THE ENGLISH TRAVELLER FOOTNOTES.
[1] Histrio-Mastix by William Prynne: published in 1633. The full title of this bitter Puritan treatise was Histrio-Mastix, the Player’s Scourge, or Actor’s Tragædie.
[2] censure judge.
[3] censure judgment.
[4] where i.e. whereas.
[5] jack which made the spit turn; it had been recently introduced.
[6] buttery hatch a term still used in the Universities.
[7] speck ... whig a species of inferior drink, made from whey, and drunk by the lower classes in place of small beer. The exact nature of “speck” is unknown.
[8] indenture bond.
[9] burnt wine burnt wine, it will be remembered, was much affected by Pepys.
[10] consort i.e., concert.
[11] reaks pranks.
[12] lanching i.e., lancing.
[13] soul the dark spongy substance inside a fowl’s back.—Halliwell.
[14] shrewd sharp or bitter.
[15] alfarez ensigns (Spanish).
[16] rebellings i.e. ravelins (Sp. rebellin).
[17] possess inform.
[18] novel i.e. novelty.
[19] “This piece of pleasant exaggeration gave rise to the title of Cowley’s Latin play, Naufragium Joculare, and furnished the idea of the best scene in it.”—Charles Lamb.
[20] atone make up, appease.
[21] bill a kind of halbert, carried by the watchmen of the period.
[22] Bermoothes “Bermoothes” is the usual form of “Bermudas” in the old dramatists.
[23] durance confinement.
[24] prodigious i.e. portentous.
[25] countervail counterbalance.
[26] break their day fail to pay at the appointed time.
[27] use interest.
[28] grange the word seems to have implied “loneliness.”
[29] happiness good fortune.
[30] motion proposal.
[31] singularity singleness.
[32] mechal adulterous.
[33] private me no privates like Shakespeare’s “but me no buts.”
[34] attach charge with.
[35] bottle bundle; Cotgrave has: “boteler, to botle or bundle up, to make into botles or bundles.”
[36] Privy i.e. Privy Council.
[37] disable disparage.
[38] picked pitched.
[39] mainprize a technical term: a writ of mainprize was sent to the sheriff, directing him to take sureties for a prisoner.
[40] shrievalty it was customary for the sheriff to have posts in front of his house, to which notices were affixed.
[41] Chavelah? the clown’s form of the French phrase qui va là?
[42] banquet i.e. a dessert.
[43] whilst I find something to say to this he refers to the bottle.
[44] orators this must be taken as a verb.
[45] no quarrels to unkindness no quarrels are so bitter as those caused by unkindness.
[46] goes in at one door, and comes out at another the old stage was wanting in moveable scenery. The audience had to suppose that when Young Geraldine re-entered, he was outside Mistress Wincott’s chamber.
[47] tester a sixpence.
[48] rot-gut cheap ale.
[49] fox you all make you all drunk.
[50] like brave Orlando alluding to “Orlando Furioso.”
[51] gullery trickery.
[52] withdraw the old edition adds “behind the arras.”
[53] windings and indents schemes, shifts.
[54] piece gun.
[55] Fortune play-house the first theatre of this name, built by Henslowe and Alleyn, was burnt down in 1621: another theatre was erected on the site in 1622, and in old views of the latter a rudely carved figure, presumably of Fortune, is noticeable on the front of the house.—(See frontispiece to Dekker’s Plays in this series.)
[56] voted i.e. chosen.
[57] green rushes with which floors were usually covered by way of carpet.
[58] fear ? sin.
[59] presently immediately.
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