A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. III - Various
_Nav_. Saint Denis for Navar! Alarum, Drums!
_Alarum: they fight, Fraunce put to the worst; enter Rodorike
and Peter; the fight continued, and Navar driven in_.
_Lew_. Navar and his weake forces make retire;
Pursue them, Sirs, the victorie is ours.
_Rod_. Be like starv'd Lions 'mongst a heard of Beasts,
Ruthelesse and bloudy; slaughter[149] all you meete
Till proud Navar be slayn or kisse your feet.
Saint Denis! and cry murder through the host!
_Alarum. Enter Pembrooke, Ferdinand and Philip_.
_Pem_. He that steps forward with a murdring thought,
Marries him selfe to death. Fraunce, cease the fight:
They are Frenchmen you pursue, Frenchmen you should save:
Dig not for Traytors love your subjects graves.
_Lew_. What franticke knights are those that dare oppose
Their single force against our multitudes?
_Phil_. Those that wish you and Fraunce bright fames encrease,
So you would chase hence war and welcome peace.
_Rod_. That was the Traytor that slew royall Burbon.
_Pet_. Downe with the villaynes.
_Rod_. Souldiers, seyze on him
And then pursue Navar with sudden death.
_Ferd_. Ere the least hayre fall from his kingly head,
Rodorick, thy base trunck shall be butchered.
_Pem_. Will you accept of peace?
_Lew_. Follow Navar!
_Pet_. Downe with that murderer!
_Fer_. Zounds, then, in spight
Weele save Navar and chase you hence in fight.
_All_. Ha, ha!
_Pem_. Nay, smile not; though our number's few
Our great hearts tell us we shall conquere you.
Alarum and S. George!
_Alarum: they fight. Enter Navar and his forces,
Fraunce chaste away_.
_Nav_. Fraunce and his daunted forces gives us ground.
Charge, charge agayne, and we are Conquerours.
_Phil_. Stand or ne're stirre agayne.
_Nav_. What meane these knights?
_Pem_. To stop your passage this way, great Navar.
I charge thee by the duty of a king,
Thy love to Justice and thy subjects lives,
You sound retreat and make a peace with Fraunce.
_Nav_. A peace! and have the vantage of the day!
_Bow_. That's a tricke by Jesu to mocke an Ape: wee'le none of that.
_Nav_. Wee'le have no peace but what our swords can make.
Follow the chase.
_Phil_. Are you growne insolent?
For one light puffe of fortune proves it so?
Nay, then our swords turn to your overthrow.
_Alarum: they fight and drive in Navar_.
_Fer_. That was my father that you fought against.
_Phil_. You did as much to mine.
_Pem_. Princes, agree:
Force cannot end this war, but policy.
Therefore disperse your selves, and let our Squires
With Trumpets in their mouthes sound lowd retreat
Where you perceive the fight most violent.
The strangenesse of which act will straight amaze;
When they shall heare both peace and war denounc'd,
And one selfe instant, they will soone retire
To know the issue. Princes, fall to worke,
Tis worke of charity; 'twould doe me good
If we could end this battell without bloud.
_Fer_. I hope we shall: farewell, Ile to my charge.
_Pem_. The like will Pembrooke.
_Phil_. Philip is not last:
Yet, though I seeke the safety of my friends,
Rodorick shall lose his bloud e're this fight ends.
_Alarum; excursions. Enter Peter leading Thomasin_.
_Pet_. Struggle not, strive not; your sweete heart Bowyer cannot save
you. Without prolixity you must goe with mee.
_Tho_. Helpe, helpe.
_Pet_. And the God of warre come in thy defence my humour is to kill him.
Come away.
_Enter Bowyer_.
_Bow_. By Jesu, and you go this way you must pay custom. Zounds, you
pick-hatch[150] Cavaliero petticote-monger, can you find time to be
catching _Thomasin_? come, deliver, or by Zenacrib & the life of
king Charlimayne, Ile thrash your coxcombe as they doe hennes at
Shrovetyde[151]. No, will you not doe, you Tan-fat? Zounds, then have
at you.
_They fight, Bowyer hath the wench, rescued by Fraunce,
recovered by Navar. Philip meetes Rodorick, rescued by
Peter. Retreat is sounded, the enemies begin to retire,
Rodorick chased by Philip. Enter at severall doores,
after retreate sounded, Pembrooke and Ferdinand_.
_Ferd_. Are the Kings severd? will they bow to peace?
