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:
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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—
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. Alas] Old ed. “Las.”
526. I’m] Old ed. “I am.”
527. by Amsterdam] “The toleration allowed to all religious sects in the United Provinces, on their throwing off the Spanish yoke, occasioned numbers of dissenters from the established religion of their country, to take refuge in different parts of the states of Holland. The chief place appears to have been Amsterdam, which is mentioned as such in several contemporary dramatic writers. See Ben Jonson’s Alchymist, and The Fair Maid of the Inn, by Beaumont and Fletcher.”—Reed.
528. The play begins] Dodsley and his editors print these words as a stage-direction, though they are not given as such in the old copy. They are evidently the exclamation of Simon on hearing the trumpet.
529. I’ll stop, &c.] Old ed. “I’le hide my ears and stop my eyes.”
530. golls] A cant term for hands,—fists, paws.
531. swound] i. e. swoon.
532. aqua-vitæ] A common name for spirits.
533. First] Old ed. “2.”
534. towards] i. e. at hand.
535. cut] i. e. slashed (see note, vol. i. p. 28), with a play on the word: “Cutted, scolding, brawling, quarrelling.” Kersey’s Dict.
536. in Kent, or Kirsendom] I ought to have noticed an earlier allusion (at p. 200) to the proverbial saying, “Neither in Kent nor Christendom,” which has been variously explained; see Ray’s Proverbs, p. 245, ed. 1768.
537. at an exercise] “Alluding to the week-day sermons used by the puritans, which they called Exercises. S. P.”—Note in Dodsley’s Old Plays.
539. fox’d] i. e. drunk.
540. sight’s] Old ed. “sight is.”
541. till’t] Old ed. “till it.”
542. of’t] Old ed. “of it.”
543. Resolv’d] i. e. convinced, informed.
544. waking] Old ed. “making.”
545. where] i. e. whereas.
547. of’t] Old ed. “of it.”
548. the prince] Words which, perhaps, should be thrown out.
549. I will] Old ed. “I’le.”
550. prevented] i. e. anticipated.