Part 35
_comfort_] “The old copy has _consort_, which induced Coxeter to give the speech to Hippolita. I have little doubt but that the mistake is in this word, which should be _comfort_, as it stands in the text: by this term the fond parent frequently addresses his children. In the mouth of Leonides, too, it forms a natural reply to the question of Cleanthes, who then turns to make the same demand of his wife.”—GIFFORD.
# 242:
_That only_, &c.] This and the next line are transposed in the old ed.
# 243:
_lightness_] Old ed. “lightning.”]
# 244:
_propension_] Old ed. “proportion.”
# 245:
_to afford_] Old ed. “t’afford.”
# 246:
_Has_] i. e. he has. See note, p. 72.
# 247:
_That cries most_, &c.] “Our old poets abound in allusions to this stratagem of the lapwing.”-GIFFORD.
# 248:
_make_] Old ed. “makes.”
# 249:
_me_] Old ed. “a _mee_.”
# 250:
_affliction_] Old ed. “affection.”
# 251:
_his_] Old ed. “this.”
# 252:
_comforts_] Old ed. “consorts:” see p. 84, and note.
# 253:
——_blood_; _The sorrows_, &c.]
Old ed.
——“_blood_, to _The sorrows that he feels, are our heads_.”
# 254:
_thee_] Old ed. “him.”
# 255:
_her_] Old ed. “their.”
# 256:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 257:
_Clean._] Old ed. “Hip.”
# 258:
_eleven_] Old ed. “leaven.”
# 259:
_fellow_] Old ed. “follow.”
# 260:
_sit_] Old ed. “set.”
# 261:
_an_] Old ed. “one.”
# 262:
_vild_] i. e. vile—a form of the word common in our early poetry.
# 263:
_Their fathers_] Old ed. “Her father.”
# 264:
_Widow_] Old ed. “Widdows.”
# 265:
_Sim._] So Gifford. The old ed. gives this to Eugenia.
# 266:
_Ere_] Old ed. “Ever.”
# 267:
_You_] Old ed. “We.”
# 268:
_ne’er touch’d by razor_] Old ed. “new _tucht by_ reason.” The emendation is M. Mason’s.
# 269:
_To call you judges doth not suit your years, Nor heads and beards shew more antiquity_;—] “Mr. M. Mason reads,
_To call you judges doth not suit your years, Nor heads; and brains shew more antiquity._
It is evident that he did not comprehend the sense, which, though ill conceived and harshly expressed, is,—You have not the years of judges, nor do your heads and _beards_ (old copy, _brains_) shew more of age.”—GIFFORD.
# 270:
_beauty serves_] Old ed. “beautifeaus.”
# 271:
_bold_] Old ed. “of old.”
# 272:
—— _turn the soul_] “So the old copy: Coxeter and Mr. M. Mason read, _turn the_ scale, which has neither the spirit nor the sense of the original.”—GIFFORD.
# 273:
_yourselves_] Old ed. “yourselfe.”
# 274:
_forward for thee without fee_] So Gifford. Old ed. has “_forward fee thee_,” and gives “_without fee_” as a stage-direction, in the margin.
# 275:
_Times of amazement_! _what duty, goodness dwell_—] “Mr. M. Mason takes this for a complete sentence, and would read, _Where do you goodness dwell?_ In any case the alteration would be too violent; but none is needed here. Hippolita sees the woman who betrayed her approaching, breaks off her intended speech with an indignant observation, and hastily retires from the court.”—GIFFORD.
# 276:
_My stomach_ strives _to dinner_.] “This is sense, and therefore I have not tampered with it: the author probably wrote, _My stomach_ strikes _to dinner_.”—_Id._
# 277:
_Dutch venny_] Compare p. 66, 67. Gifford gives “_Dutch_ what-you-call;” and perhaps rightly, as the names of the other two “wet vennies” follow.
# 278:
_pepper’d_] Old ed. “prepard.”
# 279:
_A Flourish_, &c.] Old ed.
“Florish. _Duk._ A flemish. _Enter the Duke._”
# 280:
FIRST] Old ed. “2.”
# 281: EVAN. _Nay, back t’ your seats_] “The old copy reads, _Nay_, bathe _your seats_; out of which Mr. M. Mason formed _keep_; Davis, _take_; and every one may make what he can. I believe the young men were pressing forward to receive the duke, and that his exclamation was, as above, _Nay_, back t’ _your seats_.”—GIFFORD. This line is given in the old ed. to “_2 Court_.”
