[156] An allusion, of course, to the Straits of Gibraltar, where Hercules was supposed to have set up columns forbidding further exploration of the ocean.
[157] i.e. Tangible, yielding impressions to the senses of another person.
[158] So in Two Noble Kinsmen pleurisy is used for plethora—"The pleurisy of people."
[159] i.e. A farthing.
[161] "Means" are here equivalent to voices intermediate between treble and bass, as tenors. Collins adduces a passage from Lyly's Galathea (Act v., sc. 3), where there is a similar play on words.
[162] i.e. A lordship, Ital. Signoria; Fr. Seigneurie.
[163] i.e. Bond, contract.
[164] What pretty fancies you have.
[165] Savin, an irritant poison, has long been in popular use to induce abortion in women.
[166] Also spelt popering. A particular species of pear.
[167] This is obscure, but it probably refers to the Italian music phrase largo.
[168] Articles of millinery: veils and headdresses.
[169] The simile is from legal documents in which one superfluous letter might nullify a deed.
[170] A flatulent swelling of the abdomen.
[171] Too narrowly dispute the reason of an accident favourable to myself.
[172] i.e. Surrender myself to justice.
[173] Play upon the word "bill," which meant in one sense a stout staff with an iron blade at one end, like a partizan.
[174] i.e. Countenance.
[175] i.e. Arrested.
[176] Clear up the doubt conveyed in your question.
[177] Shakespeare uses this word in two senses, as "pressing business" and "extremity."
[178] i.e. A subject for dissection.
[179] This is addressed to the common headsman.
[180] With a skull in his hand. That it is the skull of his mistress is evident from the whole of the scene. He makes use of it afterwards in Act iii.—Collier.
[181] Luxury was the ancient term for incontinence.
[182] Years must be read yearës.
[183] This is not a name of syphilis, but a comparison only of it to a mole, on account of the effects it sometimes produces in occasioning the loss of hair.—Pegge.
[184] Disembowelled.
[185] She means from the highest to the lowest of her sex. At this time women of the inferior order wore hats. See Hollar's Ornatus Muliebris Anglicanus, 1640.—Hazlitt.
[186] "Set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride a gallop."
[187] That part of a ring in which the stone is set.
[188] Old copy, "Met."
[189] Bonds.
[190] i.e. Sand it, to prevent it from blotting, while the ink was wet.—Steevens.
[191] i.e. Embrace.
[192] "Portico" has been suggested. But I see no reason to alter the text. "Portion" is here that which specially belongs to the soul as its birthright.
[193] Equivalent to hit the nail on the head, clinched the matter. Perhaps the metaphor is derived from ringing sound.
[194] Put a thief upon the track.
[195] Novice.
[196] A corruption of "God's blood."
[197] There is no reason to omit the word "by." Vendice seems to refer to "families called honourable," i.e., the children of lords.
[198] i.e. Next heir.
[199] Wheel of fortune.
[200] A play upon the double meaning of the word "angel," which was the name of a gold coin.
[201] Decline, droop.
[202] Long-suffering.
[203] Embrace.
[204] Alluding to the custom of hanging hats in ancient halls upon stags' horns.—Steevens.
[205] This allusion to farms sold for a court-wardrobe is common in our drama.
[206] i.e. Measured.
[207] i.e. Honesty.
[208] Decline.
[209] i.e. Nightdresses.
[210] Alluding to the custom of entering horses sold at fairs in a book called the "Toll-book."
[211] Defile.
[212] Liars.
[213] Stable.
[214] Some lune or frenzy.
[215] Edits., "Impudent." The least imprudent is equivalent to the most farsighted or wary.
[216] i.e. Hat.
[217] Alluding to Duns Scotus, who commented upon "The Master of the Sentences."
[218] In the game of Primero.
[219] He imagines her to be speaking, and answers her.
[220] Embraces.
[221] Weak, treacherous.
[222] Poultry.
[223] A corruption of certiorari.
[224] Like.
[225] It has been suggested that quarled is equivalent to guarelled; and that it alludes to poison put on arrows. The sound of the word seems to point at some synonym for curdled.
[226] Alluding to the 5th Commandment.
[227] i.e. Incite, encourage her.
[228] The reality and life of this dialogue passes any scenical illusion I ever felt. I never read it but my ears tingle, and I feel a hot flush spread my cheeks, as if I were presently about to "proclaim" some such "malefactions" of myself as the brothers here rebuke in this unnatural parent, in words more keen and dagger-like than those which Hamlet speaks to his mother. Such power has the passion of shame, truly personated, not only to "strike guilty creatures unto the soul," but to "appal" even those that are "free."—Lamb.
[229] Michaelmas term now has but four returns.
[230] In secret.
[231] Hands.
[232] i.e. Unsheathe.
[233] i.e. The installation or putting in possession.
[234] Disclosed.