[338] _Head of hungry wolves_ is the reading of the original copy: a "_herd_" of hungry wolves would scarcely be proper, but it may have been so written. [_Head_ may be right, and we have not altered it, as the word is occasionally used to signify a gathering or force.] [339] In the old copy the four following lines are given to King John. [340] [Old copy, _warres_.] [341] [Escutcheon.] [342] [Abided.] [343] [Old copy, _prepare_.] [344] This word is found in "Henry VI., Part II." act v. sc. 1, where young Clifford applies it to Richard. Malone observes in a note, that, according to Bullokar's "English Expositor," 1616, _stugmatick_ originally and properly signified "a person who has been _branded_ with a hot iron for some crime." The name of the man to whom Hubert here applies the word, is _Brand_. Webster, in his "Vittoria Corombona," applies the term metaphorically:-- "The god of melancholy turn thy gall to poison, And let the _stigmatic_ wrinkles in thy face. Like to the boisterous wares in a rough tide, One still overtake another." [345] [Are faulty.] [346] [Old copy, _seld_.] [347] [The printer has made havoc with the sense here, which can only be guessed at from the context. Perhaps for _go_ we should read _God_, in allusion to the woman's protestations. Yet even then the passage reads but lamely.] [348] [_These_ may be right; but perhaps the author wrote _his_. By his--i.e., God's--nails, is a very common oath.] [349] [i.e., Mete or measure out a reward to her.] [350] [To swear by the fingers, or the _ten commandments_, as they were often called, was a frequent oath.] [351] [Old copy, _lamback'd_.] [352] The 4to says, _between the monk and the nun_. [353] [Query, _mother Bawd_; or is some celebrated procuress of the time when this play was written and acted meant here?] [354] To swear by the cross of the sword was a very common practice, and many instances are to be found in D.O.P. See also notes to "Hamlet," act i. sc. 5. [355] i.e., Secretly, a very common application of the word in our old writers. [356] [In allusion to the proverb, "Maids say nay, and take."] [357] Here, according to what follows, Brand steps forward and addresses Matilda. Hitherto he has spoken _aside_. [358] See Mr Gilford's note on the words _rouse_ and _carouse_ in his Massinger, i. 239. It would perhaps be difficult, and certainly needless, to add anything to it. [359] "Nor I to stir before I see the end," belongs to the queen, unquestionably, but the 4to gives it to the Abbess, who has already gone out. [360] [Labour, pain.] [361] The reading of the old copy is-- "Oh _pity, mourning_ sight! age pitiless!" _Pity-moving_ in a common epithet, and we find it afterwards in this play used by young Bruce-- "My tears, my prayers, my _pity-moving_ moans." [362] [Old copy, _wrath_.] [363] This servant entered probably just before Oxford's question, but his entrance is not marked.