_Pemb_. Peace is a welcome ghest unto their hearts,
But Rodoricke (like a greedy envious churle
Fearing to spend his wealth) still keeps them backe.
Tis he exasperates the Princes hate,
And when our Trumpets call them to retyre
He with warres clangor sets them on agayne.
Unless he be remoov'd our labour's lost.
_Ferd_. It shall not, for Ile seek him through the Host
And with this sword pare off the Traytors head.
_Pem_. Doe, and Ile scoure these ranks: if Pembroks eye
Encounters his, he meets his Tragedy.
_Alarum. Enter Philip pursuing Rodoricke_.
_Phil_. Stay, warlike friends, and ayd me in revenge.
_Ferd_. That is Rodoricke.
_Pem_. Heere's the Traytor, strike him downe.
_Phil_. Who lifts his arme at him strikes at my brest.
_Rod_. Why have you thus ring'd me about with swords?
_Phil_. To shew thee thou must dye.
_Rod_. What have I done
That thus you labour my destruction?
_Pem_. Thou wer't a party in all Burbons wrongs.
_Ferd_. Falsely term'd Ferdinand a Ravisher.
_Pem_. Set discord 'twixt these kings.
_Phil_. Practised my death.
_Pem_. Villayne for this our swords shall stop thy breath.
_Ferd_. Stand not to argue, let's all runne at him.
_Phil_. Now as you love my love or prize mine honour,
Touch not the Traytor; he is Philips foe,
And none but I must work his overthrow.
Thrice in the battell he was rescued from me,
But now hee's fallen into the Lyons paw
From whence the whole world cannot ransome him.
Preservers of my life, heroick friends,
Be you my safety; keepe the souldyers off,
Whilst in the midst by fayre and equall fight
I send this Traytor to eternal night.
_Ferd_. By heaven agreed.
_Pem_. Heere Pembrooke takes his stand:
Come Fraunce and all the world, I will not start
Till Philips knightly sword pierce Rodoricks hart.
_Rod_. Accurst, I am betrayd, incompast round;
Now lyfe and hope and state must kisse the ground.
_Phil_. Rodorick, thou seest, all wayes are stopt to flie;
Be desperat then, fight bravely, and so die.
_Alarum: they fight. Enter to Pembrooke Navar,
Bowyer, and Souldiers: to Ferdinand Fraunce,
Flaunders, and Souldiers: they fight and keepe
them backe. Rodoricke would scape; still kept in
the midst, and kild by Philip_.
_Phil_. Now are his trecheries repaid with death.
Philip and Pembrooke, sound your retreats
With better hope; in him all hatred ends:
The kings will now love peace and soone be friends.
_Exeunt. Enter Peter wounded, Bowyer following_.
_Bow_. Zounds, never runne for the matter; a scratcht face can not serve
your turne, we must have bloudy noses. Stand on your gard; and I do not
make haggasse puddings of your guttes, Ile never dominier in the long
Alleyes agayne.
_Pet_. Cymnel, Ile crack you for this. Ile teach you to deale with Peter
de Lions, and that without prolixitie.
_Bow_. Do; have at you in earnest. S. George, you rogue!
_Alarum; fight. Bowyer kills him_.
_Bow_. So, there's for your prolixities, there's for Thomasin. The
Thornbackly slave! and he were made of anything but gristles, I am a
pumpian. 'Shart he had no mettle in him; yet how the villayne
crak't[152] and dominierd when he was living: ah, sirra, never gryn for
the matter, tis Captayne Bowyer that speaks it. When thou meetst the
great Devill, commend me to him and say I sent him thee for a new years
gift. And there's one Sarlaboys to, as arrant a blood-sucker and as
notable a coward as ever drew weapon in a bawdy house, he carryes my
marke about him. If Dicke Bowyer be not writ a bountifull benefactor in
hell for my good deeds in sending thither such Cannibals, I am a rabbit
sucker[153]: yet I scorne to vaunt of my deeds, too. They sound a
retreat. Farewell, Peter, and learne hereafter what it is to be rivall
to an English gentleman, Cavaliero Bowyer, one of the nine worthyes.
_A retreyt. Enter at one dore Fraunce, Flaunders, and
Souldiers: at the other dore Navar, Bowyer and Souldiers_.
_Lew_. Navar, why have you sounded a retreyt?
Will your proud heart decline and call us lord?
