272. defy] i. e. renounce.
273. quail-pipe] Used by fowlers to allure quails.
274. the pelican does it] “The young pelican is fabled to suck the mother’s blood.” Reed.
275. to wear blue] “The habit of servants at the time.” Reed.
276. Lodovico, Carolo, and Astolfo] Ought not Beraldo to be of the party (see p. 138)? but his name is not prefixed to any of the speeches in this scene.
278. bucklers without pikes] “The ancient bucklers had a prominent spike, and sometimes a pistol in the centre of them.” Steevens.
280. First Guest] Old ed. “Lod.”
281. felt] i. e. hat
283. 'bove] Old ed. “loue”—and so in Dodsley’s Old Plays!
284. Jets] i. e. struts.
285. murrion] “A head-piece, or cap of steel.” Reed.
286. for when any bondman’s turn, &c.] Here Reed has a learned note on “the ceremony of manumission,” (from Kennet’s Roman Antiq.), which I think it unnecessary to reprint.
287. out] Old ed. “on’t.”
288. this steeple] “Of such hats P. Stubbes speaks in his celebrated work, the Anatomie of Abuses, 1585. ‘Sometimes they use them sharp on the croune, pearking up like the spere or shaft of a steeple, standing a quarter of a yarde above the crowne of their heads, some more, some less, as please the phantasies of their unconstant mindes.’” Reed.
289. Can.] Old ed. “Long.” Dodsley gives the exclamation to “Car.”
290. thus] Qy. “though?”
293. wry mouth ... like a plaice] “So in Nash’s Lenten Stuff, 1599: ‘None won the day in this but the herring, whom all their clamorous suffrages saluted with Vive le Roy, God save the King, God save the King, save only the playse and the butt, that made wry mouths at him, and for their mocking have wry mouths ever since.’” Reed. The wry mouth of the plaice was a favourite allusion with our old writers.
296. bizle] “Or, as it is sometimes spelt, bezzle. He means to say, When shall I have an opportunity to drink to excess?” Reed.
297. sort] i. e. set, company.
298. And fed upon thee, &c.] Old ed.
Mr. Collier, in a note on the last ed. of Dodsley’s Old Plays, first made the alteration which I have adopted: as Bellafront, he observes, here uses the contraction Mat, so her husband presently calls her Front.
299. and] i. e. if.
300. jail] Old ed. “Jayle.”—Qy. “javel?” i. e. worthless fellow.
302. fond] i. e. foolish.
305. fly] Old ed. “flyes.”
306. Weave thy nets] Another imperfect couplet.
309. percullis] i. e. portcullis.
311. drunk] “i. e. disguised in liquor.” Collier.
312. bud] Old ed. “blood.”
313. overcharge] Old ed. “ouerchange.”
314. Lod. Luke, I pray, &c.] Lodovico repeats in scorn the gentle language used by Candido.
317. Then fast, then you may choose] Old ed. makes this the first line of Candido’s speech; and so in Dodsley’s Old Plays!
321. Shall I] “After ‘shall I’ in the old copy is inserted ‘Prompt?’ meaning that Lodovico is to prompt him.” Collier.
322. on] Old ed. “vpon.”
323. wives] A word seems to have dropt out: qy.
324. no longer] Here, it should seem, Lodovico takes off the false hair which was part of his disguise.
325. You’ve, &c.] Must stand as a line by itself, because it forms a couplet with the two next speeches.
326. ring him] “To prevent swine from doing mischief, it is usual to put rings through their nostrils.” Reed.
327. These lines, &c.] “Probably, to amend the grammar, we ought to read,
No: I believe the author wrote the couplet as given in the text.
328. parlous] A corruption of perilous—i. e. dangerously shrewd.
329. shackatory] “i. e. hound. So in The Wandering Jew, sig. F; ‘—for Time, though he be an old man, is an excellent footman: no shackatory comes neere him, if hee once get the start, hee’s gone, and you gone too.’” Reed.
331. ourselves] Old ed. “your selues.”
