A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VI by Robert Dodsley

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[24] See vol. viii. of the former edition of Dodsley's "Old Plays," p.
165; and Rev. A. Dyce's edition of Robert Greene's Works, i. 14.

[25] Commune.

[26] [The Pope.]

[27] [Nimrod.]

[28] [Because.]

[29] This and the other marginalia are Hypocrisy's _asides_. By _Ambo_
he seems to signify, You knaves, the two of you!

[30] [Until.]

[31] [Fellow.]

[32] [Query, _logic_.]

[33] [Thus.]

[34] [Good.]

[35] [Old copy, _wynde_.]

[36] [See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 103. The origin of the term
there suggested seems to be supported by the words put into the mouth of
_Hypocrisy_ here.]

[37] [Old copy, _myne_.]

[38] [There is a proverb: "The devil is good when he is pleased."]

[39] [Tenor.]

[40] The priest is made to speak what the author seems to have taken for
the Scotish dialect.

[41] [The writer should have written _requhair_, if anything of the
kind; but his Scotish is deplorably imperfect.]

[42] The usual style in which priests and clergymen were anciently
addressed. Instances are too numerous to require citation.

[43] [St. Rock.]

[44] [This passage was unknown to Brand and his editors.]

[45] Quiet.

[46] [Fagot.]

[47] [i.e., Tyranny, who disguises his identity, and goes under the name
of _Zeal_.]

[48] [This word, to complete the metre, was suggested by Mr Collier.]

[49] Tyranny had made his _exit_, in order to bring back with him
Sensual Suggestion: here he returns, but his re-entrance is not noted.
Sensual Suggestion follows him, but not immediately, and what he first
says was perhaps off the stage, and out of sight of the audience; for
Hypocrisy, five speeches afterwards, informs the Cardinal that Sensual
Suggestion is coming.

[50] i.e., Convicted of heresy. This use of the verb "to convince" was
not unusual at a considerably later date: thus in Beaumont and
Fletcher's "Lover's Progress," act v. sc. 3, edit. Dyce--

"You bring no witness here that may convince you," &c.

It was also often employed as synonymous with "to overcome." See
Shakespeare, ii. 377; vi. 49, &e., edit. Collier.

[51] [Old copy, _former_.]

[52] [Old copy, _demeanour_.]

[53] [Old copy, _myne_.]

[54] [Old copy, _line_.]

[55] [3, in the old copy.]

[56] [This and the next line but one have occurred before at the close
of the speech of Spirit.]

[57] [Old copy, _me_.]

[58] [Assure.]

[59] [Old copy, _his_.]

[60] [Old copy, _that that_.]

[61] [Old copy, _prayers_.]

[62] [Makes all the world believe.]

[63] [Old copy, _anchors_.]

[64] [Old copy, _impire_.]

[65] [For _Whilome a goe_, possibly we ought to read "Whilome again,"
but this would not remove the whole difficulty.]

[66] [In harmony.]

[67] [Mr Collier remarks that this word seems wrong, "but it is
difficult to find a substitute; _essays_ would not answer the purpose."]

[68] [Old copy, _thy_.]

[69] [Mr Collier printed _that_.]

[70] [Old copy, _supporteth_.]

[71] [Old copy, _to_.]

[72] [Old copy, _thou shalt_.]

[73] [Old copy, _as_.]

[74] [Old copy, _handy_.]

[75] Here Armenio comes forward and discovers himself.

[76] [Old copy, _none_.]

[77] Hermione here seems to turn to Fidelia, and to tell her that
possibly he may be as well born as Prince Armenio--"And let me tell you
this, lady," &c.

[78] Her meaning is that the king her father should pardon the offence
of Hermione, whose grief of mind is more severe than the wound he has
just inflicted on Armenio. The two last lines of this speech appear to
belong to Hermione.

[79] [Old copy, _give_.]

[80] [Old copy, _your_.]

[81] [Old copy, _entertaine_.]

[82] [i.e., Award. Old copy, _Holde my rewarde_.]

[83] [Old copy, _to wander_.]

[84] [Mr Collier printed _honor_.]

[85] [Old copy, _some_.]

[86] We must suppose that Fidelia makes her _exit_ here, her father
having gone out at the end of his last speech.

[87] [Old copy, _restor'de_. The alteration is suggested by Mr Collier.]

[88] [Unknown, hidden.]

