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Under-skinker, under tapster; II. iv. 26.

Uneven, embarrassing; I. i. 50. Unhandsome, indecent; I. iii. 44.

Unjointed, disjointed, incoherent; I. iii. 65.

Unjust, dishonest; IV. ii. 29. Unminded, unregarded; IV. iii. 58.

Unsorted, ill-chosen; II. iii. 13. Unsteadfast, unsteady; I. iii. 193.

Untaught, ill-mannered; I. iii.

43. Unwashed; "with u. hands," without waiting to

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wash

Wake, waking; III. i. 219. Want; "his present w.," the present want of him; IV. i. 44. Wanton, soft, luxurious; III. i. 214.

Ward, posture when on guard; II. iv. 209.

Wards, guards in fencing, postures of defence; I. ii. 198.

Warm, ease-loving; IV. ii. 18. Wasp-stung (So Quarto I; Quartos and Folios, "wasptongue" or wasptongued"; irritable as though stung by a wasp; I. iii. 236.

Watering, drinking; II. iv. 17. Wear, carry, bear (Folios, wore"); I. iii. 162.

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Well, rightly; IV. iii. 94. Well-beseeming, well becoming; I. i. 14.

Well-respected, ruled by reasonable considerations; IV. iii. 10.

Welsh hook; II. iv. 372. (Cp. the accompanying drawing.)

From a specimen preserved in Carnarvon Castle.

What! an exclamation of impatience; II. i. 3. Whereupon, wherefore; IV. iii.

42.

Which, who; III. i. 46.
Wild of Kent, weald of K.;
II. i. 59.

Wilful-blame, wilfully blameable; III. i. 177.

Wind, turn in this or that direction; IV. i. 109..

Witch, bewitch; IV. i. 110. Withal, with; II. iv. 552. Worship, honour, homage; III. ii. 151.

Wrung in the withers, pressed in the shoulders; II. i. 6.

Yedward, a familiar corruption of Edward, still used in some counties; I. ii. 142. Yet, even now; I. iii. 77. Younker, greenhorn; III. iii. 88.

Zeal, earnestness; IV. iii. 63.

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'Hostess, I forgive thee' (iii. 192.)

From the frontispiece to Wits, or Sports upon Sports, printed for Henry Marsh, 1662.

Critical Notes.

BY ISRAEL GOLLANCZ.

I. i. 5. No more the thirsty entrance of this soil,' etc.; Folio 4, 'entrails' for 'entrance'; Steevens, entrants'; Mason, 'Erinnys'; Malone compares Genesis iv. 11: "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand": ‘entrance' probably =‘the mouth of the earth or soil.'

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I. i. 28. now is twelve month old,' so Quartos 1, 2; Folios, 'is a twelve-month old'; Quartos 7, 8, ' is but twelve months old.'

I. i. 71. Mordake the Earl of Fife'; this was Murdach Stewart, not the son of Douglas, but the eldest son of Robert, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, third son of King Robert II." ('the' first supplied by Pope).

I. ii. 16. that wandering knight so fair, an allusion to 'El Donzel del Febo,' the Knight of the Sun,' whose adventures were translated from the Spanish:-" The First Part of the Mirrour of Princely deeds and Knighthood; Wherein is shewed the Wohthiness of the Knight of the Sunne and his brother Rosicleer.

Now newly translated out of Spanish into our vulgar English tongue, by M (argaret) T(iler)"; eight parts of the book were published between 1579 and 1601. Shirley alludes to the Knight in the Gamester (iii. 1) :—

"He has knocked the flower of chivalry, the very
Donzel del Phebo of the time."

I. ii. 45. Of Hybla,' reading of Quartos, omitted in Folios; 'my old lad of the castle'; probably a pun on the original name of Falstaff (cp. Preface).

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I. ii. 95, 96. For wisdom cries out in the street, and no man regards it'; an adaptation of Proverbs i. 20, omitted in Folios.

