=Page 138.=--_Sir Thomas More._ The well-known English author and statesman, born in 1473, and executed on Tower Hill in 1535. _No planets strike._ That is, exert a baleful influence; an allusion to astrology. _No fairy takes._ Blasts, or bewitches. Compare _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, iv. 4. 32: "blasts the tree and takes the cattle," etc. =Page 140.=--_It irks me._ It is _irksome_ to me, troubles me. _Fool_ was sometimes used as a term of endearment or pity. Compare _The Winter's Tale_ (ii. 1. 18), where Hermione says to her women who are grieved at the unjust charge against her, "Do not weep, poor fools!" The _forked heads_ are heads of arrows. Ascham refers to such in his _Toxophilus_. =Page 141.=--_A poor sequester'd stag._ Separated from his companions. =Page 145.=--_Professor Baynes_. Thomas Spencer Baynes (1823-1887), professor of English Literature at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and editor of the ninth edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica._ =Page 146.=--_The vaward of the day._ The _vanguard_, or early part of the day. Compare _Coriolanus_, i. 6. 53: "Their bands i' the vaward," etc. _Such gallant chiding._ The verb _chide_ often meant "to make an incessant noise." Compare _As You Like It_, ii. 1. 7: "And churlish chiding of the winter's wind"; _Henry VIII._ iii. 2. 197: "As doth a rock against the chiding flood," etc. _So flew'd, so sanded._ Having the same large hanging chaps and the same sandy color. _Like bells._ That is, like a chime of bells. _Tender well._ Take good care of. _Emboss'd_ was a hunter's term for foaming at the mouth in consequence of hard running. _Brach._ The word properly meant a female hound, but came to be applied to a particular kind of scenting-dog. =Page 147.=--_In the coldest fault._ When the scent was coldest (or faintest), and the hounds most at fault. Compare the quotation from _Venus and Adonis_, page 150 below: "the cold fault." _He cried upon it at the merest loss._ He gave the cry when the scent seemed utterly lost. See the passage just referred to. _Mere_ was formerly used in the sense of absolute or complete. Compare _Othello_, ii. 2. 3: "the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet" (its entire destruction); _Henry VIII._ iii. 2. 329: "the mere undoing of the kingdom" (its utter ruin), etc. _A youthful Work of Shakespeare's._ It was first published in 1593, when he was twenty-nine years of age; and some critics believe that it was written several years earlier, perhaps before he went to London. =Page 148.=--_Glisters._ Glistens. Both Shakespeare and Milton use _glister_ several times, _glisten_ not at all. _Told the steps._ Counted them. Compare _The Winter's Tale_, iv. 4. 185: "He sings several tunes faster than you'll tell money." The _teller_ in a bank is so called because he does this. =Page 149.=--_The hairs, who wave_, etc. _Who_ was often used where we should use _which_, and _which_ (see on page 108 above) where we should use _who_.