the “faults in the printing” Middleton was aware: see his address _To the Reader_, p. 107: he perhaps had at first assigned the parts of paritor, crier, and proctor differently; and after he had made a new distribution of them, neglected to alter this portion of the MS.
# 339:
_time out of sight_] i.e. (I suppose) time that I was gone.
# 340:
_perfection_] Old ed. “affecton.”
# 341:
_celsitude_] i.e. height.
# 342:
_Give_] Old ed. “Giues.”
# 343:
_gazer loves_] Qy. “gazers’ love.”
# 344:
_Than the Titanian_, &c.] Old ed.
“_Then the_ Tartarians _God, when_ first _Egeons Hill_.”
Ægeon (or, as he was called by the gods, Briareus,) was thrown under mount Ætna.
# 345:
_worm’s bed_; _teeth_] Old ed. “worme bed, to the.”
# 346:
_square_] i.e. (I suppose) fall to quarrelling.
# 347:
_Mis. G._] Old ed. “Mar.”
# 348:
_Orders of knaves_] _Their_ number was 25: see _Brit. Bibliogr._ vol. ii. p. 16, where they are each reckoned up from a tract, printed and probably compiled by Awdeley, called _The Fraternitye of Vacabondes, &c. Wherunto also is adioyned the_ XXV. _Orders of Knaues, otherwyse called a Quartern of Knaues, &c._, 4to, the first ed. of which appeared in 1565: see _Typ. Antiq._ (ed. Dibdin), vol. iv. p. 564.
# 349:
_startups_] Were a sort of clumsy shoes with high tops, worn by peasants. Cotgrave has “Guestres: Startups; high shooes, or gamashes for countrey folkes.”
# 350:
_sir-reverence_] A corruption of _save-reverence_, _salva reverentia_: see Nares in V.
# 351:
_Tweedles_] So the old ed. when the letter is afterwards read: here “_Sweedlesse_.”
# 352:
_pert_] So old ed. afterwards: here it omits the word.
# 353:
_towards_] i.e. in a state of preparation, at hand.
# 354:
_seiz’d_] Old ed. “feard.”
# 355:
_peasant groom_] Old ed. “pleasant Groine.”
# 356:
_Europa’s sea-form_] I can only explain these words by supposing that they allude to Europa, as represented in ancient gems and pictures, holding the bull by the horns, while he bears her over the sea. Vide, for instance, the engraving prefixed to Fischer’s ed. of Palæphatus, 1772.
# 357:
_acrostic_] i.e. crossed on his breast: perhaps some pun is intended here.
# 358:
_A pile_, &c.] This speech has no prefix in the old ed.
# 359:
_manable_] i.e. (I presume) bold, forward, ready.
# 360:
_trow_] See note, p. 26.
# 361:
_passion_] See note, p. 64.
# 362:
_paritor_] See note, p. 170.
# 363:
_Gud. Off_, &c.] Old ed. “_Gud._ Off boyes, Shrimpe what dost thou,” &c.
# 364:
_Shrimp_] Old ed. “Periwincle.”
# 365:
_sumner_] See note, p. 29.
# 366:
_paritor_] See note, p. 170.
# 367:
_Thrum_] Old ed. “Thum.”
# 368:
_And Tipple_, &c.] This part of Gerardine’s speech is given to “_Gud._” in the old ed.
# 369:
_colour_] i.e. pretence.
# 370:
_paritor_] See note, p. 170.
# 371:
_cucking-stool_] i.e. a stool or chair at the end of a long pole, in which scolds, &c. being placed, were plunged into some muddy pool or stinking pond: see Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ vol. ii. p. 441, ed. 1813.
# 372:
_come_] Old ed. “comes.”
# 373:
_this gear cottens_] See notes, p. 150, 155.
# 374:
_colour_] See note, p. 184.
# 375:
_like_] See note, p. 113.
# 376:
_liver_] See note, p. 133.
# 377:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 378:
_doctor Doddipoll_] Is a ridiculous character in an old play called _The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll_, printed 1600; but the term is found long before that date: _doddipoll_ is dunderhead.
# 379:
_questuary_] i.e. profitable.
# 380:
_bawdies_] See the same miserable pun, vol. i. p. 245.
# 381:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 382:
_Enter Maria above_] So the old ed.; and we must suppose that she is standing in a gallery: the first words of Gerardine’s speech on entering shew that this scene takes place _within_ the house: compare p. 159, where Glister appears “_above_,” _within the house_.
# 383:
_Give_] Old ed. “Giues.”
# 384:
_liberal_] i.e. licentious.
# 385:
_Deeply_] Old ed. “Deadly.”
# 386:
_the round_] Certain soldiers of inferior rank (only above the lancepesado), whose office was to _go round_ and inspect the sentinels, watches, and advanced guard, were called _gentlemen of the round_: see Whalley’s note in Gifford’s ed. of B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. i. p. 85.
# 387:
_word_] i.e. watchword.
# 388:
_Do_] Old ed. “Doth.”
# 389:
_sun approaches_] Old ed. “sons aproache:” but I suspect that the whole line is corrupted, and that the epithet “blushing” belongs to “Aurora.”
# 390:
_towards_] See note, p. 177.
# 391:
_statute-caps_] i.e. citizens, who, according to a statute of Elizabeth in behalf of the trade of cappers, wore, on Sabbath days and holydays, caps of wool. See the notes of the commentators on "Well, better wits have worn plain _statute-caps_."— SHAKESPEARE’S _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, act V. sc. 2.
# 392:
_pedlar’s French_] i.e. unintelligible jargon. It is, properly, the cant language of vagabonds.
# 393:
_costards_] i.e. heads.
# 394:
_cotten_] See note, p. 150.
# 395:
_O, but_, &c.] Qy. ought this to be given to Gerardine?
# 396:
_Poppin_] So some copies of the old ed., others “_Exigent_:” though there is certainly but _one_ impression of this play: see p. 103. Middleton (who did not superintend the printing of it, see p. 107) had dismissed the name _Exigent_ for that of _Poppin_, or _vice versa_; and his uncorrected MS., where Dryfat was sometimes called by one name, sometimes by the other, was followed by the printer. This, however, is the only place in which the copies (at least those that I have seen) differ from each other with respect to these names; an alteration having been made here after part of the impression had been worked off. I have retained the name _Poppin_ throughout.
# 397:
_attone them_] _Attone_ or _atone_ is—reconcile, set them _at one_.—Old ed. “_attone them_ put them together:” but see notes, pp. 134, 162.
# 398:
_play Ambidexter_] So in Nash’s _Pierce Pennilesse_; “it is like inough he is _playing Ambidexter_ amongst them.” Sig. B, ed. 1595. The allusion is to Preston’s _Cambises King of Percia_, n. d. (written about the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign), in which the Vice is named _Ambidexter_. This “_lamentable tragedie mixed full of plesant mirth_” is reprinted in the first vol. of Hawkins’s _Origin of the English Drama_.
# 399:
_Poppin_] Old ed. “Exigent:” see note, p. 194.
# 400:
_cum nemini_, &c.]—“ea, quoniam nemini obtrudi potest, Itur ad me.” Ter. _And._ i. 5, 15.
# 401:
_Byrlady_] See note, p. 66.
# 402:
_Poppin_] Old ed. “Exigent:” see note, p. 194.
# 403:
_cotations_] i.e. quotations—memoranda of what she had heard at the meetings of the Family.
# 404:
_tagged point_] See note, vol. i. p. 244.
# 405:
_bewray all_, &c.] The same play on words occurs in vol. i. p. 294, where see note.
# 406:
_angel_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 407:
_gilt’s_, &c.] _Gilt_ or _gelt_, i.e. gold, money.
# 408:
_five-finger at maw_] “For my game [at maw] stood, me thought, upon my last two tricks, when I made sure of the set, and yet lost it, hauing the varlet and _the fiue finger_ to make two tricks.” Chapman’s _May Day_, 1611, p. 76.—For some account of maw, see Singer’s _Researches into the Hist. of Playing Cards_, p. 258, sqq.
# 409:
_gear_] See note, p. 155.
# 410:
_Club._ _Silence!_] Old ed. has only the stage-direction, “_He cries_.”
# 411:
_apparance_] See note, p. 119.
# 412:
_narrow-ruffed_] Some copies of old ed. “_narrow_ rusty,” others “_narrow_ ruste:” yet there is but one impression of the play: see p. 103. Compare what Gudgeon says of mistress Purge’s “ruffs,” p. 131.
# 413:
_rout_] i.e. rabble.
# 414:
_Byrlady_] See note, p. 66.
# 415:
_edax rerum_] scil. _tempus._
# 416:
_now strike_, &c.] See p. 186.
# 417:
_cast about_] i.e. devise. Dryfat puns on the word _cast_, as meaning to vomit.
