Chapter M: MUMBL. I warrant, ye shall be sure

FOOTNOTES:

[38] One of the names of the devil in old morals.
--_W. D. Cooper._

[39] [Sheet-anchor.]

[40] Impudently vaunting and boasting.

"You preserve
A race of idle people here about you,
_Facers_ and talkers.--_Maids Tragedy_, Act iv., sc. 2.
--_W. D. Cooper._

[41] In all probability an alteration to mean Elizabeth, in whose
reign the play was printed; for in act iii., sc. 4, M. Merrygreek
talks of the "arms of Calais"; and so does R. Roister, act iv., sc. 7.
Calais was lost in 5th Mary, and the play was quoted by Wilson in
1551, when Edward was on the throne.--_W. D. Cooper._

[42] [Affirm, agree to it.]

[43] [_i.e._, His own white son.] _White boy_ is a common expression
of endearment in old plays, and to this day white-headed boy is an
expression of fondness in Ireland, though the locks of the individual
to whom it is applied may be "black as the raven's plume."--_W. D.
Cooper._

[44] [Or glombing, _i.e._, louring. See Halliwell _v. Glombe_.]

[45] Voice.

"I syng not musycall,
For my _brest_ is decayd."

--_Armonye of Byrdes._

Halliwell's "Archaic and Provincial Words."--_W. D. Cooper._

[46] [In danger of debt, _i.e._ in the power of any man on account of
debt.]

[47] [_i.e._ Let _them_ consider how, &c.]

[48] [_i.e._ By God's arms.]

[49] [I warrant you, as far as madness is concerned. Mr Cooper
proposed to read _from mad_; but the alteration appears to me
unnecessary.]

[50] [Fortunes are always exaggerated.]

[51] [Nearer.]

[52] This was a proverbial expression. See Heywood's "Proverbs" and
"Taming of the Shrew," act ii., sc. I. _Backare_ probably means _Back
there!_ or _Go back!_--_Cooper._ [The meaning is, clearly enough, that
Gawin Goodluck must retreat from his courtship.]

[53] Your mastership.--_Cooper._

[54] Quotha.

[55] Some of these are the heroes of romances.--_Cooper._

[56] [A creature of the same country. _Aly_ seems here to be the same
as _alyche_. See Halliwell, _v. v. alyche_ and _alye_.]

[57] _Tertius e coelo cecidit Cato._ Juv., _Sat._ ii.,
40.--_Cooper._

[58] [Kindred, parentages.]

[59] I give thee thanks.--_Cooper._

[60] Feats or deeds, from the Latin _factum_, "And rattle forth his
_facts_ of war and blood."--Marlowe's "Tamburlaine the Great," Part
I., 1590.--_Cooper._

[61] [This word has escaped Nares and others. But it is merely a
colloquialism for _love_, and is in that sense still in familiar use.]

[62] [Guessed.]

[63] The word "here," which is not in the original, seems necessary to
complete the metre and rhyme.--_Cooper._

[64] Jack Mumblecrust is the name of one of the beggars who dine with
Sir Owen Meredith: "Peace! hear my lady. Jack Mumblecrust steal no
more penny loaves."--_Patient Grissel_, act iv., sc. 3. It is also a
name given to the widow Minever by Captain Tucca in Dekker's
"Satiromastix." Madge Mumblecrust is mentioned in the MS. comedy of
"Misogonus," 1577.--_Cooper._

[65] Scolding. "_Whur_, to snarl like a dog."--_Bailey._

[66] "Soft fier makes swet malt"; see "The Marriage of Wit and
Wisdom," edited by Halliwell, p. 13.--_Cooper._

[67] [The throat, which we still familiarly term _red lane_.]

[68] Songs introduced in our old plays are often not found in the
printed copies. Some of those in this piece, are, however, given at
the end, and others are introduced in the body of the play. In the
above instance, perhaps, only an air was to be hummed.--_Cooper._

[69] The terms _Sirrah_ and _Sir_ appear to have been frequently
applied indifferently both to male and female. In Whetstone's "Promos
and Cassandra," 1578, Grymball says to his mistress--

"Ah, _syr_, you woulde belike let my cocke-sparrowes go."--_Cooper._

[70] A corruption of the sacred name.

[71] Scolded. It sometimes means _ruined_ or _destroyed_.--_Cooper._

[72] [This song is quoted in "A Pore Helpe," probably printed many
years before "Ralph Roister Doister." See Hazlitt's "Popular Poetry,"
ii., 260. It therefore seems likely that in this, as in other cases,
Udall introduced a song popular at the time, and the composition of
some one else.]

[73] _i.e._, "I had not so much, I wot not when: never since I was
born, I ween." She here speaks a rustic dialect.--_Cooper._

[74] Her re-entrance is not marked.--_Cooper._

[75] [Orig. reads, _what_.]

[76] Joke.--_Borde_, _bourd_, or _boord_, as the word is spelled by
Spenser, means a jest or sport; from the French _Bourde_--

"Of old adventures that fell white,
And some of _bourdes_ and ribaudry."

--_Lay le Freine._ See _Toone's Glossary_.--_Cooper._

[77] Seriously whispering--

"And in his ear him _rounded_ close behind."
--_Faerie Queene_, Book iii., Canto 10.--_Cooper._

[78] [Apparently intentional nonsense for _nobis miscebetur
miserere_.]

[79] [For _make_.]

[80] God's wounds.

[81] _Music._ So often used of old.--_Cooper._

[82] A copse or bush. See "Tempest," act iv., sc. 1.

"And every _bosky_ bourn from side to side."--_Milton._

--_Cooper._

[83] [Appearance, _quasi_ semblety, semblance.]

[84] [Should we not read _fute_? See Halliwell in _v_.]

[85] See the second song at the end of the play.--_Cooper._

[86] The word _spouse_ is here used for _betrothed lover_.--_Cooper._

ACTUS II., SCÆNA I.[88]

DOBINET DOUGHTY.