Thomas Dekker / Edited, with an introduction and notes by Ernest Rhys. Unexpurgated Edition

FOOTNOTES

[1] “Memoirs of Actors,” xvi., xvii.

[2] “The Academy,” vol. v., 1874, pp. 136-7.

[3] Shoemaking was called “the Gentle Craft,” possibly in part because the patron saints of shoemakers, St. Crispin and St. Hugh, were said to be of noble, and even royal, blood; possibly because of the sedentary nature of the occupation.

[4] A diminutive of Roger.

[5] Wasted, squandered.

[6] Regimental badge or device.

[7] Weapons and martial equipment.

[8] A gold coin, worth about three pounds twelve shillings.

[9] The quarto has “with a piece.” Piece (old Fr. bobelin) was sometimes loosely used for the shoe itself, as well as for the piece of leather used in repairs. See Cotgrave.

[10] Twiddle-twaddle.

[11] Apparently one of Eyre’s frequent improvised phrases, referring here to his wife’s trick of repeating herself, as in her previous speech.

[12] An imaginary Saracen god, represented in the old moralities and plays as of a quite ungodly tendency to violence.

[13] A nick-name, possibly, for some character of the day, used with a vague reference to King Lud.

[14] Tales told to curry favour.

[15] The groat was the silver fourpenny-piece. The simile of a cracked coin is an obvious expression of worthlessness.

[16] Little yellow spots on the body which denoted the infection of the plague.

[17] Another of Eyre’s improvised phrases, whose component parts sufficiently explain its meaning.

[18] With a vengeance.

[19] Crushed crab apples.

[20] A kind of trousers, first worn by the Gascons.

[21] A phrase from Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy.

[22] i.e. Go and be hanged!

[23] i.e. Dressing himself.

[24] Bread soaked in pot liquor, and prepared secundum artem.—Nares.

[25] Salted beef.

[26] A dog kept fastened up as a watch-dog, and therefore given to loud barking.

[27] A woman who washed and pickled pigs’ faces.

[28] Bawling.

[29]

There was a boor from Gelderland,
Jolly they be;
He was so drunk he could not stand,
Drunken they be:
Clink then the cannikin,
Drink, pretty mannikin!

[30] St. Hugh was the patron saint of shoemakers, and his bones were supposed to have been made into shoemaker’s tools, for which this came to be a common term.

[31] A dish of different hashed meats.

[32] Good day, master, and your wife too.

[33] Yes, yes, I am a shoemaker.

[34] Yes, yes; be not afraid. I have everything, to make boots big and little.

[35] I don’t know what you say; I don’t understand you.

[36] Yes, yes, yes; I can do that very well.

[37] Slatterns, sluts.

[38] O, I understand you; I must pay for half-a-dozen cans; here, boy, take this shilling, tap this once freely.

[39] Cant term for a beggar.

[40] Conger-eel.

[41] Take cover.

[42] Spent; panting with exhaustion.

[43] Stupid.

[44] I’ll tell you what, Hans; this ship that is come from Candia, is quite full, by God’s sacrament, of sugar, civet, almonds, cambric, and all things; a thousand, thousand things. Take it, Hans, take it for your master. There are the bills of lading. Your master, Simon Eyre, shall have a good bargain. What say you, Hans?

[45] My dear brother Firk, bring Master Eyre to the sign of the Swan; there shall you find this skipper and me. What say you, brother Firk? Do it, Hodge.—[There were at this time two inns with the sign of the Swan in London, one at Dowgate, the other in Old Fish Street.]

[46] A coin worth about three pounds twelve shillings.

[47] “East from the Bishop of Winchester’s house, directly over against it, stands a fair church, called St. Mary over the Rie, or Overie, that is, over the water.”—Stow’s Survey of London.

[48] Finsbury was a famous practising ground for archery at this time.

[49] A name given to Dutchwomen.

[50] By the way, beside the question.

[51] German: Schelm, a scoundrel. Skanderbag, or Scander Beg (i.e. Lord Alexander), a Turkish name for John Kastriota, the Albanian hero, who freed his country from the yoke of the Turks (1443-1467).

[52] A robe ornamented with guards or facings.