I. iii. 128. Albeit I make a hazard of my head'; the reading of Quartos; Folios, 'Although it be with hazard of my head!'

I. iii. 193. The unsteadfast footing of a spear,' probably an al

lusion to the practice of ancient heroes, e.g. Lancelot as in the annexed cut, to make a bridge by means of a sword or spear.

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I. iii. 201, etc. This rant of Hotspur has been compared with the similar sentiment put into the mouth of Eteocles by Euripides -"I will not disguise my thoughts; I would scale heaven; I would descend to the very entrails of the earth, if so be that by that price I could obtain a kingdom."

In The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Induction), Beaumont and Fletcher put these lines into the mouth of Ralph, the apprentice, "apparently with the design of raising a good-natured laugh at Shakespeare's expense" (Johnson).

I. iii. 253. when his

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age,' cp. Richard II. Act II. iii. 48, 9, as my fortune ripens with thy love, It shall be still thy true love's recompense.'

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II. i. 84. great oneyers,' probably a jocose term for 'great ones,' with perhaps a pun on owners'; various emendations have been proposed, e.g. 'oneraires,' 'moneyers,' 'seignors,' ' owners,' 'mynheers,'' overseers,' etc.

II. iii. 90. 'I'll break thy little finger, an ancient token of amorous dalliance, as Steevens has shown by quotations.

II. iv. 'Boar's-Head Tavern,' the original tavern in Eastcheap was burnt down in the great fire, but was subsequently rebuilt, and stood until 1757, when it was demolished. Goldsmith visited the tavern, and wrote of it enthusiastically in his Essays.

II. iv. 131. pitiful-hearted Titan,' so the early editions: Theobald suggested butter' for Titan,' and the emendation has been generally adopted.

II. iv. 134. here's lime in this sack,' cp. Sir Richard Hawkins' statement in his Voyages, that the Spanish sacks "for conservation are mingled with the lime in the making," and hence give

rise to "the stone, the dropsy, and infinite other distempers, not heard of before this wine came into frequent use."

II. iv. 144. I would I were a weaver'; weavers were good singers, especially of psalms, most of them being Calvinists who had fled from Flanders, to escape persecution.

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II. iv. 148. dagger of lath,' like that carried by the Vice in the old Morality plays.

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II. iv. 261. you elf-skin'; so the Quartos and Folios; Hanmer, 'cel-skin' (cp. 2 Henry IV. III. ii. 345); Johnson, 'elfkin.'

II. iv. 362. O, Glendower,' (?) perhaps we should read, ' Owen Glendower.'

II. iv. 413. King Cambyses' vein'; an allusion to a ranting play called 'A Lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of pleasant mirth, containing the Life of Cambises, King of Persia' (1570).

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II. iv. 427. The camomile, etc., cp. Lyly's Euphues (quoted by Farmer): Though the camomile the more it is trodden and pressed down, the more it spreadeth; yet the violet the oftener it is handled and touched, the sooner it withereth and decayeth.'

II. iv. 484. 'that reverend vice,' etc., alluding to the Vice of the Morality plays; 'Iniquity' and 'Vanity' were among the names given to the character, according to the particular 'Vice' held up to ridicule.

II. iv. 527.
II. iv. 534.

mad,' Folios 3, 4; the rest' made.'

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The devil on a fiddle stick,' a proverbial expression

denoting anything new and

strange, which may have originated in the Puritan dislike to music and dancing. Hence perhaps the common notion of fiends and witches riding on brooms as in accompanying illustration from an old chap-book.

II. iv. 563. Peto'; probably 'Poins,' according to Johnson; perhaps, the prefix in the MS. was simply 'P.' The Cambridge editors, however, remark that the formal ad

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dress is appropriate to Peto rather than to Poins.

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III. i. 150., etc. telling me of the moldwarp, cp. Legend of Glendour (stanza 23) in The Mirror for Magistrates, 1559:

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