[89] [Old copy, _one_.]

[90] [Old copy, _turned_.]

[91] [Old copy, _friends_.]

[92] [i.e., Constantly renewed.]

[93] _Companion_ was often used derogatorily by our old writers. See
Shakespeare's "Coriolanus," edit. Collier, vol. vi. p. 230.

[94] _Franion_ was often used for an idle fellow (see Peele's "Old
Wives' Tale," edit. Dyce, vol. i. p. 207), but here it is rather to be
taken as meaning a gentleman who has nothing to do but to amuse himself.
In Heywood's "Edward IV." part I., Hobbs tells the king that he is "a
frank franion, a merry companion, and loves a wench well." See
Shakespeare Society's edit., p. 45. The word occurs several times in
Spenser; and the following lines are from "The Contention between
Liberality and Prodigality," 1602, sig. F.--

"This gallant, I tell you, with other lewd franions
Such as himself unthrifty companions.
In most cruel sort, by the highway-side,
Assaulted a countryman."

[95] [Old copy, _knew_.]

[96] [See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 478.]

[97] [Mr Collier printed _not_.]

[98] [Mr Collier printed _only man alive_.]

[99] [This and the next line of the dialogue are given in the old copy
to Hermione.]

[100] [By.]

[101] [Old copy, pit_.]

[102] _With a wanion_ seems to have been equivalent to "with a witness,"
or sometimes to "with a curse," but the origin of it is uncertain. It
was usually put into the mouths of persons in the lower orders, and it
is used by one of the fishermen in act ii. sc. I of Shakespeare's
"Pericles," edit. Collier, vol. viii. p. 292.

[103] [Taking.]

[104] [This appears to be imitated from some old ballad of the time.
See "Ancient Ballads and Broadsides," 1867, p. 43-6, and the Editor's
note at p. 410.]

[105] [Dapper.]

[106] [Old copy, _turn_.]

[107] Middleton uses _squall_ for a wench in his "Michaelmas Term" and
in "The Honest Whore," edit. Dyce, i. 431, and iii. 55. Here it evidently
means a person of the male sex. [When used of men, a little insignificant
fellow, a whipper-snapper. Presently we see that Lentulo was referring to
the Duke's son.]

[108] [Cuckoldy. A loose form of expression.]

[109] [Bomelio, in his disguise, is made to talk bad French and Italian,
as well as English; this had been done in the ease of Dr Caius who,
however, only spoke broken English. The nationality of Bomelio is
therefore doubtful; but these _minutiae_ did not trouble the dramatists
of those days much.]

[110] [Old copy, _Vedice_--an unlikely blunder.]

[111] Pedlar's French, often mentioned in our old writers, was the cant
language of thieves and vagabonds.

"When every peasant, each plebeian,
Sits in the throne of undeserv'd repute:
When every pedlar's French Is term'd Monsigneur."

--"Histriomastix," 1610, sig. E2.

[112] [i.e., Tarry _for_ me. So in the title of Wapull's play, "The
Tide tarrieth no Man."]

[113] Beat. See Nares, 1859, in _v_. Lambeake. Mr Collier refers us to
the "Supplement to Dodsley's Old Plays," 1833, p. 80, Gabriel Harvey's
"Pierces' Supererogation," 1593, and to "Vox Graculi," 1623.

[114] Come to be hanged.

[115] Old copy, _slave_.

[116] The following scene reminds us of the ancient story of the
"Physician of Brai."

[117] Sure.

[118] Old copy, _flight_. Mr Collier suggested _sight_.

[119] He bites like the pestilence.

[120] Penulo makes his _exit_ (though not marked in the old copy),
and the stage then represents some place near the cave of Bomelio,
who enters with Fidelia.

[121] Old copy, _then_.

[122] Mr Collier printed _come of_.

[123] Old copy, _oft been_.

[124] Old copy, _O_.

[125] Old copy, _my favour_.

[126] Old copy, _for_.

[127] Old copy, _her_.

[128] Above this line Mercury's name is inserted as the speaker: as it
seems, unnecessarily.

[129] Old copy, _Venus_.

[130] Old copy, _Fortune_. It is Mercury who afterwards cures Bomelio.

[131] Old copy, _replaies_.

[132] Old copy, _Hot's_.

[133] Old copy, _my_.

