[36] _I.e._, the poverty of the theatrical company. It was common for an actor to represent two characters (or more) in the same play. For example, William Shurlock personated Maharbal and Prusias in Nabbes' _Hannibal and Scipio_, 1635; and in the same play, Hugh Clerke, besides taking the part of Syphax, personated the Nuntius. [37] Old eds. "shew'd." [38] So ed. 1633.--The 4to gives "blinks." [39] A piece of whalebone, steel, or wood worn down the front of the stays to keep them straight. [40] Rents, cracks. [41] "Truss my hose" = tie the tagged laces of my breeches. [42] Hurl violently. [43] Old eds. "_Exeunt_ ANT. _and_ ALB." [44] Common, worthless.--The use of "modern" in this sense is frequently found, and was sanctioned by Shakespeare; but it did not escape Ben Jonson's censure in _The Poetaster_, v. i.:-- "Alas! that were no _modern_ consequence To have cothurnal buskins frightened hence." [45] "The old cut" = the old fashion. So Nashe in the epistle dedicatory prefixed to _Strange News of the Intercepting Certain Letters_, 1593:--"You are amongst grave Doctors and men of judgment in both laws every day. I pray ask them the question in my absence whether such a man as I have described this epistler to be ... that hath made many proper rhymes of the _old cut_ in his days," &c. [46] Old eds. "_Exit_ ALB." [47] "Jaques in _As You Like It_, describing his own melancholy, says it is extracted from many objects, and that the contemplation of his travels often wraps him in a most humorous sadness: on which Rosalind observes--'A traveller! by my faith you have great reason to be sad!'"--_Dilke._ [48] The Puritans' short starched ruffs were constantly ridiculed. See Middleton's _Works_, viii. 69. [49] A bottle for sprinkling perfumes. [50] Probably an actor who had gone blind; but I can find no information about him. THE PROLOGUE.