# 418:
_bewray_] See note, p. 197.
# 419:
_Kiss the book_] Is, perhaps, only a stage-direction.
# 420:
_sir-reverence_] See note, p. 175.
# 421:
_as if I knew you not_] Imitated from Falstaff’s “I knew ye, as well as he that made ye.” SHAKESPEARE’S _Henry IV. Part I._ act ii. sc. 4.
# 422:
_Poppin_] Old ed. “Exigent:” see note, p. 194.
# 423:
_suppositor doctor_] See note, p. 161.
# 424:
_thereon_] Old ed. “therein.”
# 425:
_Poppin_] Old ed. “Exigent:” see note, p.194.
# 426:
_Dry._] Old ed. “_Club_.”
# 427:
_Pis._] What place is indicated by this abbreviation, I cannot pretend to determine.
# 428:
_doctor_] Old ed. "proctor"—but that part is assumed by Dryfat.
# 429:
_grincomes_] See note, p. 121.
# 430:
_Poppin_] Old ed. “Exigent:” see note, p. 194.
# 431:
_colour_] See note, p. 184.
# 432:
_blot in your tables_] An expression drawn from games played with the tables: “beware of _blotting_,” says the _Complete Gamester_, p. 155, ed. 1674.
# 433:
_limb-lifter_] Old ed. “Timelifter:” but compare _A Handefull of Pleasant Delites_, &c., 1584, “a lustie _lim lifter_,” p. 18, reprint.
# 434:
_runs at his wife’s ring_] See note, vol. i. p. 390.
# 435:
_Poppin_] Old ed. “Exigent:” see note, p. 194.
# 436:
_have_] Old ed. “hath.”
# 437:
_enjoinment_] Old ed. “enioyntment.”
# 438:
_Dry._ _The very_, &c.] Old ed.
"DRY. { _The very same_: your _are welcome to our Club_ CLUB. { _Lawe_."
# 439:
_Epilogue_] Is, of course, spoken by Gerardine.
# 440:
_touch_] i.e. touchstone.
# 441:
_Presenter, or Prologue_, &c.] Except that I have inserted between brackets the names of the “gallants,” I have given this strange Induction as it stands in the old ed. The latter part of it, “Now, for the other,” &c., seems to be an address to the reader; though perhaps it was spoken by the Presenter.
# 442:
_Frippery discovered_, &c.] In the old ed. the only stage-direction here is “_Enter a fellow_,” and the prefixes to the dialogue which follows are _Frip._, 1., 2., 3., and 4.—Till the entrance of Primero, the scene in the old ed. is a mass of confusion.
# 443:
_jealous_] i.e. suspiciously afraid: so afterwards in this play: “Ah, but I am _jealous_ you will not keep your countenance, i’faith.”
# 444:
_casting-bottle_] i.e. bottle for casting, or sprinkling, liquid essences and perfumes, often mentioned by our early dramatists; its use was not confined to ladies.
# 445:
_hose_] i.e. breeches.
# 446:
_I’ll come to you presently_] These words, which in the old ed. form part of the preceding speech, are, I suppose, addressed to the second fellow.
# 447:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 448:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 449:
_falls_] i.e. falling bands, which lay flat upon the dress from the neck.
# 450:
_gentlewomen’s_] Old ed. “gentlewomans.”
# 451:
_nobles_] See note, p. 17.
# 452:
_do_] Old ed. “does.”
# 453:
_I will_] Old ed. “ile:” and in next line but one, “about.”
# 454:
_primero_] An old and favourite game at cards: see Singer’s _Researches into the Hist. of Playing Cards_, p. 244 sqq.
# 455:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 456:
_call it_] Old ed. “calt.”
# 457:
_I’d_] Old ed. “I had.”
# 458:
_trug_] i.e. trull. The word is not very common: “nor (shall I speake plainely) please the _Trugge_ his mistresse, without he goe to the Apothecaries,” &c. GREENE’S _Quip for an Upstart Courtier_, sig D 3, ed. 1620.
# 459:
_gallant_] Old ed. “Gallants.”
# 460:
_fall_] See note, p. 218.
# 461:
_frippery_] This word has been rightly explained by Gifford and others as—a place where old clothes are exposed for sale: but here the profession of frippery seems to be meant; compare Chapman;
"D’OL. Now your profession, I pray? FRIP. _Fripperie_, my lord, or as some tearme it, _Petty Brokery_."
MONSIEUR D’OLIVE, 1606, sig E 4.
# 462:
_and you make you ready_] i.e. if you dress yourself: compare p. 57 and note.
# 463:
_changed_] Old ed. “chande.”
# 464: PRI. _But, mass, sir_] Old ed. “Ar. _But_ maister.”
# 465:
_prevent_] See note, p. 49.
# 466:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 467:
_lins_] i.e. ceases.
# 468:
_mark_[_s_]] A mark was 13_s._ 4_d._
# 469:
_rize_] i.e. rose.
# 470:
_Nor ceas’d_, &c.] All the latter part of this speech is prose in the old ed.: as to the arrangement of it, the reader must be aware that imperfect lines frequently occur in the blank verse of our early dramatists: see, for instance, the speeches of Katherine to her suitors in next scene.
# 471:
_censur’d me_] i.e. held me in their opinion.
# 472:
_not_] Old ed. “nor.”
# 473:
_in the Knight’s ward_] See note, vol. i. p. 392.—The old ed. gives the passage thus: “_I am sure he is fast inough? and Andrew Lucifer’s Rapier and dagger, in the knights ward, with the embost_,” &c.
# 474:
_hangers_] i.e. fringed and ornamented loops attached to the girdle, in which the weapons were suspended.
# 475:
_than_] Old ed. “them.”
# 476:
_your wrongs_] May be right: but qy. “you wrong.”
# 477:
_perfection_] Old ed. “perfections.”
# 478:
_commend_] Old ed. “command.”
# 479:
_Vouchsafe_, &c.] Old ed. thus:
“Vouchsafe vnequalld Virgin whereon I iustly kept, Accept this worthlesse fauor from your seruants arme, the hallowed beades, The true and perfect number of my sighs.”
# 480:
_likes_] See note, p. 47.
# 481:
_purchase_] See note, vol. i. p. 319.
# 482:
_I’ve_] Old ed. here and in the next line but five, “I haue.”
# 483:
_push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 484:
_when_] See note, vol. i. p. 362.
# 485:
_Savoy_] i.e. the Savoy: see Stowe’s _Survey_, b. i. p. 210, and b. iv. p. 106, ed. 1720.
# 486:
_inward_] i.e. intimate.—The old ed. gives to Pursenet the words “gentleman; his parts deserve it.”
# 487:
_Piping hot_, &c.] The first part of this speech relates to Fitsgrave, who has joined the “gallants” under the name of Bouser; the second part to Bungler.
# 488:
_clip_] i.e. embrace.
# 489:
_viols_] See note, p. 11.]
# 490:
_Pax_] See note, p. 24.
# 491:
_respectively_] i.e. respectfully: compare vol. i. p. 425.
# 492:
_You’re_] Old ed. “You are.”
# 493:
_they’ll_] Old ed. “they will.”
# 494:
_Exit_] Is not marked in old ed.: but, as far as I understand the scene, it seems necessary.
# 495:
_queasy_] i.e. squeamish.
# 496:
_I’m ... I’ve_] Old ed. “I am ... I have.”
# 497:
_he_] I have not altered this stage-direction, as I am not sure who is meant by the word _he_. Primero (see p. 234) had desired the Boy to “be ready for the song.”
# 498:
_no affliction_] Qy. “not a fiction.”
# 499: PRI. _My wits_, &c.] I suspect that this speech ought to be divided thus:
"PRI. ’Slife, he’s in a sick trance! GOL. My wits must not stand idle: A cheat or two," &c.
# 500:
_and it_] i.e. if it. Old ed. “an’t.”
# 501:
_and so_] Old ed. “_and_ has _so_.”
# 502:
_never_] Old ed. “nere.”
# 503:
_Pax_] See note, p. 24.
# 504:
_Goldstone_] Old ed. “Bouser,” which is Fitsgrave’s assumed name,—the author, I suppose, having merely written G., which the printer took for B.
# 505:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 506:
_You’ve_] Old ed. “You have.”
# 507:
_miss it_] i.e. let it go.
# 508:
_nobles_] See note, p. 17.
# 509:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 510:
_were it_] Old ed. “wer’t.”
# 511:
_you’ll_] Old ed. “you will.”
# 512:
_respectively_] See note, p. 235.
# 513:
_Mermaid_] A famous tavern in Cornhill, frequented by Shakespeare, Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, &c.
# 514:
_Mitre_] Another celebrated tavern, in Bread Street, Cheapside: it was afterwards removed to Fleet Street.
