d Pedro the Frenchman, or rather the _Gaul_,
according to Plutarch (though why he is called by the Spanish name of
Pedro, we know not), employed to murder Marius, swearing _Par le sang de
Dieu, Notre Dame_, and _Jesu_: and towards the close of the play, where
a couple of ludicrous characters are introduced, "to mollify the
vulgar," the "_Paul's steeple_ of honour" is talked of. Such
anachronisms, however gross, are common to all the dramatists of that
day. Shakespeare is notoriously full of them; and all must remember the
discussion between Hamlet and his friend regarding the children of
Paul's and of the Queen's chapel.

[141] Shakespeare and many other writers of the time use this form of
_fetch_: thus in "Henry V." act iii. sc. 1--

"On, on, you noble English,
Whose blood is _fet_ from fathers of war-proof."

[142] _Glozing_ and _flattering_ are synonymous: perhaps to _gloze_, or,
as it is sometimes spelt, to _glose_, is the same word as to _gloss_. It
is common in Milton in the sense that it bears in the text.

[143] [i.e., Pinky eyne or pink (small) eyes.] See Mr Steevens's note
on the song in "Anthony and Cleopatra," beginning--

"Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus, with _pink_ eyne."

[144] This incident is founded upon a passage in Plutarch's "Life of
Caius Marius," only in that author the man with the wine discloses where
Anthony is concealed to the drawer, of whom he gets the wine, and not to
the soldiers.

[145] The meaning of to _assoil_ is to absolve (see note 4 to "The
Adventurers of Five Hours"), from the Latin _absolvere_; but here it
signifies to _resolve_ or _remove_ doubts. Thus in a passage quoted by
Mr Todd--

"For the _assoiling_ of this difficulty, I lay down these three
propositions."--Mede, _Rev. of God's House_.

The word is frequently to be met with in Spenser in the sense of to
discharge, or set free.

[146] In _doly_ season is in melancholy or wintry season: an adjective
formed from _dole_, and with the same meaning as _doleful_.

[147] The death of Anthony is thus related in North's Plutarch, "Life of
Marius"--

"But he (Marius) sent Annius one of his captaines thither ... and when
they were come to the house which the drawer had brought them to, Annius
taried beneath at the doore, and the souldiers went up the staiers into
the chamber, and finding Anthonie there, they began to encourage one
another to kill him, not one of them hav