Histories, i.e. plays.

Ho.

p. 255. "No ho with him"= no stopping him. Hobby-horses. p. 120. Toys, trash. Hockey. Seedcake distributed at harvest home.

Hooker. See p. 241.

Hopharlot or hapharlot. Coarse coverlet made of shreds.

Horn thimble. A thimble used by cut-purses.

Horse-lock. Padlock.

Huke. Cape, hooded cloak. Hull. To drift before a storm. Humour. Moistures of the body of any kind. Oddities of mind and disposition.

Imposition. Command. Indentures. Deeds, contracts. The scrivener drew up such contracts in duplicate on a single sheet of paper, the two copies being then severed (on the same principle as a tally) along a zigzag line. Hence "pair of indentures," and the origin of the word "indenture" itself. Infants. Boy actors. Ingle. p. 66. "An ingle to gold hat-bands"=a catamite to young bloods at the university. Interprets to the puppets, i.e.

does the talking in a puppet show. Irish. A game like backgammon.

Latitat. A writ which assumed the defendant to be lying concealed and summoned him to the King's Bench.

Launder. Washerman.

Law-day. Sheriff's court session.
Laystow or laystall. A place where
refuse is put.
Leasings. Lies.

Lecture. Sermon by perambulating
preacher without cure, called a
"lecturer." Lecture-day. p. 62.
?The day on which one of these
sermons was delivered.
Leger. Resident ambassador.
Let. Hesitate, prevent.
Lewd. Wicked.

Liberties. The boundaries of the city.
Lightly, i.e. as a general rule.
Lin. To stop.

Lipsius. Justus Lipsius (1547

1606), a Belgian writer on politics. Lockram. Coarse linen stuff. Looking-glasses in the pavement. Polished oak floors. Louvain. The celebrated Catholic university founded in 1426. Luff. To turn the ship towards the wind.

Luneburg table. Lüneburg, a town in Hanover. In one of its churches there was a table of gold from which, according to legend, a queen of England had had her crown made.

Marchpane. Marzipan.

tilled,

Mean. Middle voice part in music, alto or tenor.

Merchants by the great. p. 8.

Wholesale merchants. Melilot. A herb like clover. Melpomene. The muse of tragedy. Midden-hills. Dung-hills. Mistress. The "Jack" in bowls. Mithridate. An antidote. Momus. Carper.

More and no more, i.e. talks without saying anything original. Morrow-mass. Morning mass. Mow. To grimace. Mumchance. A dicing game resembling hazard, apparently played in silence.

Mure. Wright: Dialect Dict. gives "husks of fruit from which the juice has been squeezed." Perhaps an old spelling of myrrh. Muse. Hole in the hedge. Musk melon.

The common melon.

Nappy, i.e. drinks strong enough to cause sleep.

Naturals. Fools.

Neck. p. 117. ?Nick. Perhaps a reference to nicking or marking cards.

Nest, i.e. set (as we say "nest of drawers").

New-spade. See Spade. Novem or Novum. A dice game played by five or six persons, the two principal throws being nine and five.

Noverint-maker. Scrivener.
Nunchion. Snack taken between
meals, generally at noon.
Nuncius. Nuntius, messenger.

Obligation. Contract, bond.
Occupy. Traffic in, cultivate.
Ofter offensive. p. 227. i.e. more
often dangerous than the knife.

Packs. Evil confederacies. Pacolet's horse. Pacolet was a magician in an old romance who made an enchanted horse which could transport him through the air.

Paetum. A corruption of the Brazilian petum=tobacco.

Painted cloths. p. 144. Hangings often found on the walls of alehouses (cp. p. 106). Here the word is used to signify the alehouse itself.

Painted sheath. ?Gallant exterior.
Pakers. Vagrants, strollers.
Parcel-gilt. Partly gilded.

Parker, Martin. A famous ballad writer.

Pass. p. 143.

i.e. better off.

"Better to pass,"

Passage. A dicing game played by two persons using three dice. Peise. To poise, weigh.

Penner. A case to hold pens. Penniless-bench. Roadside seat. Pentaphyllon. Cinquefoil. Perpetuana. A durable wool fabric.

Persian lock. p. 168. ?Misprint for "Parisian."

Pettifoggers. Petty legal practitioners.

Pick. To knock down. To pierce.
Piecing. Patch.

Pilch. A leather coat.
Pilcher. Scabbard.

Pilliwinks, An instrument of tor-
ture for pinching the fingers.
Pinch. A pleat in a skirt.

Pique de vant. ? A braggart's

beard.

Pitch. p. 82. Aim (an expression derived from falconry).

Plant. To colonize.
Plaudities. Applause.
Players' bills. Placards announcing
the play for the day.
Plumping. Padding.

Point. "To the point," i.e. exactly.
Polypus. Octopus, cuttle-fish.
Poor John. Salted hake.
Portingal. Portuguese.
Posy. Motto or verse.
Potable. Drinkable.

Pottle. Tankard containing two quarts.

Pounce. To powder.
Preeches. "You must be preeches"
=you must be breeched (flogged).
Prick. A dot or mark.
Prick in. Implant, embroider.
Primero. Very popular card game

in the 16th century, generally played
by four persons.

Print. "In print" p. 174. i.e. to a nicety.

Proclamations, i.e. waste paper. Proctor. One who held a licence to collect alms for "spital-houses." Proof. Result.