# 515:
_Faith_, &c.] This speech is given in old ed. to Goldstone; but it disagrees with what he has just said.
# 516:
_push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 517:
_Boy_, &c.] What I have here given to Pursenet is in the old ed. part of the speech of _All_.
# 518:
_toward_] See note, p. 177.
# 519:
_tire-men_] i.e. dressers belonging to the theatre,—as it seems from what follows.
# 520:
_Look you ... out forty_] Given to Pursenet in old ed.
# 521:
_come_] Old ed. “comes.”
# 522:
_pullen_] i.e. poultry.
# 523:
_nobles_] See note, p. 17.
# 524:
_More censure_] i.e. a higher opinion.
# 525:
_they’re_] Old ed. “they are.”
# 526:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 527:
_What made you_] i.e. what business had you?
# 528:
_you_] Old ed. “your.”
# 529:
_’Tween_] Old ed. “Turne.”
# 530:
_populous_] i.e. prevalent, common,—or, perhaps, abundant.
# 531:
_With which thou ever_, &c.] After this line the old ed. has “_Exeunt_.
_Enter Fitsgraue._
FITSG. My pocket pickt,” &c.;
and after his conversation with the servant and _exit_ (no new scene being marked),
“_Taylb._ Oh the parting of vs twaine, 14“ᚬ_Enter Whore Gal._ Hath causde me mickle paine,” &c.
But the scene between Fitsgrave and the servant intervenes here so awkwardly, that I have ventured to make a transposition.
# 532:
_mickle_] i.e. great.
# 533:
_Enter Fitsgrave_, &c.] See note in preceding page.
# 534:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 535:
_you belong to me_, &c.] Is the text corrupted here, or is something wanting?
# 536:
_stoln_] Qy., for the sake of the rhyme, "lorn,"—i.e. lost.
# 537:
_Scene III._, &c.] Concerning the transposition of the preceding scene, see note, p. 246.—In the old ed. the present scene follows the exit of Primero with Tailby (see p. 247) thus:
“_Pri._ Come, you shall see how tis alterd now? I do not thinke but you’le like her. _Exit._ _Pri._ Where be your liueries? _Enter all at once._ 1. They attend without.” &c. The commencement of act iii., which the old ed. does not mark, might have taken place here, had not the preposterous length of act iv. in that ed. obliged me to divide it into the iii. and iv. acts.
# 538:
_the Mitre_] See note, p. 240.—The entertainment given by “the gallants” to Primero and his ladies is supposed to be just over.
# 539:
_alchemy_] See note, vol. iv. p. 122.
# 540:
_chatterer_] Old ed. “quarter her.”
# 541:
_Pax_] See note, p. 24.
# 542:
_slight_] i.e. contrivance, artifice.
# 543:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 544:
_Exit Vintner_, &c.] We are of course to suppose that Goldstone, while talking with the vintner, contrives to “shift away the beakers by a slight,” and leave in their places the “alchemy knaves” which Fulk had brought to him: but as I do not understand how the trick was executed, I have not ventured to add any stage-directions.
# 545:
_Fit._] Old ed. “_Gold._”
# 546:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 547:
_angel_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 548:
_rose-noble_] i.e. a gold coin (stamped with a rose) worth sixteen shillings.
# 549:
_cracked in the ring_] “The gold coin of our ancestors was very thin, and therefore liable to crack. It still, however, continued passable until the crack extended beyond the _ring_, _i.e._ beyond the inmost round which circumscribed the inscription; when it became _uncurrent_, and might be legally refused.” GIFFORD—note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. vi. p. 76.
# 550:
_pax_] See note, p. 24.
# 551:
_Tai._] Old ed. “_Purs._”
# 552:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 553:
_thine_] Old ed. “mine.”
# 554:
_will be ever one_] Old ed. “_will be ever_ be _one_.”
# 555:
_again_] i.e. against.
# 556:
_Hist_] Old ed. “Pist.”
# 557:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 558:
_Pur._ &c.] Old ed. “All.”
# 559:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 560:
_again_] See note, p. 255.
# 561:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 562:
_hatcht_] i.e. engraved.
# 563:
_hangers_] See note, p. 227.
# 564:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 565:
_snibbed_] i.e. snubbed—a form of the word which sometimes occurs.
# 566:
_Haff_, &c.] So old ed.—the spelling being intended to express the broken utterance of the speaker.
# 567:
_Fie_, &c.] The old ed. gives this speech, “_Fie_ ath _these_,” &c., without any prefix.
# 568:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 569:
_come_] Old ed. “comes.”
# 570:
_word_] i.e. motto.
# 571:
_Gol._] Old ed. “_Purs._,” which the next speech of Pursenet shews to be wrong: but, perhaps, the prefix should be “Fulk.”
# 572:
_Fit._] Old ed. “_Fulk._”
# 573:
_disgest_] Frequently found in our old writers for _digest_.
# 574:
_cross-biter_] i.e. cheater.
# 575:
_royals ... as many with spurs_, &c.] i.e. spur-royals—gold coins (with a star on the reverse resembling the rowel of a spur) worth fifteen shillings.
# 576:
_Sec. D. What’s_, &c.] Old ed. gives “Drawer, what’s to be done, sirs?” as part of Goldstone’s speech.
# 577:
_near all_] i.e. touches all nearly—if, indeed, that be the right reading. Old ed. “meere _all_.”
# 578:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 579:
_Pur. Faith_, ] Given in old ed., as one speech, to Pursenet. _Gol. Nay_, &c.]
# 580:
_yon_] i.e. yonder.
# 581:
_Here, sir_] Not knowing how this second piece of knavery is managed (see note, p. 251), I have not attempted to supply any stage-directions. Goldstone seems to have removed the goblet from the place where it “hung” (see p. 261), and to have hid it somewhere, till all except himself and Fulk had left the room.
# 582:
_Act III._] Old ed. “Actus 4:” see note, p. 248.
# 583:
_be ready_] i.e. dress himself: compare p. 224 and note.
# 584:
_toward_] See note, p. 177.
# 585:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 586:
_Combe Park_] Lands so called in the parish of Kingston upon Thames: see Manning and Bray’s _Hist. of Surrey_, vol. i. p. 401.—In _The Black Book_ (reprinted in the last vol. of Middleton’s _Works_), Lucifer makes “a high thief on horseback” the “keeper of Combe Park.”
# 587:
_purchase_] See note, vol. i. p. 319.
# 588:
_Scene II._] Here in the old ed. no new scene is marked: after Pursenet had spoken the words “there will I meet him,” and thrown a scarf over his face (see what follows), the audience were to suppose that the stage represented Combe Park: vide note, p. 147.
# 589:
_ne’er_] Old ed. “never.”
# 590:
_injury_] So in _The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll_, 1600;
“Ashamed that you should _iniurie_ your estate To kneele to me.” Sig. H 2.
# 591:
_marks_] See note, p. 226.
# 592:
_any_] Has a word, which followed this, dropt out?
# 593:
_covetous_] Old ed. “courteous.”
# 594:
_purchase_] See note, vol. i. p. 319.
# 595:
_spur-royals_] See note, p. 260.
# 596:
_fire-drakes_] i.e. a sort of fire-works.
# 597:
_thy_] Qy. “my.”
# 598:
_pasture_] Qy. “pastime.”
# 599:
_her_] Old ed. “him.”
# 600:
_hist_] Old ed. “pist.”
# 601:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 602:
_pax_] See note, p. 24.
# 603:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 604:
_know_] Old ed. “knowes.”
# 605:
_standing_] A word that followed this seems to have dropt out.
# 606:
_again_] See note, p. 255.
# 607:
_I’m_] Old ed., “I am.”
# 608:
_Enter Fitsgrave and Gentleman_] Old ed. “_Enter two Gentlemen_:” but one of them is certainly Fitsgrave, who has put into the hands of his companion the letter which Pursenet had dropt: see the last line of sc. ii. of this act. Besides, the first speaker here declares that he has found “_three_ of the gallants;” and Fitsgrave, in act iv. sc. 5, says,
"The broker-gallant and the cheating-gallant, _Now I have found ’em all_."
# 609:
_shame_] Qy. “charm.”
# 610:
_faints_] Old ed. “faires.”
# 611:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 612:
_Yea, at your book so hard_] Perhaps it is hardly worth noticing, that, in the _Third Part of Henry VI._, act v. sc. 6, Gloster says to Henry,
“Good day, my lord: _what, at your book so hard_?”
# 613:
_Ex for ex_] Can this expression mean “_ecce_, for example?”
# 614:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 615:
_are_] Old ed. “were.”
# 616:
_Mitre-night_] See note, p. 248.—Had the giving of suppers to these ladies at the Mitre grown now to a custom?
# 617:
_struggling_] Old ed. “he thumps.”
