A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vi Part 112

[249] [Old copy, _lent_.]

[250] [Old copy, _might_.]

[251] [Old copy, _might_.]

[252] Old copy, _tormented_.

[253] [Old copy, _unmask'd_.]

[254] Old copy, _our_.

[255] i.e., A pack of cards; the expression was very common; _deck_, five lines lower, was often used for _pack_.

[256] [Old copy, _from_.]

[257] The wimple is generally explained as a covering for the neck, or for the neck and shoulders; but Shakespeare ("Love's Labour's Lost," act iii. se. 1) seems to use it as a covering for the eyes also, when he calls Cupid "This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy." Steevens in his note states that "the wimple was a hood or veil, which fell over the face." The pa.s.sage in our text, and what follows it, supports this description of the wimple.

[258] This is the only part of female dress mentioned in this speech that seems to require a note. The "vardingale (or farthingale) of vain boast" is peculiarly appropriate, since a farthingale consisted of a very wide, expanded skirt, puffed out to show off the attire, and distort the figure of a lady. In modern times it bears a different name.

[259] [Good-bye.]

[260] [Old copy, _house_; but Simplicity is enumerating the new articles of attire he proposed to purchase.]

[261] [He addresses the audience.]

[262] [Old copy, _auditorie_.]

[263] [Old copy, _proofe it fits of_.]

[264] [Old copy, _a_.]

[265] [Old copy, in the preceding line, _ever_.] This and the following lines afford a note of time, and show that the drama was written and acted during the preparation of the great Armada, and perhaps before its total defeat.

[266] [The old copy reads, _peerlesse, of the rarest price_, which destroys the metre. The writer probably wrote _peerless_, and then, finding it inconvenient as regarded the measure, subst.i.tuted the other phrase, without striking out the first word, so that the printer inserted both.]

[267] [Old copy, _when_.]

[268] See "Henry IV.," Part I., act ii. sc 1, respecting "burning cressets." In a note, Steevens quotes the above line in explanation of Shakespeare.

[269] [The concluding portion of the speech is supposed to be overheard by Fraud and the others.]

[270] The ordinary cry of the apprentices of London, when they wished to raise their fellows to take their part in any commotion. It is mentioned in many old writers.

[271] A trouchman was an interpreter [literally, a truceman]: "For he that is the Trouchman of a Straungers tongue may well declare his meaning, but yet shall marre the grace of his Tale" (G. Whetstone's "Heptameron," 1582).

[272] [Old copy, _trunke_.]

[273] [This is to be p.r.o.nounced as a trisyllable.]

[274] [In the old copy this line is printed thus--

"Quid tibi c.u.m domini mox servient miseri n.o.bis; discede."]

[275] [In the old copy this line is divided between Policy and Pomp improperly.]

[276] [Might my advice be heard.]

[277] [Old copy, _wished_.]

[278] [Old copy, _we_.]

[279] [Old copy, _Ne. Fra., Nemo_ being retained by error.]

[280] [The entrance of Diligence is marked here in old copy; but he was already on the stage.]

[281] [Simplicity seems to intend the public-wealth.]

[282] [An intentional (?) error for _buckram_.]

[283] They "slipped aside" on p. 483, and now re-enter. The preceding stage direction ought to be _Exeunt_, because the lords go out as well as Simplicity.

[284] [Committal, prior to trial.]

[285] That is, under the protection of their husbands--a legal phrase, not yet strictly applicable, as the ladies are not to be married to the lords until the next day--

"And even to-morrow is the marriage-day."

[286] [Old copy, _a_.]

[287] [Old copy, _n.o.ble_; the emendation was suggested by Mr Collier.]

[288] Old copy, _vetuous_.

[289] There must be some corruption here, or the author was not very anxious to be correct in his cla.s.sical allusions.

[290] Lies to the king. The word _lese_ is more generally used as a substantive.

[291] [_Jug_ is a leman or mistress. Mr Collier remarks that this pa.s.sage clears up] the hitherto unexplained exclamation in "King Lear,"

act. i. sc. 4: "Whoop, Jug, I love thee."--The Tinker's _mail_, mentioned in the preceding line, is his wallet. _Trug_, in the following line, is equivalent to _trull_, and, possibly, is only another form of the same word: Middleton (edit. Dyce ii. 222) has the expression, "a pretty, middlesized _trug_." See also the note, where R. Greene's tract is quoted.

[292] In one copy the text is as we give it, and in another the word is printed _Ideal_, the alteration having been made in the press. Possibly the author had some confused notion about _Ida_; but, if he cared about being correct, the Queen of Love did not "dally with Endymion."

[293] [Thalia.]

[294] [Old copy, _Idea_; a trissyllable is required for the rhythm.]

[295] [Old copy, _kept_.]

[296] [Bond.]