"Now, sure, thou are a man Of a most learned _scilence_, and one whose words Have bin most pretious to me." This seems quite plain, but Mr. Halliwell annotates thus:--"_Scilence_.--Query, _science?_ The common reading, _silence_, may, however, be what is intended." That the spelling should have troubled Mr. Halliwell is remarkable; for elsewhere we find "god-boy" for "good-bye," "seace" for "cease," "bodies" for "boddice," "pollice" for "policy," "pitittying" for "pitying," "scence" for "sense," "Misenzius" for "Mezentius," "Ferazes" for "Ferrarese,"--and plenty beside, equally odd. That he should have doubted the meaning is no less strange; for on page 41 of the same play we read, "My Lord Granuffo, you may likewise stay, for I know _you'l say nothing_,"--on pp. 55-56, "This Granuffo is a right wise good lord, _a man of excellent discourse and never speaks_,"--and on p. 94, we find the following dialogue:-- "_Gon._ My Lord Granuffo, this Fawne is an excellent fellow. "_Don._ Silence. "_Gon._ _I warrant you for my lord here._" In the same play (p. 44) are these lines.-- "I apt for love? Let lazy idlenes, fild full of wine Heated with meates, high fedde with lustfull ease Goe dote on culler [color]. As for me, why, death a sence, I court the ladie?" This is Mr. Halliwell's note:--"_Death a sence_.--'Earth a sense,' ed. 1633. Mr. Dilke suggests:--'For me, why, earth's as sensible.' The original is not necessarily corrupt. It may mean,--why, you might as well think Death was a sense, one of the senses. See a like phrase at p. 77." What help we should get by thinking Death one of the senses, it would demand another Oedipus to unriddle. Mr. Halliwell can astonish us no longer, but we are surprised at Mr. Dilke, the very competent editor of the "Old English Plays," 1815. From him we might have hoped for better things. "Death o' sense!" is an exclamation. Throughout these volumes we find _a_ for _o_',--as, "a clock" for "o'clock," "a the side" for "o' the side." A similar exclamation is to be found in three other places in the same play, where the sense is obvious. Mr. Halliwell refers to one of them on p. 77,--"Death a man! is she delivered!" The others are,--"Death a justice! are we in Normandy?" (p. 98); and "Death a discretion! if I should prove a foole now," or, as given by Mr. Halliwell, "Death, a discretion!" Now let us apply Mr. Halliwell's explanation. "Death a man!" you might as well think Death was a man, that is, one of the men!--or a discretion, that is, one of the discretions!--or a justice, that is, one of the quorum! We trust Mr. Halliwell may never have the editing of Bob Acres's imprecations. "Odd's triggers!" he would say, "that is, as odd as, or as strange as, triggers."