Line 1. Master and Mistris.—Doubtless the President of S. John's and his wife. The office was held at this time by Ralph Hutchinson, who had been elected to it in 1590, after holding for some years the college living of Charlbury, Oxon. Little seems to be known of Mrs. Hutchinson beyond the fact that after her husband's death in 1606 she placed his effigy in the college chapel.

Line 39. Rebateth.—To rebate, to blunt or disedge; see Measure for Measure, i. 4, 60—"Doth rebate and blunt his natural edge."

Line 55. Quaffe.—The substantival use of this word is not uncommon in contemporary writings. Cf., in 1579, L. Tomson, Calvin's Sermons on Timothy, &c., p. 512, col. 2: "Now they thinke that a sermon costeth no more then a quaffe wil them."

Line 78. Ladds of mettall.—Cf. 1 Henry IV. ii. 4, 13.

Line 80. No vertue extant.—Cf. 1 Henry IV. ii. 4, 132, where virtue = bravery, physical courage. The porter's use of the phrase sounds like a quotation.

Line 97. A the stampe.—Halliwell gives "Stamp, a tune," and quotes from MS. Fairfax, 16, "Songes, stampes, and eke daunces." Cf. also Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2, 25.

Line 98. Windsuckers.—This old name for the kestrel, or wind-hover, is of tolerably frequent occurrence. It is used metaphorically of a person ready to pounce on anything. "There is a certain envious windsucker that hovers up and down" (Chapman).

Line 101. I pre, sequor.—Literally, "Go before, I follow." The porter supplies a free translation in the words "one of your consorte." Cf. the use of the phrase "to be hail-fellow-well-met with anyone."

Line 109. Condolent here means expressing sorrow. For this sense see Wood, Ath. Oxon. (R)—"His vein for ditty and amorous ode was deemed most lofty, condolent, and passionate."

Line 110. Suffocat.—The porter's substitute for sufficit; though, strictly speaking, the o should be long.

Line 111. I tickle them for a good voice.—Besides the ordinary metaphorical meaning of to flatter, tickle sometimes = to serve one right, to make one pay for a thing. For this sense see 1 Henry IV. ii. 4, 489, "I'll tickle ye for a young prince, i' faith;" and cf. Ibid. ii. 1, 66. Probably the expression has a similar force here.

Line 114. Butterd beare.—Ale boiled with lump-sugar, butter, and spice.

Line 122. Act in conye.—The adjective incony, with the apparent sense of fine, delicate, is used twice by Costard in Love's Labour's Lost (iii. 136, iv. 1, 144) and also in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, iv. 5—"While I in thy incony lap do tumble." Other examples are rare, and I have not found any instance of an adverbial use. A second, though much less probable interpretation of the passage is suggested by the frequent use of cony as a term of endearment to a woman (cf. Skelton's Eleanor Rummyng, 225—"He called me his whytyng, his nobbes, and his conny"). If, however, "act in conye" were equivalent to "act as woman," i.e. take a female part, examples of analogous constructions should be forthcoming.

Line 129. Lovely.—Here used in the sense of loving, tender. Cf. Taming of the Shrew, iii. 2, 125—"And seal the title with a lovely kiss."

Line 156. All and some.—An expression meaning everyone, everything, altogether:

(Chaucer, Anelida and Arcite, i. 26.)

(Herrick, Hesperides, i. 100.) Line 160. Cappes a thrumming.—Cf. Knight of the Burning Pestle, iv. 5—

To thrum = to beat in the Suffolk dialect.

Line 167. Shrimpe.—This use of the word in the sense of child, offspring (or possibly as a term of endearment, "little one") is not common. It was generally employed contemptuously, and meant a dwarfish or stunted creature, as in 1 Henry VI. ii. 3, 23. See, however, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2, 594.

Line 193. Oddes here = contention, quarrel. For this sense compare—

(Othello, ii. 3, 185.)

and also Henry V. ii. 4, 129, and Timon of Athens, iv. 3, 42.