# 618:
_lined_] May be right,—but qy. “limed.”
# 619:
_a chrisom_] i.e. an infant,—one who dies within the month of its birth, and is buried in the _chrisome_, a white cloth, an emblem of Christian innocency, which was thrown over it at baptism, and which it was to wear till the mother came to be purified, when the cloth was returned to the church.
Before the Reformation, in the old baptismal office, the _chrisom_ cloth was put on the child’s head, to prevent, according to Ducange _in Chrismate_, the holy oil (χρισμα) from running off.
Compare Shakespeare’s _Henry V._ act ii. sc. 3, where dame Quickly says of Falstaff, "’a made a finer end, and _went away an it had been any christom child_."
# 620:
_watchet_] i.e. light blue.
# 621:
_Enter a Servant_, &c.] The old ed. (in which the commencement of act iv. is marked much earlier, see note, p. 263) has, “_In the midst of the musick enter one bringing in_,” &c.
# 622:
_Wigmore’s galliard_] Is frequently mentioned by our early writers: see a galliard minutely described, note, vol. i. p. 65.
# 623:
_the chamber_] After these words the stage-direction in the old ed. is, “_The musicke plaies on a while, then enter Tailbee his man after trussing him_.”
# 624:
_trussing him_] i.e. tying his points: see note, vol. i. p. 367.
# 625:
_now down_] Old ed. “nowne.”
# 626:
_that’s_] Old ed. “whats.”
# 627:
_All-holland-tide_] i.e. All-hallows-tide: see note, p. 165.
# 628:
_Take_] Old ed. “Takes.”
# 629:
_disgested_] See note, p. 259.
# 630:
_lead_] Old ed. “lend.”
# 631:
_at her house_] Old ed. “at home, _at her house_;” see notes 241 and 244, p. 134.
# 632:
_Gol._] Old ed. “_Bung_.”
# 633:
_fig-frails_] i.e. fig-baskets.
# 634:
_steaks_] Compare vol. i. p. 336, where, as the present passage shews, the reading “_steaks_ of velvet” is right.
# 635:
_Pax_] See note, p. 24.
# 636:
_hangers_] See note, p. 227.
# 637:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 638:
_filed_] i.e. polished.
# 639:
_men’s_] Qy. "mends"—i.e. helps.
# 640:
_The Middle Aisle_, &c.] See note, vol. i. p. 418.
# 641:
_ram’s head_] As a crest, I suppose.
# 642:
_I’d know_] Old ed. “I knew.”
# 643:
_Do you walk, sir_?] Is in the old ed. the conclusion of Pursenet’s speech, whose exit with the Boy is not marked. As we subsequently learn (see pp. 297, 298) that the sharper had succeeded in his design on Pyamont’s gold, by falling into a pretended swoon, I cannot help suspecting that a portion of this scene has dropt out, and that the incident of the swoon took place here on the stage, after Pursenet had tried all other means of surprising Pyamont’s caution.
# 644:
_guess_] i.e. guests: see note, vol. i. p. 326.
# 645:
_vild_] See note, vol. i. p. 94.
# 646:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 647:
_a’ life_] See note, vol. i. p. 272.
# 648:
_jealous_] See note, p. 216.
# 649:
_Why, ye shall see a pretty story of a humour_] These words are given to Bungler in the old ed.
# 650:
_stay_] Old ed. “stray.”
# 651:
_maple-faced_] Whether this epithet is to be explained rough-faced, or brown-faced, or broad-faced, seems doubtful: see Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. vi. p. 156.
# 652:
_goldsmith_] When this drama was written, and indeed long after, goldsmiths acted as bankers:
“_Enter Trainsted with a purse of gold in his hand._ TRAINST. I have been with my goldsmith, and am well furnished to start hence.” Sir E. Howard’s _Man of Newmarket_, 1678, act i. sc. i.
# 653:
_how often I swooned_] See note, p. 291.
# 654:
_a good caudle_, &c.] Here again (see note, p. 151), Middleton seems to consider _caudle_ and a _cullis_ as the same thing. According to ancient receipts, fine gold and orient pearl are among the ingredients of the latter.
# 655:
_are_] Old ed. “is.”
# 656:
_I’d_] Old ed. “I would.”
# 657:
_conveyance_] i.e. sleight of hand,—a delicate term for stealing.
# 658:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 659:
_carkanet_] i.e. a collar of jewels, a necklace.
# 660:
_laid_] See note, p. 11.
# 661:
_goldsmith_] Old ed. “goldsmits.”
# 662:
_leese_] i.e. lose—(lose sight of Goldstone, I presume).
# 663:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 664:
_spur-royals_] See note, p. 260.
# 665:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 666:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 667:
_Let go, ’tis_] Old ed. “lets _go_ this.”
# 668:
_I’m glad in my soul, sir_] In the old ed. this speech is followed by a word printed in italics,—"_Gnawes_,"— which I presume is a stage-direction.
# 669:
_spur-royals_] See note, p. 260.
# 670:
_look, a’ ’s way_] Old ed. “lookt asway.”
# 671:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 672:
_Admirable_] Old ed. “Admirall.”
# 673:
_likes_] See note, p. 47.
# 674:
_stag’d_, &c.] Old ed. “_sta’gde? why what lacks Bowser, are you too well, too safe, an absolute scholler._”
# 675:
_We shall thrive_] An imperfect couplet: see notes, p. 7 of this vol., p. 424 of vol. i.
# 676:
_Pur._ _Little master Bouser_, &c.] Old ed. “_All._ _Little maister Bowser, sweete maister Bowser welcome ifaith._”
# 677:
_properties_] i.e. necessaries for the scene: in strict theatrical language, however, the term is applied to things, not to persons.
# 678:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 679:
_A Chamber_] The commencement of the scene would lead us to suppose that the place of action is Primero’s house: but that Fitsgrave’s friends should conceal themselves in a gallery there, to watch the proceedings of “the gallants,” is surely somewhat absurd.
# 680:
_twilight_, _twitter-lights_] Are, I believe, synonyms; and perhaps one of them ought to be struck out of the text. The latter is a word of rare occurrence; but we find it in our author’s _More Dissemblers besides Women_, “Come not till _twitter-light_,” act iii. sc. 1; and in the old play called _Wily Beguilde_, “What mak’st thou heere this _twatter light_?” Sig. E 3, ed. 1623.
# 681:
_You have a privilege from your hat_, &c.] An allusion to some regulation about dress, which I cannot explain: the reader may turn to Strutt’s _Dress and Habits_, &c., vol. ii. p. 316.
# 682:
_bean-flour bags_] Compare Eugenia’s speech in _The Old Law_, vol. i. p. 38.
# 683:
_others_] Old ed. “us.”
# 684:
_Third C._] Is perhaps the “Novice.”
# 685:
_When that good news_, &c.] Is given to “3.” in old ed.
# 686:
_Goldstone_, &c.] So the lines are divided in the old ed.: the measure is lost in the corruption of the text.
# 687:
_So will I_] Is given to “3.” in old ed.; but the Third Court. had “set her affections” on Tailby.
# 688:
_Here’s my_, &c.] Is given to “4.” in old ed.
# 689:
_Bun._] Old ed. "3."—but Bungler, as we find, is one of the party.
# 690:
_First G._ _What’s this?_ _Sec. G._ _Fooh_, &c.] One speech, given to “1.” in old ed.
# 691:
_word_] See note, p. 258.
# 692:
_high-men_] A cant term for false dice loaded so as always to produce high throws.
# 693:
_Bun._] Old ed. “3:” see note in the preceding page.
# 694:
_unvalued_] i.e. invaluable.
# 695:
_Pythagorical rascal_] Compare p. 85 and note.
# 696:
_This is my crown_, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see notes, p. 7 of this vol., p. 424 of vol. i.
# 697:
_be contained_] i.e. restrain yourselves—be not so impatient.
# 698:
_First the_, &c.] Given as part of Pursenet’s speech in old ed.
# 699:
_Right, sir_] Given to Fitsgrave in old ed.
# 700:
_unvalued_] See note, p. 314.
# 701:
_The Welsh leiger_] Compare p. 88 and note. _Leiger_ is a resident or ambassador at a foreign court.
# 702:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 703:
_Fit._] Old ed. “_Bungl._”
# 704:
_Fit._] Old ed. “_Purs._”
# 705:
_Pur._] Old ed. “_Boy_.”
# 706:
_Proceed_] Is part of the Boy’s speech in old ed.
# 707:
_Boy_] Old ed. “_Fits._”
# 708:
_Boy_] Old ed. “_Fits._”
# 709:
_corporis_] Old ed. “corpus.”
# 710:
_Pur._] Qy. “_Pri._”
# 711:
_shrieve_] i.e. sheriff: old ed. “Sheerse.”
