A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Ix Part 122

[71] [Furor Poeticus apostrophises Apollo, the Muses, &c., who are not present.]

[72] [Old copy, _Den_.]

[73] [Alluding to the blindness of puppies.]

[74] [Man.]

[75] [Old copy, _skibbered_.]

[76] [i.e., my very mate.]

[77] [In old copy this line is given to Phantasma.]

[78] [i.e., _face_. Old copy, _race_.]

[79] [Rent or distracted. A play is intended on the double meaning of the word.]

[80] [So in the old copy, being an abbreviation, _rhythmi causa_, of Philomusus.]

[81] [Old copy, _Mossy_; but in the margin is printed _Most like_, as if it was an afterthought, and the correction had been stamped in.]

[82] [Old copy, _playing_.]

[83] _No_ omitted.

[84] [This is the old mythological tradition inverted.]

[85] The bishop's examining chaplain, so called from apposer. In a will of James I.'s reign, the curate of a parish is to appose the children of a charity-school. The term _poser_ is still retained in the schools at [St Paul's,] Winchester and Eton. Two Fellows are annually deputed by the Society of New College in Oxford and King's College in Cambridge to appose or try the abilities of the boys who are to be sped to the fellowships that shall become vacant in the ensuing year.

[86] [The old copy gives this to the next act and scene; but Amoretto seems to offer the remark in immediate allusion to what has just pa.s.sed.

After all, the alteration is not very vital, as, although a new act and scene are marked, Academico and Amoretto probably remain on the stage.]

[87] Good.

[88] [Old copy, _caches_. A _rache_ is a dog that hunts by scent wild beasts, birds, and even fishes; the female is called a _brache_.]

[89] [See Halliwell's "Dictionary," i. 115.]

[90] [He refers to Amoretto himself.]

[91] [Halliwell, in his "Dictionary," _v. rheum (s.)_, defines it to mean _spleen, caprice_. He does not cite it as a verb. I suppose the sense here to be _ruminating_.]

[92] Old copy, _ravished_.

[93] [A play on _personage_ and _parsonage_, which were formerly interchangeable terms, as both had originally one signification.]

[94] [Queen Elizabeth was born September 7, 1533; not her birthday, therefore, but her accession (17th November 1558), at the death of her sister Mary, is referred to by Immerito and Sir Raderic. Elizabeth died March 24, 1602-3. Inasmuch as there is this special reference in "The Return from Parna.s.sus" to the Queen's day, and not to King James's day, we have a certain evidence that the play was written by or before the end of 1602-3. See also what may be drawn from the reference to the siege of Ostend, 1601-4, at the close of act iii. sc. 3 _post_ --additional evidence for 1602.--_Ebsworth_.]

[95] [Old copy, _I tooke of_, which seems nonsense.]

[96] [So old copy. Hawkins altered the word unnecessarily to _thatched_.]

[97] [Bespeaketh. Old copies, _rellish_.]

[98] Old copy, _bites a lip_.

[99] [So in old copy, but should we not read _London?--Ebsworth_.]

[100] [There are three references to Ostend in this play. The town bore a siege from 1601 to 1604, when it surrendered by capitulation. The besieged lost 50,000 men, and the Spaniards still more. The expression, "He is as glad as if he had taken Ostend," surely proves that this play was written after the beginning of 1601 and the commencement of the siege. It does not prove it to have been written after 1604, but, I think, strongly indicates the contrary.--_Ebsworth_. Is it not possible that the pa.s.sage was introduced into the play when printed, and was not in the original MS.?]

[101] [So the old copies. Hawkins altered it to _delicacies_.]

[102] [Poor must be p.r.o.nounced as a dissyllable.]

[103] [From _marry_ to _terms_ is omitted in one of the Oxford copies and in Dr Ingleby's.]

[104] [Old copy, _puppet_.]

[105] [One of the copies at Oxford, and Dr Ingleby's, read _nimphs_. Two others misprint _mips_.]

[106] [Old copy, _wail_.]

[107] Old copy, _and_.

[108] [Both the Oxford copies read _teate_.]

[109] [Both the Oxford copies have _beare_.]

[110] [Some of the copies, _break_.]

[111] To _moot_ is to plead a mock cause; to state a point of law by way of exercise, a common practice in the inns of court.

[112] Old copy, _facility_.

[113] [Old copy, _high_.]

[114] [A slight departure from Ovid.]

[115] To _come off_ is equivalent to the modern expression to _come down_, to pay sauce, to pay dearly, &c. In this sense Shakespeare uses the phrase in "Merry Wives of Windsor," act iv. sc. 6. The host says, "They [the Germans] shall have my horses, but I'll make them pay, I'll sauce them. They have had my house a week at command; I have turned away my other guests. They must come off; I'll sauce them." An eminent critic says to _come off_ is to go scot-free; and this not suiting the context, he bids us read, they must _compt off_, i.e., clear their reckoning.

[116] Old copy, _Craboun_.

[117] [Talons.]

[118] _Gramercy_: great thanks, _grand merci_; or I thank ye, _Je vous remercie_. In this sense it is constantly used by our first writers. A very great critic p.r.o.nounces it an obsolete expression of surprise, contracted from _grant me mercy_; and cites a pa.s.sage in "t.i.tus Andronicus" to ill.u.s.trate his sense of it; but, it is presumed, that pa.s.sage, when properly pointed, confirms the original acceptation--

CHIRON. Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius, He hath some message to deliver us.