[127] Henry Baker was therefore the name of the actor who performed the part of Vertumnus. [128] The joke here consists in the similarity of sound between _despatch_ and _batch_, Will Summers mistaking, or pretending to mistake, in consequence. [129] [Old copy, _Sybalites_.] [130] This is still, as it was formerly, the mode of describing the awkward bowing of the lower class. In the "Death of Robert Earl of Huntington," 1601, when Will Brand, a vulgar assassin, is introduced to the king, the stage direction to the actor in the margin is, "_Make Legs_." [131] A proverb in [Heywood's "Epigrams," 1562. See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 270. Old copy, _love me a little_.] [132] [Old copy, _deny_.] [133] The meaning of the word _snudge_ is easily guessed in this place, but it is completely explained by T. Wilson, in his "Rhetoric," 1553, when he is speaking of a figure he calls _diminution_, or moderating the censure applied to vices by assimilating them to the nearest virtues: thus he would call "a _snudge_ or _pynche-penny_ a good husband, a thrifty man" (fo. 67). Elsewhere he remarks: "Some riche _snudges_, having great wealth, go with their hose out at heels, their shoes out at toes, and their cotes out at both elbowes; for who can tell if such men are worth a grote when their apparel is so homely, and all their behavior so base?" (fo. 86.) The word is found in Todd's Johnson, where Coles is cited to show that _snudge_ means "one who hides himself in a house to do mischief." No examples of the employment of the word by any of our writers are subjoined. [134] Mr Steevens, in a note to "Hamlet," act iv. sc. 5, says that he thinks Shakespeare took the expression of _hugger-mugger_ there used from North's Plutarch, but it was in such common use at the time that twenty authors could be easily quoted who employ it: it is found in Ascham, Sir J. Harington, Greene, Nash, Dekker, Tourneur, Ford, &c. In "The Merry Devil of Edmonton" also is the following line-- "But you will to this gear in _hugger-mugger_." [135] It is not easy to guess why Nash employed this Italian word instead of an English one. _Lento_ means lazy, and though an adjective, it is used here substantively; the meaning, of course, is that the idle fellow who has no lands begs. [136] i.e., Hates. See note to "Merchant of Venice," act v. sc. 1. [137] [Old copy, _Hipporlatos_. The emendation was suggested by Collier.] [138] The reader is referred to "Romeo and Juliet," act i. sc. 4, respecting the strewing of rushes on floors instead of carpets. Though nothing be said upon the subject, it is evident that Back-winter makes a resistance before he is forced out, and falls down in the struggle. [139] [Soiling: a common word in our early writers. Old copy, _wraying_.]