# 282: SECOND COURT. _May’t please_, &c.] Old ed.
“_Duk._ May’t please your highness. _Sim._ ’Tis old Lisander.”
# 283:
_else_] So Gifford. Old ed. “as are.”
# 284: EUG. _Your place above_] Old ed.
“_Hip._ Your place above—Duke—away to death with him. _Cleanthes_ Guard.”
I have followed Gifford in this scene.
# 285:
_car’d_] Old ed. “guard.” What is now given to Lysander forms part of Simonides’s speech in old ed.
# 286: EVAN. _Away_, &c.] See note 284 in this page.
# 287:
_offender_] Old ed. “offenders.”
# 288:
_order_] Old ed. “orders.”
# 289:
_swoon_] Old ed. “stand.”
# 290:
[_spreading_] _palm_] “I have inserted _spreading_, not merely on account of its completing the verse, but because it contrasts well with _contracted_. Whatever the author’s word was, it was shuffled out of its place at the press, and appears as a misprint (_showdu_) in the succeeding line.”—GIFFORD.
# 291:
_of_] Old ed. “to.”
# 292:
_our_] Old ed. “one.”
# 293:
_And much less mean to entreat it_] “For _mean_ the old copy has _shown_, which is pure nonsense: it stands, however, in all the editions. I have, I believe, recovered the genuine text by adopting _mean_, which was superfluously inserted in the line immediately below it.”—GIFFORD.
# 294:
_humour_] Old ed. “honour.”
# 295:
_My lords, it shall_] “i. e. it shall _be briefly questioned_. This would not have deserved a note, had not Mr. M. Mason mistaken the meaning, and corrupted the text to, _My lords_, I _shall_.”—_Id._
# 296:
_you_] Old ed. “them.”
# 297:
_godlike_] Old ed. “_goe like_.”
# 298:
_We’ve_] Old ed. “We have.”
# 299:
_we’re_] Old ed. “wee are.”
# 300:
_It is_] Old ed. “’Tis.”
# 301:
_a_] Old ed. “him.”
# 302:
_bad_] Old ed. “a _bad_.”
# 303:
_you’re_] Old ed. “yeare.”
# 304:
_’gainst_] Old ed. “against.”
# 305:
_judge, I desire, then_] Old ed. “_judge then, I desire_.”
# 306:
_This were_, &c.] “i. e. O, that this were, &c. But, indeed, this speech is so strangely printed in the quarto, that it is almost impossible to guess what the writer really meant. The first three lines stand thus:
CLEAN. _This were the judgment seat, we now The heaviest crimes that ever made up Unnaturalness in humanity._
Whether the genuine, or, indeed, any sense be elicited by the additions which I have been compelled to make, is not mine to say; but certainly some allowance will be made for any temperate endeavour to regulate a text where the words, in too many instances, appear as if they had been shook out of the printer’s boxes by the hand of chance.”—GIFFORD.
# 307:
_like_] Old ed. “lyar.”
# 308:
_they’re_] Old ed. “y’are.”
# 309:
_Here_] Old ed. “Where.”
# 310:
_come you_] Old ed. “_you come_.”
# 311:
_you are_] Old ed. “y’are.”
# 312:
_he’s_] Old ed. “he is.”
# 313: SIM.] Old ed. “_Clean._”
# 314:
_pox_] Old ed. “a _pox_.”
# 315: CLEAN.] Old ed. “_Sim._”
# 316: SIM.] Old ed. “_Clean._”
# 317:
_vild_] See note, p. 94.
# 318:
_may challenge them_] Old ed. “my _challenge_ then.”
# 319: CREON.] Old ed. “_Cle._”
# 320: CREON.] Old ed. “_Cle._”
# 321:
_place_] Old ed. “places.”
# 322:
_mature_] Old ed. “nature.”
# 323: CLEAN.] What is now assigned to Cleanthes is given to First Courtier in the old ed.
# 324:
_shall_] Old ed. “whom it _shall_.”
# 325:
[_shall appear before us_] “Whether the words which I have inserted convey the author’s meaning, or not, may be doubted; but they make some sense of the passage, and this is all to which they pretend.”—GIFFORD.
# 326:
_band_] So Gifford. Old ed. “baud.”—Qy. did the author write “_The old_ bald sires _again_?”