# 712:
_charms_] Old ed. “swarmes.”
# 713:
_bandora_] A musical instrument resembling a guitar: see Sir J. Hawkins’ _Hist. of Music_, vol. iii. p. 345.
# 714:
_Enter the Masque_, &c.] Here, and a little after, I have given the stage-direction as it stands in the old ed., with some additions between brackets.
# 715:
_tell me_] i.e. acknowledge—if there be no corruption of the text.
# 716:
_you’re_] Old ed. “you are.”
# 717:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 718:
_under covert-baron_] See note, vol. i. p. 370.
# 719:
_Fit._] This prefix has dropt out in old ed.
# 720:
_Whom_] Old ed. “To _whom_.”
# 721:
Prefixed to the ed. of 1640.
# 722:
_twenty years_] A mistake: see p. 327.
# 723:
_J. S._] For whom the ed. of 1640 is printed.
# 724:
_I was as well given_, &c.] "Imitated from Shakespeare’s _First Part of K. Henry IV._ act iii. sc. 3, where Falstaff says, ‘I was as virtuously given as a gentleman need to be; virtuous enough: swore little; diced not above seven times a-week; went to a bawdy-house not above once in a quarter—of an hour; paid money that I borrowed, three or four times; lived well, and in good compass: and now I live out of all order, out of all compass.’" REED.
# 725:
_the flag’s down_] “On the tops of our ancient theatres were flags, which we may suppose to have been taken down during the season of Lent, when plays were not suffered to be represented.” STEEVENS.
# 726:
_no knight since one thousand six hundred_] “Alluding to the number of necessitous people who were created knights by king James after his accession.” REED.
# 727:
_the glory of his complement_] “i.e. the number of his servants. We still say of a ship full manned, that she has her full _complement_.” STEEVENS.
# 728:
_blue coats_] See note, p. 26.
# 729:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 730:
_fathoms_] See note, vol. i. p. 415.
# 731:
_first_] Dodsley and his editors read “_first_ rate.”
# 732:
_wittol_] i.e. tame cuckold.
# 733:
_to which himself gives aim_] i.e. which himself directs: see Gifford’s note on Massinger’s _Works_, vol. ii. p. 28, ed. 1813, where this passage is cited, and where the difference between the expressions _cry aim_ and _give aim_, both taken from archery, is accurately shewn: “he who _gave aim_ was stationed near the butts, and pointed out, after every discharge, how wide or how short the arrow fell of the mark.”
# 734:
_shirt_] Old eds. “skirt.”
# 735:
_common place_] A pun, I presume,—common-pleas.
# 736:
_slight_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 737:
_throw_] Old eds. “throwes.”
# 738:
_opinion_] “i.e. reputation.” REED.
# 739:
_recover’d_] Qy. “discover’d:” compare the third line of Harebrain’s next speech.
# 740:
_There’s_] Old ed. “There is.”
# 741:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 742:
_There’s_] Old ed. “there is.”
# 743:
_the leather-winged bat_] From Spenser’s _Faerie Queene_, b. ii. c. xii. st. 36.
"_The lether-winged batt_, dayes’ enimy."
# 744:
_Hero and Leander_, _Venus and Adonis_] The two well-known poems of Marlowe and Shakespeare.
# 745:
_the Resolution_] A once-celebrated (and excellent) work by Parsons the Jesuit, of which there are several editions. The title of the ed. now before me is, _A Book of Christian exercise apperteining to Resolution, that is, shewing how that wee shoulde resolue our selues to become Christians indeed. By R. P._ &c. 1585. 12mo. _Second Part_, 1591. 12mo. The 9th chapter of Part I. Book 1. of the former portion treats of hell-punishments.
# 746:
_I will_] Old eds. “Ile.”
# 747:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 748:
_Family_] i.e. the Family of Love: see p. 103.
# 749:
_She’s round with her, i’faith_] “i.e. she speaks plainly, in earnest to her.” STEEVENS.
# 750:
_they’re_] Old ed. “they are.”
# 751:
_slights_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 752:
_coted_] i.e. quoted.
# 756:
_Fondly_] i.e. foolishly.
# 753:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 754:
_th’ Master’s side_] See note, vol. i. p. 392.
# 755:
_to the third pile_] An allusion to the finest kind of velvet, called _three-pile_. “It seems to have been thought,” says Nares, quoting the present passage, “that there was a three-fold accumulation of the outer substance, or pile.” _Gloss._
# 757:
_Pollcut_] So ed. 1640: ed. 1608, “Pelcut.”
# 758:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 759:
_pair of organs_] i.e. the old expression for _an organ_.
# 760:
_Pooh!_ Laughs] Old eds. “Laughs, puh.”
# 761:
_call in my chief gentleman i’ th’ chain of gold_] “Stewards of noblemen and gentlemen of property used formerly to wear a gold chain.” REED.
# 762:
_bastard_] i.e. a sweet Spanish wine: there were two sorts, white and brown.
# 763:
_lord’s_] Old eds. “loue’s.”
# 764:
_blue coats_] See note, p. 26.
# 765:
_house_] Old eds. “houses.”
# 766:
_pair_] See note, p. 346.
# 767:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 768:
_consort_] i.e. company of musicians.
# 769:
_A song_, &c.] During which, the audience were to suppose that Sir Bounteous was feasting his guests.
# 770:
_Mawworm, Hoboy, and others_] Old eds. “_and his consorts_ [i.e. companions] _toward his lodging_.” I originally marked this scene “_a bed-chamber_;” but Sir Bounteous seems to accompany Follywit only to the door of his sleeping apartment.
# 771:
_for_] i.e. for fear of.
# 772:
_champion_] See note, p. 73.
# 773:
_champers_] i.e., perhaps, horses (bridle-_champers_). Nares’s conjecture (in _Gloss._), that “_champers_” in this passage means _eaters_, seems very absurd.
# 774:
_gilt_] Compare p. 197, where see note.
# 775:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 776:
_dag’s end_] “i.e. at a distance, as by a _sword_ or _pistol_ advanced against me. _Dag_ is an ancient word, signifying either the one or the other.” STEEVENS. Most commonly it means _pistol_; see vol. i. p. 249.
# 777:
_blacks_] “The common term formerly for mourning.” REED.
# 778:
_a noble_] See note, 17.
# 779:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 780:
_chief gentleman i’ th’ chain of gold_] See note, p. 347.
# 781:
_Exeunt_] Is not marked in the old eds., which, after Hoboy’s speech, have a stage-direction, “_Enter with Sir Bounteous in his night-gowne_.”
# 782:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 783:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 784:
_a knight of Windsor_] “i.e. one of the poor knights of Windsor.” REED.
# 785:
_purchase_] See note, vol. i. p. 319.
# 786:
_lie_] Old eds. “lies.”
# 787:
_take me with you, lady_] See note, p. 22.
# 788:
_sect_] See note, p. 134.
# 789:
_let gold_, &c.] See note, p. 298.
# 790:
_Footman_] That is, one of Follywit’s companions in disguise: see p. 345.
# 791:
_risse_] i.e. risen.
# 792:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 793:
_commodity_] i.e. advantage, profit.
# 794:
_Enter_, &c.] The only stage-direction in old eds. is “_Curtens drawn_.” See note, vol. i. p. 264.
# 795:
_spur-royals_] See note, p. 260.
# 796:
_guess_] i.e. guests: see note, vol. i. p. 326.
# 797:
_Exit_] After Mawworm’s speech in ed. 1640 is the following stage-direction, “_A Song, sung by the musitians, and after the Song, a Country dance, by the Actors in their Vizards to a new footing_.”
# 798:
_swag_] i.e. sink down,—in the balance.
# 799:
_And so deflowers her that was ne’er deflower’d_] The same play upon words we find in _Romeo and Juliet_, A. 4. S. 5.
——“See, there she lies, _Flower_ as she was, _deflowered_ by him. Death is my son-in-law,” &c. REED.
# 800:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 801:
_vild_] i.e. vile: see note, vol. i. p. 94.
# 802:
_luxury_] i.e. lewdness.
# 803:
_where_] i.e. whereas.
# 804:
_The Courtesan_, &c.] Old eds. “_The Curtizan on a bed, for her counterfeit fitt._”
# 805:
_foot-cloth_] See note, vol. i. p. 396. “It is observed by Mr. Steevens, that anciently _the housings_ of a horse, and sometimes a horse himself, were denominated _a foot-cloth_.” REED.
# 806:
_spiny_] i.e. thin, slender: see note, vol. i. p. 174.
# 807:
_refocillation_] “i.e. restoration of strength by refreshment.” STEEVENS.
# 808:
_Ah, hah_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Ah.”
# 809:
_that same oil of mace is a great comfort to both the counters_] See note, vol. i. p. 392. “A pun, alluding to the maces which were carried by the serjeants or varlets when they arrested people.” REED.
