A Select Collection of Old English Plays Part 124

[168] [Probably the same as _demaynes_, possessions. See Halliwell in _v._]

[169] [Entertainment.]

[170] [The Spring Garden.]

[171] [Dispersed.]

[172] [_i.e._, To the life.]

[173] [Cowardice.]

[174] [A word formed from _staniel_, a base kind of hawk, and thence used figuratively as a term of contempt.]

[175] [Nares quotes this pa.s.sage only for the word; compare Halliwell, _v._ Stichall.]

[176] [Wiseacre.]

[177] [Alimony.]

[178] [_i.e._, More calf.]

[179] [A play is intended on the words _Seville_ and _civil_.]

[180] [Property.]

[181] [Perhaps we should read _lo, infinitely_ as spoken aside, and possibly the author wrote _infinite lie_.]

[182] [An adaptation of the often-quoted _Amantium irae_, &c.]

[183] [Old copy, _adventurers_.]

FOOTNOTES: THE PARSON'S WEDDING

[184] "Sidney Papers," vi. 373.--_Gilchrist._

[185] No. 8383.

[186] Carew's Poems, [edit. Hazlitt, pp. 103-4.]

[187] "Life of Lord Clarendon," p. 116.

[188] P. 41, edit. 1719. The stanza which relates particularly to his authorship is the following:--

"But who says he was not A man of much plot May repent the false accusation; Having plotted and penn'd Six plays, to attend The Farce of his negotiation."

--_Collier._

[189] Query; Lysons says 1684.--_Gilchrist._

[190] [Both these plays were printed in 12^o, 1641, with verses prefixed by H. Bennet, afterwards the celebrated Earl of Arlington, Robert Waring, and William Cartwright.]

[191] An account of Sir W. Killigrew will be found in Rest.i.tuta, ii. 130. The three first of his plays here mentioned were published together in 8^o in 1664 or 1665, for the t.i.tle-pages bear both these dates. Pandora was "not approved upon the stage as a tragedy," and therefore the author turned it into a comedy, and Waller wrote some lines upon the change.--_Collier._

[192] A play called The Imperial Tragedy has also been a.s.signed to him upon no adequate authority.--_Collier._

[193] This play was originally represented wholly by women. See Wright's "Historia Histrionica," 1690, _post_, and Grainger's "Hist. Engl." iv. On this occasion a Prologue and Epilogue were spoken by Mrs Marshall (of whom see "Memoires de Grammont," p.

202, edit. 4^o. Strawberry Hill), which are printed in "Covent Garden Drollery," 1672, p. 3.--_Gilchrist._

[194] _i.e._, The game. _Quarry_ is a term both of hunting and falconry. The allusion here is to the former. _Quarrie_ (as referring to the latter), according to Latham's explanation, "is taken for the fowle which is flowne at, and slaine at any time, especially when young hawks are flowne thereunto."

[195] So in "Every Man in his Humour," act iii. sc. 1--

"Good captain _faces about_."

And in Fletcher's "Scornful Lady," act v.--

"Cutting Morecraft _faces about_."

And again, in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Ralph, exercising his men, says--

"Double your files: as you were; _faces about_."

[196] The exclamation of a highwayman on stopping a pa.s.senger, as many examples would prove. It is only noticed now for the sake of mentioning an ingenious turn given to it in Middleton's "Phoenix," 1607, where one of the characters justifies robbery by observing, "As long as drunkenness is a vice, _stand_ is a virtue."--_Collier._

[197] [The folio reads _Paxat_.]

[198] [? By the side of.]

[199] [The Parson is describing the Captain as a recruiting officer.]

[200] A _galley foist_ was the name of a pleasure-boat, or one used on particular days for pomp and state. The Lord Mayor's and Companies' barges were sometimes formerly called "The City Galley Foists." See Wood's "South-East View of the City and part of Southwark, as it appeared about the year 1599."

[201] [Common. See Nares, edit. 1859, in _v._] This epithet of contempt is of frequent occurrence: _provand_, as all the commentators on "Romeo and Juliet," act ii. sc. 1, agree, means _provision_. In Ma.s.singer's "Maid of Honour," act i. sc. 1, we meet with it applied to a sword, and Mr. Gifford explains it to mean there _plain, unornamented_, such a sword as the troops were provided with....--_Collier._

[202] A _fox_ was formerly a cant word for a sword. So in Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair," act ii. sc. 6: "What would you have, sister, of a fellow that knows nothing but a basket-hilt and an _old fox_ in't?" Again, in "Philaster," by Beaumont and Fletcher, act iv.--

"I made my father's _old fox_ fly about his ears."

And in "Henry V.," by Shakespeare, act iv. sc. 4--

"Thou diest on point of _fox_."

See Steevens's note on the latter pa.s.sage, where many pa.s.sages of our ancient writers are produced to prove the explanation.

[203] [Old copy, _half_.]