# 327:
_May_] Old ed. “My.”
# 328:
_crowd on_] i. e. fiddle on. A fiddle is still called a _crowd_ in many parts of England.
# 329:
_hat is_] Old ed. “hats.”
# 330:
_as he is my sovereign, I do give him two crowns for it_, &c.] “Here is some poor pun. A sovereign was a gold coin worth _ten_ shillings; or, is the wit in some fancied similarity of sound between _duke_ and _ducat_ (a piece of the same value as the other)?”—GIFFORD.
# 331:
_you will_] Old ed. “you’l.”
# 332:
_goes_] Old ed. “_goes_ out.”
# 333:
_the_] Old ed. “a.”
# 334:
_Crowd on_] See note, p. 110.
# 335:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 336:
_Gnotho_] Old ed. “Gnothoes.”
# 337:
_at_] Old ed. “to.”
# 338:
_Gnotho_] Old ed. “Gnothoes.”
# 339:
_that_] Old ed. “where _that_.”
# 340:
_trumpet_] Old ed. “trumpets.”
# 341:
_hop’d it had_] Old ed. “hope t’ _had_.”
# 342:
_Gnotho_] Old ed. “Gnothoes.”
# 343:
_This passion has given some satisfaction yet_] “i.e. this pathetic exclamation: it is parodied in part from _the Spanish Tragedy_, and is, without all question, by far the stupidest attempt at wit to which that persecuted play ever gave rise. That it afforded _some satisfaction_ to Lysander, ought, in courtesy, to be attributed to his having more good nature than taste.”—GIFFORD.
# 344:
_All hopes_, &c.] Gifford has given the four first lines of this speech as verse, and I follow him. The rhymes seem to have been lost in the wretched corruption of the text.
# 345:
_my_] Old ed. “our.”
# 346:
_but_] Old ed. “fashion, _but_.”
# 347:
_were_] Old ed. “have.”
# 348:
_return_] Old ed. “retaine.”
# 349:
_bind_] Old ed. “bound.”
# 350:
_regent_] Old ed. “regents.”
# 351:
_grow_] Old ed. “grew.”
# 352:
_joy_] Old ed. “joyed.”
# 353:
_Gentlemen, &c._] The publisher’s address to the readers.
# 354:
An allusion to the suppression of the theatres by the Puritans.
# 355:
“Huntingdon, the place where Oliver Cromwell was born, and resided many years of his life. Some allusion here seems to be lost.”—REED.
# 356:
_Raynulph_] “Raynulph Higden was the compiler of the Polychronicon, as far as the year 1357, thirty-first of Edward III. It was translated into English by Trevisa, and completed and printed by Caxton in folio, 1482.”—REED.
# 357:
_agen_] The old spelling of _again_, and necessary here for the sake of the rhyme: compare p. 416.
# 358:
_apaid_] i. e. satisfied, contented.
# 359:
_Before a Monastery_] The place of action is not noted in the old ed., and Middleton seems to have troubled himself little about the matter. After some hesitation, I have marked the present scene “_Before a Monastery_,” on account of what Constantius says at p. 131:
“in mind I will be always _here_; _here_ let me stay.”
That the scene cannot be _within_ the monastery, is shewn by the entrance of the two Graziers.
# 360:
_They’re_] Old ed. “They are.”
# 361:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 362:
_We’re_] Old ed. “we are.”
# 363:
_Who’s_] Old ed. “Who is.”
# 364:
_general peace_] Compare p. 127, l. 12.
# 365:
_acts_] Old ed. “actions:” so afterwards in Act iii. Sc. i. the old ed. has “If I ensnare her in an _action_ of lust.”
# 366:
_requite_] Old ed. “require.”
# 367:
_preas’d_] i. e. pressed. Old ed. “prais’d.” _Prease_ for _press_ is very common in our early poets.
# 368:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 369:
_e’er_] Old ed. “ever.”
# 370:
_’t_] Old ed. “it.”
# 371:
_remorse_] i. e. pity.
# 372:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 373:
_thy_] Old ed. “the.”
# 374:
_we’d_] Old ed. “wee’ld.”
# 375:
_recover’t_] Old ed. “recovered.”
# 376:
_like_] i. e. please.
# 377:
_you’ve_] Old ed. “You have.”
# 378:
_enter_] Old ed. “enters.”
