=3. 5. 43 But to be seene to rise, and goe away.= Cf. Dekker, _Guls Horne-booke_, _Non-dram. Wks._ 2. 253: ‘Now sir, if the writer be a fellow that hath either epigrammd you, or hath had a flirt at your mistris, ... you shall disgrace him worse then by tossing him in a blancket ... if, in the middle of his play, ... you rise with a screwd and discontented face from your stoole to be gone: no matter whether the Scenes be good or no; the better they are the worse do you distast them.’ =3. 5. 45, 6 But say, that he be one=, Wi’ not be aw’d! but laugh at you=. In the Prologue to Massinger’s _Guardian_ we find: --nor dares he profess that when The critics laugh, he’ll laugh at them agen. (Strange self-love in a writer!) Gifford says of this passage: ‘This Prologue contains many sarcastick allusions to Old Ben, who produced, about this time, his _Tale of a Tub_, and his _Magnetic Lady_, pieces which failed of success, and which, with his usual arrogance, (_strange self-love in a writer!_) he attributed to a want of taste in the audience.’--Massinger’s (_Wks._, ed. 1805, 4. 121.) The _Guardian_ appeared in 1633, two years after the printing of _The Devil is an Ass_. It seems certain that the reference is to the present passage. =3. 5. 47 pay for his dinner himselfe.= The custom of inviting the poet to dinner or supper seems to have been a common one. Dekker refers to it in the _Guls Horne-booke_, _Non-dram. Wks._ 2. 249. Cf. also the Epilogue to the present play. =3. 5. 47 Perhaps, He would doe that twice, rather then thanke you.= ‘This ill-timed compliment to himself, Jonson might have spared, with some advantage to his judgment, at least, if not his modesty.’--G. =3. 5. 53.= See variants. Gifford’s change destroys the meaning and is palpably ridiculous. =3. 5. 77 your double cloakes.= ‘I. e., a cloake adapted for disguises, which might be worn on either side. It was of different colours, and fashions. This turned cloke with a false beard (of which the cut and colour varied) and a black or yellow peruke, furnished a ready and effectual mode of concealment, which is now lost to the stage. ’--G. =3. 6. 2 canst thou get ne’r a bird?= Throughout this page Merecraft and Pug ring the changes on Pitfall’s name. =3. 6. 15, 16 TRA. You must send, Sir.= =The Gentleman the ring.= Traines, of course, is merely carrying out Merecraft’s plot to ‘achieve the ring’ (3. 5. 67). Later (4. 4. 60) Merecraft is obliged to give it up to Wittipol. =3. 6. 34-6 What’ll you do, Sir?= ... =Run from my flesh, if I could.= For a similar construction cf. 1. 3. 21 and note. =3. 6. 38, 9 Woe to the seuerall cudgells,= =Must suffer on this backe!= Adapted from Plautus, _Captivi_ 3. 4. 650: Vae illis uirgis miseris, quae hodie in tergo morientur meo. (Gifford mentions the fact that this is adapted from the classics. I am indebted for the precise reference to Dr. Lucius H. Holt.)