A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume I Part 91

444. First edition reads--

"For bothe you twayne shall wait on me.

What chaunce is this, that suche an elfe Commaunded two knaves be besyde himselfe."

Both editions have it so, and the alteration was made by Dodsley, and followed by Reed, although it is by no means necessary to the due understanding of the pa.s.sage.--_Collier_.

445. _Thynge decayed_, 1st edit.

446. _Holly_, 1st edit., _holy_, edit. 1569.

447. i.e., One magisterium; a chymical term expressive of the highest powers of trans.m.u.tation, and sometimes used for any _masterly_ performance.--_S_.

_Mastery_ seems here used in the sense of _mystery_ or trade, which is derived from the French _mestier_, and that perhaps from _magisterium_.

See Warton's "Hist. Engl. Poetry," III. x.x.xvii.--_Collier_. [But see edit. 1871, i., 263.]

448. Both the old copies agree in reading--

"Yet in lyenge, I can some skyll,"

which has. .h.i.therto been altered to

"Yet in lyenge I can _boste_ some skyll,"

a word having been foisted in as if the former editors were not aware that "_I can some skyll_," was a phrase of the time and perfectly intelligible.--_Collier_.

449. _Not_, 1st edit.

450. _Beholde_, edit. 1569.

451. _May here_, 1st edit., _may lie_, edit. 1569.

452. _Sirs_, edit. 1569.

453. _As well as_, 1st edit.

454. _Hope_, 1st edit.

455. _Hope_, 1st edit.

456. The word _it_ is omitted in the first edition, but it is necessary for the rhyme.--_Collier_.

457. _To be rulde_, edit. 1569.

458. _Here are_, edit. 1569.

459. _Are_, edit. 1569.

460. _May_, edit. 1569.

461. _All hallowes_ is _All Saints_. Mr Steevens, in his note on the "First Part of King Henry IV.," A.1, S.2, remarks on the absurdity of appropriating a word formed to express a community of saints to a particular one of the number.

462. _He shall be ryd of the toth ake_, 1st edit.

463. _Other_, 1st edit.

464. _Muche_, 1st edit.

465. _Freend_, edit. 1569.

466. _This_, edit. 1569.

467. These seven sleepers are said to have lived at Ephesus in the time of the Emperor Decian. Being commanded to sacrifice according to the Pagan manner, they fled to a cave in Mount Ceylon, where they fell asleep, and continued in that state 372 years, as is a.s.serted by some, though according to others only 208 years. They awoke in the reign of one Emperor Theodosian who, being informed of this extraordinary event, came from Constantinople to see them, and to satisfy himself of the truth of the relation. Having communicated to him the several circ.u.mstances of their case, they all, as the "Legenda Aurea" expresses it, "enclyned theyr hedes to th' erth, and rendred their spyrites at the commaundement of our Lorde Jesu Cryst, and soo deyed." See "Legenda Aurea," 196.

468. _Thys_, 1st edit.

469. _To_, 1st edit.

470. _Yet_, edit. 1569.

471. _Can_, 1st edit.

472. See note 34 to "Gammer Gurton's Needle."

473. Sooner.

474. _See_, edit. 1569.

475. _Hyre me_ is _reward me_, and afterwards we meet with this line--

"But answered you, and geven you _hyring_."--_Collier_.

[But the word in the two pa.s.sages appears to be identical in the old orthography only. In the latter, cited by Mr Collier, it may mean _hearing_, but here it is seemingly _hire_, i.e., give me my hire or reward.]

476. _Theriaca_, a remedy against poison--_Blount_. The word _triacle_ is also not unfrequently used for a balsam, or indeed any kind of infallible or powerful medicine.--_Collier_.

477. _In_, 1st edit.

478. An addition. The word _so_ is no addition, but is found in both the old copies.--_Collier_.

479. I should suppose we ought to read _sheet-anchor_. The _sheet-anchor_ is the largest belonging to a ship, and is the last refuge of mariners; for when that fails to take hold of the ground, the vessel is left at the mercy of the storm. The _sheet-anchor_ was called by the ancients _anchora sacra_; and by the French _maitresse ancre_.--_S_.

480. _Ointment_, edit. 1569.

481. _Will_, edit. 1569.

482. _Are_, edit. 1569.

483. _Are_, edit. 1569.