[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_. [322] [We must suppose here that Honesty sends out some of the attendants to bring in the Coneycatcher and Farmer, who soon make their re-appearance on the stage.]