aps of Latin, without much regard to their
juxtaposition.]

[41] [A common subject at shows.]

[42] [A _jeu-de-mots_ on the scale in music and the Latin word _sol_.]

[43] [Some play on words is here probably meant. _Eyesore_ quasi
_eye-soar_.]

[44] It may be doubtful whether this is the right word. Old copy,
_sonne_.

[45] [Old copy, _baddest_.]

[46] [Old copy, _Heber_.]

[47] The quarto reads--

"And as for poetry, _woods_ eloquence."

It is no doubt a misprint for _words' eloquence_, or the eloquence of
words.

[48] [Old copy, _source_. The emendation was suggested by Collier.]

[49] [Former edits.--"Envy envieth not outcries unrest."
And so the 4to.]

[50] [Old copy, _slight_.]

[51] On this subject Camden tells us: "There was both this summer (1592)
and the last so great a drought all England over, that the fields were
burnt, and the fountains dried up, and a great many beasts perish'd
everywhere for want of water. The Thames likewise, the noblest river of
all Britain, and which has as full and large a tide as any in Europe
(for it flows twice a day above sixty miles from the mouth of it, and
receives an increase from the mixture of many other streams and rivers
with it), was, however, sunk to that degree (to the wonder of all men)
on the 5th September, that a man might ride over it near London Bridge,
so shallow was the channel."

[52] There seems to be no account of this flood, unless it was that
which occurred in the autumn of 1579. See Stow's "Annals," edit. 1615,
fol. 686, and Collier's "Extr. from Stat. Reg.," ii. 105. There was also
a great partial flood in 1571; but it is not mentioned as having
affected the Thames.

[53] i.e., Persons who had drunk the Thames water fell ill.

[54] Guesses.

[55] _Had I wist_ is _had I thought_; and the words are often met with
as the reproof of imprudence. So afterwards again in this play--

"Young heads count to build on _had I wist_."

[56] Skelton wrote a humorous doggrel piece called the "Tunning of
Elinor Rummin," which is here alluded to.

[57] This anecdote is from Aulus Gellius, "Noct. Attic.,"
lib. xvii. c. 9--

"Asiam tune tenebat imperio rex Darius: is Histiaeus, cum in Persia
apud Darium esset, Aristagorae cuipiam res quasdam occultas nuntiare
furtivo scripto volebat: comminiscitur opertum hoc literarum admirandum.
Servo suo diu oculos aegros habenti capillum ex capite omni, tanquam
medendi gratia, deradit, caputque ejus