Line 195. Seven yeares I was a woman.—The blindness of Tiresias is most frequently ascribed, either to his having, when a child, revealed the secrets of the gods, or to his having gazed upon AthenÈ bathing, on which occasion the goddess is said to have deprived him of sight. Another tradition, however (adhered to by Ovid, Met. iii. 516, etc.), relates that Tiresias beheld two serpents together; he struck at them, and, happening to kill the female, was himself changed into a woman. Seven years later he again encountered two serpents, but now killed the male, and resumed the shape of man. Zeus and Hera, disputing over the relative happiness of man and woman, referred the matter to Tiresias, as having a practical knowledge of both conditions. He favoured Zeus's assertion that a woman possessed the more enjoyments; whereupon Hera, indignant, blinded him, while Zeus bestowed on him, in compensation, the power of prophecy.

Line 197. Fold.—The omission of a prefix to suit the exigencies of metre, common enough in verbs such as defend, defile, becomes remarkable when the force of the prefix itself is such as to change entirely the meaning of the verb. Examples of omission in such cases are comparatively rare, but they are not confined to our own language. See Vergil, Aen. i. 262—

and cf. also Aen. v. 26, and Cicero's Brutus, 87. Line 223. Catch audacitye.—For the old metaphorical use of catch cf. Wyclif's Bible (1 Tim. vi. 12), "Catche euerlastyng lyf."

Line 227. Curromanstike, chiromantic, i.e. pertaining to chiromancy; the rhyme being probably responsible for the use of the adjective rather than the noun.

Line 229. The table, etc.—"The table-line, or line of fortune, begins under the mount of Mercury, and ends near the index and middle finger.... When lines come from the mount of Venus, and cut the line of life, it denotes the party unfortunate in love and business, and threatens him with some suddain death" (The True Fortune-teller, or Guide to Knowledge, 1686).

Line 236. Sheppbiter.—A malicious, surly fellow; according to Dyce, "a cant term for a thief." See Twelfth Night, ii. 5, 6, "The niggardly, rascally sheep-biter."

Line 246. What.—MS. has the abbreviation w^th, usually denoting with, but evidently substituted here, by a copyist's error, for w^t = what.

Line 247. They can but bring, etc.—W. Carew Hazlitt (English Proverbs, p. 28) quotes from Heywood, 1562—"A man maie well bring a horse to the water, but he can not make him drinke without he will." He also mentions that the proverb is ascribed (probably falsely) to Queen Elizabeth, in the Philosopher's Banquet (1614).

Line 261. I = ay.—Both spellings occur in the MS. For the common use of the capital I in this sense, see Juliet's play upon the word—

(Romeo and Juliet, iii. 2, 45, etc.)

Line 262. In spight of ... pye.—Alluding to the common belief in the pie, or magpie, as a bird of ill-omen.

Line 266. Phibbus.—The same spelling as in Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 2, 37.

Line 270. Baskett dagger.—Doubtless a weapon resembling the basket-sword, which had a hilt specially designed to protect the hand from injury. Cf. 2 Henry IV. ii. 4, 141.

Line 275. Footinge, step, tread; cf. Merchant of Venice, v. 24. Line 279.—Late-mouse.—A facetious spelling of Latmus, the "mount of oblivion."

Line 281. Shift originally meant simply change, substitution of one thing for another. Cf. Timon of Athens, i. 1, 84—"Fortune, in her shift and change of mood." Wotton writes—"My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air." From this arose the later sense of a change of clothing, in which the word is here used; and which has now become further limited, shift amongst the lower classes being equivalent to an under-garment.

Line 282. Cantle.—A corner, angle, small point. Cf. 1 Henry IV. iii. 1, 100; Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 10, 6. See also under cantle in N. E. D.

Line 283. Portmantle.—The older and commoner form of portmanteau, occurring, for example, in Howell's Familiar Letters (1623). Early instances of portmanteau are, however, to be found.