332. kern] i. e., properly, an Irish foot-soldier—a low, savage fellow; “the very drosse and scum of the countrey,” says B. Riche, ... “that live by robbing and spoyling the poor countreyman:” (vide Boswell’s note on Macbeth—Malone’s Shakespeare, vol. xi. p. 16.) So too Bryan afterwards talks of going to steal cows again in Ireland, p. 177.
333. shag-hair’d] “Shakespeare bestows the same epithet on a kern of Ireland, in the Second Part of King Henry VI. [act iii. sc. 1].” Reed.
334. shall not thy disgrace] Old ed. “shall thy disgrace;” but see Infelice’s repetition of the passage in the next page.
335. lubrican] Compare Drayton;
Nimphidia (appended to Battaile of Agincourt, &c.), p. 127, ed. 1627.
336. hooks] Old ed. “Hawkes,” which in Dodsley’s Old Plays is carefully modernised to “hawks!”
337. Two-wooes] A play on the word which expresses the note of the owl;
338. Irish dart] An allusion to the darts carried by the Irish running footmen: see note on A Fair Quarrel, act iv. sc. 4.
339. thus] Old ed. “this.”
340. bulk] “i. e. body.” Reed.
341. a country where no venom prospers] Saint Patrick, according to the legend, having purged Ireland from all venomous creatures: see Shirley’s St. Patrick for Ireland, act v. sc. 3—Works, vol. iv.
342. give] Old eds. “to giue.”
343. Fond] i. e. foolish.
345. then] Qy. “them?”
346. Plymouth cloak] “‘That is,’ says Ray, in his Proverbs, 1742, p. 238, ‘a cane, a staff; whereof this is the occasion. Many a man of good extraction, coming home from far voyages, may chance to land here, and, being out of sorts, is unable for the present time and place to recruit himself with clothes. Here (if not friendly provided) they make the next wood their draper’s shop, where a staff cut out serves them for a covering. For we use when we walk in cuerpo to carry a staff in our hands, but none when in a cloak.’” Reed.
347. hose] i. e. breeches.
349. Mirror of Knighthood] The name of a celebrated romance, translated from the Spanish.
351. agen] The old spelling of again, and necessary here for the rhyme.—This is an imperfect couplet (compare p. 52, and note), for the preceding speech of Matheo is certainly prose.
352. An old, &c.] Makes part of Lodovico’s speech in old ed.]
353. sort] i. e. set, company.
354. keep a door] i. e. be a bawd.
355. Frenchman] Old. ed. “Frenchmen.”
359. Car.] Old ed. “Lod. and Car.”
360. She nibbled, &c. ... which I know] Old ed. by mistake assigns this to Lodovico.
362. bolt] “i. e. sift.” Reed.
363. warden-tree] i. e. “pear-tree.” Reed.
364. the] Old ed. “de.”
366. brave] “i. e. fine, gaudily dressed.” Reed.
367. a wild Cataian of forty such] “i. e. forty such shallow knights, &c. would go to the composition of a dexterous thief. See a note on The Merry Wives of Windsor, [‘I will not believe such a Cataian,’ &c., act ii. sc. 1.]” Reed. A Cataian came to signify a sharper, because the people of Cataia (China) were famous for their thieving.
370. Than] Old. ed. “That.”
371. gallant] i. e. in fine clothes.
372. bin] i. e. been—a form which frequently occurs, and which is here necessary for the rhyme.
373. Yes, thou hast, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see note, p. 52.
374. bard cater-tray] Properly, barred, &c., a sort of false dice, frequently mentioned by our early writers.—“The following passage from The Art of Juggling, or Legerdemaine, by S. R. 4to. 1612, sig. c 4, will sufficiently explain the terms above used: 'First you must know a langret, which is a die that simple men have seldom heard of, but often seene to their cost; and this is a well-favoured die, and seemeth good and square, yet it is forged longer upon the cater and trea than any other way: and therefore it is called a langret. Such be also call’d bard cater treas, because commonly the longer end will of his owne sway drawe downewards, and turne up to the eie sice sincke deuce or ace. The principal use of them is at Novum, for so longe a paire of bard cater treas be walking on the bourd, so long can ye not cast five nor nine, unles it be by great chance, that the roughnes of the table, or some other stoppe, force them to stay, and run against their kinde: for without cater or trea ye know that five or nine can never come.” Reed.