_Nav_. We thought by the faynt language of your drums
Fraunce would have knowne his errour and beg'd peace.
_Lew_. Fraunce beg a peace!
_Nav_. Navar call you his Lord!
_Flan_. Why did you cease the fight and sound retreat.
_Bow_. Not we by this beard, not we by the life of Pharo[154].
_Nav_. Your Trumpets, guided by your faynting breath,
Dehorted us from war and sounded peace.
_Lew_. Navar derides us.
_Nav_. Fraunce, tis you that doo't.
_Lew_. Sound war and bravely let us once more too't.
_Enter in the Middest Pembrooke, Ferdinand and Philip_.
_Pem_. Kings of Navar and Fraunce, why doe you thus
With civill butchery wound this blessed land,
Which like a mother from her melting eyes
Sheds crimson teares to see you enemyes?
Lewes of Fraunce, wherein hath great Navar
Dangerd your state that you should prosecute
War with her largest ruine? how hath Fraunce
Sowed such inveterate hate within your brest
That to confound him you will undergoe
The orphans curse, the widdowes teares and cries
Whose husbands in these warres have lost their lives?
Ere you contend discourse your grievances.
_Lew_. False Ferdinand, his sonne, ravisht our child.
_Ferd_. Now by my knighthood, honor, and this gage,
Fraunce, Ile approve you wrong that Ferdinand.
_Phil_. Who can accuse him?
_Lew_. That did Rodorick.
_Pem_. That Traytor for a deed so false, so foule,
Hath answerd it by this even with his soule.
_Nav_. Our sonne and valours bloome, th[e] English Pembrooke,
By Lewes treachery were butchered.
_Phil_. Were the whole world joynd in so false a thing,
Alone Ide combat all and cleere the King.
_Pem_. Fraunce never had designe in their two deaths.
_Nav_. He leagu'd with Burbon that destroyd my child.
_Lew_. He poysoned her deservedly.
_Phil_. That deed of shame
Cut off his life and raced out Burbons name.
_Lew_. His death shalbe thy death, for thy hand slue him.
_Nav_. This other in the battell twice to day
Made us retire. Fraunce, shall we joyne in league
Till we have veng'd our malice on these knights?
_Lew_. Navar, agreed. Souldiers, this kyld your Lords.
_Nav_. And this our fame. Let's mangle them with swords.
_Pem_. Take truce a while with rage: heare what we'le urge.
This knight slew Burbon, this inforst you fly;
Therefore you hate them and for hate they die.
Since then true vertue is disfigured,
Desert trod downe, and their heroick worth
In justice doomd on Traytors merits Death,
Behold these two, which thousands could not daunt,
But your ingratitude, on bended knee
Yeeld up their swoords to bide your tyranny.
'Twas he kild Burbon; if you love him dead,
Shew it by paring off this valiant head:
Do you the like. To this revenge apace:
They feare not threats, and scorne to beg for grace.
_Lew_. And they shall find none.
_Nav_. Knights, tryumph in death:
We are your headesmen, kings shall stop your breath.
_They take off their helmets_.
_Lew_. Philip, my sonne!
_Nav_. Young Ferdinand my joy!
_Pem_. Call them not sonnes, whom you would fayne destroy.
_Nav_. Hold not our age too long in deepe suspect.
Art thou [my] Ferdinand?
_Lew_. And thou [my] Philip?
_Ferd_. We are the friendly sonnes of adverse parents,
Your long lost children: though supposed slayne,
We live and come to joy your age agayne.
_Nav_. Welcome all earthly blisse.
_Lew_. Welcome, deare child;
Thy presence halfe our sorrow hath exil'd.
_Pem_. How soon this Scene is changd! those that even now
Were sworne warres servants now to peace do bow:
Then, Pembrooke, strive to make their joys more full.
See, kingly father to that princely sonne,
Pembrooke, the hated murderer of his friend,
Pembrooke, that did devide thee from his sight
And cut so many passages of death
In his indeared bosome, humbly thus
Forgets his honour and from your hye hand
Invokes revenge for wounding Ferdinand.
_Ferd_. Still he surmounts me in an honour'd love.
Rise, friend, or if thou striv'st to have the world,
In me as in a glasse see a false friend.
Behold, I kneele and here proclayme to all
My friendship's broke but thine substantiall.
_Nav_. Model of vertue, honord Pembroks Earle,
Rise in as deare regard as Ferdinand.
Oh had I Bellamira once in hold,
Age would turne youth & I should ne're be old.