[134] Old copy, _But_, which would seem to convey the exact reverse of
what Phizanties intends--that he did not know Hermione's birth, but,
presuming him to be of obscure birth, did not wish him to marry Fidelia.

[135] Old copy, _But_.

[136] Old copy, _end_.

[137] [Evidently a proverbial expression, of which the import can only
be obscurely gathered from the context. _Nock_ is the same, of course,
as _hock_.]

[138] [There was a second edition, presenting considerable variations,
generally for the better, in 1592. See Hazlitt's "Handbook," 1867,
p. 466.]

[139] [For _stuff_ the edit, of 1592 substitutes _wares_.]

[140] This division is omitted in the edition of 1592, and it seems
unnecessary.

[141] [Old copy, _his_.]

[142] [Sweetheart, mistress.]

[143] [Old copy, _often_.]

[144] [We should now say, "as fast _as_;" but the form in the text is
not uncommon in early literature.]

[145] An intentional corruption, perhaps for _importance_.

[146] Adventures.

[147] Swaggerer, hence the well-known term, _swash-buckler_, for a
roaring blade.

[148] In the snare: What care I who gets caught?

[149] "_What care I to serve the Deuill,"_ &c., edit. 1592.

[150] Edit. 1584 has _boniacion_.

[151] [Old copies, _but_.]

[152] [A simpleton or bumpkin.]

[153] [A term of contempt, of which the meaning is not obvious. It might
seem to indicate a person employed in attending to a house of office.]

[154] A bully.

[155] _i e, pox_.

[156] Old copies, _alone_.

[157] _Vile_.

[158] _Your lives so farre amisse_, edit. 1592.

[159] [Scrupulous.]

[160] [Old copies, _Fraud_.]

[161] [Dissimulation.]

[162] [Edit. 1592, _Iwis_.]

[163] Edit. 1584, _shift it_.

[164] This speech stands as follows in edit. 1592--"Gramercie, Usury;
and doubt not but to live here as pleasantly, And pleasanter too: but
whence came you, Symonie, tell me?"

[165] _Doubt not, fairs ladie_, edit. 1592. In the next line but two,
edit. 1592 has _certainly_ for "I perceaue," and the last two lines of
the speech run as follows--

"And seeing we are so well setted in this countrey,
Rich and poore shall be pincht, whosoever come to me."

[166] When this drama was reprinted in 1592, the interval between 1584
and that date made it necessary to read 33 _years_ for "26 yeares" in
this line. It is a curious note of time.

[167] [This is given in the old copies, _sarua voulra boungrace_, but
surely _Mercatore_ was not intended to blunder in his own language.]

[168] [Scald.]

[169] Omitted in edit. 1584.

[170] _I think so_ is omitted in the second 4to.

[171] [Signed.]

[172] _Studied late_ is omitted in first 4to.

[173] _At all_ is not in second 4to.

[174] [Old copies, _kettels_.]

[175] Possibly a personal allusion to somebody sitting "in the corner"
of the theatre; or it may have been to some well-known character of the
time. Farther on, Simplicity alludes to some boy among the audience.

[176] [Not in _edit. 1581_]

[177] [_I think youle make me serve_, edit. 1592.]

[178] [_And prosperous be they to thee_, edit. 1592.]

[179] [_And dine with me_, edit. 1592.]

[180] [_Thankes_, edit. 1592, omitting _I give you_.]

[181] [Old copies, _am_.]

[182] [Testy. Halliwell spells it _testorn_. Old copies, _testren_.]

[183] [Clarke, in his "Paroemiologia," 1639, has the proverb "He blushes
like a black dog."]

[184] [Old copies, _you_.]

[185] [Edit. 1584 has _very_, and second 4 deg. _well_, the true reading, as
Mr Collier suggests, being that now given in the text.]

[186] [_Priest_, edit. 1592.]

[187] [_Neuter_.]

[188] [Miracle.]

[189] [i.e., in good style.]

[190] [Edit. 1584 has _must_.]

[191] This line is omitted in edit. 1592.

[192] [Will.]

[193] For _parliament_ we are to understand _parament_, i.e., apparel,
referring to the gowns he carries. Beaumont and Fletcher use the word
_paramentos_--

"There were cloaks, gowns, cassocks,
And other _paramentos_,"

--"Love's Pilgrimage," edit. Dyce, xi. 226. _Paramento_ is Spanish, and
means ornament, embellishment, or sometimes any kind of covering.

