The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Complete Plays of Robert Greene, by Robert Greene.

[252] "To" is here used in the sense of "compared with."

[253] Tablets, memorandum books.

[256] Greene probably intended a Scotch dialect form of "lovely."

[257] The player was expected to extemporise until off the stage.

[258] The scene between Bohan and Oberon may properly be entitled "Chorus," as such scenes appear at the end of each act with the exception of the fifth. The relationship of the three dumb shows with the play as a whole and with each other has not been explained. In many places the text is hopelessly corrupt.

[259] The entire passage is so corrupt as to be unintelligible.

[260] Manly's readjustment of a corrupt passage, based upon a suggestion by Kittredge, has been accepted.

[261] The song is not inserted. It was not necessarily composed by the author of the play.

[263] Words that describe you.

[264] Cozener's terms.

[265] Prepared, ready.

[267] Gnatho is the parasite in the Eunuchus of Terence. Here and elsewhere in this play the name refers specifically to Ateukin.

[268] Printed "Gnatho."

[270] The text of this Chorus is very corrupt.

[271] A piece of money worth from 6s. to 10s. Puns upon the several meanings of the word were frequent.

[273] ϕιλαυτία, self-love, Collier's emendation of a meaningless passage in the quartos.

[274] The word "gentlemen" is addressed to the audience.

[275] An Irish coin below the value of the earliest shilling, so called from having a harp on it.

[276] Babbler, chatterer.

[278] This lyrical passage was undoubtedly sung.

[279] See Æneid XII., 411; a favourite allusion of the Euphuists.

[280] Again addressed to the audience.

[281] A church seat for loungers, the original in Carfax Church, Oxford. To sit on Pennyless Bench indicated extreme poverty.

[282] Kittredge's emendation. For the unintelligible "lakus" of the quarto one would accept Collier's conjecture "Jack-ass," were it not for the fact, enunciated by Collins (after N. E. D.), that this word was unknown before the eighteenth century.

[283] Collier's emendation for "a rapier and dagger," it being clear that Slipper has miscalled the weapons.

[284] So also in the quarto, line 5, scene v. of this act, French "oui" is spelled "wee."

[287] The sword of Sir Bevis of Southampton; the common synonym for a sword.

[288] Manly's suggested emendation of the meaningless "His grave, I see, is made," of the quarto.

[289] Revive, resuscitate him.

[291] "To the speeches of the King of England throughout this scene is prefixed Arius. Collier remarks, History of English Dramatic Poetry, iii. 161, 'It is a singular circumstance that the King of England is called Arius, as if Greene at the time he wrote had some scruple in naming Henry VIII. on account of the danger of giving offence to the Queen and Court.'"—Collins.

[292] Pillage, plunder.

[293] Tried, skilled.

[295] From this point the scene is confused.

[297] Truest love of all.

[298] By dramatic convention this speech should belong to the King of Scots.

[299] One who impounds stray cattle.

[302] In ballad style, though not found in the ballad "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield."

[305] A woman who sells "souce" or brine for pickling.

[306] "Allusions to velvet as being costly, fine, and luxurious are very common in the Elizabethan writers."—Collins.

[307] Pay the penalty for.

[309] Here the scene may be supposed to have changed, although George has not left the stage. In the quarto the scene runs on without break.

[310] Through a door at the back of the stage.

[312] Colour, complexion.

[313] The stage direction in the quarto is: Enter a Shoemaker sitting upon the stage at work: Jenkin to him.

[316] See the ballad printed in the Appendix.

[318] Derived first from the language of the chase, this phrase probably came to mean "dogs of all kinds."