[172] ‘Stavesucre’ (said to be a corruption of [Greek:  staphis]. and usually written ‘Staves-acre’) a kind of lark-spur considered efficacious in destroying lice.  Cf.  Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus (i. 4)—­ ’Stavesacre? that’s good to kill vermin; then belike, if I serve you, I shall be lousy.’

[173] Quy. early-rioting.

[174] Ought we to read ‘fins’?  Webster (Duchess of Malfi, ii. 1) has the expression the ‘fins of her eye-lids’; it is found also in the Malcontent (i. 1), The confusion between the ‘f’ and the long ‘s’ is very common.

[175] Shakespeare uses the verb ‘fang’ (Timon of Athens, iv. 3) in the sense of ‘seize, clutch.’

[176] Varlet—­’the serjeant-at-mace to the city counters was so called,’ Halliwell (who, however, gives no instance of this use).

[177] ‘Trunk-hose’ wide breeches stuffed with wool, &c.

[178] I can make nothing of this verse:  the obscurity is not at all removed by putting a comma after ‘rules.’  Doubtless the passage is corrupt.

[179] Our rest we set in pleasing, &c., i.e., we have made up our mind to please.  The metaphor is taken from primero (a game, seemingly, not unlike the Yankee ’poker’), where to ‘set up rest’ meant to stand on one’s cards; but the expression was also used in a military sense.  Vid:  Furness’ Variorum Shakesp., Rom. & Iul., iv. 5.

[180] In Vol.  IX. of the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society is an elaborate paper (since reprinted for private circulation) by the Rev. F.G.  Fleay ‘On the Actor Lists, 1538-1642.’  The learned writer tells us nothing new about Samuel Rowley; but his essay well deserves a careful study.

[181] Quy. a fury’s face.

[182] ’Lacrymae’—­one of the many allusions to John Dowland’s musical work of that name.

[183] ‘Laugh and lay down’ (more usually written ‘lie down’) was the name of a game at cards.  A prose-tract by ‘C.T.,’ published in 1605, is entitled ‘Laugh and Lie Down:  or the World’s Folly.’  The expression, it need hardly be said, is often used in a wanton sense.

[184] 4to. joyes.

[185] Quy. prove.

[186] Much of this scene is found, almost word for word, in colloquy 4 of John Day’s Parliament of Bees.

[187] One of the characters in the New Inn is Fly, ’the Parasite of the Inn’; and in the Virgin Martyr (ii. 2) we also find the word ‘fly’ used (like Lat. musca) for an inquisitive person.  In the text I suspect we should read ‘fly-about’ for flye-boat.

[188] ‘Blacke gard’ was the name given to the lowest drudges who rode amongst the pots and pans in royal processions:  vid.  Gifford’s Jonson, II. 169.

[189] The compositor seems to have been dozing:  the word ‘Vaw’ points to the reading ‘Vaward,’ and probably the passage ran—­’this the Vaward, this the Rearward.’