[194] [In the old copies this direction is inserted wrongly six lines
higher up.]

[195] [Old copies, _hastily_, the compositor's eye having perhaps caught
the word from the stage-direction just above.]

[196] [These three words are not in second 4 deg..]

[197] [A proverbial expression. See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 210.
So, in the "Spanish Tragedy," vol. v. p. 84: "I am in a sort sorry for
thee; but if I should be hang'd with thee, I cannot weep."]

[198] [Old copies, _thy_.]

[199] Mr Collier's suggestion; both the old copies, _gracious_.

[200] [The first 4 deg. has _can_ for _should_, and _say_ for _'ssay_ or
_essay_. The second 4 deg. reads _lying_ for _living_.]

[201] [Old copy, _drudge_.]

[202] Edit. 1592 has _availeth_. See St Matthew xvi. 26.

[203] [A synonym for a drubbing.] See "All's Well that Ends Well," act
iii. sc. 6, when this passage is quoted in illustration of "John Drum's
entertainment," as it is called by Shakespeare. The expression was
equivalent to _drumming out_.

[204] Second 4 deg. has _array_. Mr Collier thinks _beray_ was intended by
the writer as a blunder on the part of the clown.

[205] First 4 deg., _seeke_.

[206] [The clown is addressing one of the audience.]

[207] [Edit. 1584, _the_.]

[208] [This word is omitted in first 4 deg..]

[209] [_I tell ye_, not in edit. 1592.]

[210] _Tell me what good ware for England you do lacke_, edit. 1592.

[211] According to "Extracts from the Stationers' Registers," i. 88,
William Griffith was licensed in 1563-4 to print a ballad entitled "Buy,
Broomes, buye." This maybe the song here sung by Conscience. A song to
the tune is inserted in the tract of "Robin Goodfellow," 1628, 4 deg., but
no doubt first published many years earlier.

[212] [So both the 4 deg.s, but Mr Collier suggests _soften_.]

[213] _Play, and_ are not in the second 4to.

[214] [The writer seems here to have intended an allusion to Scogin,
whose "Jests" were well-known at that time as a popular book.]

[215] [_I think_, omitted in second 4to.]

[216] A strong kind of cloth so called, and several times mentioned in
Shakespeare. See "Henry IV." Part I., act i. sc. 2; "Comedy of Errors,"
act iv. se. 3, &c.--_Collier_.

[217] _The Venetians came nothing near the knee. Venetians_ were a kind
of hose, or breeches, adopted from the fashions of Venice.

[218] [First 4to reads, _not agree_.]

[219] [A pun, probably, upon _alms_ and _arms_.]

[220] [Old copy, _tables_.]

[221] [So old copies; but the period named before was _three months_.]

[222] [Old copies, _seeme_.]

[223] See Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost," edit. Collier, ii. 306
and 360; Beaumont and Fletcher's "Monsieur Thomas," edit. Dyce, vii.
364. Thomas Nash, in his "Strange Newes," 1592, sig. D 3, uses _no
point_ just in the same way, as a sort of emphatic double negative.--"No
point; _ergo_, it were wisely done of goodman Boores son, if he should
go to the warres," &c.

[224] [The worst wonder is.]

[225] [Compassionate.]

[226] [Not in first 4to.]

[227] The learned Constable refers, of course, to Love, who has already
been on the stage in a vizard at the back of her head: see earlier;
_Enter_ LUCRE, _and_ LOVE _with a vizard, behind_.

[228] [Old copies, _sacred_. This was Mr Collier's suggestion.]

[229] [Old copies, _ye_.]

[230] [Alluding to the "Three Ladies of London," 1584.]

[231] [Old copy, _Pompe hath_.]

[232] [Old copy, _place_.]

[233] [The bells attached to the falcon, the _impress of Pleasure_.]

[234] Referring to the chains of gold formerly worn by persons of rank
and property.

[235] Alluding to the manner in which ballad-sellers of that day used to
expose their goods, by hanging them up in the same way that the three
lords had hung up their shields.

[236] [Foolish, maudlin.]

[237] [Except.]

[238] [See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 265-6.]

[239] The best, and indeed what may be considered the only, account of
Tarlton the actor precedes the edition of his Jests, reprinted for the
Shakespeare Society in 1844.

[240] [Videlicet.]

[241] [Ignorant.]