Line 296. Ile bee a diar, etc.—The joke is on the double meaning of diar; there seems to be no special significance in the choice of the colour orange-tawny.

Line 300. Codshead = stupid-head, foolish fellow. Cf. in 1607, Drewill's Arraignm. in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) iii. 56:—"Lloyd (threatning he) woulde trye acquaintance with the other codsheade." Also, in 1594, Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits, i. (1596), 2:—"His (Cicero's) sonne ... prooued but a cods-head."

Line 301. O eyes, noe eyes.—The common tag from Hieronymo, in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, Act iii.:

The line was a frequent subject of ridicule amongst contemporary writers; cf. Every Man in his Humour, i. 5, 58, etc.

Line 316. Fennell.—Foeniculum vulgare, considered as an inflammatory herb, and used as an emblem of flattery. Cf. Hamlet, iv. 5, 180.

Line 320. Thou.—MS. has though.

Line 327. Weasand.—This word is generally used as a noun, and itself means wind-pipe. Cf. Tempest, iii. 2, 99.

Line 328. Thy face more faire, etc.—According to some legends, Gorgon or Medusa was a beautiful maiden before AthenÈ, in anger, changed her hair into serpents, thereby rendering her so hideous that all who saw her became petrified. Possibly, however, the allusion here is merely facetious.

Line 329. Dishevells.—Spreads in disorder (an intransitive use). "Their hair, curling, dishevels about their shoulders." (Sir T. Herbert.)

Line 330. Queene of devills.—Probably Persephone, the wife of Pluto, who ruled amongst the shades of the departed.

Line 332. Mavors or Mavers is the form from which Mars is contracted.

Line 337. Silenus for streight backe.—Silenus is usually depicted as a fat, jovial old man, intoxicated and requiring support. The comparison is of course ironical.

Line 339. Rine = rind or bark. The O. E. form was rinde; but for a similar omission of d in the literary language cf. lime (O. E. linde) and lawn (M. E. launde).

Line 342. Whose nose, etc.—Cf. Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 338. A similar jest occurs in Peele's "Old Wives' Tale": "Her corall lippes, her crimson chinne."

Line 345. Thy.—MS. has they.

Line 360. Cruell, huge, are the epithets properly belonging to elephant; changing, small, to chameleon. See Introduction.

Line 396. Ile beare thee light.—If this expression be an idiom, I can find no other instance of it; cf., however, the analogous phrase "to bear hard," i.e. to take ill (Julius CÆsar, ii. 1, 215; 1 Henry IV. i. 3, 270). The punning character of the passage makes it difficult to determine what exact meaning Florida wishes to convey. A not improbable sense would be obtained by supplying a comma after thee, and thus turning light into a nominative of address.

Line 397. Lurden, a clown, sluggard, ill-bred person (Halliwell).

(MS. Cantab, Ff. ii. 38, f. 240.)

The word occurs in Piers Plowman.

Line 399. O Œdipus I am not, I am Davus.—A quotation from Terence, Andria, i. 2, 23: "Davus sum, non Œdipus."

Line 400. Master Davis.—Evidently an intentional anglicizing of the classical name. Line 406. Vastitye.—So MS., possibly for vastilye.

Line 408. As true as Helen, etc.—Cf. the professions of Pyramus and Thisbe (where, however, no irony is intended), Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1, 200-203.

Line 413. Loves.—So MS. for love.

Line 413. I am ore shooes in it.—Cf. Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1, 23:

Line 414. Mountenance, quantity, amount. The translation of the Romaunt of the Rose, attributed to Chaucer, has—"The mountenance of two fynger hight."

Line 422. Never ioyd it since.—Cf. 1 Henry IV. ii. 1, 13: "Poor fellow, never joyed since the price of oats rose; it was the death of him."

Line 426. Pay = beat (still used dialectically):

(The King and a poore Northerne Man, 1640.)

