A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 01
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 01
English drama
Our antiquary writes like one unacquainted with his subject; no man, I
believe, ever talked _of charging_ a gun with a _tampion_; neither would
the said _tampion_ (consisting of a piece of hard oak) have done much
less mischief than a stone, if pointed from the Thames at the Queen's
Palace at Greenwich.--_S_.
502. Addition in the 2d edit.
503. A piece of ordnance.--_S_.
504. _The Regent_ was one of the largest ships of war in the time of King
Henry the Eighth. In the fourth year of his reign, Sir Thomas Knevet,
master of the horse, and Sir John Carew, of Devonshire, were appointed
captains of her, and in company with several others she was sent to fight
the French fleet near Brest haven. An action accordingly ensued, and the
Regent grappled with a French carrick, which would have been taken, had
not a gunner on board the vessel, to prevent her falling into the hands
of the English, set fire to the powder-room. This communicating the
flames to both ships, they shared the same fate together, being both
burnt. On the part of the French 900 men were lost; and on that of the
English more than 700 (See Hall's "Chronicle," 1548, fol. 21).
505. _On thys castell lyght_, 1st edit.
506. _This_, edit. 1569.
507. _Our_, 1st edit.
508. The edit. of 1569 has this line--
"And done _more_ cures ghostely."--_Collier_.
509. [Mr Child observes: "The Pardoner's descent into hell, in the 'Four
P.P.,' is one of the most capital passages in our comic poetry" ("Four
Old Plays," 1848, xxvi.)]
510. A _beck_, among other significations, has that of a salutation with
the head. So, in Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens"--
"_A serving of _becks_, and jutting out of bums_."--_S_.
511. _Thys_, 1st edit.
512. "Before the suppression of the monasteries, this city (_i.e_.,
Coventry) was very famous for the pageants that were played therein upon
_Corpus Christi_ day (this is one of their ancient faires), which
occasioning very great confluence of people thither from far and near,
was no small benefit thereto; which pageants being acted with mighty
state and reverence by the friers of this house, had theaters for the
several scenes very large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn to all
the eminent parts of the city, for the better advantage of spectators,
and contained the story of the New Testament, composed in old English
rithme, as appeareth by an ancient MS. entitled 'Ludus Corporis Christi,'
or 'Ludus Coventriae,' in Bibl. Cotton, (sub Effigie Vesp. D. 9)"
(Dugdale's "Warwickshire," p. 116). [See the "Coventry Mysteries," edited
by Halliwell, 1841.]
513. Addition in the 2d edit.
514. _Maist_, edit. 1569.
515. Mr Dodsley has _write_.
516. _His_, 1st edit.
517. _For playne_, 1st edit.
518. _Cure_, edit. 1569.--_Collier_. [The former editor printed _cuer_.]
519. Sweet or fresh-made, from the old word _sote_.
520. See note 3 to "The Ordinary."
521. _Frendes_, 1st edit.
522. First edition reads, "Dyd laugh full well together lyke frendes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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