[53] Stamped.

[54] Raising up, ruffling.

[55] Good day, master. This is the skipper that has the ship of merchandise; the commodity is good; take it, master, take it.

[56] The ship lies in the river; there are sugar, civet, almonds, cambric, and a thousand thousand things, by God’s sacrament, take it, master; you shall have a good bargain.

[57] Yes, yes, I have drunk well.

[58] Fr. Par Dieu. The word here means “truly.”

[59] Found, set; a play upon fond.

[60] Puppet: derived from Mahomet.

[61] Coins worth about 10s. each.

[62] Ale-kegs, made of wood; hence the need for scalding.

[63] I thank you, mistress!

[64] Yes, I shall, mistress!

[65] High-heeled cork shoes were in fashion for ladies at this time.

[66] Truly; see ante, p. 33.

[67] A comparison suggested by the likeness of the flaps of the hood to the boards of a pillory, between which the head of the prisoner was fastened.

[68] The old name for Gracechurch Street before the fire of London.

[69] I am merry; let’s see you so too!

[70] Serve me, and I’ll serve thee.

[71] Yes, I shall, dame!

[72] Brighten up.

[73] Sheriff.

[74] “The three-farthing silver pieces of Queen Elizabeth had the profile of the sovereign with a rose at the back of her head.”—Dyce (Note to King John.)

[75] The flap of a hood trimmed with fur or sheep’s wool.

[76] i.e. For the twenty Portuguese previously lent.

[77] Herrick, who was a goldsmith’s apprentice in London during the time when this play was performed, seems to have appropriated these words of Eyre’s, and turned them into rhyme in these lines:—

“Let’s now take our time,
While we’re in our prime,
And old, old age is afar off;
For the evil, evil days,
Will come on apace,
Before we can be aware of.”

[78] A song or catch for three voices. In the original, the two Three-Men’s Songs are printed separately from the rest of the play, and the place for their insertion is only very uncertainly indicated.

[79] I thank you, good maid!

[80] See note ante, p. 39.

[81] “Forward, Firk, thou art a jolly youngster. Hark, ay, master, I bid you cut me a pair of vamps for Master Jeffrey’s boots.” Vamps; upper leathers of a shoe.

[82] A play upon “vamps,” which sometimes has this meaning.

[83] What do you want (was begehrt ihr), what would you, girl?

[84] Where is your noble lady, where is your mistress?

[85] Yes, yes, I shall go with you.

[86] “At the west end of this Jesus chapel, under the choir of Paul’s, also was a parish church of St. Faith, commonly called St. Faith under Paul’s.”—Stow.

[87] A corruption of “God’s nails.”

[88] Indeed, mistress, ’tis a good shoe, it shall fit well, or you shall not pay.

[89] Yes, yes, I know that well; indeed, ’tis a good shoe, ’tis made of neat’s leather, see here, good sir!

[90] Honeykin (?); poor honey, poor creature.

[91] “Rest you merry.”—Shak., Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Sc. 2.

[92] i.e. Diggers for information.

[93] i.e. Stretchers of the truth, fibs.

[94] A stone in St. Swithin’s (now cased in the wall of the church), which marked the centre from which the old Roman-roads radiated.

[95] A small conduit near the Royal Exchange.

[96] A pretty sight. See p, 74, l. 1. Compare Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” Act III., Sc. 1, 136, and Act IV., Sc. 1, 144.

[97] Terms used in a common children’s game, the point being to discover in which of the two hands some small object was hidden.

[98] A sweet biscuit, similar to a macaroon.—Nares.

[99] Fitted.

[100] In any public affray, the cry was “Clubs, Clubs!” by way of calling for help (particularly by the London ’prentices).—Nares.

[101] A piece of lace with a tag, which fastened the busk, or piece of whalebone, used to keep the stays in position.

[102] Whipped.

[103] Leadenhall. [See note post, p. 85.]

[104] See note ante, p. 19.

[105] Barrels.

[106] In suspense.

[107] i.e. Swaggerer.

[108] See note to First Three Men’s Song, p. 46.

[109] Pass, push about from one to the other, in drinking.

[110] “A dish, made of milk, eggs and sugar, baked in a pot.”—Webster.

