oubt right in thinking that the expression is a corruption
of _sewster's_ thread. In Ford's _Lady's Trial_, Gifford altered
"sister's thread" to "_silver_ thread." Shirley has "sister's thread" in
_Hyde Park_ (V. 1).

[270] With this abuse cf. a very similar passage in Shirley's _Duke's
Mistress_ (IV. 1).

[271] The _Woman Hater_ in Beaumont and Fletcher's play.

[272] "Canaries" was the name of a quick, lively dance. Cf. Middlemen's
_Spanish Gipsy_ (IV. 2): "Fortune's a scurvy whore if she makes not my
head sound like a rattle and my heels dance the canaries."

[273] Cf. a similar passage in Shirley's _Brothers_ (iii. 1).

[274] In Sidney's _Arcadia_.

[275] Cf. Jonson's _Every Man out of his Humour_, II. 1: "They say
there's a new motion of the city of _Niniveh_ with _Jonas_ and the whale
to be seen at _Fleet bridge_." (A _motion_, of course, is a puppet-show.)

[276] This line occurs, word for word, in Shirley's _Bird in a Cage_
(IV. 1):--

... "A bird to be made much on. She and the horse
_That snorts at Spain by an instinct of nature_
Should have shown tricks together."

[277] An allusion to the game of "barley-break."

[278] In the MS. the speaker's name is omitted. I have chosen
_Courtwell_ at a venture.

[279] _Holland's Leaguer_ was the name of a notorious brothel in
Southwark.

[280] _The Tell-Tale_. Through the courtesy of the Master, Dr. Carver, I
have had an opportunity of examining this play. It is of no particular
interest. The comic part is very poor, suggesting William Rowley at his
worst. Here are some fair lines, the best I can find:--

_Fide[lio]_. How? dead in prison?

_Duke_. Dead, _Fidelio_:
Things of theire nature, like [a] vipers brood,
Kill their owne parents. But having sett the Court
In some good order, my next busines
Ys thus disguis'd to overlooke the Camp;
For a rude army, like a plott of ground
Left to yt selfe, growes to a wildernes
Peopled with wolves & tigers, should not the prince
Like to a carefull gardner see yt fenct,
Waterd & weeded with industrious care,
That hee ithe time of pruning nether spare
Weeds for faire looks and painted bravery, nor
Cut downe good hearbs and serviceable for
Theire humble growth: the violet that is borne
Under a hedg outsmells the blossomd thorne
That dwells fare higher.

_Fide_. Yare full of goodnes & have layd out much
In provision for the w