[242] [Alluding to some wood engraving of Tarlton, which Simplicity had
in his basket. To the reprint of "Tarlton's Jests," by the Shakespeare
Society, are prefixed two wood-cuts, made from a drawing of the time of
Elizabeth, and no doubt soon after the death of Tarlton of the plague
in 1588.]

[243] [Preferment.]

[244] An ejaculation, apparently equivalent to _God_.

[245] The first purchase made in the day--the ballad which Wit had
bought of Simplicity.

[246] Espial. The word occurs again further on.

[247] [Probably a reference is intended to the proverbial expression
about Mahomet and the mountain.]

[248] An ambry or aumbry is a pantry or closet. The next line explains
the word.

[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 passage 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, substituted 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 pronounced as a trisyllable.]

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

"Quid tibi cum domini mox servient miseri nobis; 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, _noble_; 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 classical 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
passage 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.]

[297] [Old copy, _Abstrauogant_.]

[298] [Old copy, _peely_.]

[299] [Cakes. Old copy, _cats_.]

[300] [A Knight of the Post was a person hired to swear anything--a
character often mentioned in old writers.]

[301] Some persons, not merely without reason, but directly against it,
treat _vild_ and _vile_, and consequently vildly and _vilely_, as
distinct words. _Vild_ and _vildly_ are blunders in old spelling, only
to be retained when, as now, we give the words of an author in the very
orthography of that date. We profess here to follow the antiquated
spelling exactly, that it may be seen how the productions in our volume
came originally from the press: but when spelling is modernised, as it
is in the ordinary republications of our ancient dramatists, &c., it is
just as absurd to print "vile" _vild_, as to print "friend" frend or
"enemy" _ennimy_.--_Mr Collier's note in the edition of_ 1851.

[302] Shakespeare has the word "exigent" for _extremity_, and such seems
to be its meaning here, and not the legal sense; the Knight says that
the good name of his predecessors for housekeeping shall never be
brought into extremity by him.

[303] [Wary, aware.]

[304] [Old copy, _Squire_.]

[305] [Old copy, _for fourtie_.]

[306] An early instance of the use of an expression, of frequent
occurrence afterwards and down to our own day, equivalent to going
without dinner. See Steevens's note to "Richard III." act iv. sc. 4,
where many passages are quoted on the point.

[307] [Old copy, _ope_.]

[308] The copy of this play in the British Museum has here "_Scinthin_
maide;" but another, belonging to the Rev. A. Dyce, "_Scythia_ maide," a
reading we have followed, and, no doubt, introduced by the old printer
as the sheets went through the press.

[309] "Counterfeit" was a very common term for the resemblance of a
person: in "Hamlet," act iii. sc. 4, we have "counterfeit presentment;"
and in the "Merchant of Venice," act iii. sc. 2, "Fair Portia's
counterfeit." In Beaumont and Fletcher's "Wife for a Month," act iv. sc.
5, we meet-with "counterfeits in Arras" for portraits, or figures
in tapestry.

[310] [i.e., from or after.]

[311] [i.e., The shoemaker. There is a jest turning upon this in one of
the early collections of _facetiae_.]

[312] [Vulcan.]

[313] By "carminger" the cobbler means harbinger, an officer; who
preceded the monarch during progresses, to give notice and make
preparation.

[314] We print it precisely as in the old copy, but we may presume that
here a couplet was intended, as the cobbler's speech begins in rhyme:--

"And we are come to you alone
To deliver our petition,"

[315] Roquefort in his "Glossary," i. 196, states that bysse is a sort
_d'etoffe de soie_, and the Rev. A. Dyce, "Middleton's Works," v. 558,
says that it means "fine linen," while others contend that it is "a
delicate blue colour," but sometimes "black or dark grey." The truth may
be that it was fine silk of a blue colour, and we now and then meet it
coupled with purple--"purple and bis."

[316] [Old copy, _Indian_.]

[317] [Old copy, _calamon_.]

[318] [i.e., he withdraws to the back of the stage, to allow the king
to confer first with Osrick, and then comes forward again.]

[319] [Old copy, _Asmoroth_.]

[320] [Old copy, _Asmoroth_.]

[321] [Old copy, _bid_.] _Bid_ may be taken in the sense of invite, a
meaning it often bears in old writers; but we are most likely to
understand it _bide_ or _abide_, the final _e_ having been omitted, or
dropped out in the press. In the next line we have _quit_ again used
for _acquit_.

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