[111] A steak cut crossways for broiling.

[112] Bands or collars for the neck.

[113] Flaps; as resembling the hanging chaps of a hound.

[114] The allusion is, no doubt, to Kyd’s Soliman and Perseda, and to Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, though these were long after Eyre’s time.

[115] Magpie.

[116] Tamerlane (Tamburlaine), Cham, or Khan of Tartary. Compare Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, Act II. Sc. i.

[117] “A.D. 1419. This year Sir Symon Eyre built Leadenhall, at his proper expense, as it now appears, and gave the same to the City to be employed as a public granary for laying up corn against a time of scarcity.”—Maitland, ii., p. 187.

[118] Merry-making.

[119] Portentous.

[120] A red Spanish wine, made at Alicant.

[121] By our lady.

[122] Ballad-makers.

[123] i.e. Readily. Compare Gull’s Horn Book, Notts Ed. p. 160.

[124] Grandee.

[125] A contemptuous term for an old man of means.

[126] The superstitions about this plant, its fancied resemblance to the human figure, led to its being frequently alluded to in this way.

[127] Query Whimlings—idiots.

[128] Wide of the mark.

[129] Scurfy.

[130] Bosom friend.

[131] “Aunt” was a cant term both for a prostitute and a bawd.—Dyce.

[132] Cheat.

[133] i.e. An idiot. The phrase had its origin in the practice of the crown granting the custody of idiots and their possessions to persons who had interest enough to secure the appointments.

[134] Foolish.

[135] i.e. For love’s sake.

[136] Bet.

[137] Hands.

[138] The shopkeeper’s common cry at this period.

[139] An exclamation of contempt, equivalent to “a fig for.”—Dyce.

[140] Proverbial term for a simpleton.

[141] Milksop.

[142] Beat.

[143] Thieves’ slang for a man who shams madness to gain his ends. Compare Dekker’s Bellman of London, Grosart, sc. III., p. 101.

[144] i.e. Not fully dressed.

[145] A stick used for plaiting ruffs.

[146] Sideboard.

[147] See note, ante, p. 115.

[148] A common ejaculation of contempt.

[149] A corruption of “God’s my pity.”—Dyce.

[150] A gold coin worth about ten shillings. The play upon the word was one of the commonest puns of the time.

[151] A docked horse.

[152] Spiced and sweetened wine.

[153] Half a gallon.

[154] A roll of fine bread.

[155] A sprightly dance.

[156] Prostitutes.

[157] Rabbit-skin.

[158] i.e. Retires to the background.

[159] Cheat.

[160] Hysterics.

[161] Paltry.

[162] Respectfully.

[163] i.e. For sale.

[164] See note, ante, p. 118.

[165] The term sirrah was applied often to women as well as to men.

[166] Prostitute.

[167] A sweet Spanish wine.

[168] Simpletons.

[169] Measure.

[170] Wench.

[171] Calves’ Fry.

[172] Tripe.

[173] A corruption of the word “melancholy.”

[174] In allusion to the painting of a citizen’s gateposts on his promotion to be sheriff, so as to display official notices the better.

[175] A slang term applied to citizens in allusion to their head gear.

[176] Beat.

[177] Pleases.

[178] A contraction of “mine ingle,” i.e. my favourite or friend.

[179] The heraldic term for red.

[180] Desire.

[181] Weigh.

[182] Perquisites.

[183] Table covers.

[184] Portuguese coins, worth about 2s. 10d. each, but varying in value.

[185] Construe.

[186] i.e. Bourgeois knights dubbed for civil, not for martial, honours.

[187] i.e. I long.

[188] When he may rob under protection. Barn is a corruption of baron, and in law a wife is said to be under covert baron, being sheltered by marriage under her husband.—Dyce.

[189] Hat.

[190] Handsomest.

[191] See note ante, p. 114.

[192] Simpletons.

[193] Easily, readily.

[194] The siege of Ostend was protracted for three years and ten weeks.—The place was eventually captured by the Marquis of Spinola on Sep. 8, 1604.

[195] Foolish.

[196] i.e. A person,—thus spelt to mark the servant’s mispronunciation.