_Lew_. Had I my Katharina once agayne
Our joy were then stretcht to the highest strayne:
But she was ravisht and then murthered.
_Phil_. Beare not that hard opinion: Rodoricks toung
Slaundred that Prince and did his vertue wrong.
_Pem_. Lewis of Fraunce, heare what an English Earle
Speaks in the front and view of all thy Host.
If ever Ferdinand staynd Katharines honour
I was a party: yet in all your Campe
Who dares step forth and call me ravisher?
No, Fraunce: know Pembroke is an Englishman
Highly deriv'd, yet higher in my thoughts;
And for to register mine acts in brasse,
Which all-devouring time shall ne're race out,
Have I through all the Courts of Christendome
In knightly tryall prov'd my vertue sound,
Raisd England's fame aloft; and shall I now
In her next continent, her neighbour Realme,
Fraunce, on whose bosome I may stand and see
That blessed soyle that bred and fostred me,
Soyle all my late got honour to consent
Unto a royall Princes ravishment?
Ide sooner from a mountayne cast my selfe,
Or from a hungry Lyon teare his prey,
Then dare to act a deed so infamous.
_Enter Katharina_.
But words are ayre. Lewis, behold this face:
This prooves our honour cleere from all disgrace.
_Lew_. My Katharine!
_Phil_. My deare Sister!
_Fer_. My fayre Love!
_Pem_. See, Princes, loves effect: she flies your hand
To live imbrac't with her deare Ferdinand.
_Lew_. And heaven forbid that we should sunder them.
Navar, reach me thy hand: grym war is fled
And peace shall end the same in a nuptiall bed.
Sonne Philip, ratify your sisters choyce.
_Phil_. Even with my soule; for ever live you blest.
Oh, Bellamira, had not cursed Burbon
For beauty robd thy cheeks with leprosie,
Hadst then but stayd with me, as is their state,
So had bin mine, happy and fortunate.
_Enter Clowne attyred like a Gentleman, Bellamira
following with a Scarfe on her face_.
_Clow_. By your leave, sweet blouds: may a Gentleman or so deceyve two
or three ounces of words in this assembly?
_Lew_. You may.
_Clow_. Is there not a young Kings sonne amongst you, who treading the
steps of his father is called Philip.
_Phil_. I am the man thou seekst.
_Clow_. Then the old saying is verified, He that seeks shall find. Heere
is a poore kinswoman of mine would desire some private conference with
you, or so.
_Phil_. With me?--whom see I? Bellamira!
_Nav_. Daughter!
_Phil_. Do not deride my woes; speake, speake, I pray.
_Pem_. Looke not so strange; it is thy lovely Love
Thus manag'd to approve thy constancy.
Embrace her then: and now Navar and Fraunce,
Here end our strife and let all hatred fall
And turne this warre to Hymens festivall.
_Nav_. This Pembrooks counsell we subscribe unto.
_Lew_. The like doth Fraunce. Lovers, imbrace your loves
And, Captaines, joyne your bands; mix power with power
And let those swords, which late were drawne for death,
Sleepe in their sheaths. You, worthy Pembrooke[155],
And all your followers, shall receyve our favours
In plenteous largesse. So, set on to Court;
Sound Drums and Trumpets, deafe the ayre with cryes,
And fill eche subjects heart with joyes increase
T'applaud our childrens love and this dayes peace.
[_Exeunt_.
FINIS.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 4tos. _Will_.
[2] References to the lapwing's subtlety are very common. Cf. Shakesp.,
_Measure for Measure_, i. 4, 32, &c.
[3] An old game at cards; it is supposed to have resembled cribbage.
[4] "To make ready," meaning "to dress," is a very common expression in
old authors.
[5] An obvious reference to Queen Elizabeth.
[6] So Elbow:--"My wife, Sir, whom I _detest_ before heaven and your
honour," &c. (_M. for M_., II. 1).
[7] Ovid, Metamorph. I. 1.
[8] People who walk with _mincing_ steps. I have not met the word
elsewhere. (Cf. dancitive, p. 31.)
[9] A beggar (Ital. besogno) Vid. Dyce's Glossary under "Besonian".
[10] "Knight of the post" was the name given to those who gained their
living by giving false evidence at law-courts. Nares quotes from Nash's
"Pierce Pennilesse":--"A knight of the post, quoth he, for so I am
tearmed: a fellow that will swear any thing for twelve pence."
