A Select Collection of Old English Plays - LightNovelsOnl.com
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AARON. Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.
BOY. My lords, with all the humbleness I may, I greet your honours from Andronicus-- And pray the Roman G.o.ds confound you both. [_Aside_.
DEMETRIUS. _Gramercy_, lovely Lucius; what's the news?
BOY. That you are both decipher'd (that's the news) For villains mark'd with rape. [_Aside_] May it please you, My grandsire, well advis'd, hath sent by me The goodliest weapon of his armoury, To gratify your honourable youth, The hope of Rome: for so he bid me say; And so I do, and with his gifts present Your lords.h.i.+ps, that whenever you have need, You may be armed and appointed well.
And so I leave you both--like b.l.o.o.d.y villains. [_Aside_.
--Hanmer's 2d edit., act iv. sc. 2. [The text is the same in Dyce's 2d edit., vi. 326-7.]
[119] "Poetaster," act v. sc. 3. [Gifford's edit. ii. 524-5, and the note.]
[120] [So in the old copy Kemp is made, perhaps intentionally, to call Studioso. See also _infra_, p. 198.]
[121] [See Kemp's "Nine Daies Wonder," edit. Dyce, ix.]
[122] _Sellenger's round_, corrupted from St Leger, a favourite dance with the common people.
[123] Old copy reads--
"As you part in _kne_
KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with _sice kne_," &c.
The genuine reading, it is presumed, is restored to the text--
"As your part in _cue_.
KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with _size cue_," &c.
A pun upon the word _cue_, which is a hint to the actor to proceed in his part, and has the same sound with the letter _q_, the mark of a farthing in college b.u.t.tery-books. To _size_ means to _battle_, or to be charged in the college accounts for provisions. [A _q_ is so called because it is the initial letter of _quadrans_, the fourth part of a penny.]
[124] This seems to be quoted from the first imperfect edition of "The Spanish Tragedy;" in the later (corrected) impression it runs thus--
"What outcries pluck me from my naked bed, And chill," &c.
--[v. 54.]
[125] [Old copy points this sentence falsely, and repeats _thing_.]
[126] Old copy, _woe_.
[127] [Old copy, _birds_. Perhaps, however, the poet may have meant _swans_.]
[128] Old copy, _sooping_.
[129] [I think this is much more likely to be an allusion to Shakespeare, than the pa.s.sage in the prologue to which Hawkins refers.--_Ebsworth_.]
[130] [Old copy, _some_.]
[131] [There were several Greek _literati_ of this name. Amoretto's page, personating his master, is so nicknamed by the other, who personates Sir Raderic--unless the pa.s.sage is corrupt.]
[132] [Old copy, _Irenias_.]
[133] [Old copy, _Nor_.]
[134] [Old copy, _we have_.]
[135] [Old copy, _run_. Mr Ebsworth's correction.]
[136] Old copy, _cluttish_.
[137] Old copy, _trus_.
[138] One of the old copies reads _repay'st_.
[139] Old copy, _seeling_.
[140] This play is not divided into acts.
[141] [Cadiz.]
[142] [Shear-penny.]
[143] [Extortion.]
[144] [Old copies, _waves_.]
[145] [Old copy, _fates to friend_.]
[146] [Old copy, _springold_.]
[147] [Old copy, as before, _springold_.]
[148] [Old copy, _doff off_.]
[149] [Old copy, _wat'ry_.]
[150] [Resound.]
[151] Edit. 1606 has: _Mi Fortunate, ter fortunate Venus_. The 4to of 1623 reads: _Mi Fortunatus, Fortunate Venter_.
[152] [Intend.]
[153] She means to say eloquence, and so it stands in the edition of 1623.
[154] [Robin Goodfellow.]
[155] [See p. 286.]