Prunes. p. 100. "House where
they set stewed prunes before you"
=a brothel.
Pudding-prick. Skewer.
Puling. Whining.
Pullin. Poultry.

Punk. Harlot.
Purchase. Booty.

Purl. An embroidered border.

66

name for a swaggering bully. Rochet. A bishop's vestment. Rock Monday. The Monday following Twelfth Day. Rock=distaff. Rodulphus Agricola (1442-1485). A learned German scholar and scientist. Agricola, of course, means husbandman, hence the mere scholar's" mistake. Rogues. Rufflers: see p. 239. Hookers: see p. 241. Wild rogues: those born rogues. Palliards: beggars in patched cloaks. Abrams: see p. 238. Dummerers: beggars pretending dumbness. Swadders: pedlars. Demanders for glimmer: female beggars pretending to have lost all that they had by fire. Morts: female beggars not legally married. Dells: female beggars who are still maidens. Uprightmen: the highest rank of rogues. Rogues: beggars pretending to seek kinsmen: see p. 242. Priggers of prancers: horse-stealers. Fraters: pretended proctors (q.v.) with false licences. Freshwater mariners: pretended shipwrecked sailors. Drunken tinkers: thieves posing as tinkers. Jarkmen: clerkly rogues who make false licences and unite their comrades in wedlock. Bawdy baskets: female pedlars. Autem morts: legally married female rogues. Doxies: mistresses to rogues. Kinching morts: young female rogues. Kinching coes: young male rogues. Roscius and Aesop. Two Roman actors fl. B.C. 70.

Rousy. Riotous, noisy.

Rumaging. At sixes and sevens.
Running over. p. 150. i.e. till the
reader has run through it.
Rutter. Trooper.

Sacring-bell. Bell used at the mass.
Saint or Saunt. Corruption of the

Spending. p. 17. Utterance.
Spent. p. 3. Consumed.
Spials. Spies.

Spoie. p. 92. If we read "spoil"
it would appear that Brown, a cut-
purse, intentionally provoked a
quarrel in order to collect a crowd
from which he and his accomplices
might reap a harvest.
Sprag. Active.
Squirting. Upstart.
Standard. The Standard in Cheap-
side was a conduit, upon which
were portraits of kings and queens.
Stauling-ken. A house that will
receive stolen goods.

Stave and tail. Bear-baiting term; to stave to beat back the bear; to tail to hold back the dog. Still. Always, ever.

Stoop. p. 116. This word seems to be used figuratively here=to alight as a bird. The cheaters are of course the fowlers.

Stoves. Houses for hot vapour baths. Strangate. ?Strand-gate.

Strangury. Difficulty in discharging the urine.

Strength of his horses. p. 8o. The number of his horses.

Suburb shadow. The suburbs were

the most disreputable quarters of London in which the houses of illfame stood.

Suckets. Sweetmeats or sugarplums. Summoner. One who summons to the ecclesiastical court. Swag-bellied. With a large overhanging belly.

Sword and buckler. Went out of fashion about 1580. Frequent contemptuous references of them occur in Elizabethan literature. Apparently associated with thieves. Cp. 1 Henry IV, 1. iii. 230. Syrups, i.e. medicines (cp. Treacle). Systema. The point is, I suppose, that the "mere scholar" takes systema (i.e. Systema Logicum=a system of logic) to be the name of the author of the book.

Tables. p. 64. Backgammon.

Take it of merit. Take as their due. Talbot. Great English general of the time of Henry VI. cp. I Henry VI.

Tarlton (Richard). Died 1588. A famous Elizabethan comic actor, said to be the original of Yorick in Hamlet.

Tawe out. Extort.

Tax idle circumstance. Censure trivial matters.

Telephus. The wound of Telephus could only be cured by rust from the spear of Achilles, which had inflicted it.

Term. p. 146. "Attend the end of every term"; the end of the law terms was the busiest season for publishers.

Termagant. An imaginary god of the Mahomedans, who figured in the old miracles and morality plays as a violent character. Terminate.

Determine.

Testor or teston. Sixpence.
Thales Milesius. He fell into a
ditch while looking at the stars.
Tick-tack.
A game like back-

gammon. Toucher. The bowl lying nearest the "Jack."

Trade. Manner, custom, practice. Travel for a stomach. Walk to get an appetite.

Traverses. Crosses, misfortunes.
Treacle. Medicine.

Treads. Steps, measures.
Treen. Wooden.

Trenchmore. A popular dance tune.
Troll. To move round.

Trump. A card game very much like whist.

Try. p. 2. Refine.

Truss. Breeches. Verb= tie up the "points."

Waiters. Attendants.
Wap. Sheep-dog.
Warden. A kind of pear.
Warrener. Keeper of poultry and
rabbits.

Watshod. ?Some kind of silk.
Weasel-beaked. With a sharp
thin face like a weasel.
Welt. Strip, border: (verb) to
patch.

We three. A well-known inn-sign representing two fools and inscribed "We three." The third fool of course is the man who looks at the picture. Cp. Twelfth Night, II. iii. 17.

Wheel and reel. i.e. for spinning. Whetstone. p. 270. Given as a prize for the biggest liar. Whirligig-jacks. Spinning jacks. Wings. Shoulder knots or epaulettes.

Wool-packs. p. 13. cp. p. 87.

Yerk. Jerk (q.v.).

Zany. A clown whose business on the stage was to imitate foolishly the actions of the principal clown.