[197] From Seneca’s Oedipus.

[198] Ital. Good courage.

[199] “Slid” according to Halliwell is a north country oath.

[200] A corruption of “mazzard,” the head.

[201] i.e. In bowing.

[202] An allusion, no doubt, to Shakespeare’s comedy.

[203] Dyce points out the inconsistency, that Candido has just returned from the Senate House, although it appears from the intermediate Scenes that since he left home a night has elapsed.

[204] A quibble. A master’s was one of the three degrees in fencing, for each of which a “prize” was publicly played.

[205] Construe.

[206] A cheap substitute for tapestry and very frequently having verses inscribed on it as in the present instance.

[207] Readily. Possibly the above use of the term points to its derivation.

[208] Cheese-trenchers used to be inscribed with proverbial phrases.

[209] Consent.

[210] i.e. To steal a wench.

[211] It was the ancient practice when persons were sworn for them to eat bread and salt.

[212] Artifices.

[213] Anticipate.

[214] i.e. They are not to be restrained by being called to.

[215] Hats.

[216] Club foot.

[217] Informer.

[218] Slippers. Fr. pantoufles.

[219] In playing the virginal the sound ceased whenever the jack fell and touched the string.

[220] A flap-dragon was a raisin floating on lighted spirit in a dish or glass and had to be snatched out with the mouth and swallowed. Gallants used to toast their mistresses in flap-dragons.

[221] “An almond for parrot,” and “a rope for parrot,” were common phrases at the time.

[222] A corruption of God’s sanctity or God’s saints.—Steevens.

[223] In the game of barley-break the ground was divided into three compartments, the middle one of which was called “hell.”

[224] i.e. Infelice.

[225] A quibble. “Table” also meant the palm of the hand.—Dyce.

[226] i.e. A wench, a prostitute.

[227] An allusion to a ballad of that name.

[228] i.e. Confound.

[229] Hands.

[230] i.e. Reason.

[231] Favourite.

[232] The running footmen of those days were generally Irishmen.

[233] Meaning Dunkirk privateers.

[234] Buona roba is an Italian phrase for a courtesan.

[235] Yellow was typical of jealousy.

[236] A supposed recipe for restoring youth.—Dyce.

[237] Preserve.

[238] Renounce.

[239] Made use of by fowlers to allure quails.

[240] The common livery of the time.

[241] In allusion to the caps worn both by traders and their apprentices.

[242] Bucklers formerly had long spikes in their centre.

[243] The model for the hat.

[244] Struts.

[245] A tall pointed hat satirized by Stubbes in his Anatomie of Abuses (1538). Probably at this point Candido takes the steeple-like hat worn by the 1st Guest, and puts it on his own head.

[246] Hysteria.

[247] Rosemary was used as an emblem of remembrance at both funerals and weddings.

[248] A favourite simile with the writers of the time.

[249] Ital. A term of abuse or contempt.

[250] Roystering young gallants. A highly favourable female version of the type is given in Dekker and Middleton’s comedy, The Roaring Girl.

[251] i.e. Get a chance of drinking to excess.

[252] See note ante, p. 99.

[253] Foolish.

[254] Cheat.

[255] Whoremonger.

[256] Portcullis.

[257] An expression signifying impatience.

[258] A fencing contest. See note ante, p. 160.

[259] Cudgels.

[260] A hound,—derived from “Shake a Tory.”

[261] CrÍosd—Christ.

[262] Irish: SlÁn lÚitheach—A joyous farewell(?).

[263] Irish: As a mÁrach frÓmhadh bodach brÉan—On the morrow of a feast, a clown is a beast.

[264] A rough sturdy fellow. Irish: Ceithearneach—A soldier.

[265] An allusion to the darts carried by the Irish running footmen.—Dyce.

[266] Irish: Maighisdir mo grÁdh—Master of my love.

[267] Foolish.

[268] i.e. With a staff.

[269] An allusion to the well-known romance of this name, from the Spanish.

[270] A cant term for money.

[271] i.e. Turn bawd.

[272] Prostitutes.

[273] See note ante, p. 124.

[274] Gardens with summer-houses were very common in the suburbs of London at the time, and were often used as places of intrigue.—Dyce.