# 379:
_passion_] i. e. sorrow.
# 380:
_you’re_] Old ed. “you are.”
# 381:
_rushes_] “With which anciently rooms used to be strewed.”—REED.
# 382:
_Byrlady_] i. e. By our lady.
# 383:
_seems by my flesh_] An allusion to a very gross saying, which will be found in Ray’s _Proverbs_, p. 179, ed. 1737.
# 384:
_We’re_] Old ed. “We are.”
# 385:
_nice_] i. e. scrupulous.
# 386:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 387:
_like_] i. e. please.
# 388:
_You’ve_] Old ed. “You have.”
# 389:
_there is_] Old ed. “there’s.”
# 390:
_That is ... of’t_] Old ed. “that’s ... of it.”
# 391:
_o’er ... ne’er_] Old ed. “over ... never.”
# 392: CAST.] Old ed. “_Const._”
# 393:
_lamp_] Old ed. “lump.”
# 394:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 395:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 396:
_they’d_] Old ed. “they’ld.”
# 397:
_they’re_] Old ed. “they are.”
# 398:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 399:
_are_] Old ed. “is.”
# 400:
_We’ve_] Old ed. “we have.”
# 401:
_You will_] Old ed. “Will you.”
# 402:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 403:
_You’d_] Old ed. “Youl’d.”
# 404:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 405:
_of’t_] Old ed. “of it.”
# 406:
_I’m strong_] Old ed. “I am stronger.”
# 407:
_And warranted worth lightens your fair aspècts_] “Alluding to the story of Pope Gregory’s admiring the beauty of the English youths at Rome. Beda, Hist. c. i.”—REED. I believe the author has no such allusion.
# 408:
_Stay_[_s_] Qy. “_stains_;” i. e. brings into disgrace, exceeds?—a common use of the word in our early writers.
# 409:
_They’ve_] Old ed. “they have.”
# 410:
_fame_] Old ed. “same.”
# 411:
_condition_] i. e. disposition, or (as he has just said) humour.
# 412:
_Why_, &c.] Qy. “Why, _will’t_ not keep a hog?”
# 413:
_fruitful ... uberous_] Synonymes.
# 414:
_take you_] Old ed. “you take.”
# 415:
_’bout_] Old ed. “about.”
# 416:
no proof in love to indiscretion] i. e. I suppose,—no trial compared to that which is occasioned by the indiscretion of the object beloved.
# 417:
_imposterous_] i. e. deceitful, cheating. The word occurs in several of our early writers. Dodsley and his editors chose to give the line thus:
“For when th’art known to be a whore, _impostress_.”
# 418:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 419:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 420:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 421:
_conceit_] i. e. conception, idea.
# 422:
_love’s_] Old ed. “love is.”
# 423:
_he’s_] Old ed. “he is.”
# 424:
_’Gainst_] Old ed. “Against.”
# 425:
_cast_] i. e. contrived.
# 426:
_The true man_] i. e. the honest man—an expression used in opposition to a thief.
# 427:
_let_] i. e. hinderance.
# 428:
_and_] Old ed. “_and_ thy.”
# 429:
_you’d_] Old ed. “youl’d.”
# 430:
_with’t_] Old ed. “with it.”
# 431:
_practice_] i. e. artifice, insidious design.
# 432:
_act_] Old ed. “action.” See note, p. 129.
# 433: VORT.] This speech in the old ed. is given to Horsus.
# 434:
_ne’er_] Old ed. “never.”
# 435:
_I’ve ... on’t_] Old ed. “I have ... on it.”
# 436:
_practice_] See note, p. 160.
# 437:
_garden-house_] When this play was written, gardens with summer-houses in them were very common in the suburbs of London. These buildings were often used as places of intrigue.
# 438:
_conceit_] i. e. conceive.
# 439:
_bestow’t_] Old ed. “bestow it.”
# 440:
_against the hair_] i. e. against the grain, contrary to nature.
# 441:
_night-rails_] i. e. night-gowns.
# 442:
_rack_] A friend would read “crack”—unnecessarily, I think.
# 443:
_that’s_] Old ed. “that is.”
# 444:
_cruelly_] Old ed. “cruelty.”
# 445:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 446:
_pluck’t_] Old ed. “_pluck_ it.”
# 447:
_where_] i. e. whereas.
# 448:
_by’t_] Old ed. “by it.”
