[4] "Perkins." Marginal note in the old copy. Richard Perkins was an actor of great ability. At the end of the _White Devil_ Webster speaks of the "well-approved industry of my friend Master Perkins," and adds that "the worth of his action did crown both the beginning and end." He took the part of Capt. Goodlack in Heywood's _Fair Maid of the West_, of Sir John Belfare in Shirley's _Wedding_, of Hanno in Nabbes' _Hannibal and Scipio_, and of Fitzwater in Davenport's _King John and Matilda_. From Wright's _Historia Histrionica_ we learn that he died "some years before the Restoration." [5] "A metaphor borrowed from the fencing-school, prizes being played for certain degrees in the schools where the Art of Defence was taught,--degrees, it appears, of Master, Provost, and Scholar."--Dyce's _Shakespeare Glossary_. [6] A friend of Alleyn's backed him for a wager to excel George Peele in acting any part that had been sustained by Knell or Bentley. See Dyce's _Greene and Peele_ (ed. 1861, pp. 330, 331). In the _Introduction_ to the _Knight of the Burning Pestle_ the Citizen says that his prentice Ralph "should have played Jeronimo with a shoemaker for a wager." [7] The Duc de Guise, who organised the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. He was assassinated in 1588. [8] This is Dyce's correction for "empire." [9] Old ed. "the Drancus." [10] As a word is required to complete the verse, I have followed Cunningham in inserting "but." [11] All the editions give "Britain." For the sake of the metre I read "Britainy"--a form found in _Edward II._, ii. 2, l. 42. [12] Old ed. "Samintes," for which the modern editors give "Samnites." Between the "Samnites" and the "men of Uz" there can be no possible connection. My emendation suits the context. We have Saba for Sabæa in _Faustus_, xii. 25, &c. [13] Old ed. "silverbings." Dyce observes that the word "silverling" occurs in _Isaiah_ (vii. 23):--"A thousand vines at a thousand silverlings." [14] It was a common belief that a stuffed halcyon (_i.e._, kingfisher), suspended by the bill, showed from what quarter the wind blew. Shakespeare alludes to the superstition in _Lear_, ii. 2,-- "Renege, affirm, and turn their _halcyon beaks_ With every gale and vary of their master." Sir Thomas Browne, who discusses the subject in _Vulgar Errors_ (iii. 10), says that "the eldest custom of hanging up these birds was founded upon a tradition that they would renew their feathers every year as though they were alive." [15] Pay the duty on them. [16] Old ed. "By" (which might perhaps be defended, as meaning "good-bye." Cf. Shirley's _Constant Maid_, i. 1,--"_Buoy_, Close, _buoy_, honest Close: we are blanks, blanks.") [17] A recognised form of "scrambled." Cf. _Henry V._ i. 1:-- "But that the _scambling_ and unquiet time Did push it out of farther question." [18] The scene is shifted to the Exchange.