[275] Sift.

[276] Pear-tree.

[277] Finely attired.

[278] A Cataian came to signify a sharper because the people of Cataia (China) were famous for their thieving propensities.—Dyce.

[279] Serving-men’s livery at this time was usually blue.

[280] A kind of false dice.

[281] Whoremonger.

[282] The loops or straps appended to the girdle in which the dagger or small sword usually hung.—Halliwell.

[283] Means both a herring and a piece of money.

[284] Horses with long housings.

[285] Stuffed out.

[286] The clap or clack-dish was properly a box carried by beggars, the lid of which they used to rattle to attract notice and bring people to their doors.

[287] Hospital.

[288] Booty.

[289] Meaning his sword.

[290] Steevens pointed out that Arlotte was not the concubine of an English king but was the mistress of the father of William the Conqueror.

[291] i.e. Then.

[292] A net, the mouth of which was drawn together with a string.

[293] To drink tobacco was a common phrase for smoking it.—Reed.

[294] A long barge with oars.

[295] A common dish in the brothels of the time.

[296] A corruption of Pedro Ximenes, a sweet Spanish wine, so called from the grape of that name.

[297] A sweet Portuguese wine from the neighbourhood of Lisbon.

[298] i.e. Aleatico, a red Italian muscatel wine with a rich aromatic flavour.

[299] The saker and basilisk were both pieces of ordnance.

[300] A play upon “pop-guns.”

[301] It was a common custom to kneel when drinking a health, especially the health of a superior.

[302] The price was here probably indicated by displaying the fingers.

[303] On Shrove Tuesday the authorities made a search for brothel-keepers, and on the same day the London apprentices went about wrecking houses of ill-fame.

[304] It was in a blue gown that strumpets had to do penance.

[305] Meaning Bridewell, where loose women were whipped.

[306] An allusion to the carting of prostitutes, who were at the same time pelted by the populace with rotten eggs.

[307] Breaking chalk, grinding in mills, raising sand and gravel and making of lime were among the employments assigned to vagrants and others committed to Bridewell.—Reed.

[308] This and the subsequent allusions to the Bridewell of Milan, of course, really have reference to the London Bridewell. In the reign of Henry VIII. princes were lodged there, and it was there that Cardinal Campeius had his first audience of the king. After Henry’s death, Edward VI. gave the palace to the citizens. It was moreover endowed with land belonging to the Savoy to the amount of 700 marks a year and the bedding and furniture of this hospital were bestowed upon it.

[309] i.e. Skeletons.

[310] Atoms.

[311] Slang term for a small copper coin.

[312] The amount of the hangman’s fee.

[313] A cittern or lute was part of the appointments of a barber’s shop of the period.

[314] A term in fencing. See note ante, p. 160.

[315] A heavy mallet.

[316] The term was applied both to a kept gallant and to a pander.

[317] Smartly attired.

[318] A term of contempt.

[319] A play upon the word, which also signifies “trimmed.”

[320] Prostitutes.

[321] Task work.

[322] At the carting of bawds and prostitutes they were preceded by a mob beating basins and performing other rough music.

[323] Trimmed.

[324] Ensign.

[325] Branded.

[326] Disdain.

[327] Finely dressed.

[328] Fools.

[329] This Prologue and the Epilogue are specially devised for the performance of the play before the queen, hence “At Court.”

[330] i.e. Queen Elizabeth, at this time in her sixty-eighth year.

Pandora is the only one of these poetic terms for Elizabeth peculiar to Dekker. The rest of them are used by others of the Elizabethan poets. He evidently here conceives Pandora on the side of her good fortune only, as receiving the gifts of the gods, and not in her more familiar association with the story of Pandora’s Box and its evils.

[331] Probably a church in Famagosta, which tradition makes Fortunatus’s native place, and which was at one time the chief port and fortress in Cyprus.

[332] “A gardener” in the original, which does not tally with the description given by Fortune on p. 300. q.v.

[333] “A smith” in the original, which is again a confusion with the description in the text.

[334] An allusion to the coxcomb, the invariable ornament to the fool’s cap, which Virtue wears on her head. See description, Scene III.

