NOTES

II. i. p. 53. Widow Dido.-Elissa, surnamed Dido, founded Carthage and became its queen; but Sebastian refers to her when, according to Virgil, she had lost the "wandering Trojan (whom he sarcastically calls widower Eneas") by his desertion of her and not by death.

66

II. i. p. 54. Ay. This is addressed to Adrian by Gonzalo in confirmation of his assurance that Tunis was Carthage. The speakers are arranged in two separate groups; Gonzalo engaged with King Alonso and the rest, while Sebastian and Antonio remain apart commenting satirically on the others.

II. i. p. 55. Who hath cause to wet the grief on't. -She whose "banishment " might well cause you to

weep.

II. i. p. 61. Beyond man's life.-Probably, beyond the length of a man's life-viz. 70 leagues (years).

II. i. p. 72. Dropped from Heaven.-It is recorded that the Indians of the island of St. Salvador, when first discovered, asked Columbus and his companions by signs whether they were not from the sky.

III. i. p. 75. Most busy lest when I do it. The difficulty here arises only from the printer separating lest from busy. 66 "By these sweet thoughts I am in reality refreshed when I am most actively engaged." Busylest is our "busiliest"; the double superlative and comparative were frequent in early times. It them, my labours or work. It was used as pronoun for a plural substantive; see an instance in the first side-note to los socorros, on p. 59 of John Minshin's Spanish Dialogues and Grammar, 1599: "Succors or lendings which they give souldiers when

there is no paie, and when the paie comes they take it off," where it stands for the "succors or lendings," and is so used by a well-known dictionary-maker and grammarian.-F. J. F.

III. ii. p. 86. The picture of Nobody.-Probably referring to the print of a man having only head, arms, and legs-the "Nobody" of a comedy entitled Nobody and Somebody, 1600. Several similar "pictures were known both in print and as ale-house signs.

III. iii. p. 89. Praise in departing.-A proverbial phrase, meaning: "Withhold your praise until the entertainment is over. ""

III. iii. p. 90. Putter-out of five for one.Adventurous traveller; referring to the custom of investing a sum of money, before setting forth upon a hazardous journey, on an agreement either for the exorbitant interest of "five for one " in the event of the traveller's safe return, or relinquishment of all claim if he was lost. See Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, II. i. Puntorvolo proposes to " I put forth some five thousand pounds to be paid me five for one, upon the return of myself, my wife, and my dog from the Turk's court at Constantinople."

IV. i. p. 97. Banks with pioned and twilled brims. -No certain explanation of these words has yet been obtained. A great deal of circumstantial evidence sup

"

ports the interpretation, "river banks overgrown with peonies and rushes" ("piony" being the old spelling of peony," thus spelt, and referred to as an April flower, by Bacon). For " twilled," "lilied " is the most favoured emendation, as suiting the context, "To make cold nymphs chaste crowns. But "Which spongy April at thy hest betrims " implies that the banks are pioned and twilled" before April "betrims " them, and therefore probably refers to the digging and banking of irrigation trenches through arable land, the banks of which will blossom forth with all kinds of verdure and wild flowers under the influence of "spongy April."

IV. i. pp. 101-2. These our actors, etc.-Steevens first drew attention to the following passage from The

Tragedy of Darius, by W. Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, published in 1603, which may have suggested Prospero's speech :

"Let greatnesse of her glascie sceptres vaunt;

Not sceptres, no, but reeds, soone bruis'd, soone broken:
And let this worldlie pomp our wits inchant.

All fades and scarcelie leaves behind a token.

Those golden pallaces, those gorgeous halles,
With fourniture superfluously faire :

Those statelie courts, those sky-encountering walles
Evanish all like vapours in the aire."

IV. i. p. 105. O King Stephano!-Alluding to the old ballad, "Take thy old cloak about thee," quoted by Iago in Othello (II. iii. p. 72) :

:

"King Stephen was a worthy peer,
His breeches cost him but a crown;
He held them sixpence all too dear,
With that he called the tailor lown.
"He was a wight of high renown,

And thou art but of low degree:

'Tis pride that pulls the country down;
Then take thine auld cloak about thee."

IV. i. p. 106.

Barnacles. In Butler's Hudibras

occur the lines:

"And from the most refin'd of saints,

As naturally grow miscreants,

As barnacles turn Soland geese

In th' islands of the Orcades."

IV. i. p. 112. "Under the blossom that hangs on the bough."-The following occurs in Fairfax's Tasso, Book IV., stanza 18::

"The goblins, fairies, fiends, and furies mad,
Ranged in flowrie dales, and mountains hore,
And under everie trembling leafe they sit."