[228] This was called "The Clouds," in which piece Socrates was represented hanging up in a basket in the air, uttering numberless chimerical absurdities, and blaspheming, as it was then reputed, the gods of his country. At the performance of this piece Socrates was present himself; and "notwithstanding," says his biographer, "the gross abuse that was offered to his character, he did not show the least signs of resentment or anger; nay, such was the unparalleled good nature of this godlike man, that some strangers there, being desirous to see the original of this scenic picture, he rose up in the middle of the performance, stood all the rest of the time, and showed himself to the people; by which well-placed confidence in his own merit and innocence, reminding them of those virtues and wisdom so opposite to the sophist in the play, his pretended likeness, he detected the false circumstances, which were obtruded into his character, and obviated the malicious designs of the poet who, having brought his play a second time upon the stage, met with the contempt he justly merited for such a composition." --Cooper's "Life of Socrates," p. 55. [229] [Old copies, _page's tongue_; but Mendacio, Lingua's page, is intended. Perhaps we should read _Tongueship's page_.] [230] [This is marked in the editions as the opening of a new scene, but wrongly, as it should seem, as the same persons remain on the stage, and the conversation is a sequel to what has gone before.] [231] These were the names of several species of hawks. See an account of them in the "Treatises on Falconry," particularly those of Turbervile and Latham. [232] i.e., Hedgehogs. See a note on Shakespeare's "Tempest," i. 28, edit. 1778.--_Steevens_. Again, in Erasmus's "Praise of Folie," 1549, sig. Q 2: "That the soule of Duns woulde a litle leve Sorbone College, and enter into my breast, be he never so thornie, and fuller of pricles than is any _urcheon_." [233] Perhaps, instead of _the masks are made so strong_, we ought to read, _the mesh is made so strong_. It clearly means the _mesh of the net_, from what is said afterwards.--_Collier_. [But _mask_, in Halliwell's "Dictionary," is said to be used for _mesh_. What is intended above is not a _net_, but a network ladder.] [234] [_Hazard_, the plot of a tennis-court.--Halliwell's "Dictionary."] [235] This is one of the many phrases in these volumes which, being not understood, was altered without any authority from the ancient copies. The former editions read _odd mouthing_; the text, however, is right; for old, as Mr Steevens observes, was formerly a common augmentative in colloquial language, and as such is often used by Shakespeare and others. See notes on the "Second Part of Henry IV." act ii. sc. 4, and "The Taming of the Shrew," act iii. sc. 2. Again, in Tarlton's "Newes out of Purgatory," 1630, p. 34: "On Sunday at Masse there was _old ringing of bells_, and old and yong came to church to see the new roode."