# 810:
_angel_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 811:
_purchase_] See note, vol. i. p. 319.
# 812:
_in_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “of.”
# 813:
_band_] Ed. 1640, “hand.”
# 814:
_scab_] So ed. 1640. Not in first ed.
# 815:
_officers_] Ed. 1640, “_officers_ and Projectors.”
# 816:
_I’d_] Old eds. “I would.”
# 817:
_e’er_] Old eds. “euer.”
# 818:
_minute_] So 1640. Ed. 1608, “munit.”
# 819:
_have_] Old eds. “hath.”
# 820:
_snobbing_] i.e. violent sobbing. Todd, in his ed. of Johns. _Dict._, gives “To _Snub_, to sob with convulsion.”
# 821:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 822:
_cullis_] See notes, pp. 151, 298.
# 823:
_A Room_] In the house of one of Follywit’s friends, as we learn during the scene.
# 824:
_muss_] “i.e. scramble.” REED.
# 825:
_rose-nobles_] See note, p. 253.
# 826:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 827:
_I’ve_] Old eds. “I haue.”
# 828:
_For his blanch’d harlot_] “i.e. his harlot, whose skin is _made white_ by the use of cosmetics.” STEEVENS.
# 829:
_gentleman_, &c.] See note, p. 347.
# 830:
_rounded_] i.e. whispered.
# 831:
_The rest_] Old eds. “_All._”
# 832:
_I’ve_] Old eds. “I haue.”
# 833:
_chinclout_] i.e. a sort of muffler, which covered the lower part of the face: see Douce’s _Illust. of Shakespeare_, vol. ii. p. 75.
# 834:
_kind_] i.e. nature.
# 835:
_making ready_] i.e. dressing: see note, p. 224.
# 836:
_half moons_] "The edition of 1640 has '_periwigs_,' as if it was not then understood why they were called _half moons_." COLLIER.
# 837:
_Cue_] “i.e. Kew.” REED.
# 838:
_a flag_] See note, p. 332.
# 839:
_bony scribes_] Ed. 1640, “_bony scribes_ and bony rags.”
# 840:
_Brothel_] Old eds. "Once-Ill"—which was, no doubt, the name originally given by Middleton to this character, and which, through an oversight, had remained unaltered in some parts of the MS. used for the press.
# 841:
_ready_] i.e. dressed: see note, p. 224.
# 842:
_much like your German clock_] An allusion to the cumbrous and complicated machinery of our first clocks, which came from Germany: see Gifford’s note, B. Jonson’s _Works_, iii. 432.
# 843:
_Enter Succubus in the shape of Mis. Harebrain_] Old eds. have “_Enter the Diuell in her shape_,” but prefix _Succubus_ to his speeches. Concerning the evil spirits called _Succubæ_,
————"that are said To put on feminine feature.... . \. . . . . . To draw men headlong with them to perdition,"
see that very curious work by Heywood, _The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels_, 1635, pp. 500, 542.
# 844:
_Shield me_, &c.] “See _Hamlet_. [‘Angels and ministers of grace defend us.’ Act i. sc. 4.]” STEEVENS.
# 845:
_tic’d_] i.e. enticed.—Old eds.
“_Was I_ entis’st _for this? to be soone reiected_.”
# 846:
_her_] i.e. of the hour—which I notice, because in the margin of an old copy now before me, some reader has conjectured “our.”
# 847:
_fadom_] i.e. fathom—so written for the sake of the rhyme.
# 848:
_Seiz’d_] "Both the quartos read _seard_; and again, _seare_ [first ed. ‘_ceare_’] in the next line. The alteration by Mr. Dodsley." REED. Compare p. 178 and note.
# 849:
_Harebrain_] Old eds. here, and the next speech, “Hargraue,” a name which Middleton had once given to this lady, and which he had neglected to alter in some parts of the MS. used by the printer: see also note, p. 404.
# 850:
_bums_] See note, vol. i. p. 432.
# 851:
_a linen cloth about her jaw_] i.e. the chinclout: see p. 381 and note.
# 852:
_It was suspected much in Monsieur’s days_] “By _Monsieur’s days_, I apprehend, the author means the time when the duke of Anjou resided in England. That prince, brother to Charles the Ninth, king of France, on the encouragement he had received from Queen Elizabeth, visited the English court in the year 1581, and expected to have been united to her majesty in marriage. The queen, however, after many affected delays, broke off the treaty; and the duke was obliged to return to his own country, with the disgrace of a direct refusal. _Monsieur’s days_ are mentioned again in _The Blacke Booke_, 1604, sign. C. ‘—let mercers then have conscionable thumbs when they measure out that smooth glittering devil, sattin, and that old reveller, velvet, in the _days of Monsieur_, both which have devoured many an honest field of wheat and barley.’” REED. The piece just cited is by Middleton, and will be found in the last vol. of the present work. So too in Marmyon’s _Fine Companion_, 1633, “Two or three dances, as old as _Mounsier_.” Sig. G 2.
# 853:
_queasy_] i.e. squeamish.
# 854:
_know_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “knew.”
# 855:
_cullis_] See notes, pp. 151, 298.
# 856:
_chain_] See note , p. 381.
# 857:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 858:
_Pusha_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 859:
_I’ve_] Old eds. “I haue.”
# 860:
_Onyx cum prole, silexque_] “From _Propria quæ maribus_.” STEEVENS.
# 861:
_pudding_] i.e. tobacco made up in a particular form.
# 862:
_vild_] Altered in the eds. of Dodsley’s Old Plays to the modern spelling “vile,” which destroys the (very poor) play on words.
# 863:
_waft_] i.e. flavour.
# 864:
_Knocking within_] Old eds. “Master Penitent Once-Ill _knocking within_:” see note, p. 384.
# 865:
_Harebrain_] Here, and throughout the scene, she and her husband are called “Hargraue” in the old eds.: see notes, pp. 388, 404.
# 866:
_likes me_] “i.e. pleases me.” REED.
# 867:
_assum’d thee formally_] “i.e. assumed thy form.” REED.
# 868:
_periwig_] When this play was written, _periwigs_ were much worn by ladies.
# 869:
_clips_] “i.e. embraces.” REED.
# 870:
_his_] Old eds. “her.”
# 871:
_e’er_] Old eds. “euer.”
# 872:
_e’er I’ve_] Old eds. “euer I haue.”
# 873:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 874:
_by your favour, ladies_] "The players of James the First’s time seem to have been as censurable for addressing the audience as any of their successors since. This speech is evidently not intended for the bawd, who now enters _alone_. In the same manner sir Bounteous speaks to the auditors, when he says, ‘An old man’s venery is very chargeable, my masters; there’s much cookery belongs to’t.’ [p. 390.]" REED.
# 875:
_peevish_] i.e. foolish.
# 876:
_have_] Old eds. “has.”
# 877:
_made women_] i.e. women whose fortunes are made.
# 878:
_hole_] i.e. hide.
# 879:
_She’ll_] Old eds. “she will.”
# 880:
_restraint upon_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “_restraint_ on’t _upon_.”
# 881:
_maid_] Old eds. “man.”
# 882:
_fear thee_] “i.e. affright thee.” REED.
# 883:
_resolv’d_] See note, p. 39.
# 884:
_no curious wooer_] For “_curious_” Dodsley chose to substitute “_furious!_” and Reed remarks that "_curious_ is probably the genuine reading; it may mean _inquisitive, prying!_"—_No curious wooer_ is, no wooer that uses nice, elegant, elaborate phrase.
# 885:
_trow_] See note, p. 26.
# 886:
_take her e’en_] Old eds. “_eene take her_.”
# 887:
_hundred_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “_hundred pound_.”
# 888:
_e’er_] Old eds. “euer.”
# 889:
_All Hollantide_] See note, p. 165.
# 890:
_clip_] See note, p. 397.
# 891:
_Enter Sir Bounteous_, &c.] Old eds. “_Enter_ busilie _Sir Bounteous Progresse_ for the feast.”
# 892:
_blue coats_] See note, p. 26.
# 893:
_Harebrain_] Here, and in the next speech of sir Bounteous, also in all the prefixes to Harebrain’s speeches in the following scene, the old eds. have “Shortrod;” one of the names which Middleton gave to the character, before he finally changed it to _Harebrain_: see note, p. 388.
# 894:
_share_] See Mr. Collier’s remarks “on the payment of actors,” _Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry_, vol. iii. p. 427: there were whole sharers, three-quarter sharers, half sharers, &c.
# 895:
_bastard_] See note, p. 347.
# 896:
_your_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “you.”
# 897:
_Mitre_] See note, p. 240.—In justice to Reed (see note in the last ed. of Dodsley’s _Old Plays_), I must observe, that _my_ copy of the first ed. has “Niter.”
