[114] [A slight departure from Ovid.]

[115] To come off is equivalent to the modern expression to come down, to pay sauce, to pay dearly, &c.  In this sense Shakespeare uses the phrase in “Merry Wives of Windsor,” act iv. sc. 6.  The host says, “They [the Germans] shall have my horses, but I’ll make them pay, I’ll sauce them.  They have had my house a week at command; I have turned away my other guests.  They must come off; I’ll sauce them.”  An eminent critic says to come off is to go scot-free; and this not suiting the context, he bids us read, they must compt off, i.e., clear their reckoning.

[116] Old copy, Craboun.

[117] [Talons.]

[118] Gramercy:  great thanks, grand merci; or I thank ye, Je vous remercie.  In this sense it is constantly used by our first writers.  A very great critic pronounces it an obsolete expression of surprise, contracted from grant me mercy; and cites a passage in “Titus Andronicus” to illustrate his sense of it; but, it is presumed, that passage, when properly pointed, confirms the original acceptation—­

    CHIRON.  Demetrius, here’s the son of Lucius,
    He hath some message to deliver us.

    AARON.  Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.

    BOY.  My lords, with all the humbleness I may,
    I greet your honours from Andronicus—­
    And pray the Roman gods confound you both. [Aside.

    DEMETRIUS. Gramercy, lovely Lucius; what’s the news?

    BOY.  That you are both decipher’d (that’s the news)
    For villains mark’d with rape. [Aside] May it please you,
    My grandsire, well advis’d, hath sent by me
    The goodliest weapon of his armoury,
    To gratify your honourable youth,
    The hope of Rome:  for so he bid me say;
    And so I do, and with his gifts present
    Your lordships, that whenever you have need,
    You may be armed and appointed well. 
    And so I leave you both—­like bloody villains. [Aside.

—­Hanmer’s 2d edit., act iv. sc. 2. [The text is the same in Dyce’s 2d edit., vi. 326-7.]

[119] “Poetaster,” act v. sc. 3. [Gifford’s edit. ii. 524-5, and the note.]

[120] [So in the old copy Kemp is made, perhaps intentionally, to call Studioso.  See also infra, p. 198.]

[121] [See Kemp’s “Nine Daies Wonder,” edit.  Dyce, ix.]

[122] Sellenger’s round, corrupted from St Leger, a favourite dance with the common people.

[123] Old copy reads—­

    “As you part in kne

    KEMP.  You are at Cambridge still with sice kne,” &c.

The genuine reading, it is presumed, is restored to the text—­

    “As your part in cue.

    KEMP.  You are at Cambridge still with size cue,” &c.