[81] Mock-velvet.
[82] Quarrelling, squabbling.
[83] Business.
[84] I bet my cap to a noble (a gold coin).
[85] Strong ale that makes men swagger and bluster.
[86] Sendal, "a kinde of Cypres stuffe or silke."—Minsheu, Guide into the Tongues, 1617. Sussapine is supposed by Collins to be a corruption of "gossampine," meaning a cotton cloth.
[87] Attending to.
[88] Toil.
[89] Intend.
[90] Prepared.
[91] Pieces of silver money.
[92] The quartos are unintelligible. This is the conjectural reading of Mr J. C. Smith, given in Collins' edition.
[93] Compassion.
[94] Rustic dialect for "I trow I taught."
[95] The quartos have "Enters Radagon solus."
[96] Straits.
[97] Drab.
[98] Printed "Satropos," but the word is a title and not a proper name.
[99] A faggot in a hostelry, which is kept alight by the guests.
[100] "Bird" is the young of an animal. Adam is talking euphuistical nonsense.
[101] A leathern bag or bottle for wine.
[102] White is an epithet of endearment.
[103] A lease by word of mouth.
[104] "Drabler, an additional piece of canvas, laced to the bottom of the bonnet of a sail, to give it greater depth."—(N. E. D.)
[105] Bisa; the north wind.
[106] Cotton-cloth, or bumbast.
[108] Ready.
[109] Companion, therefore—equal.
[110] Axis.
[111] Confound, therefore to destroy.
[112] Adyt; the innermost sanctuary of a temple.
[113] "The ale" here means the ale-house, as it does in Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona (II. 5).
[114] A famous comic trick in the early plays. Adam is a late figure of the Vice type. Compare Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (V. 2) in which Miles is carried off on a Devil's back.
[115] Bold, brave.
[116] An instrument used by pick-pockets in cutting purses.
[117] To shave or cut, therefore to pillage, plunder.
[118] To draw, to pour; here used in the sense of "to fill."
[119] Let all the standing-bowls go round.
[120] This is the emendation by J. C. Smith, given in Collins' edition, of the unintelligible "Lamana" of the quartos.
[121] A reminiscence of Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (Scene XII), in which Hieronimo enters with a poniard and a rope.
[122] Decoys.
[123] Know not.
[124] A very faithful paraphrase of chapter 4 of the book of Jonah.
[125] Wide breeches, here breeches pockets.
[126] The head of a red-herring. The term may have become synonymous with the fish itself. Adam's meaning cannot be said to be very clear.
[127] I could endure.
[128] A fine white bread.
[129] Breeches.
[130] The quartos give "Lepher," which is unintelligible. This reading is Dyce's conjecture. It is of little moment that these places are not plains but mountains.
[131] Own.
[132] The title in the quartos was "The History of Orlando Furioso, one of the Twelve Peers of France."
[133] Judgment.
[134] "To man" is a term in falconry, and means to accustom to man, to make tractable.
[135] Cuirasses.
[136] A false quantity.
[137] Dominion.
[138] Here as elsewhere improperly used as the name of a place.
[139] These four lines occur nearly verbatim towards the end of Peele's Old Wives' Tale, ll. 885-8.
[140] Pearls.
[141] Cliffs.
[142] Same as French rebattre, beat back.
[143] An allusion to the recent repulse of the Spanish Armada.
[144] Blasts.
[145] Giglot, a wanton woman.
[146] Thraso and Gnatho were well-known characters in the Eunuchus of Terence, and references to them are very common in the works of Elizabethan writers.
[147] Hurled, dashed to pieces.
[148] In his Francesco's Fortunes Greene satirizes "Ave Cæsar" as it occurs in Edward III., presumably by Marlowe.
[149] Love.
[150] Confounded, dismayed.
[151] At this point the Alleyn manuscript begins.
[152] The first four of these lines are, with the exception of the last half of the first line, from the 117th stanza of the twenty-seventh Canto of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso; the other four are from the 121st stanza of the same Canto.
[153] A corrupt passage is here supplemented by words from the Alleyn manuscript.
[154] A streamer attached to a lance.
[155] See Odyssey X. 302, and following. A stock reference in Euphuism.
[156] A phrase signifying excess; probably "understanding" should be supplied.
[157] Mad.
[158] Another false quantity.
[159] The designation in the quartos is "the Clown."
[160] Makes Canopus look dark.
[161] Fiddler is undoubtedly played by Tom, the clown who had before played Angelica. See the next speech.
[162] Apprehend, take in.
[163] Signifying that the actor could extemporise as he chose. Ad lib., ad libitum would now be the direction.
