A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 10
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 10
English drama
[299] Instances of this word, which means almost the same as
_scramble_, are given in a note on Shakespeare's "King Henry V.," sc.
1, edit. 1778.--_Steevens._
[300] Hungarian was a cant term then frequently in use. See Mr
Steevens's note on "The Merry Wives of Windsor," act i. sc. 3. Mr
Tollet ohserves that "the _Hungarians_, when infidels, overran Germany
and France, and would have invaded England if they could have come to
it. See Stowe in the year 930, and Holinshed's 'Invasions of Ireland,'
p. 56. Hence their name might become a proverb of baseness." [Compare
p. 227 _ante_.]
[301] The &c., means, of course, that Sir John repeats his old
saying--"We are all mortal; we'll live till we die, and be merry, and
there's an end."--_Collier._
[302] _Curfew_ is derived from two French words, _couvrir_, _i.e._,
_tegere_, and _feu_, _i.e._, _ignis_. William the Conqueror, in the
first year of his reign, commanded that in every town and village a
bell should be rung every night at eight o'clock, and that all people
should put out their fire and candle and go to bed. The ringing of a
bell in the evening is in many places till called ringing the Curfew
Bell.
[303] [Compare "Old English Jest Books," i. 31.]
[304] See note to "Grim the Collier of Croydon," [vii. 426.]
[305] [A nautical term for tacking about. See Halliwell's "Dict.," in
v.]
[306] The edits., of 1617, 1626, 1631, call them Sir _Ralph_ Clare and
Sir _Arthur_ Jerningham.--_Collier._
[307] Forbid, prevent.
[308] Probably we ought to read, _Now bear with me_.--_Collier_. This
is hardly satisfactory, yet the true reading is difficult to guess at.
[309] [Edits., _speak_.]
[310] [Edits., _Jenert's bank_, which Steevens defends and explains.
Mine Host, it should be observed, talks much at random; but surely
_Jenert's bank_ is rank nonsense.]
"I once suspected this passage of corruption, but have found reason
to change my opinion. The merry Host seems willing to assemble ideas
expressive of _trust and confidence_. The old quartos begin the word
_jenert_ with a capital letter, and therefore we may suppose _Jenert's
bank_ to have been the shop of some banker, in whose possession money
could be deposited with security. The Irish still say, as sure as
_Burton's Bank_; and our own countrymen, as safe as the _Bank of
England_. We might read my _house_, instead of my _horse_, as the
former agrees better with _castle_. The services of a _horse_ are of
all things the most uncertain."--_Steevens._
[311] _i.e._, Of a disease peculiar to horses. So in Shakespeare's
"Taming of the Shrew"--
"His horse sped with spavins, rayed with the _yellows_."
--_Steevens._ [See Dyce's Shakesp. Gloss. in v.]
[312] Edits., _manger_.
[313] [Tobacco.]
[314] See note to "The Spanish Tragedy," [v. 31].
[315] Misprinted _Fabian_ in edits. 1626, 1631, but corrected in that
of 1655.
[316] [Former edits., _Sir George_.]
[317] [A band of fiddlers.] See a long note to "The Ordinary," act iv.,
sc. 1 (vol. xii.)
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