A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume I Part 92

484. _Unto_, edit. 1569.

485. _And_, 1st edit.

486. _You are_, edit. 1569.

487. Your _mastership_.--_S_.

488. _True_, 1st edit.

489. _Ere_, edit. 1569; _or_, 1st 4to.

490. _For no lie_, edit 1569.

491. _Our_, 1st edit.

492. _One_, edit. 1569.

493. _Your_, 1st edit.

494. First edition reads--

"And that we both my lye so witnes, That twayne of us thre in one agree."

495. Neither.

496. _Unlike_, 1st edit.

497. _From_, 1st edit.

498. _So_, edit. 1569.

499. _Should_, 1st edit.

500. _Payne_, 1st edit.

501. The allusion is to gunnery. _Thampion (tampon_, Fr., a bung, cork, or plug of wood) is now written _tampion_, and signifies the stopper with which the mouths of cannon are closed up, to prevent the admission of rain, or sea water, whereby their charges might be rendered incapable of service. A _tewel (tuyau, or tuyal_, Fr.) is a _pipe_; and is here used (for the sake of continuing the metaphor) for _bore_ or _calibre_. Moxon, in his "Mechanick Exercises," defines the _tewel_ to be that _pipe_ in a smith's forge into which the nose of the bellows is introduced; and in a MS. fragment, said to be written by Sir Francis Drake, concerning the stores of one of the ships under his command, the word _tewel_ is applied to a gun.--_S_.

In Lambarde's "Dictionarium," p. 129, it is said: "It happened in the Reigne of Quene Marye, that the master of a Shippe pa.s.singe by while the Court lay theare, and meaninge (as the maner is) with Sayle and Shot to honor the Place, unadvisedly gave Fyre to a Piece charged with a Stone instede of a _Tampion_, which lightinge on the Quenes house ranne throughe a Chamber, and did no further Harme."

Our antiquary writes like one unacquainted with his subject; no man, I believe, ever talked _of charging_ a gun with a _tampion_; neither would the said _tampion_ (consisting of a piece of hard oak) have done much less mischief than a stone, if pointed from the Thames at the Queen's Palace at Greenwich.--_S_.

502. Addition in the 2d edit.

503. A piece of ordnance.--_S_.

504. _The Regent_ was one of the largest ships of war in the time of King Henry the Eighth. In the fourth year of his reign, Sir Thomas Knevet, master of the horse, and Sir John Carew, of Devonshire, were appointed captains of her, and in company with several others she was sent to fight the French fleet near Brest haven. An action accordingly ensued, and the Regent grappled with a French carrick, which would have been taken, had not a gunner on board the vessel, to prevent her falling into the hands of the English, set fire to the powder-room. This communicating the flames to both ships, they shared the same fate together, being both burnt. On the part of the French 900 men were lost; and on that of the English more than 700 (See Hall's "Chronicle," 1548, fol. 21).

505. _On thys castell lyght_, 1st edit.

506. _This_, edit. 1569.

507. _Our_, 1st edit.

508. The edit. of 1569 has this line--

"And done _more_ cures ghostely."--_Collier_.

509. [Mr Child observes: "The Pardoner's descent into h.e.l.l, in the 'Four P.P.,' is one of the most capital pa.s.sages in our comic poetry" ("Four Old Plays," 1848, xxvi.)]

510. A _beck_, among other significations, has that of a salutation with the head. So, in Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens"--

"_A serving of _becks_, and jutting out of b.u.ms_."--_S_.

511. _Thys_, 1st edit.

512. "Before the suppression of the monasteries, this city (_i.e_., Coventry) was very famous for the pageants that were played therein upon _Corpus Christi_ day (this is one of their ancient faires), which occasioning very great confluence of people thither from far and near, was no small benefit thereto; which pageants being acted with mighty state and reverence by the friers of this house, had theaters for the several scenes very large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city, for the better advantage of spectators, and contained the story of the New Testament, composed in old English rithme, as appeareth by an ancient MS. ent.i.tled 'Ludus Corporis Christi,'

or 'Ludus Coventriae,' in Bibl. Cotton, (sub Effigie Vesp. D. 9)"

(Dugdale's "Warwickshire," p. 116). [See the "Coventry Mysteries," edited by Halliwell, 1841.]

513. Addition in the 2d edit.

514. _Maist_, edit. 1569.

515. Mr Dodsley has _write_.

516. _His_, 1st edit.

517. _For playne_, 1st edit.

518. _Cure_, edit. 1569.--_Collier_. [The former editor printed _cuer_.]

519. Sweet or fresh-made, from the old word _sote_.

520. See note 3 to "The Ordinary."

521. _Frendes_, 1st edit.

522. First edition reads, "Dyd laugh full well together lyke frendes."

523. First edition reads, "Then to Lucyfer low as I coude."

524. [Featured.]

525. _Deliver_, edit. 1569.

526. _Wil_, edit. 1569.

527. So 1st edit., and properly, the meaning being that the Pardoner is ready to requite part of this favour whenever it shall be the devil's pleasure.--Collier_.