A Select Collection of Old English Plays
Chapter 1044 : [68] [Hamstring me.] [69] _Under show of shrift_, or, in other words, as coming to he

[68] [Hamstring me.]

[69] _Under show of shrift_, or, in other words, as coming to hear me confess.

[70] Thirty ma.s.ses on the same account.

[71] Despatch.

[72] Strut.

[73] [Edits., give these words to Eleazar.]

[74] With force, vigour, energy, vehemence.

[75] In the original the remainder of this play is jumbled together in strange confusion.

[76] [Edits., _rowls_.]

[77] [Nemesis.]

[78] [Old copies, _they_.]

[79] For that piece of mockery.

FOOTNOTES: ANDROMANA or THE MERCHANT'S WIFE

[80] [It is, however, printed in the "Ancient British Drama,"

1810, and it formed part of the original edition of Dodsley, 1744.]

[81] [Edits., _hangs_.]

[82] [Old copy, _quait_.]

[83] [Edits., _my son_.]

[84] [Edits., _And_.]

[85] [Edits., _There to try it with him_.]

[86] [Old copy, _at first_.]

[87] [Edits., _were_.]

[88] [Edits., _now_.]

[89] [Edits., _word or two_, which seems to be a redundancy, both in the metre and sense.]

[90] [Edits., _not to_.]

[91] [Edits., _and could_.]

[92] [Edits., _And shew_.]

[93] [Edit. 1810 prints _Consequently distate_.]

[94] _Mischievously_ or _wickedly_. So in "All's Well that Ends Well," act iv. sc. 5--

"A shrewd knave and an _unhappy_."

See also Mr Steevens's note on "Henry VIII.," act i. sc. 4.

[95] A tragedy by Sir John Denham, acted at Blank Friars, and printed in folio, 1642.

[96] [A very common phrase, in the sense of _accorded_, _agreed_.]

[97] [_i.e._, No skill in physiognomy.]

[98] [Edits., _so much_.]

[99] [Edits., _fright_.]

[100] [Edits., _I must confess, had I_.]

[101] [Edits., _Friends here, been_.]

[102] [Edits., _I wish that he might live, my lords_.]

[103] [Edits., _the_.]

[104] [Edits., _upon_.]

FOOTNOTES: LADY ALIMONY

[105] [The author of a curious satire on the female s.e.x, printed in 1616. See Hazlitt, in _v._]

[106] [Ingenuously.]

[107] [Notwithstanding the explanation found in Nares and Halliwell, it appears to me that this term is here, at least, intended in the sense of _bully_ or _ruffian_, especially when we compare the next speech of the Messenger.]

[108] [Literally, an inferior kind of hawk, but here used to signify a coward, a poor creature.]

[109] [This term, borrowed from the old romance so called, is frequently employed in the sense of an adventurer or knight-errant.]

[110] [This word seems here to signify an infinitessimal quant.i.ty, a cypher, a nonent.i.ty, in which sense it is apparently unglossed.]

[111] [Figgaries.]