[11] Cf. Lear, iii. 2. _Vaunt-curriors_ to oak-cleaving thunder-bolts.
(First folio.)
[12] "Division" was a technical term in music for "the running a simple
strain into a great variety of shorter notes to the same modulation"
(Nares). The "plain song" was the simple air without variations.
[13] Sir Thomas Overbury says, in his character of 'A very woman,' that
'her lightnesse gets her to swim at top of the table, where her wee
little finger bewraies carving'.
[14] 4tos. Ladies.
[15] 4tos. Eternesses.
[16] To do anything with 'a wet finger' is to do it easily. 'It seems
not very improbable that it alluded to the vulgar and very inelegant
custom of wetting the finger to turn over a book with more
ease.'--_Nares_.
[17] Ov. Metam. I., ll. 322-23.
[18] Ed. 1606, one; ed. 1636, on.
[19] The 1606 ed. marks "Exit" Penelope.
[20] Here Momford retires to the back of the stage, where Clarence is
waiting. The 4tos. mark "Exit." I thought the lines "_Mens est_," etc.,
were Horace's, but cannot find them. "Menternque" destroys sense and
metre. An obvious correction would be "et nomen."
[21] "_Falsus_ honos juvat, _et_ mendax infamia terret
Quem, nisi mendosum et medicandum."
Hor. Ep. l. 16, ll. 39, 40.
[22] A card that cools a player's courage (I. Hy. VI., v. 3, 1. 83, &c.).
[23] The "Family of Love" was the name given to a fanatical sect; David
George, of Delph (obiit 1556), was the founder.
[24] The reference is to the visit of the Marechal de Biron and his
suite in the autumn of 1601.
[25] 4tos. _Foul_.
[26] Pick-thatcht, ed. 1606.
[27] A term in card-playing; to "vie" was to cover a stake.
[28] The name of a famous bear. Cf. Epigrams by J. D.--
"Leaving old Plowden, Dyer and Brooke alone,
To see old Harry Hankes and Sacarson."
Master Slender ("Merry Wives," I. 1) told Anne Page: "I have seen
Sackarson loose twenty times and have taken him by the chain."
[29] 4tos. _King_.
[30] The reference is, I suppose, to Roger Bacon's "Libellus de
retardandis Senectutis accidentibus et de sensibus conservandis.
Oxoniae, 1590."
[31] Quy. inframed (F.G. Fleay).
[32] Ed. 1636, "state."
[33] Ed. 1636 makes sad work of the text here:--
"_Merry_ clad in inke,
Is but a _manner_" &c.
[34] Quy. thridlesse (sc. that cannot be pierced). Mr. Fleay suggests
"rimelesse."
[35] Ed. 1636 reads "antheame."
[36] "White-boy" was a common term of endearment for a favourite son.
[37] Quy., hot.
[38] i.e., companions.
[39] Doubtless the writer was thinking of Dogberry's "Comparisons are
odorous."
[40] A pun is intended. "Cast of merlins" = a flight of merlins (small
hawks); and "cast-of" = cast-off.
[41] "Foisting-hound." A small lap-dog with an evil smell, "Catellus
graveolens."
[42] The 'clap-dish' which beggars used to beat in order to attract the
attention of the charitable.
[43] Both quartos give "all."
[44] Ovid, Metam., I., 523.
[45] Ed. 1606: _Antevenit sortem moribus_.
[46] 4tos. weend.
[47] "That most lovely and fervid of all imaginative
panegyrics."--Swinburne's "Study of Shakespeare," p. 141.
[48] "Dr. Dodypoll" is a very rare play, to be found only in the
libraries of wealthy collectors. The copy in the library of the British
Museum is catalogued as "imperfect; wanting Sig. A 2"; but it
corresponds in all respects with Mr. Huth's. Perhaps an "Address to the
Reader," or a "Dedication" was cancelled.
[49] Before the reader goes further, let him turn to Sonnet xvii. in Mr.
Swinburne's series of "Sonnets on English Dramatic Poets."
[50] The author was doubtless thinking of _Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 2:--
"And when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine,
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun."
[51] 4to. Form.
[52] 4to. adorning. Possibly there is the same confusion in _Antony and
Cleopatra_, ii. 2:--"And made their bends adornings."
[53] See notes of the commentators on _Hamlet_, i. 1, 165, "Then no
planets strike."
