A Select Collection of Old English Plays Part 126

"He calls forth one by one, to note their graces; Whilst they _make legs_, he copies out their faces."

--_Ibid._

[229] [Pother.]

[230] _Outcry_ was the ancient term for _an auction_. As in Ma.s.singer's "City Madam," act i. sc. 3--

"The goods of this poor man sold at an _out-cry_.

His wife turn'd out of doors, his children forc'd To beg their bread."

And again in Middleton's "Chast Mayd in Cheape-side" [Dyce's edit. iv. 58:]

"I'll sell all at an _out-cry_."

Again in Ben Jonson's "Catiline," act ii. sc. 3--

"Their houses, and fine gardens, given away, And their goods, under the spear at _outcry_."

Upon which last pa.s.sage Mr Whalley observes, that "the Roman way of selling things by auction was setting up a spear; and hence the phrase _sub hasta vendere_."

[231] See Evans's "Collection of Old Ballads," i. 292.

The story of Whittington and his Cat, though under different names, is common to various languages. Messrs Grim have pointed it out in German, and it is given in Italian as one of [the "Facetie" of the] celebrated Arlotto under the following t.i.tle: "_Il Piovano, a un prete che fece mercantia di palle, dice la novella della gatte._" He relates it of a _mercante Genovese avventurato il quale navigando fu portato dalla fortuna a una isola lontanissima_. The story was probably borrowed in English and a.s.signed to Whittington: it is noticed in "Eastward Hoe" as "the famous fable of Whittington and his Puss." This play was written soon after 1603, and the ballad in Evans's collection is [certainly in its present form] not so old. The "Novella" was printed in Italy [soon after 1500]; and Arlotto, to whom it is attributed, died in 1483.

[232] [Old copy, _Hope, a half peny_, &c. This appears to be an allusion to the proverb,

"At the west-gate came Thornton in, With a hop, a halfpenny, and a lamb's skin."

See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," p. 78. Thornton was a merchant of Newcastle.]

[233] [In the modern editions, this speech improperly makes part of the next scene.]

[234] [The folio reads _Mistress_.]

[235] An _aunt of the suburbs_ was synonymous with _bawd_. See [Dyce's Middleton, i. 444.]

[236] [From the context, evidently a place of entertainment, a kind of restaurant. Perhaps the modern Gla.s.s-House Street may fix the site.]

[237] _i.e._, The bill of the mortality by the plague. The theatres were sometimes closed, in consequence of the prevalence of the disease. Such was the case in the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth. See note to Nash's "Summer's Last Will and Testament [viii. 15]."--_Collier._

[238] [The folio reads _hogough_.]

[239] [In old copy this word forms part of the next sentence.]

[240] [Probably a tavern so called.]

[241] [The weight inserted in a bowl.]

[242] This probably is the same tavern mentioned in "A Match at Midnight," act i.: "My master means the _sign of the Devil_,"

&c.--_Collier._

[243] [_i.e._, It is presumed, put a quart of sack into your head at my expense. He afterwards gives him an angel. A _half-moon_ was an old cant term for a wig. See Dyce's Middleton, ii. 382.]

[244] _i.e._, _Who_ can that be? In this manner the word _who_ is p.r.o.nounced in some parts of the kingdom, particularly in the county of Kent.--_Pegge._

[245] _i.e._, The Tailor, who very suddenly got drunk, and as suddenly drowsy.--_Collier._

[246] Jolly makes his _exit_ at the same time, and returns again where his entrance is marked.--_Collier._

[247] [Probably Faithful's Christian name was _Moll_, which Jolly p.r.o.nounces _Mull_.]

[248] [See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 141.]

[249] [This word was perhaps then, as now, understood in a cant sense.]

[250] [A crowd had a.s.sembled outside, it appears, inquisitive to know what was going on within.]

[251] [Old copy, _thy_.]

[252] [A proverbial expression for a simpleton.]

[253] [In how stately a fas.h.i.+on she carries herself.]

[254] [Drunken, from the Dutch _op zee_, which means literally _at sea_, and thence drunk, like our own _half-seas-over_.]

[255] [Summoner.]

[256] [A play on words.]

[257] [Alluding to the common expression, Fools have fortune.]

[258] [The folio, _you he_.]

[259] Alluding to the acts of Oliver Cromwell's parliament for punis.h.i.+ng adultery, incest, and fornication; by which it was declared that the two former should be punishable with death on the first offence, and the latter upon the second conviction.

"These acts," an excellent writer (Mr Barrington on the Statutes) observes, "could not have continued long unrepealed, _even if Charles II._ had not succeeded to the throne." It has been doubted whether there were any instances of carrying them into execution, notwithstanding the rigidness of the times wherein they were enacted. A newspaper, however, of that period furnishes an example which, from the extraordinary circ.u.mstances attending it, may perhaps be considered as not unworthy of being preserved.

In _Mercurius Politicus_, No. 168, from Thursday, Aug. 25, to Thursday, Sept. 1, 1653, p. 2700, is the following pa.s.sage:--"At Monmouth a.s.size an old man of _eighty-nine years_ was put to death for adultery, committed with a woman above _sixty_."

[260] [Lindabrides is a character in the "Mirror of Knighthood,"

once a famous romance. The name was afterwards applied to women of a certain cla.s.s. She is mentioned in act ii. of "A Match at Midnight."]

[261] [Dragged.]

[262] This incident is borrowed from the Italian, and it is employed by many of their novelists. It also forms the eighth story of "Les Comptes du Monde adventureux," printed at [Paris in 1555, and a translation from the Italian.] Casti founded his tale of "La Celia" upon it, with the variation of making the old woman a negress; but in this change he was not original. Richard Brome employed it in his "Novella," acted at the Blackfriars Theatre thirty years before Killigrew's play was published.--_Collier._

[263] [A hit at some of the frivolous poetry of an earlier period. See Hazlitt's "Handbook" _v._ Lenton.]

[264] The _sickness_ was the common name for the plague. See Gifford's Ben Jonson, iii. 353, iv. 9, &c.--_Collier._

[265] This alludes to one of the regulations made to prevent the spreading of the plague. When a house became infected, the officers empowered for that purpose immediately placed a guard before it, which continued there night and day, to prevent any person going from thence until the expiration of forty days. At the same time, _red crosses, of a foot long_ were painted on the doors and windows, with the words LORD HAVE MERCY UPON US, in great letters, wrote over them, to caution all pa.s.sengers to avoid infected places.