[335] The description corresponds rather to Henry IV. of Germany, who died in 1106.

[336] Frederick I. called Barbarossa, Emperor of Germany, i.e. Allemagne (Almaine), the grandson of Henry IV.

[337] Alexander III.

[338] Louis I. called Le DÉbonnaire, son of Charlemagne, d. 840.

[339] Bajazet I. called Yilderim, i.e. Lightning, because of the rapidity of his movement in the field of war, first Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who was humiliated by Timur (Tamburlaine). Compare Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great.

[340] Viriathus, a shepherd who became a famous Lusitanian chief in the 2nd century B.C., and long warred successfully against the Romans in Spain.

[341] Primislaus, a country labourer, who became first Duke of Bohemia, having married the daughter of Croc who founded the city of Prague.

[342] Gregory VII. (1013-1085).

[343] Fortune here turns and addresses the four deposed kings again.

[344] Tailor. See The Devil’s Answer to Pierce Pennylesse (Dekker’s non-dramatic works, The Huth Library, edited by the Rev. A. B. Grosart, vol. ii. p. 147), “That botcher I preferred to be Lucifer’s tailor, because he works with a hot needle and burnt thread.”

[345] John of Leyden (John Beccold), b. 1510, d. 1536, a tailor, who became a leader of the Anabaptists and at their head took extraordinary possession of the city of Munster, and ruled for a brief space as king there, before constitutional authority was restored and he was seized and put to death.

[346] The Three Destinies, to whom Fortune herself was sometimes added as a fourth. Fortunatus here seems to be addressing Fortune and her two attendant nymphs, for no stage direction is specially given for the entrance of the Three Destinies, as in Act II. sc. ii., q.v.

[347] See an anonymous poem in Tottel’s Miscellany, 1557, called “A praise of his Lady,” from which Dekker may have borrowed the fancy:—

“In each of her two crystal eyes
Smileth a naked boy.”

[348] Dekker is not careful even to remember here that Cyprus is an island.

[349] Compare Shakespeare’s “Crabbed Age and Youth.”

[350] A corruption of “God’s heart.”

[351] Hired witnesses.

[352] One of the usual puns on the coin of that name.

[353] Ensign-bearers.

[354] A net the ends of which are drawn together with a string like a purse.

[355] Kid leather (Fr. chevreau). Hence a very flexible conscience was often called a cheveril conscience.—Halliwell.

[356] Mean or miserly persons.—Halliwell.

[357] See note ante, p. 306.

[358] i.e. Gallantly attired.

[359] Housings hung on horses and mules, and considered a mark of dignity.—Halliwell.

[360] A stick with leather flap for killing flies.

[361] One of the followers of Ogier the Dane into India, according to Mandeville, who was given sovereignty there, and is said by tradition to have had seventy tributary kings.

[362] i.e. Khan.

[363] Another reference to the gold coins so called.

[364] i.e. The fool’s cap.

[365] In the original story Fortunatus goes to Cairo, and Dekker is evidently here confusing Egypt with Assyria. Hence the Soldan’s court at Babylon.

[366] The golden apple which Paris adjudged to Venus.

[367] Alluding to Phaeton’s flight, and the fiery disruption of his chariot.

[368] A martial term, probably of Spanish derivation, for the summons to battle.

[369] “No does?” simply in the original, which is not intelligible. In full it would seem to imply “No, does it not?”

[370] Poise, weigh. “Peise” is still in use in some parts of the north of England.

[371] i.e. Gallantly attired.

[372] In the original these words ate assigned to Ampedo, an evident error.

[373] A Portuguese coin having a cross on one side and worth about 2s. 3d., but varying in value at different times.

[374] “Pies” in the original, an evident misprint.

[375] A common reproach for the affectation of the courtiers in Elizabeth’s reign.

[376] See note ante. p. 301. “The Parcae were generally represented as three old women with chaplets made with wool, and interwoven with the flowers of the narcissus. They were covered with a white robe, and fillet of the same colour, bound with chaplets. One of them held a distaff, another the spindle, and the third was armed with scissors with which she cut the thread which her sisters had spun.”—Lempriere.

[377] Sempstresses, alluding to their spinning.

