r _nothing_ was resolv'd to be."

[But after all, had not Nash more probably in his recollection Sir
Edward Dyer's "Praise of Nothing," a prose tract printed in 1585?]

[119] [See Hazlitt's "Handbook," v. Fleming.]

[120] [Alluding to the "Grobianus et Grobiana" of Dedekindus.]

[121] Ovid's lines are these--

"Discite, qui sapitis, non quae nos scimus inertes,
Sed trepidas acies, et fera castra sequi."

--"Amorum," lib. iii. el. 8.

[122] The author of "The World's Folly," 1615, uses _squitter-wit_ in
the same sense that Nash employs _squitter-book_: "The _primum mobile_,
which gives motion to these over-turning wheels of wickedness, are
those mercenary _squitter-wits_, miscalled poets."

In "The Two Italian Gentlemen," the word _squitterbe-book_, or
_squitter-book_, is found, and with precisely the same signification
which Nash gives it--

"I would mete with the scalde _squitterbe-booke_ for this geare."

[123] His _nown_, instead of his _own_, was not an uncommon corruption.
So Udall--"Holde by his yea and nay, be his _nowne_ white sonne."

[124] [Old copy, _Fuilmerodach_.]

[125] _Regiment_ has been so frequently used in the course of these
volumes, in the sense of government or rule, that it is hardly worth
a note.

[126] This is, of course, spoken ironically, and of old, the expression
_good fellow_ bore a double signification, which answered the purpose of
Will Summer. Thus, in Lord Brooke's "Caelica," sonnet 30--

"_Good fellows_, whom men commonly doe call.
Those that do live at warre with truth and shame."

Again, in Heywood's "Edward IV. Part I.," sig. E 4--

"KING EDWARD. Why, dost thou not love a _good fellow_?

"HOBS. No, _good fellows_ be _thieves_."

[127] Henry Baker was therefore the name of the actor who performed the
part of Vertumnus.

[128] The joke here consists in the similarity of sound between
_despatch_ and _batch_, Will Summers mistaking, or pretending to
mistake, in consequence.

[129] [Old copy, _Sybalites_.]

[130] This is still, as it was formerly, the mode of describing the
awkward bowing of the lower class. In the "Death of Robert Earl of
Huntington," 1601, when Will Brand, a vulgar assassin, is introduced
to the king, the stage direction to the actor in the margin is,
"_Make Legs_."

[131] A proverb in [Heywood's "Epigrams," 1562. See Hazlitt's
"Proverbs," 1869, p. 270. Old copy, _love me a little_.]

[132] [Old copy, _deny_.]