A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Ix Part 128

[299] While he is speaking, c.r.a.pula, from the effects of over-eating, is continually coughing, which is expressed in the old copies by the words _tiff toff, tiff toff_, within brackets. Though it might not be necessary to insert them, their omission ought to be mentioned.

--_Collier_.

[300] i.e., Glutton; one whose paunch is distended by food. See a note on "King Henry IV., Part I," v. 304, edit. 1778.--_Steevens_.

[301] i.e., Whisper.

[302] [Visus fancies himself Polyphemus searching for Outis--i.e., Ulysses, who had blinded him.]

[303] [Edits., _Both_.]

[304] [Row.]

[305] [Nearest.]

[306] [Edits., _ambrosian_.]

[307 [Fiddle.]

[308] A voiding knife was a long one used by our indelicate ancestors to sweep bones, &c., from the table into the _voider_ or basket, in which broken meat was carried from the table.--_Steevens_.

[309] Reward.

[310] [Edits., _him_.]

[311] [Edits., _sprites_.]

[312] The edition of 1657 reads--

"A greater soldier than the G.o.d of _Mars_."

--_Collier_. [The edition of 1607 also has _Mars_.]

[313] i.e., Hamstring him.--_Steevens_.

[314] "_Gulchin, q.d_. a _Gulckin_, i.e., parvus Gulo; _kin_ enim minuit. Alludit It. _Guccio_, Stultus, hoc autem procul dubio a Teut.

_Geck_, Stultus, ortum ducit."--_Skinner_. Florio explains _Guccio_, a gull, a sot, a ninnie, a meac.o.c.k. Ben Jonson uses the word in "The Poetaster," act iii. sc. 4: "Come, we must have you turn fiddler again, slave; get a base violin at your back, and march in a tawny coat, with one sleeve, to Goose-fair; then you'll know us, you'll see us then, you will _gulch_, you will."

[315] _Bawsin_, in some counties, signifies a _badger_. I think I have heard the vulgar Irish use it to express bulkiness. Mr Chatterton, in the "Poems of the Pseudo-Rowley," has it more than once in this sense.

As, _bawsyn olyphantes_, i.e., bulky elephants.--_Steevens_.

[316] [Edits., _weary_. I wish that I could be more confident that _weird_ is the true word. _Weary_ appears to be wrong, at any rate.]

[317] [Edits., _bedewy_.]

[318] [This and Chanter are the names of dogs. Auditus fancies himself a huntsman.]

[319] _Counter_ is a term belonging to the chase. [Gascoigne,] in his "Book of Hunting," 1575, p. 243, says, "When a hounde hunteth backwardes the same way that the chase is come, then we say he hunteth _counter_.

And if he hunt any other chase than that which he first undertooke, we say he hunteth _change_." So in "Hamlet," act iv. sc. 5--

"How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!

O, this is _counter_, you false Danish dogs."

See Dr Johnson's note on this pa.s.sage.

[320] [The author may have had in his mind an anecdote related of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Edward Dyer. See the "New London Jest Book," p. 346.]

[321] [Flatulent.]

[322] [_Rett_ and _Cater_ appear to be the names of dogs. Edits. print _ware wing cater_.]

[323] [See note at p. 367.]

[324] Idle, lazy, slothful. Minsheu derives it from the French _lasche_, desidiosus.

[325] [See a review of, and extracts from, this very curious play in Fry's "Bibliographical Memoranda," 1816, pp. 345-50.]

[326] Catalogue of the library of John Hutton. Sold at Ess.e.x House, 1764, p. 121. The whole t.i.tle of the tract, which Mr Reed does not appear to have seen, as he quotes it only from a sale catalogue, is as follows:--"Three Miseries of Barbary: Plague, Famine, Ciuill warre. With a relation of the death of Mahamet the late Emperour: and a briefe report of the now present Wars betweene the three Brothers. Printed by W.I. for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold in Pater noster rowe, at the signe of the Sunne." It is without date, and the name of the author, George Wilkins, is subscribed to a dedication, "To the right wors.h.i.+pfull the whole Company of Barbary Merchants." The tract is written in an ambitious style, and the descriptions are often striking; but there is nothing but the similarity of name to connect it with "The Miseries of Enforced Marriage."--_Collier_.

[327] [Hazlitt's "Handbook," 1867, p. 656.]

[328] [Not in the old copies.]

[329] "This comedy (as Langbaine improperly calls it) has been a great part of it revived by Mrs Behn, under the t.i.tle of 'The Town Fop, or Sir Timothy Tawdry.'"

[330] These were among the articles of extravagance in which the youth of the times used to indulge themselves. They are mentioned by Fennor, in "The Compters Commonwealth," 1617, p. 32: "Thinkes himselfe much graced (as to be much beholding to them) as to be entertained among gallants, that were wrapt up in sattin suites, cloakes lined with velvet, that scorned to weare any other then beaver hats and gold bands, rich swords and scarfes, silke stockings and gold fringed garters, or russett bootes and _gilt spurres_; and so compleate cape ape, that he almost dares take his corporal oath the worst of them is worth (at least) a thousand a yeare, when heaven knows the best of them all for a month, nay, sometimes a yeare together, have their pockets worse furnished then Chandelors boxes, that have nothing but twopences, pence, halfe pence, and leaden tokens in them."

[331] The following quotation from the "Perfuming of Tobacco, and the great abuse committed in it," 1611, shows, in opposition to Mr Gilchrist's conjecture, that _drinking_ tobacco did not mean extracting the juice by chewing it, but refers to drawing and drinking the smoke of it. "The smoke of tobacco (the which Dodoneus called rightly Henbane of Peru) _drunke_ and _drawen_, by a pipe, filleth the membranes (_meninges_) of the braine, and astonisheth and filleth many persons with such joy and pleasure, and sweet losse of senses, that they can by no means be without it." In fact, to _drink_ tobacco was only another term for smoking it.--_Collier_.

[332] Alluding to the colour of the habits of servants.

[333] i.e., Owns. See note to "Cornelia" [v. 232].

[334] The omission of this stage direction, which is found in the old copies, rendered what follows it unintelligible. Perhaps _Who list to have a lubberly load_ is a line in some old ballad.--_Collier_.

[335] [Anthony Munday.]

[336] A custom still observed at weddings.

[337] _Himself_, omitted by Mr Reed, and restored now from the old copy of 1611.--_Collier_.

[338] [Edits., _pugges_.]

[339] [Edits, read--

"They are _sovereigns_, cordials that preserve our lives."

[340] See Mr Steevens's note on "Oth.e.l.lo," act ii. sc. 1. [But compare Middleton's "Blurt, Master Constable," 1602 ("Works," by Dyce, i. 280).]

[341] [Edits., _his_. Even the pa.s.sage is now obscure and unsatisfactory.]