# 449:
_conceit_] i. e. fancy.
# 450:
_A Chamber in a Castle_ Not in the castle, of which Hengist immediately proceeds to speak. As the Barber presently says of Simon and Oliver, “here they come both in a pelting chafe from the town-house,” the
## scene must be at or near Queenborough.
# 451:
_ne’er_] Old ed. “never.”
# 452:
_’gainst_] Old ed. “against.”
# 453:
_ascends first_] Old ed. “_first ascends_.”
# 454:
_Here’s no sweet coil._] “It is observed by Dr. Warburton (see note to 1st part _Henry_ 4th, A. 5, S. 3.), that in Shakespeare’s time the negative in common speech was used to design, ironically, the excess of a thing; and this assertion is fully confirmed by the several examples produced by Mr. Steevens in proof of it.” REED.
# 455:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 456:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 457:
_Sir-reverence_] A corruption of _save-reverence_, _salvâ reverentiâ_. See Nares in v.
# 458:
_towards_] i. e. at hand, forthcoming.
# 459:
_scorn’d the motion_] Here S. P., an annotator in Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, wishes unnecessarily to read “mention.” Middleton has the same expression elsewhere; and so in Beaumont and Fletcher’s _Cupid’s Revenge_, act iv. sc. 3.
“_3 Cit._ You had best Go peach; do, peach! _2 Cit._ Peach? _I scorn the motion._”
# 460:
_callymoocher_] A term of reproach, which I cannot explain.
# 461:
_ale-conner_] “Or ale-taster, an officer appointed in every court leet to look to the assize and goodness of bread, ale, and beer.” Kersey’s _Dict._—See also Robinson’s _Hist. of Tottenh._ p. 241, quoted by Nares in v.
# 462:
_spiny baldrib_] i. e. a thin slender fellow, with little flesh on his ribs.
# 463:
_cittern_] “A lute or _cittern_ formerly used to be part of the furniture of a barber’s shop, and, as Sir John Hawkins, in his notes on Walton’s _Complete Angler_, p. 236, observes, answered the end of a newspaper, the now common amusement of waiting customers. In an old book of enigmas, to every one of which the author has prefixed a wooden cut of the subject of the enigma, is a barber, and the cut represents a barber’s shop, in which there is one person sitting in a chair under the barber’s hands, while another, who is waiting for his turn, is playing on the lute; and on the side of the shop hangs another instrument of the lute or _cittern_ kind.”—REED.
# 464:
_throughly_] Modernised unnecessarily by Dodsley into _thoroughly_.
# 465:
_sack-buts_] A play on the meaning of the word—_musical instruments_, and _buts of sack_.
# 466:
_Exeunt_, &c.] Old ed. “_Exit cum suis._”
# 467:
_hear_] Old ed. “_hear_ her.”
# 468:
_They’ve_] Old ed. “They have.”
# 469:
_taken_] Old ed. “ta’ne.”
# 470:
_passion_] i. e. sorrow.
# 471:
_conceitedly_] i. e. fancifully, ingeniously.
# 472:
_minded_] i. e. intended.
# 473:
_Thong-Castle_] “See Lambarde’s Perambulation of Kent, 1596, p. 195. Jeffrey of Monmouth’s British History, B. 6. C. 11.”—REED.
# 474:
_Lo, I_, &c.] In _Wit Restored_, 1658 (_Facetiæ_, &c. vol. i. p. 268. ed. 1817), this speech of Simon is printed, with a few very slight variations, under the title of _A Prologue to the Mayor of Quinborough_.
# 475:
_cannot_] _Wit Rest._ “scorne to;” but compare p. 175, l. 24.
# 476:
_riots_] Old ed. “roots.”
# 477:
_here’s_] Old ed. “there’s.”
# 478:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 479:
_of’t_] Old ed. “of it.”
# 480:
_byrlady_] See note, p. 135.
# 481:
_give_] Old ed. “gives.”
# 482:
_carp_] Mr. J. P. Collier proposes to read “cup.”
# 483:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 484:
_we’ve_] Old ed. “we have.”
# 485:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 486:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 487:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 488:
_mother_] i. e. hysterical passion.
# 489:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 490:
_ne’er_] Old ed. “never.”
# 491:
_niceness_] i. e. scrupulousness.
# 492:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 493:
_Able to_, &c.] Old ed.
