66 P. 49, 1. 3. I'll prade your neaces.] By "prade" Gwenthyan of course means prate, but what she means by neaces it is not so easy to understand. Perhaps we ought to read, "I'll preak your necks." P. 52, 1. 23. If she return, seem childish.] Perhaps we ought to read chidish; but "childish" may be right. P 54, 1. 6. Which heaven into this alabaster bowels.] "Bowels" seems wrong, and perhaps we ought to read vessel. P. 58, 1. 32. Come, come; mell with our oziers.] i. e. meddle with our oziers. P. 59, 1. 4." And I dance mine own child.]" Probably a quotation from some lost nursery rhyme. P. 60, 1. 16. Whilst troops, as saint-like have adored thee.] The old reading is, "Whilst troops of saint-like," &c. This cannot be right, and the emendation preserves the measure and restores the sense. P. 60. 1. 18. Dost thou not envy those that drive thee thence.] One of many instances in which " envy" is to be taken in the sense of hate. P. 61, 1. 11. Come, where be the infidels? Here's the cradle of security and my pillow of idleness for them.] because the children are not yet Christians. Babulo calls them infidels, is an allusion to an old moral-play, called "The Cradle of Security," of which an account may be seen in the "Hist. of Engl. Dramatic Poetry and the Stage," ii. 273. P. 61, 1. 26. You are care, and care must keep you.] Ought we not to read, "You are care's, and care must keep you." P. 62, l. 1. We'll alla mira him, and wail in woe, and who can hinder us?] The old copy inserts "he we between "and," and "wail in woe," which are needless. The clown speaks of two tunes, one beginning Alla mira, and the other "I wail in woe," both, but especially the latter, well known and often mentioned by writers of the time. P. 63, 1. 31. O, rare! Cry prentices and clubs! The corporation cannot be ( ) Sirrah, sit down, &c.] This is exactly the mode in which the passage is printed in the original: possibly the compositor indicated by the parenthesis the absence of a word he could not read. "Prentices and Clubs!" was the exclamation in London on any commotion in which it was required that the prentices should take part. P. 67, 1. 18. The dealing of cans, like a set at mawe.] Mawe was a game at cards, and probably the beggars threw the cans from one to the other in much the same way as cards were dealt out to the players at mawe. P. 67, 1. 23. Tag and rag, cut and long tail.] These were proverbial expressions often in use, particularly the last, which seems to have relation to horses of various descriptions. It was employed so lately as in Sir J. Vanburgh's " Æsop." It occurs in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," A. III. sc. 4. P. 73, 1. 24. If you change them to shoot out unkind language to us.] Change" may be the right reading, in reference to the alteration Julia's lips would have to undergo; but the more apposite word seems to be charge, which preserves the propriety of the figure. P. 74, 1. 26. Gwenthyan brave.] i. e. bravely, or handsomely attired. P. 76, 1. 27. You stand all day peeping into an ambry there.] An "ambry is a closet or cupboard; but it does not appear why Laureo should stand all day peeping into one, unless his books were there. P. 77, 1. 5. Wonders, not of nine days, but of 1599.] This play was written at the close of the year 1599, which, perhaps, led the authors to mention that number. . 77, 1. 7. People with heads like dogs.] The authors took their notions of these monsters from the descriptions of Sir J. Mandeville and other travellers. Shakespeare mentions "men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders," in "Othello" and in the " Tempest." P. 82, 1. 13. Take him away into the porter's lodge.] The porter's lodge was the place where domestic servants, especially fools, of old were confined and punished. P. 82, 1. 30. Then would he not desire your company.] This line in the old copies is mistakenly assigned to Babulo, who has gone out with Grissil. It most likely belongs to Farneze, whose initial letters, Fa., might be misread Ba. by the compositor. P. 83, 1. 13. Io to Hymen.] Misprinted " Jove to Hymen" in the old copy. P. 83, l. 16. Beauty, arise.] These words are repeated in the printed play, but the measure of the first line of the first stanza shows that it was not intended. The music in singing the song, no doubt, required the repetition, and hence the error. P. 86, 1. 27. Are these my nephews.] They were Janiculo's grandchildren; but he uses "nephews" in the Latin sense. · P. 88, 1. 1. To help her to her duck-eggs.] “ Duck-eggs” for Ducats. P. 89, 1. 20. These gentlemen lovertine.] So in the old copy. Perhaps Julia means to coin a word similar to libertine, to indicate the state of her three innamorati. LONDON: F. SHOBERL, JUN., 51, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET, PRINTER TO H. R. H. PRINCE ALBERT. |