Mr Steevens, in his note upon "Midsummer Night's Dream," (Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, v. 198), says that _dresses_ were not included in the _properties_ of theatres. Maine's authority is to the contrary, if Aurelia's apparel were to be used for the apparel of the actors.--_Collier._ [245] _Cuerpo_ is an undress: the Spaniards, from whom we borrowed the word, apply it to a person in a light jacket without his cabot or cloak.--Mr Gifford's note on the "Fatal Dowry," iii. 390. Cuerpo is the _body_, and _in cuerpo_ means in body clothing.--_Collier._ [246] _i.e._, The gold on my apparel. So in "King Henry V." "Our gayness and our _gilt_ are all besmerch'd." See a note on this passage, vi., 128, edit. 1778.--_Steevens._ [247] [Omitted in former edit.] [248] [The christening-fee.] The chrysome was the white cloth thrown over the new-baptized child. This perhaps was the perquisite of the officiating clergyman. The child itself, however, was sometimes called a _chrysome_. See a note on "King Henry V.," vi., 52, edit. 1778.--_Steevens._ [249] _i.e._, Leopards, animals often introduced into heraldic devices. [250] [Former edit., _vocation_.] [251] [Run into debt. Scores used to be chalked up at taverns. Hence the proverb, "The tapster is undone by chalk!" From being a particular phrase, it became general.] [252] [The allowance to a kept mistress.] [253] A _biggon_ was a kind of coif formerly worn by men. It is now only in use for children. [254] [Granting _infant_ to be the right word, we are perhaps to suppose that illegitimate children were surreptitiously deposited on mercers' counters, occasionally, wrapped up as parcels. _Upon their strengths_ appears to mean _upon their credit_.] [255] From Dugdale's "Origines Juridiciales," p. 207, &c., we learn that the office of a Reader at the Middle Temple was held at a great charge to the person who executed it. "His expences," says that author, "during this time of _reading_, are very great; insomuch, as some have spent above six hundred pounds in two dayes less than a fortnight, which now is the usual time of _reading_." It appears also that many gentlemen, who were put by their _reading_, were removed from the Bar-table unto a table called, The Auncients Table; "And it is no disgrace," says the same author, "for any man to be removed hither; for by reason of the excessive chardge of _readings_, many men of great learning and competent practise, as well as others of less learning, but great estates, have refused to Read, and are here placed." To relieve the gentlemen who undertook this expensive office, it seems to have been usual to call upon the students for their assistance; and this circumstance is alluded to in the text. [The Ancients' Table is the same as the Benchers', and at Gray's Inn the Benchers are still called _Ancients_.] ACT V., SCENE I. _+Plotwell+, +Aurelia+, +Bright+, +Newcut+, +Quartfield+, +Roseclap+, two +Footmen+, +Cypher+._