Line 440. Scummer.—The meanings of this word appear to be either various or obscure. Halliwell gives "Scummer, wonder; Somerset." In Elworthy's West Somersetshire Wordbook the definitions stand thus: (1) row, disturbance; (2) confusion, upset; (3) mess, dirty muddle. Wright, in his Provincial Dictionary, gives the meaning as ordure, without referring the word to any special locality. Obviously, this scummer is not to be confounded with M. E. scumer, a rover or pirate.

Line 441. Surquedry, presumption, arrogance, conceit. Chaucer has—"Presumpcion is he whan a man taketh an emprise that him ought not to do, or ellis he may it not do & that is called surquidrie" (Parson's Tale, Corpus MS.).

Line 441. Shooing-horne.—Metaphorically, anything which helps to draw something else on: a tool. Cf. Troilus and Cressida, v. 1, 61: "A thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain, hanging at his brother's leg." The expression "shoeing horn of surquedry" is thus equivalent to "chosen implement of personified arrogance."

Line 442. Casting topp, a peg-top. See W. Coles (1657), Adam in Eden, 169—"The fruit is in forme like a casting-top." Line 443. Stopple.—The older form of stopper. Cotgrave has—"Tampon, a bung or stopple."

Line 446. Vpp leave.—So MS. for vpp heave, possibly by confusion with vpp lift.

Line 453. Corneagle.—I can find no instances whatever of this very puzzling word; neither does it seem to be closely analogous to any known form. Can corneagle be a corrupt spelling of co-niggle, to niggle both (our hearts) together? Niggle was used formerly for deceive, steal (still in the dialects), make sport of, mock; but is not, to my knowledge, compounded elsewhere with this prefix. Or is "harts corneagle" a substitution for "harts' core niggle"? (Heart's core occurs in Hamlet.) Both explanations have been suggested to me only as a last resource, and are too far-fetched to be at all convincing. Moreover, the context seems to require the sense of pursue, persecute, rather than of deceive.

Line 464. Tales of tubbes.—A characteristic rendering into Elizabethan English of Ovid's "Illa Deam longo prudens sermone tenebat." The earliest instances of the expression "tales of tubs" seem to occur about the middle of the sixteenth century.

Notes and Queries, series v. vol. xi. p. 505, quotes amongst "curious phrases in 1580"—"To heare some Gospel of a distaffe and tale of a tubbe" (Beehive of the Romish Church, fo. 275^b). See also Holland's "Plutarch," p. 644, and (for further references) Dodsley-Hazlitt's Old Plays, ii. 335.

Line 475. Quatte.—A corruption of squat, sometimes used substantively for the sitting of a hare:

(White Devil, 4to, H.)

That the word in this sense was not general may be gathered from the fact that George Turberville, in his full description of the various methods of hunting the hare (Noble Art of Venerie, 1575), makes no use of it, but speaks constantly of the hare's form. Quat for squat (non-substantival) is still frequent in some of the dialects, and is the word specially used of a hare or other game when flattening itself on the earth to escape observation. In West Somersetshire it is used in connection with the verb to go—"The hare went quat" (Elworthy). This is the modern use most nearly approximating to that of the present passage.

Line 476. Watt, the old name for a hare; hence metaphorically used of a wily, cautious person (Halliwell).

Line 478. Hollowe in the hind doggs.—Turberville, describing the hunting of hares, writes,—"One of the huntesmen shall take charge to rate & beate on such doggs as bide plodding behinde; and the other shall make them seeke and cast about."

Line 518. Slidd, God's lid, a mean oath. See Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 4, 24; Twelfth Night, iii. 4, 427; Every Man in his Humour, i. 1, 56.

Line 537. Patch.—A term of contempt, generally supposed to have been first applied to professional fools, by reason of their parti-coloured dress. See Tempest, iii. 2, 71; Comedy of Errors, iii. 1, 32, 36.

