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24 Plays
15. Anabaptist. The sect arose in Germany in 1521. They rejected
infant baptism and required converts who joined their sect to be rebaptized
: hence their name. In this passage the word means little more
than Puritan. Deacon Ananias in The Alchemist (ii. iv. 20) is an Anabaptist.
18. briefly, soon. Conolanus, i. vi. 16, "Tis not a mile; briefly we
heard their drums'.
25. / can resolue you. E.M.I, i. v. 44.
38. o' the hinges, on the hinges- the reverse of 'off the hinges',
41. What is he, for a vicar? E.M.O. iii. v. 34 n., 'What is he, for
a creature ?'
iii. ii. 45. barber of prayers. 'Rabelais calls Friar John an excellent
estropier des Heures, and the author perhaps had this expression in
view' (Gifford). Apparently a misquotation: Rabelais describes Friar
John (i, ch. 27) as 'beau despescheur d'heures, beau desbndeur de
messes, brave descroteur de vigiles'.
62. Artemidorus, surnamed Daldianus, a Greek physician in the reign
of Hadrian, author of a work in five books on the interpretation of
dreams, he believed that dreams revealed the future.
In Dryden's Limber ham, v. i (Comedies, &c., 1701, ii, p. 144), Woodall
says ' A Pox of Artemidorus' when Mrs. Pleasance begins to tell a dream
about him.
67. cost me eighteen pounds. Though damask silk was expensive, the
price here seems exaggerated, unless the damask 'were embroidered
with gold, in which case four pounds a yard would not have been
unusual' (Lithicum, Costume in the Drama, p. 120).
71. wire. Prologue, 23 n.
73. to Ware. A place for assignations: cf. v. i. 64, B.F. iv. v. 38.
in. in. 4. you were put i' the head, made to think. The construction
in the passive is unusual.
29. giuen you the dor. A technical term in Court life and folly, illustrated
in C.R. v. 11 and v. iv. 506-15.
34 a sauer in the main. In the old game of Hazard the player called
a 'main' (any number from five to nine inclusive). He threw with two
dice. If he 'nicked', i.e. threw the 'mam', he won, if he threw aces or
deuce-ace, he lost. The game is minutely described in the Encyclopaedia
Bntannica, s.v. 'Hazard'. Jonson has 'to loose the maine', N.I. iv. iv.
342 cf. Daborne, A Christian turrid Turke, i. i (1612, B):
Alb. We came aboard to venture with you,
Deale Merchant-like, put it vpon one maine,
And throw at all.
58. told him his owne, told him the plain truth about himself, Dr.
Henry cites Field, Amends for Ladies, v. i. (1618, HI v ): ' I have the most
to doe to forbeare unmasking me, that I might tell him his owne, as
can be.'