[150] Old eds. "Buglors, Rhimocers."--The herb bugloss was much used for medicinal purposes. The same virtues were attributed to the rhinoceros' horn as to the unicorn's horn: see Topsel's _Hist. of Four-footed Beasts_. [151] Hotchpotch, farrago; a contemptuous term for an apothecary. [152] Crucible. [153] Ed. 1631 "O." [154] Subject for dissection. [155] "I were"--omitted in ed. 1613. [156] Ed. 1631 "skip on ounce." [157] If _Romeo and Juliet_ had not been a highly popular play the allusion to the Montagues and Capulets could hardly have been generally intelligible. [158] Old eds. "_Miz._" [159] Not marked in old eds. [160] _i.e._, you are a clever schemer. [161] Girls who fasted on St. Agnes' night (January 21) dreamed of their future husbands.--"They'll give anything to know when they shall be married, how many husbands they shall have by Cromnyomantia, a kind of divination with onions laid on the altar on Christmas eve, or _by fasting on St. Agnes' eve or night to know who shall be their first husband_." Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_, ed. 1660, p. 538. See the sixth stanza of Keats' _Eve of St. Agnes_. [162] See note, vol. i. p. 37. [163] Old eds. "_Count_ ARS." [164] In old eds. is the stage-direction "_To Abigall_."--Claridiana is of course glancing at Thais. [165] Ed. 1631 "to." [166] So ed. 1631.--Ed. I, "rimocheros." [167] Old eds. "ne'er" and "ne're." [168] An echo from _Richard II._ (i. 1):-- "Which to maintain I would allow him odds And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps, Or any other ground inhabitable." [169] Old eds. "wrongs." [170] Ed. 1613 "sp'rit."--Ed. 1631 "spirit." [171] A vulgar oath. [172] Ed. 1613 "rimocheros." [173] Ed. 1613 "instrument." [174] Old eds. "_Abigall_" and "_Abigail_." [175] Old eds. "our." [176] Old eds. "_Abig._" [177] Ed. 1631 "Countesse of Sweuia." [178] Cf. vol. 1, p. 62. [179] Old eds. "_Abigall_" and "_Abig._" [180] In _Vulgar Errors_, ii. 5, Sir Thomas Browne discusses the question whether "a diamond, which is the hardest of stones, not yielding unto steel, emery, or anything but its own powder, is yet made soft or broke by the blood of a goat." [181] Contracted form (found in Spenser, Jonson, &c.) for _corrosive_. ACT II. SCENE I. _Venice.--Hall in_ ROBERTO'S _house_. _Enter_ ROBERTO, Lord Cardinal, ISABELLA, Lady LENTULUS, ABIGAIL, _and_ THAIS. _Lights._