377. footcloth] i. e. long housing.
378. muttonmonger] i. e. whoremonger: see note, p. 102.
379. good fellow] A cant term for a thief.
382. a cob] “A herring is called a cob. See Nash’s Lenten Stuff. [See Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s Works, vol. i. p. 28.] There is, however, a quibble here, for I think a cob in Ireland signifies a coin or piece of money.” Reed. See also Todd’s Johnson’s Dict. in v.
383. a’ t’other] Old ed. “a’ the tother.”
384. footcloth nags] i. e. nags with long housings.
385. must I choke] He means, perhaps,—why do you not give me drink?
386. bombasted] “i. e. stuffed out.” Reed.
387. marks] A mark was 13s. 4d.
390. purchase] “Was anciently a cant word for stolen goods.” Reed.
391. this] i. e., I suppose, his sword.
392. old Cole] Qy. Is this an allusion to the well-known song of Old King Cole? but I recollect no mention of it so early as Middleton’s time.
394.
——concubine
To an English king] “Arlotta (from whence the word harlot
is fancifully derived) was not the concubine of an English
monarch, but mistress to Robert, one of the dukes of Normandy,
and father to William the Conqueror.” Steevens.
395. than] Is frequently used for then by our old poets, to suit the rhyme.
397. Sforza] “A name taken by Lodovico, perhaps, for the occasion,” says the last editor of Dodsley’s Old Plays; but it is evident that he was called (like the hero of Massinger’s Duke of Milan) Lodovico Sforza.
398. pursenet] “A net, of which the mouth is drawn together by a string.” Reed.
400. muster-book] Old ed. “master-booke.”]
401. consort] i. e. band of musicians.
402. pair of virginals, &c.] See note, p. 112. A pair of virginals (like a pair of organs, see note, p. 147) meant a single instrument.
403. drink healths, tobacco, &c.] “To drink tobacco was a common phrase for smoking it.” Reed.
405. stewed prunes] A dish very common in brothels: see Steevens’s elaborate note on First Part of Henry IV., act iii. sc. 3—Malone’s Shakespeare (by Boswell), vol. xvi. p. 345.
406. Here’s ordnance able to sack a city] “So Falstaff, on the same occasion, in the First Part of Henry IV., says, ‘there’s that will sack a city.’” Steevens.
407. Peter-sameene] One of the several disguises under which the word Pedro-Ximenes is found in our early writers. “The Pedro-Ximenes ... receives its name from a grape which is said to have been imported from the banks of the Rhine by an individual called Pedro Simon (corrupted to Ximen, or Ximenes), and is one of the richest and most delicate of the Malaga wines, resembling very much the malmsey of Paxarete.” Henderson’s Hist. of Anc. and Mod. Wines, p. 193.
408. Charnico] Or Charneco.—“Shakspeare and other dramatic writers mention a wine called Charneco.... According to Mr. Steevens, the appellation is derived from a village near Lisbon. There are, in fact, two villages in that neighbourhood, which take the name of Charneca; the one situated about a league and a half above the town of Lisbon, the other near the coast, between Collares and Carcavellos. We shall, therefore, probably not err much, if we refer the wine in question to the last-mentioned territory.” Ibid. p. 306.
409. Leatica] Old ed. “Ziattica”—a misprint for Leatica, a not uncommon form (see Philocothonista, 1635, p. 48) of the word “Aleatico, or red muscadine, which is produced in the highest perfection at Montepulciano, between Sienna and the Papal state; at Monte Catini, &c. ... and of which the name in some measure expresses the rich quality (it is obviously derived from ἡλιαζω, soli expono); has a brilliant purple colour, and a luscious aromatic flavour,” &c. Ibid. p. 237.