like a rush.= An allusion to the custom, still prevalent in
Chapman's time, of strewing floors with rushes.

=25=, 178-79. =of the place The divers frames.= An obscure expression,
which may mean: the varied character in different places of the bed of
the sea.

=25=, 180-83. =Bristled . . . fome.= The imagery in these lines also
presents difficulty. D'Ambois's heart is likened to the sea, which,
once swollen into billows, will not sink into its original calm till it
is overspread by the crown or sheet of foam which the waves, after their
subsidence, leave behind.

=25=, 184. =You have the mate.= Cf. textual note on I, 1, 153, and note
on =23=, 133, p. 148.

=26=, 208. =a blanquet.= To toss D'Ambois in, as is plain from l. 212.

=26=, 211. =carrie it cleane:= comes off easily superior.

=27=, 237-38. =Your descants . . . this ground.= There is a complicated
play on words here. _Descant_ in music is the melodious accompaniment to
a simple theme, the _plainsong_ or _ground_. Hence arises the derived
meaning, _a variation on any theme_, _a comment_, often of a censorious
kind. This, as well as the original meaning, is implied here, while
_ground_ has, of course, its usual as well as its technical sense.

=28=, 243-44. =Ile be your ghost to haunt you.= May this be an early
reference to Banquo's ghost? _Macbeth_ was probably produced in 1606,
the year before _Bussy D'Ambois_ was printed.

=28=, 261. =musk-cats:= _civet-cats_, and hence, _scented persons_,
_fops_.

=28=, 262. =this priviledge.= The royal presence-chamber, though the
King has left it, is still regarded as inviolable.

=29=. =Henry, Guise, Montsurry and Attendants.= The Qq of 1607 and 1608,
instead of _Montsurry and Attendants_, read _Beaumond, Nuncius_.
_Nuncius_ is a mistake, as he does not enter till after l. 24.
_Beaumond_ is evidently a courtier, who speaks ll. 105-107 (_Such a life
. . . of men_), and who goes out with the King after l. 206. In 1641 and
later Qq it was apparently thought desirable to leave out this
"single-speech" character and transfer his words to Montsurry; but by an
oversight _Beau._ was left prefixed to the second half of l. 105, and
the S. D., _Exit Rex cum Beau._, was retained after l. 206. The editor
has therefore substituted _Mont._ for _Beau._ in either case. Montsurry
being thus present at the pardon of Bussy, the 1641 and later Qq leave
out ll. 1-50 of the next Scene wherein _inter alia_ Montsurry speaks of
the pardo