[54] See the commentators on _As You Like It_, iii. 2. "I was never so
be-rhymed since Pythagoras's time that I was an Irish rat." A short time
ago the subject of "rhyming rats to death" was discussed anew in "Notes
and Queries."
[55] Qto. cockfromb in cony. The word "incony" (meaning sweet, delicate)
occurs twice in _Love's Labour Lost_. Its derivation is uncertain.
[56] 4to. With.
[57] This word is found in Holland's "Ammianus" and Harrington's
"Epigrams" (see Nares' "Glossary," ed. Halliwell). A similar compound
(of more common occurrence) is "smell-smock."
[58] The reader will remember the punning lines in 3 _Henry VI_.,
v. 1:--
"Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete,
That taught his son the office of a fowl!
And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd."
[59] 4to. Wilt it.
[60] 4to. _Flor_.
[61] A perfume-ball worn round the neck or carried in the pocket.
[62] The trials of the Scotch witches in 1590 (for practising to
shipwreck James VI. on his return with his bride from Denmark) were too
horrible to be soon forgotten.
[63] 4to Ape.
[64] Quy. cliffe.
[65] I suspect that we should read--
"What rock hath bred this savage-minded man
That such true love in such rare beautie _shuns_?"
[66] 4to. clime.
[67] Quy. lead.
[68] 4to. _Alp_.
[69] Vide note on vol. I, p. 117.
[70] The direction in the 4to is "_Enter Flores and Homer_!"
[71] Vide note [16].
[72] 4to. craines.
[73] Compare _Midsummer Nights Dream_, ii. 1, 15: "And hang a pearl on
every cowslip's ear."
[74] 4to. where.
[75] Not marked in the 4to.
[76] 4to. rake.
[77] 4to. Sorrowed tired.
[78] The 4to prints the lines thus:--
"Where since he found you not,
He asked of me the place of your abode,--
And heere I have brought him?"
In other passages I have restored the metre silently.
[79] Qto. visition.
[80] I regret to say that Mr. Fleay was misled by a mistake of mine. In
my first hasty reading of the play I took the long double "s" to be a
double "f": the character is "La Busse."
[81] Mr. C.H. Herford, to whom I showed the MS., writes as follows:--
"The first two words make it highly probable that the whole inscription
is, like them, in Italian. In that case the first two Greek letters give
very easily the word 'fidelta' (=_phi, delta_), which combines naturally
with the _nella_. The second part is more difficult, but perhaps not
hopeless. [Greek: fnr] may, perhaps be read _phi ny_ (as Latinised
spelling of [Greek: nu]), _ro_, or finiro. Then, for the 'La B.,' suppose
that the words form, as emblems often do, a rhymed couplet; then 'B.'
would stand for Belta, and naturally fall in with 'la.' The whole would
then read--
'_Nella fidelta_,
Finiro la Belta.
This does not seem to me very excellent Italian, but we need not suppose
the author was necessarily a good scholar; and in that case we might
extract from it the fairly good sense: 'I will make fidelity the end
(the accomplishment) of beauty.'" This explanation seems to me very
satisfactory.
["'La Bussa' suits my explanation as well as, if not better than 'La
Buffa.' The meaning now is, 'I will end my _task_ faithfully, with an
equivoque on 'I will end _La Busse_, or the play containing him as a
character, faithfully.' There is no shadow of reason for supposing a
rhyme, or for Field's thinking that any reader would interpret La B. by
_la belta_. Moreover no other name but Field's out of the 200 known
names of dramatic writers anterior to 1640, can be found in the letters.
There are other works of Field than those commonly attributed to him
still extant, as will be seen in a forthcoming paper of mine."
--F.G. FLEAY.]
[82] So the MS., but I suspect that we should read "ruyne," which gives
better sense and better metre.
[83] The next line, as in many instances, has been cut away at the foot
of the page.
[84] "The _close contriver_ of all harms."--Macbeth, iii. 5.
[85] "The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his _uneffectual fire_."--Hamlet, i. 5.
[86] "Blacke and blewe," i.e., first as a kitchen-drudge and afterwards
as a personal attendant. Blue was the livery of serving-men.
[87] It is not always easy to distinguish between final "s" and "e" in
the MS. I printed "blesseing_e_" in the Appendix to vol. II.
[88] Devices on shields.
[89] A baser sort of hawk (kestrel).
[90] A word before or after "thys" seems wanted to complete the line:
"yet, _Richard_, thys;" or, "yet thys disgrace."