“_Able to_ make _all of our name_ inhumid,”—
and so the line stands in all the eds. of Dodsley’s _Old Plays_.
# 494:
_e’er_] Old ed. “ever.” The line seems corrupted. Qu. “_In this wild tempest_,” &c.?
# 495:
_raught_] i. e. snatched away, ravished.
# 496:
_no_] See note 454, p. 169.
# 497:
_dear_] See notes, vol. iii. p. 307, vol. iv. p. 486: here, perhaps, it is equivalent to—excessive.
# 498:
_to seek in honesty_] i. e. at a loss for, deficient in honesty.
# 499:
_I’d_] Old ed. “I had.”
# 500:
_Though’t_] Old ed. “_Though_ it.”
# 501:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 502:
_I’m_] Old ed. “I am.”
# 503:
_hight_] i. e. called.
# 504:
_decreen_] i. e. decree. An old form, for the sake of the rhyme.
# 505:
_Is’t_] Old ed. “Is it.”
# 506:
_Nemp your sexes_ “‘The appointment being agreed to on both sides, Hengist, with a new design of villany in his head, ordered his soldiers to carry, every one of them, a long dagger under their garments; and while the conference should be held with the Britons, who would have no suspicion of them, he would give them this word of command, _Nemet oure Saxas_; at which moment they were all to be ready to seize boldly every one his next man, and with his drawn dagger stab him. Accordingly, at the time and place appointed, they all met, and began to treat of peace; and when a fit opportunity for executing his villany served, Hengist cried out, _Nemet oure Saxas_; and the same instant seized Vortegirn, and held him by his cloak.’ Jeffrey of Monmouth’s British History, translated by Aaron Thompson, 1718, 8vo, p. 194.”—REED. _Nemp your sexes_, i. e. Nymeð eouer seaxes,—take your daggers, or short swords.
# 507:
_Lie_] Old ed. “Lies.”
# 508:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 509:
_I’ve_] Old ed. “I have.”
# 510:
_by’t_] Old ed. “by it.”
# 511:
_Methinks_, &c.] “Shakespeare seems to have imitated this in the Tempest, A. 3. S. 3.
‘Oh, it is monstrous! monstrous! Methought, the billows spoke, and told me of it; The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc’d The name of Prosper.’”—REED.
The date of _The Tempest_ must be settled before we can determine whether Shakespeare or Middleton was the imitator.
# 512:
_of’t_] Old ed. “of it.”
# 513:
_Where_] i. e. whereas. Altered by Dodsley and his editors to “When.”
# 514:
_Kirsendom_] A corruption of _Christendom_.
# 515:
_you’re_] Old ed. “you are.”
# 516:
_that’s_—_Kent’s_] Old ed. “_that_ is”—“_Kent_ is.”
# 517:
_Players_] They have, it appears, only “taken the name of country comedians to abuse simple people;” but I follow the old copy in terming them “Players,” to prevent the confusion which would afterwards arise from adopting any other appellation.
# 518:
_The Whirligig_] Not, I apprehend, the comedy called _Cupid’s Whirligig, by E. S._, 1607.
# 519:
_The Wild-goose Chase_] i. e., perhaps, Fletcher’s comedy so called, see p. 122.
# 520:
_Woodcock of our side_] Taylor, the water-poet, in the preface to _Sir Gregory Nonsense_, mentions a book so called; but perhaps he merely invented the title.—This expression was proverbial, and frequently occurs in our early writers: _woodcock_ was a cant term for a simpleton.
# 521:
_O, the clowns_, &c.] Nash tells us that, “amongst other cholericke wise Justices he was one that, hauing a play presented before him and his Township, by Tarlton and the rest of his fellows, her Maiesties seruants, as they were now entring into their first merriment (as they call it), the people began exceedingly to laugh, when Tarlton first peept out his head.”—_Pierce Pennilesse_, sig. D. 2, ed. 1595. And in the Præludium to Goff’s _Careless Shepherdes_, 1656, Thrift says—
“I never saw Rheade peeping through the Curtain, But ravishing joy enter’d into my heart.” p. 5.
# 522:
_Twopence_] Old ed. “2d.” Dodsley and his editors, “second!!”
# 523:
_to_] i. e. comparable to.
# 524:
_on’t; that’s the thing_] Old ed. “_on_ it, _that’s the thing_ indeed.”
# 525: