curs again in "Ram Alley," 1611.]

[29] [So the old copy, and rightly. Forne is a contracted form of
_beforne_, a good old English word. Hawkins printed _fore_.]

[30] Query, if this be not a fling at Shakespeare? See "Cymbeline."
--_Hawkins_. [Scarcely, for there are two sons recovered in that play,
and the incident of finding a long-lost child is not an uncommon one
in the drama. We have a daughter thus found in Pericles.--_Ebsworth_.]

[31] [Some of the old copies read _make_.]

[32] Old copy, _furens_.

[33] Old copy, _lanching_.

[34] [Old copies, _is_.]

[35] [It is probably well known that on the early stage vinegar was used
where there was a necessity for representing bloodshed. Compare the
passage in Preston's "Cambyses," iv. 217.]

[36] Old copy, _utensilies_.

[37] Old copy, _sly_.

[38] Old copy, _soure_.

[39] [Old copy, _clear the vsuall_, &c.]

[40] "Belvidere; or, The Garden of the Muses," 8vo, 1600, in which are
quoted sentences out of Spenser, Constable, and the rest, digested under
a commonplace. [Another edition in 1610. It is a book of no value or
interest.]

[41] [Left blank in the old copy. The ostensible editor of "Belvidere"
was John Bodenham, but he is evidently not the person referred to here.]

[42] [Alluding to the device on the title of the volume.]

[43] [Two of the old copies read _swifter_.]

[44] [Some copies read _S.D_.]

[45] As the works of some of the poets here cited are become obscure, it
may not be unacceptable to the reader to see a few specimens of their
several abilities. Constable was esteemed the first sonneteer of his
time, and the following sonnet, prefixed to King James I.'s "Poetical
Exercises" was the most admired--

TO THE KING OF SCOTLAND.

"When others hooded with blind love do fly
Low on the ground with buzzard Cupid's wings,
A heavenly love from love of love thee brings,
And makes thy Muse to mount above the sky:
Young Muses be not wont to fly so high,
Age school'd by time such sober ditties sings,
But thy love flies from love of youthful things,
And so the wings of time doth overfly.
Thus thou disdain'st all worldly wings as slow,
Because thy Muse with angels' wings doth leave
Time's wings behind, and Cupid's wings below;
But take thou heed, lest Fame's wings thee deceive,
With all thy speed from fame thou canst not flee,--
But more thou flees, the more it follows thee