amed (F.G. Fleay).

[32] Ed. 1636, "state."

[33] Ed. 1636 makes sad work of the text here:--

"_Merry_ clad in inke,
Is but a _manner_" &c.

[34] Quy. thridlesse (sc. that cannot be pierced). Mr. Fleay suggests
"rimelesse."

[35] Ed. 1636 reads "antheame."

[36] "White-boy" was a common term of endearment for a favourite son.

[37] Quy., hot.

[38] i.e., companions.

[39] Doubtless the writer was thinking of Dogberry's "Comparisons are
odorous."

[40] A pun is intended. "Cast of merlins" = a flight of merlins (small
hawks); and "cast-of" = cast-off.

[41] "Foisting-hound." A small lap-dog with an evil smell, "Catellus
graveolens."

[42] The 'clap-dish' which beggars used to beat in order to attract the
attention of the charitable.

[43] Both quartos give "all."

[44] Ovid, Metam., I., 523.

[45] Ed. 1606: _Antevenit sortem moribus_.

[46] 4tos. weend.

[47] "That most lovely and fervid of all imaginative
panegyrics."--Swinburne's "Study of Shakespeare," p. 141.

[48] "Dr. Dodypoll" is a very rare play, to be found only in the
libraries of wealthy collectors. The copy in the library of the British
Museum is catalogued as "imperfect; wanting Sig. A 2"; but it
corresponds in all respects with Mr. Huth's. Perhaps an "Address to the
Reader," or a "Dedication" was cancelled.

[49] Before the reader goes further, let him turn to Sonnet xvii. in Mr.
Swinburne's series of "Sonnets on English Dramatic Poets."

[50] The author was doubtless thinking of _Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 2:--

"And when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine,
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun."

[51] 4to. Form.

[52] 4to. adorning. Possibly there is the same confusion in _Antony and
Cleopatra_, ii. 2:--"And made their bends adornings."

[53] See notes of the commentators on _Hamlet_, i. 1, 165, "Then no
planets strike."

[54] See the commentators on _As You Like It_, iii. 2. "I was never so
be-rhymed since Pythagoras's time that I was an Irish rat." A short time
ago the subject of "rhyming rats to death" was discussed anew in "Notes
and Queries."

[55] Qto. cockfromb in cony. The word "incony" (meaning sweet, delicate)
occurs twice in _Love's Labour Lost_. Its derivation is uncertain.

[56] 4to. With.

[57] This word is found in Holland's "Ammianus" and