r pleasure."

[248] Sc. swaggering.

[249] A Chrisome child was one that died within a month after birth, at
the time of wearing the Chrisome cloth (i.e. the cloth formerly wrapt
round a child after baptism). Device implies that his rival is perfectly
helpless among ladies, a mere child.

[250] "In the City of London," says Nares, "young freemen who march at
the head of their proper companies on the lord mayor's day, sometimes
with flags, were called _whifflers_ or _bachelor whifflers_, not because
they cleared the way but because they went first as whifflers did.--'I
look'd the next Lord Mayor's day to see you o' the livery, or one of the
_bachelor_ whifflers. _City Match_.'"

[251] These words are scored through in the MS.

[252] To "bear a brain" means to have understanding. The expression is
very common.

[253] Not marked in the MS.

[254] The earliest reference I have yet found to the "Cup at
_Newmarket_" is in Shirley's _Hyde Park_, v. 1.

[255] The exact date of his death is unknown; he was dead before the
performance of Ben Jonson's _Bartholomew Fair_ (1614).

[256] "Merlin. The _falco aesalon_ of Linnaeus, a small species of hawk;
sometimes corrupted into murleon. It was chiefly used to fly at small
birds, and Latham says it was particularly appropriated to the service
of ladies."--Nares.

[257] Thomas Heywood gives an account of the "great ship" in his "True
description of his Majesties Royall Ship built this yeare 1637 at
Wool-witch in Kent," &c. 1637. 4to.

[258] "Back side" = back yard.

[259] A wild cat.

[260] This scene was added, as an afterthought, at the end of the MS. In
the body of the MS. we find only "_A song ith taverne. Enter Thomas_."

[261] The stage direction is my own.

[262] All that I know at present of Mr. Adson is that he published in
1621 a collection of "Courtly Masquing Ayres."

[263] A corruption of "_save-reverence_": we usually find the form
"sir-reverence."

[264] i.e. drunk.

[265] An allusion to Webster's "_Vittoria Coromborea, or the White
Devil_."

[266] Not marked in MS. We have, instead, a note:--

_"And then begin as was intended."_

[267] Old authors constantly allude to the riotous conduct of the
'prentices on Shrove Tuesday.

[268] This is a correction (in the MS.) for "to a Beggars tune."

[269] So in Dekker & Middleton's _First Part of the Honest Whore_
(IV. 3):--

"_A sister's thread_ i' faith had been enough."

Dyce was no d