[94] i.e., star.

[95] “Brawl” was the name of a dance.

[96] Old terms in the art of fencing.

[97] In Halliwell’s “Nares” two instances of the transitive use of stoop ("to lower, humiliate”) are given, and both are from Chapman.

[98] On the upper stage, a balcony raised a few feet from the ground.  Cf. stage-direction in Day’s Humour out of Breath, iv. 3. “Enter Aspero, like Hortensio, Florimell, and Assistance on the upper stage.”  Later in the same scene:  “They renew Blind mans Buff on the Lower stage.”  See also Dyce’s note on Middleton’s Family of Love, i. 3.

[99] A correction in the MS. for Musquett.

[100] In the Appendix to Vol.  II.  I printed “misse”; and so one would naturally read the word before becoming thoroughly acquainted with the handwriting.

[101] The words “so begett” are repeated in the MS.

[102] i.e. prisons.

[103] MS. good.

[104] The expression “Fool’s paradise” was common long before Milton used it.  A writer in Notes and Queries (Jan. 7, 1882) gives instances of its occurrence in Udall’s “Apophthegmes of Erasmus,” 1542.  I have met it in Bullein’s “Dialogue against the Fever Pestilence,” 1564.

[105] For the spelling cf., Vol. ii. pp. 139 (l. 14), 179 (l. 12).  “Diety” for “deity” is not uncommon in print as well as MS.; cf., Saltonstall’s translation of Ovid’s “Ars Amoris,” 1639, p. 14:—­

    “Oft pray’d she to the gods, but all in vaine,
    To appease their Dieties with blood of beasts thus slaine.”

[106] In the MS. these lines are scored through.

[107] The juxtaposition of this anagram with the preceding motto (which did not appear in the Appendix to Vol. ii.) strongly confirms my interpretation of La B. as la bussa; for the anagram is a kind of paraphrase on the motto, and should be read doubly in this way:  Nataniele Field, il fabro, Nella fidelta finiro la Bussa.  I, Nathaniel Field, the author will finish the work (terminat auctor opus) faithfully (i.e., at the time appointed, terminat hora diem).  —­F.G.  Fleay.

["Terminat hora” &c. or some similar tag, is frequently found at the end of old plays.  I cannot see that Mr. Fleay’s interpretation is strongly confirmed,—­or affected at all,—­by the presence of the motto.]

[108] See Henslowe’s Diary, ed.  Collier, p. 220:—­“Lent unto Thomas Downton the 4 of maye 1602 to bye a boocke of harye Cheattell and Mr. Smyth called the Love partes frenship the some of” ... ...

[109] King John, i. 2.—­“And now instead of bullets wrapt in fire.”

[110] Another form of the apologetical expression “save-reverence.”

[111] i.e. cheated, cozened.

[112] An echo from “King John,” I. 2:—­

    “And now instead of bullets wrapt in fire
    To make a shaking fever of your walls,” &c.