A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Ix Part 123

AARON. Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.

BOY. My lords, with all the humbleness I may, I greet your honours from Andronicus-- And pray the Roman G.o.ds confound you both. [_Aside_.

DEMETRIUS. _Gramercy_, lovely Lucius; what's the news?

BOY. That you are both decipher'd (that's the news) For villains mark'd with rape. [_Aside_] May it please you, My grandsire, well advis'd, hath sent by me The goodliest weapon of his armoury, To gratify your honourable youth, The hope of Rome: for so he bid me say; And so I do, and with his gifts present Your lords.h.i.+ps, that whenever you have need, You may be armed and appointed well.

And so I leave you both--like b.l.o.o.d.y villains. [_Aside_.

--Hanmer's 2d edit., act iv. sc. 2. [The text is the same in Dyce's 2d edit., vi. 326-7.]

[119] "Poetaster," act v. sc. 3. [Gifford's edit. ii. 524-5, and the note.]

[120] [So in the old copy Kemp is made, perhaps intentionally, to call Studioso. See also _infra_, p. 198.]

[121] [See Kemp's "Nine Daies Wonder," edit. Dyce, ix.]

[122] _Sellenger's round_, corrupted from St Leger, a favourite dance with the common people.

[123] Old copy reads--

"As you part in _kne_

KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with _sice kne_," &c.

The genuine reading, it is presumed, is restored to the text--

"As your part in _cue_.

KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with _size cue_," &c.

A pun upon the word _cue_, which is a hint to the actor to proceed in his part, and has the same sound with the letter _q_, the mark of a farthing in college b.u.t.tery-books. To _size_ means to _battle_, or to be charged in the college accounts for provisions. [A _q_ is so called because it is the initial letter of _quadrans_, the fourth part of a penny.]

[124] This seems to be quoted from the first imperfect edition of "The Spanish Tragedy;" in the later (corrected) impression it runs thus--

"What outcries pluck me from my naked bed, And chill," &c.

--[v. 54.]

[125] [Old copy points this sentence falsely, and repeats _thing_.]

[126] Old copy, _woe_.

[127] [Old copy, _birds_. Perhaps, however, the poet may have meant _swans_.]

[128] Old copy, _sooping_.

[129] [I think this is much more likely to be an allusion to Shakespeare, than the pa.s.sage in the prologue to which Hawkins refers.--_Ebsworth_.]

[130] [Old copy, _some_.]

[131] [There were several Greek _literati_ of this name. Amoretto's page, personating his master, is so nicknamed by the other, who personates Sir Raderic--unless the pa.s.sage is corrupt.]

[132] [Old copy, _Irenias_.]

[133] [Old copy, _Nor_.]

[134] [Old copy, _we have_.]

[135] [Old copy, _run_. Mr Ebsworth's correction.]

[136] Old copy, _cluttish_.

[137] Old copy, _trus_.

[138] One of the old copies reads _repay'st_.

[139] Old copy, _seeling_.

[140] This play is not divided into acts.

[141] [Cadiz.]

[142] [Shear-penny.]

[143] [Extortion.]

[144] [Old copies, _waves_.]

[145] [Old copy, _fates to friend_.]

[146] [Old copy, _springold_.]

[147] [Old copy, as before, _springold_.]

[148] [Old copy, _doff off_.]

[149] [Old copy, _wat'ry_.]

[150] [Resound.]

[151] Edit. 1606 has: _Mi Fortunate, ter fortunate Venus_. The 4to of 1623 reads: _Mi Fortunatus, Fortunate Venter_.

[152] [Intend.]

[153] She means to say eloquence, and so it stands in the edition of 1623.

[154] [Robin Goodfellow.]

[155] [See p. 286.]