[378] See The Devil’s Answer to Pierce Pennylesse, p. 100, “that great Dego of Devils.”—Dekker’s Non-Dramatic Works.

[379] Death, in original,—an evident misprint.

[380] Swaggering mood.

[381] Ital. Latta, tin-plate.

[382] Succeed.

[383] Farcy, a disease to which horses are subject, still sometimes miscalled “Fashions” by country farriers. Dekker puns on it again in The Gull’s Horn-Book:—“Fashions then was counted a disease, and horses died of it: But now (thanks to folly) it is held the only rare physic, and the purest golden Asses live upon it.”

[384] Bow.

[385] Prostitutes.

[386] Barded, or barbed: i.e. Adorned with trappings.

[387] The mark was worth 13s. 4d.

[388] The angel varied from 6s. 8d. to 10s. in value.

[389] Skill.

[390] “My heart is weighed down, my soul much tormented. No, by Heaven, the Spanish foot does not beat to music on English ground.”

[391] “The truth, sir; the Spanish dance is full of state, majestic, and fit for monarchs: your English low, fantastic, and very humble.”

[392] “I desire only to please you: your eye has conquered its prisoner. You shall hear the Spanish Pavan, let your music be grave and majestic: Page, give me tobacco; take my cloak and my sword. Higher, higher: Make way, make way friends, higher, higher.” The Pavan was a stately Spanish dance.

[393] History does not record that Athelstane had either wife or daughter.

[394] Your old mind (or, more literally, inclination) of cajoling.

[395] Virtue. Greek.

[396] In the English translation from the original story of Fortunatus, as published in the Dutch, Andelocia invents the name of Damascus, or Damasco, for his apples, on the spur of the moment, so as to give them an air of rarety, the name apparently not being one previously used for any special kind of apple. In an earlier English edition of the story, published about 1650, however, they are otherwise described. It says there:—“They were brought from Jerusalem, and were from the Holy Garden.”

[397] A large sweet apple, full of juice [see Bailey’s Dictionary].

[398] John apple, a good keeping apple, which long retains its freshness.

[399] “That is too many, master.” Dekker’s Irish even surpasses his Dutch in unintelligibility, and it would need more space than mere footnotes can afford, to attempt any full elucidation.

[400] Stockings probably, from the use of the term for bales of wool.

[401] Dekker uses “Gallant,” as an equivalent in The Gull’s Horn-Book, but he means something more opprobrious;—“Masher,” as we would say to-day, a fool of fashion.

[402] An allusion to the comedy The Wisdom of Dr. Dodipoll.

[403] i.e. Grow jolly, at the spectacle.

[404] A play upon “fool” and “foul.”

[405] Elucidation of his jargon must be left to the discretion of the reader.

[406] See ante, “They mean to fall to their hey-pass and re-pass.”

[407] A reference probably to a woman exhibited at some show in London, and transferred by Dekker, with his usual artistic liberty, to Cyprus.

[408] This is an imaginative prevision on the part of Ampedo, as again in his next speech, “My want is famine.”

[409] Virtue here evidently addressed Queen Elizabeth, as she sat in the audience; this direct recognition is kept up to the end of the play.

[410] See note to Prologue.

[411] An allusion to the popular old play of The Merry Devil of Edmonton, written about twenty years previously.

[412] i.e. Acquit.

[413] This speech is very corrupt. Dyce suggested “lewdness” in place of the “laundress” of the old edition.

[414] Assure.

[415] Skeleton.

[416] Persuaded.

[417] A stalking-horse, cover.

[418] Make over.

[419] i.e. Blunt and honest. An old proverb.

[420] Another term for “bewitch” commonly in use; the word probably implied the muttering or “forspeaking” of a spell.

[421] A winding thoroughfare which led from Eastcheap to Fish-street-hill.

[422] “An inner part between the tenor and the base.” Blount’s Glossographia, 1681. It was customary in the morris to adorn the dresses of the dancers, the trappings of the hobby-horse, &c., with bells of different pitch, but arranged to sound in harmony. Hence, “treble,” “mean,” &c.

[423] Counter-tenor.

[424] Coursing the hare.

