FullReads

Nash. This reference was added in the second edition. See Arber’s reprint of Greene’s Menaphon, p. 17, or Gregory Smith, Elizabethan Critical Essays, i. 307, etc.

“Peele seems to have been taken into the patronage of the Earl of Northumberland about 1593, to whom he dedicates in that year, ‘ The Honour of the Garter, a poem gratulatorie–the firstling consecrated to his noble name.’–‘He was esteemed,’ says Anthony Wood, ‘a most noted poet, 1579; but when or where he died, I cannot tell, for so it is, and always always hath been, that most Poets die poor, and consequently obscurely, and a hard matter it is to trace them to their graves. Claruit, 1599.’ Ath. Oxon., vol. i., p. 300.–We had lately in a periodical pamphlet, called The Theatrical Review, a very curious letter, under the name of George Peele, to one Master Henrie Marle, relative to a dispute between Shakespeare and Alleyn, which was compromised by Ben. Jonson.–‘I never longed for thy companye more than last night; we were all verie merrie at the Globe, when Ned Alleyn did not scruple to affyrme pleasauntly to thy friende Will, that he had stolen hys speeche about the excellencie of acting in Hamlet hys tragedye, from conversaytions manifold, whych had passed between them, and opinions gyven by Alleyn touchyng that subjecte. Shakespeare did not take this talk in good sorte; but Jonson did put an end to the stryfe wyth wittielie saying, thys affaire needeth no contentione; you stole it from Ned no doubte: do not marvel: haue you not seene hym acte tymes out of number?’–This is pretended to be printed from the original MS. dated 1600; which agrees well enough with Wood’s Claruit : but unluckily Peele was dead at least two years before. ‘As Anacreon died by the pot,’ says Meres, ‘so George Peele by the pox,’ Wit’s Treasury, 1598, p. 286″ (Farmer).

Constable in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Apparently a mistake for Much Ado.

207. two children. Susannah, Judith, and Hamnet were all born at Stratford. Judith and Hamnet were twins. Cf. p. 21 and note.

” cheers up himself with ends of verse. ” Butler, Hudibras, i. 3. 1011.

Wits, Fits, and Fancies. “By one Anthony Copley, 4to, black letter; it seems to have had many editions: perhaps the last was in 1614.–The first piece of this sort that I have met with was printed by T. Berthelet, tho’ not mentioned by Ames, called ‘Tales, and quicke answeres very mery and pleasant to rede.’ 4to, no date.” (Farmer).

208. Master Page, sit. 2 Henry IV., v. 3. 30.

Heywood. In the “To the Reader” prefixed to his Sixt Hundred of Epigrammes (Spenser Society reprint, 1867, p. 198).

Dekker. Vol. iii., p. 281 (ed. 1873).

Water-poet. See the Spenser Society reprint of the folio of 1630, p. 545.

Rivo, says the Drunkard. 1 Henry IV., ii. 4. 124.

209. What you will. Act ii., Sc. 1 (vol. i., p. 224, ed. 1856).

Love’s Labour Lost, iv. 1. 100. This paragraph was added in the second edition.

Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1. 73.

Heath. Revisal of Shakespear’s Text, p. 159. This quotation was added in the second edition.

Heywood. Epigrammes upon prouerbes, 194 (Spenser Soc. reprint, p. 158).