from its
game._]

[Footnote II.47: _Buz, buz!_] Sir William Blackstone states that
_buz_ used to be an interjection at Oxford when any one began a
story that was generally known before.]

[Footnote II.48: _Then came each actor on his ass._] This seems
to be a line of a ballad.]

[Footnote II.49: _Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too
light._] An English translation of the tragedies of Seneca was
published in 1581, and one comedy of Plautus, viz., the
Menoechme, in 1595.]

[Footnote II.50: _For the law of writ and the liberty, these are
the only men._] The probable meaning of this passage is,--_For
the observance of the rules of the Drama, while they take such
liberties, as are allowable, they are the only men_--_writ_ is an
old word for _writing_.]

[Footnote II.51: _As by lot, God wot_,] There was an old ballad
entitled the song of Jephthah, from which these lines are
probably quotations. The story of Jephthah was also one of the
favourite subjects of ancient tapestry.]

[Footnote II.52: _The first row of the pious Chanson_] This
expression does not appear to be very well understood. Steevens
tells us that the _pious chansons_ were a kind of _Christmas
carols_, containing some scriptural history thrown into loose
rhymes, and sung about the streets. The _first row_ appears to
mean the _first division_ of one of these.]

[Footnote II.53: _My abridgment comes._] Hamlet alludes to the
players, whose approach will shorten his talk.]

[Footnote II.54: _Thy face is valanced_] _i.e._, fringed with a
beard. The valance is the fringes or drapery hanging round the
tester of a bed.]

[Footnote II.55: _Com'st thou to beard me_] To _beard_ anciently
meant to set _at defiance_. Hamlet having just told the player
that his face is valanced, is playing upon the word _beard_.]

[Footnote II.56: _By the altitude of a chopine._] A chioppine is
a high shoe, or rather clog, worn by the Italians. Venice was
more famous for them than any other place. They are described as
having been made of wood covered with coloured leather, and
sometimes _even half a yard high_, their altitude being
proportioned to the rank of the lady, so that they could not walk
without being supported.]

[Footnote II.57: _Like French falconers_,] The French seem to
have been the firs