[425] The fore-man or fore-gallant of the morris led the other dancers, and was distinguished by a gayer dress.

[426] Cuddy’s anger arises from the unlucky question asked by the third clown; “How shall we do for a good hobby-horse?”—as he apparently expected, from his former celebrity in that respectable character, to have been appointed by acclamation.—Gifford.

[427] “Ka me, ka thee!” was an old proverb.

[428] Bird-bolt, arrow; perhaps more correctly “But-bolt,” as emendated by Gifford.

[429] Peas codlings; green peas.

[430] There is a break here in the quarto. It is suggested that the printer was unable to decipher the first word of the line in the manuscript.

[431] A children’s game, in which cherry-stones are pitched into a small hole. The suggestion was sometimes a less innocent one, however. Compare Herrick’s quatrain on “Cherry-pit.”

[432] Thus Butler:

“The soldier does it every day,
Eight to the week, for sixpence pay.”—Gifford.

[433] Coach, Fr. Carrosse.

[434] Barking Church stood at the bottom of Seething Lane. It was destroyed in the great fire.—Gifford.

[435] Crony, friend.

[436] Abbreviation for “Mine ingle,” as above.

[437] Or “neif,” i.e. fist.

[438] The allusion is to Master Peter Fabel, who, as the prologue to the old comedy says, “was called, for his sleights and his magic, “The merry Devil of Edmonton.”—Gifford.

[439] Frank alludes to the marriage portion which he had just received with Susan.—Gifford.

[440] Cockchafer, beetle.

[441] The dog is of course supposed invisible. Frank thanks Susan for telling him of the threatened arrival of Carter and Old Thorney which would lead to discovery.

[442] An allusion to an old superstition in which the idea was that wounds were healed by the turning of the assailant’s weapon against himself so as to cover it with his blood.

[443] i.e. Adorned with tufts, or tassels, dependent from the shoulders.—Gifford.

[444] Array.

[445] Maid Marian was always a prominent figure in the morris-dance. Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, and other characters were also added according to the humour of the dancers.

[446] An outbuilding or yard in the rear of a house.

[447] Penny. Lat. Denarius.

[448] Paned hose were made of stripes (panels) of different-coloured stuff stitched together, and therefore liable to break or be seam-rent. Thus counterpane.

[449] Farmer Banks is very familiar with the names of old plays (or rather of the supposed witches who gave names to the plays). Mother Bombie is the title of one of Lyly’s comedies, of which she is the heroine; as is Gammer Gurton of the farcical drama, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, to which Old Banks presently refers.

[450] A breed of dogs, in great request for hunting ducks in the ponds at Islington and other outlying regions of London at this period.

[451] A fierce kind of mastiff kept to bait bears. Paris garden, where these brutal sports were regularly exhibited, was situated on the Bankside in Southwark, close to the Globe Theatre.—Gifford.

[452] There is a tract, in prose and verse, attributed to Luke Hatton, entitled The Black Dog of Newgate; and we learn from Henslowe’s Diary that there was a play by Hathway, Day, Smith, and another poet, with the same title.—Dyce.

[453] i.e. Wandering.

[454] A proverbial expression for more concealed mischief.—Gifford.

[455] Literally, a bull-calf, sometimes used, as here, as an expression of kindness; but generally indicative of familiarity and contempt.—Gifford.

[456] i.e. Destroy.

[457] A notorious character of those days, whose real name was Mary Frith. She appears to have excelled in various professions, of which far the most honest and praiseworthy was that of picking pockets. By singular good fortune she escaped the gallows, and died, “in a ripe and rotten old age,” some time before the Restoration. Moll is the heroine of The Roaring Girl, a lively comedy by Middleton and Dekker, who have treated her with kindness.—Gifford.

[458] Creep in.

[459] Patronage, protection, responsibility.—Gifford.

[460] Footcloths were the ornamental housings or trappings flung over the pads of state-horses. On these the great lawyers then rode to Westminster Hall, and, as our authors intimate, the great courtiers to St. James’s. They became common enough in aftertimes.—Gifford. Briareus, the hundred-handed giant. The allusion is obvious.

[461] Compare “Revelation.” ch. xii.

[462] The mark was worth 13s. 4d.

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