# 898:
_Buz_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Buzy.”
# 899:
_Pox_] Old eds. “post.”
# 900:
_pilfer_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Gilfer.”
# 901:
_thee_] So ed. 1640. First ed. "him."
# 902:
_her_] So ed. 1640. First ed. "him."
# 903:
_Whew, whew_] So ed. 1640. First ed. "When, when," which, after all, may be right, as an exclamation of impatience for the performance of the play: see notes, vol. i. pp. 289, 361.
# 904: FOL. _Excellent well, sir_] So ed. 1640. Not in first ed.
# 905:
_and ne’er_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “and speake nere”.
# 906:
_shares_] See note, p. 406.
# 907:
_Har._] Old eds. in the prefixes to his speeches throughout this scene, “Shortrod:” see note, p. 404.
# 908:
_ycleped_] i.e. called.
# 909:
_like a bold Beacham_] _As bold as Beauchamp_ is a proverbial expression, said to have originated in the valour of Thomas, first earl of Warwick of that name, “who (says Ray, after Fuller), in the year 1346, with one squire and six archers, fought in hostile manner with an hundred armed men, at Hogges in Normandy, and overthrew them, slaying sixty Normans, and giving the whole fleet means to land.” _Proverbs_, p. 219, ed. 1742.—Follywit, however, seems to allude to one of the characters in a celebrated drama, produced before 1600, called _The bold Beauchamps_, which is frequently mentioned by our early writers: it no longer exists. The author of the false _Second Part of Hudibras_, 1663, canto 1. (in some lines quoted by Collier, _Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry_, vol. iii. p. 425), attributes it to Heywood; but his authority is of little weight.
# 910:
_ah, hah_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “_ah_.”
# 911:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 912:
_send for him to a supper_] “The custom for the prostitutes at a theatre afterwards to sup with the players, though not to invite them home to supper, is alluded to in Field’s _Amends for Ladies_, 1639 [act iii. sc. 4—first ed. in 1618]: a Drawer says, ‘I have been at Bess Turnup’s, and she swears all the gentlewomen went to see a play at the Fortune, and are not come in yet; and she believes they _sup with the players_.’” COLLIER.
# 913:
_two-penny room_] Or two-penny gallery: see Collier’s _Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry_, vol. iii. p. 343.
# 914:
_full of gentlemen_] That it was a common practice for youths of fashion to sit on stools upon the stage during the performance, is known from many passages of our old literature.
# 915:
_trow_] See note, p.26.
# 916:
_A_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Ha.”
# 917:
_vild_] See note, p. 393.
# 918:
_ditch_] i.e. worthless, vile. Ed. 1640 has “_an_ excellent _example for all_ dizzy _constables_.”
# 919:
_lets you_] “i.e. hinders you.” REED.
# 920:
_Gum._] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Nub.”
# 921:
_aches_] A dissyllable: see notes, vol. i. pp. 28, 45.
# 922:
_I’m ... I’m_] Old eds. “I am ... I am.” This line makes a couplet with what follows.
# 923:
_Faith, they were some counterfeit rogues ... they said they’d play_ The Slip] “We have here a play upon words very common in our ancient writers, and which will be totally unintelligible, unless it is remembered that _a slip_ was formerly the name of a piece of _counterfeit_ money.... Robert Greene’s _Thieves falling out, True Men come by their own_: ‘And therefore he went and got him certain _slips_, which are _counterfeit_ pieces of money, being brass, and covered over with silver, which the common people called _slips_.’” REED. See also Gifford’s note on Ben Jonson’s _Works_, vol. vi. p. 77.
# 924:
_mark_] See note, p. 226.
# 925:
_push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 926:
_kneeling after the play_] It was formerly the custom for the players, at the conclusion of the play, to kneel down and pray for their patrons: the royal companies for the king or queen, those of noblemen for the particular lord to whom they belonged.
# 927:
_vild_] See note, p. 393.
# 928:
_How_] So ed. 1640. First ed. “Home.”
# 929:
_properties_] See note, p. 308.
# 930:
_A prize, a prize_] Old eds. “_a_ peece, _a_ peece,” which in Dodsley’s _Old Plays_ is altered to “a peace, a peace.”
# 931:
_I’ve_] Old eds. “I haue.” This line is meant to form a couplet with the conclusion of Sir Bounteous’s speech and Harebrain’s question.
# 932:
_what is she for a fool_] i.e. what fool is she: see Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. iii. p. 397.
# 933:
_mark_] See note, p. 226.
# 934:
_We’ve_] Old eds. “We have.”
# 935:
_Exeunt omnes_] Ed. 1640 has “_Exeunt._
“_The end of the fifth and last Act: marching over the Stage hand in hand._”
# 936:
_The Catch_, &c.] Not found in first ed., is printed on the last leaf of ed. 1640.
# 937:
_Aristippus_] A sort of wine: see Randolph’s drama called _Aristippus, or the Jovial Philosopher_, 1635.
# 938:
_The Life and Death of Mrs. Mary Frith. Commonly Called Mal Cutpurse. Exactly Collected and now Published for the Delight and Recreation of all Merry disposed Persons._ _London_, 1662, 12mo. Prefixed to it is her portrait in a male dress (with an eagle, a lion, and an ape beside her), under which are these lines;
“See here the Presidesse o’th pilfring Trade, Mercuryes second, Venus’s onely Mayd, Doublet and breeches, in a Un’form dresse, The Female Humurrist, a Kickshaw messe: Heres no attraction that your fancy greets, But if her Features please not, read her Feats.”
Of this rare and curious volume a portion at least seems to be authentic.
# 939:
Note on _Twelfth Night_, act i. sc. 3,— _Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. xi. p. 357.
# 940:
Note on _id._, ibid.
# 941:
Smith’s _Lives of Highwaymen, &c._ vol. ii. p. 142, ed. 1719.
# 942:
See a note, signed N., _From a MS. in the British Museum_, (what a reference!) in Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, vol. xii. p. 398, ed. 1780.
# 943:
_Biog. Hist. of Engl._ vol. ii. p. 408, ed. 1775.
# 944:
Note on _Twelfth Night_, act i. sc. 3,—Malone’s _Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. xi. p. 356.
# 945:
This excellent comedy has been reprinted by Mr. Collier in a supplementary volume to Dodsley’s _Old Plays_.
# 946:
“Mulsack the chimney-sweeper” is mentioned as one of Moll’s companions in her _Life_, p. 82.
# 947:
_were_] Old ed. “was.”
# 948:
_termers_] Here Reed cites a passage from Dekker’s _Belman of London_, concerning those rogues that “_are called_ TERMERS _and they ply Westminster-hall: Michaelmas Terme is their harvest_:” see also my note, p. 107. I may observe, however, that _termer_ did not always mean a person of ill repute: “with a countrey gentleman or _Tearmer_.” _Greene’s Ghost Haunting Conicatchers_, 1626, sig. D 3.
# 949:
_for sixpence_] “The price of a play at this time.” _Id._
# 950:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 951:
_vast theatre_] i.e. the Fortune, in Golden or Golding Lane, St. Giles’s, Cripplegate. It was built by Henslowe, and Alleyn (the founder of Dulwich College), in 1599-1600. It was eighty feet square on the outside, and fifty-five feet square within. It was destroyed by fire in 1621. See Collier’s _Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry_, vol. iii. p. 302.
# 952:
_beside_] Old ed. “besides.”
# 953:
_a trencher_] "At this time pewter was not introduced into common use. Our ancestors were content with wooden trenchers, and these were even to be found at the tables of our nobility and persons of good fashion. Among the orders for household servants, devised by John Haryngton, 1566, and renewed by his son, 1592, it is directed, ‘That no man waite at the table without _a trencher_ in his hand, except it be uppon good cause, on paine of 1_d._’ _Nugæ Antiquæ_, vol. ii. p. 267, ed. 1779. See also the _Northumberland Household-Book_, p. 354. _Trenchers_ are still used in some colleges and inns-of-court, particularly in Lincoln’s-Inn." REED.
# 954:
_falling bands_] See note, p. 218.—“In Evelyn’s _Discourse on Medals_, 1697, p. 108, is the head of Charles I. crowned, in the garter-robes, and wearing _a falling band_; ‘which new mode,’ says Mr. Evelyn, ‘succeeded the cumbersome ruff: but neither did the bishops or judges give it over so soon, the Lord Keeper Finch being, I think, the very first.’” REED.
# 955:
_ingeniously_] i.e. sincerely: _ingenious_ is frequently used for _ingenuous_ by our old writers: “reasons ... which, I must _ingeniously_ confesse, were both many and weighty.” Brathwait’s _Honest Ghost_, 1658, p. 46.
# 956:
_dined_] Old ed. “dyed.”