Line 556. Malaparte, forward, saucy. See Twelfth Night, iv. 1, 47, and 3 Henry VI. v. 5, 32.

Line 569. Scall scabbe.—A scall = a scab; scald = scabby. See Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 1, 123; Twelfth Night, ii. 5, 82; Troilus and Cressida, ii. 1, 31.

Line 571. Groome.—In M. E. this word meant simply boy, youth; hence (at a later period) serving-lad. See Taming of the Shrew, iii. 2, 215, and Titus Andronicus, iv. 2, 164.

Line 573. Bange, beat. Cf. Othello, ii. 1, 21, and Julius CÆsar, iii. 3, 20.

Line 575. Kee pickpurse.—This expression seems to be a quotation from 1 Henry IV. ii. 1, 53:

I am told that the colloquial use of kee, or quy, for quoth, is frequent in certain parts of Scotland; but I can find no literary example of the form, and it is hard to account for its presence in this passage. The scribal substitution of quy for the abbreviated quoth might easily occur, the thorn-letter being erroneously transcribed by y, as in the; but this cannot have given rise to any M. E. phonetic change such as the spelling kee certainly implies.

Line 587. Spurrgald.—Cf. Richard II. v. 5, 94. Line 588. Jolthead, blockhead, dunce. See Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1, 290,—"Fie on thee, jolt-head! Thou canst not read." Also Taming of the Shrew, iv. 1, 169.

Line 590. Rooke = cheat or sharper, and is used as a general term of contempt. See Every Man in his Humour, i. 5, 89,—"Hang him, rook!" The host of the Garter frequently addresses his familiars as "bully-rook." See Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3, 2; ii. 1, 200, 207, 213.

Line 611. Forfeiture.—Properly, something lost on engagement, or in consequence of the breach of an obligation. Cf. Merchant of Venice, i. 3, 165; iv. 1, 24, 122. Here the word is used in a modified and more general sense.

Line 641. Ast.—Cf., in 1592, G. Harvey's Pierces Superer, 57,—"He ... bourdeth, girdeth, asseth, the excellentest writers."

Line 644. Scindifer.—So MS., possibly for scimitar.

Line 649. Whineard, a sword or hanger (Halliwell):—

(Cobler of Canterburie, 1608, sig. E, ii.)

Line 658. Stingian.—So MS. for Stygian.

Line 668. Lovd.—So MS., possibly for livd.

Line 670. Vild.—So MS. for vile or wild.

Lines 677, 678. Christall and cherrye reversed.

Line 683. Headye, rash, impetuous. See 1 Henry IV. ii. 3, 58, and Henry V. i. 1, 34.

Line 686. Dicker.—Ten of any commodity, as ten hides of leather, ten bars of iron, etc. This word comes from the late Latin dicra (dicora, decora, dacra, dacrum), classical Latin decuria, meaning ten hides, occasionally ten of other things. "Also that no maner foreyn sille no lether in the seid cite, but it be in the yelde halle of the same, paying for the custom of every dyker i.d." (English Guilds, ed. by Toulmin Smith, p. 384). For the wide use of the word in Western and Northern Europe, cf. O. Norse dekr, ten hides, M. H. G. decker, ten of anything, especially hides. Modern German decker = ten hides.

Line 688. How here = however, as in Venus and Adonis, 79; 1 Henry IV. v. 2, 12; and Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 1, 60. Line 703. Seas.—MS. has sea.

Line 711. Pinke.—A word found in the northern dialects for "to peep slyly." Cf. the adjective pink, winking, half-shut; "Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne" (Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7, 121).

Line 734. My grandam ... earth.—Cf. 1 Henry IV. iii. 1, 34.

Line 735. Randome.—The verb random, to stray wildly, is more frequently found with the original spelling randon (French randoner, to run rapidly), which became altered, possibly by analogy with whilom and seldom, possibly by a process of change similar to that which converted ranson to ransom. Sackville writes:—"Shall leave them free to randon of their will."