[164] The Muses.
[165] A corrupt passage is here supplemented by four lines from the Alleyn manuscript.
[166] An interesting reminder of the exigencies of Elizabethan stage technique. The scenes represent different localities, but as Sacripant dies at the end of a scene, his body remains on the stage until removed by the best means possible.
[167] Silly-minded.
[168] Amiss, fault.
[169] In spite of, notwithstanding.
[170] Orlando is adapting his language to his disguise.
[171] Splendid.
[172] "A kinde of Cipres stuffe or silke." Minsheu, Guide into the Tongues, 1617.
[173] Outstripped.
[174] Hunting-dogs.
[175] A coarse woolen cloth.
[176] For alamort: dejected.
[177] Pearls.
[178] Cliffs.
[179] Rarer.
[180] Made that woman blush. That, etc.
[181] Pocket.
[182] Pass by, outstrip.
[183] Be you assured.
[184] The magical five-rayed star used as a defence against demons.
[185] Care not for.
[186] Guests.
[187] Confounded.
[188] In Bacon's day Brasenose College was not in existence.
[189] Bargain.
[190] Edward could not have fought before Damascus.
[191] Swaggering.
[192] Equivalent to "'swounds," "God's wounds."
[193] Tied by love.
[194] A glass which reflects magically distant or future events and scenes.
[195] Leathern wine-jugs.
[196] "After Bacon and Edward had walked a few paces about (or perhaps towards the back of) the stage, the audience were to suppose that the scene was changed to the interior of Bacon's cell."—Dyce.
[197] "Perhaps the curtain which concealed the upper stage ... was withdrawn, discovering Margaret and Bungay standing there, and when the representation in the glass was supposed to be over, the curtain was drawn back again."—Dyce.
[198] An allusion to the proverb, "Early up and never the nearer."
[199] Breviary, portable prayer-book.
[200] Bullies.
[201] Skeltonical verse.
[202] A term of endearment.
[203] Loose shoes.
[204] The allusion is to Alexander Barclay's English version (1509) of Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff.
[205] "An expression borrowed from the author whose style is here imitated—
"Construas hoc,
Domine Dawcocke!
'Ware the Hauke, Skelton."—Dyce.
[206] A prison in the old north gate of Oxford, so named after one of the moods of the third syllogistic figure.
[207] A dance resembling the waltz or polka.
[208] Overturned; literal transference from the Latin.
[209] Nourishing to cattle, productive.
[210] Laden.
[211] Trismegistus.
[212] Porphyry.
[213] An atom compared with.
[214] Possibly the reference is to Lutetia (Paris) rather than Utrecht, which was not yet a university town.
[215] Love-kindling looks.
[216] "The salt-cellar, generally a very large and massive one, stood in the middle of the table; guests of superior rank always sat above it towards the upper part of the table, those of inferior rank below it towards the bottom."—Collins.
[217] Spices.
[218] Dried plums.
[219] Sugar plums.
[220] Protuberant.
[221] Cliffs.
[222] The stage direction is, "Enter Friar Bacon drawing the curtains, with a white stick, a book in his hand," etc.
[224] A watchman's pike or halbert.
[225] Miles' blundering reminiscences of "Cunctator."
[226] Miles is here punning on "coursed."
[227] Beyond all measure.
[228] These are discovered in the upper stage just as Margaret and Friar Bungay were discovered in Act. II. scene 3.
[229] Venture.
[230] A bout.
[231] Dyce suggests that Greene here meant "scholars." Gayley suggests that Bacon may have taken the glass.
[232] Britons.
[233] Mutton is a cant term for a prostitute.
[234] Welt and guard are synonymous: without facing or ornament, as these are against the statute.
[235] A pack.
[236] "The 'curtana' or 'pointless sword' of mercy; the 'pointed sword' of justice; the 'golden rod' of equity."—Gayley.
[237] Here begins a compliment to Queen Elizabeth.
[238] The complete title of the 1598 edition was, "The Scottish History of James the Fourth, Slain at Flodden. Intermixed with a pleasant comedy, presented by Oberon King of Fairies."
[239] "A technical term for the burlesque dance of an anti-masque, and there being several performers takes a plural verb."—W. W. Greg, Modern Language Review, I., p. 248.
[240] Collins defines this, after Skeat, as a stableman, a stable-cleaner.
[241] My quiet.
[242] I'll make.
[243] Erewhile. Greene's Scottish dialect is not very accurate.
[244] Advise.
[245] Contradict.
[246] Sword, dagger.
[247] Never the nearer: a favourite phrase with old writers.
[248] Some words are wanting here.