# 957:
_bond_] Was formerly synonymous with _band_. See notes, vol. i. pp. 245, 481.
# 958:
_marks_] See note, p. 226.
# 959:
_that_] Old ed. “that’s.”
# 960:
_Adam Bell_] An outlaw, famous for his archery: see the beautiful ballad of _Adam Bel, Clym of the Cloughe and Wyllyam of Cloudesle_, of which the most correct text is in Ritson’s _Pieces of An. Pop. Poetry_.
# 961:
_naughty pack_] In a note on this passage Reed says, “a _pack_ was formerly a name given to a lewd woman,” and that “it was also sometimes applied to the male sex.” The fact is, _naughty pack_ was a term of reproach applied commonly both to men and women.
# 962:
_fond_] i.e. foolish.
# 963:
_baffle_] Meant formerly to treat with insult, or mockery, or contempt. “Our names should be _baffuld_ on euery booke-sellers stall.” Nash’s _Pierce Pennilesse_, sig. D 4, ed. 1595. “When he had _baffuld_ mee in print throughout England.” Nash’s _Haue with you to Saffron-walden_, sig. T 2, 1596.
“Prithee, good Fido, goe and baffull him: Put an affront vpon him.” Marmyon’s _Fine Companion_, sig. F, 1633.
# 964:
_watermen_] “Taylor the water-poet asserts, that at this time, between Windsor and Gravesend, there were not fewer than forty thousand watermen.” REED.
# 965:
_goll_] A cant term for hand—fist, paw.
# 966:
_roaring boy_] See prefatory matter, p. 427.
# 967:
_what is’t you lack_] See note, vol. i. p. 447.
# 968:
_minces tobacco_] When this play was written tobacco was sold by apothecaries:
"Or in th’ Apothicaryes shop bee seene To wrap Druggs, or to dry Tobacco in."
_Certain Elegies, with [Fitz Geffrey’s] Satyrs and Epigrams_, 1620, sig. G 4.
# 969:
_bankrout_] i.e. bankrupt.
# 970:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 971:
_striker_] i.e. wencher.
# 972:
_as a naked boy in a phial_] “I suppose he means an abortion preserved in spirits.” STEEVENS.
# 973:
_make_] Old ed. “makes.”
# 974:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 975:
_bear her in hand_] i.e. keep her in expectation.
# 976:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 977:
_But is this, &c._] “She gives him money, and he pretends that he receives only tobacco from Mrs. Gallipot.” COLLIER.
# 978:
_drink_] To _drink_ (i.e. smoke) tobacco was a very common expression.
# 979:
_Paul’s_] See note, vol. i. p. 418.
# 980:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 981:
_the twelvepenny-stool gentlemen_] i.e. gentlemen who pay twelvepence for a stool to sit upon the stage during the performance: see note, p. 412. This is one of the passages which led Malone to think that “persons were suffered to sit on the stage only in the private playhouses (such as Blackfriars, &c.)” _Hist. Acc. of Engl. Stage_, p. 78—_Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. iii.: but Mr. Collier has shewn that the practice was not confined to private theatres: _Hist. of Engl. Dr. Poetry_, vol. iii. p. 352.
# 982:
_hench-boy_] i.e. page.
# 983:
_mouse_] See note, p. 137.
# 984:
_resolve_] i.e. satisfy.
# 985:
_gear_] i.e. stuff.
# 986:
_saveguard_] i.e., properly, a sort of large petticoat, worn by women over the other clothes, to protect them from soiling.
# 987: GOS. _Moll, Moll!_ ]One speech in old ed., with the GREEN. _Pist, Moll!_ ]prefix "_All._"—The exclamation “pist” again occurs at p. 468. I unnecessarily altered it into “hist” at p. 268.
# 988:
_beholding_] See note, vol. i. p. 441.
# 989:
_buona roba_] See note, vol. i. p. 258.
# 990:
_and_] i.e. if.
# 991:
_sew_] Old ed. “sowes.”
# 992:
_Brainford_] The old form of _Brentford_.
# 993:
_push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 994:
_angels_] See note, vol. i. p. 250.
# 995:
_Saint Antling’s bell_] See note, vol. i. p. 503.—“At St. Antholin’s church there used to be a lecture early in the morning, which was much frequented by the puritans of the times.” REED.
# 996:
_spittle_] i.e. hospital. “The reuenge was common as the Law, or as the blowes of a _Spittle_ whore.” _The Owles Almanacke_ (by Dekker), 1618, p. 18.—Gifford wished to make a distinction between _spittle_ and _spital_ (note on Massinger’s _City Madam_, act iii. sc. 1); but see Todd’s Johnson’s _Dict._, and Nares’s _Gloss._ in v.
# 997:
_burgh_] Or _burre_ is “a broad ring of iron behind the handle [of a tilting lance], which burre is brought into the sufflue or rest, when the tilter is ready to run against his enimy, or prepareth himself to combate or encounter his adverse party.” R. Holme’s _Acad. of Armoury_, cited by Nares, _Gloss._ in v.
# 998:
_the high German’s size_] So afterwards, in act iii. sc. 1, Moll exclaims,
"a name which I’d tear out From _the high German’s_ throat &c.,
where Reed remarks, “He seems to have been noted for his extraordinary strength, and is probably the same person mentioned in _The Curtaine Drawer of the World_, 1612, 4to. p. 27. ‘Aske but this Curtaine Drawer and he will tell you, that few there are, and those escape very hardly like the bird out of the snare, like _the German_ out of Woodstreet, or those that commit murder, or like him that escapes the hangman from the tree of execution.’” Nares (_Gloss._ in _German_, _High_,) says, he was "probably a tall German, shown for a sight ... I do not agree with the editor [Reed], that the same person is meant by the German ‘who escaped out of Woodstreet.’ The _high German_ must have been some man generally known for strength or size; that the same person should also have had a very narrow escape from Wood Street, is possible to be sure, but very improbable. Perhaps the _high German_ was the famous fencer, whose feats are thus recorded: ‘Since the _German fencer_ cudgelled most of our English fencers, now about 5 moneths past.’ ["a moneth past"—in my copy, p. 7.] _Owle’s Almanacke_ [by Dekker], publ. 1618, p. 6. High German may, however, be only in opposition to low German, or Dutch; as, for a long time, _high German_ quack doctors were in repute."
# 999:
_same wine_] i.e. bastard: see note, p. 347.
# 1000:
_pist_] See note, p. 460.
# 1001:
_pigsnie_] i.e. little pig—a term of endearment.
# 1002:
_Push_] See note, vol. i. p. 29.
# 1003:
_at Parlous Pond_] “This, I imagine, is the same place now called _Peerless Pool_. It is situated near Old-street Road, and was formerly a spring that, overflowing its banks, caused a very dangerous pond, which, from the number of persons who lost their lives there, obtained the name of _Perilous Pool_. To prevent these accidents, it was in a manner filled up until the year 1743, when it was enclosed, and converted into a bathing-place.” REED. _Parlous_ is a corruption of _perilous_.
# 1004:
_Hey, trug_, &c.] “I suppose _Trug_ is the name of the spaniel whom he is sending into the water to hunt ducks; or else that he means to say _trudge, trudge_.” STEEVENS. Perhaps _trug_ is equivalent to bitch: see note, p. 222.
# 1005:
_Come, let’s away_, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see notes, p.7 of this vol. and p. 424 of vol. i.
# 1006:
_two-leav’d tongues_] Old ed. “_two leaud tongues_.” The last editor of Dodsley’s _Old Plays_ printed “two lewd tongues,”—_leaud_ being, as he thinks, the old spelling of _lewd_. Qy. “_two_ loud?”
# 1007:
_Virginia_] “Great efforts were used about this time to settle Virginia.” REED.
# 1008:
_And so_, &c.] A quotation, probably.
# 1009:
_long coats_, &c.] i.e. petticoats: in some parts of Scotland they are still worn by male idiots of the lowest class.
# 1010:
_great Dutch slop_] i.e. large wide breeches.
# 1011:
_towards_] i.e. in preparation.
# 1012:
_Many one_, &c.] A word, perhaps a line, wanting here.
# 1013:
_good man’s_] This seems to be an allusion to the proverbial saying, “God’s a good man:” see _Much ado about Nothing_, act iii. sc. 5, Malone’s _Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. vii. p. 104, and Steevens’s note.
# 1014:
_give but aim_] See note, p. 335.
# 1015:
_tester_] i.e. a sixpence: see note, vol. i. p. 258.
# 1016:
_phrampel_] “_Phrampel_ here appears to signify _fiery_ or _mettlesome_.” REED. It is written also _frampold_, _frampul_, &c., and generally signifies vexatious, saucy, peevish, &c.
# 1017:
_vild_] See note, p. 393.
# 1018:
_baffle_] See note, p. 449. In _The Devil is an Ass_,