before the
end of 1602-3. See also what may be drawn from the reference to the
siege of Ostend, 1601-4, at the close of act iii. sc. 3 _post_
--additional evidence for 1602.--_Ebsworth_.]

[95] [Old copy, _I tooke of_, which seems nonsense.]

[96] [So old copy. Hawkins altered the word unnecessarily to
_thatched_.]

[97] [Bespeaketh. Old copies, _rellish_.]

[98] Old copy, _bites a lip_.

[99] [So in old copy, but should we not read _London?--Ebsworth_.]

[100] [There are three references to Ostend in this play. The town bore
a siege from 1601 to 1604, when it surrendered by capitulation. The
besieged lost 50,000 men, and the Spaniards still more. The expression,
"He is as glad as if he had taken Ostend," surely proves that this play
was written after the beginning of 1601 and the commencement of the
siege. It does not prove it to have been written after 1604, but, I
think, strongly indicates the contrary.--_Ebsworth_. Is it not possible
that the passage was introduced into the play when printed, and was not
in the original MS.?]

[101] [So the old copies. Hawkins altered it to _delicacies_.]

[102] [Poor must be pronounced as a dissyllable.]

[103] [From _marry_ to _terms_ is omitted in one of the Oxford copies
and in Dr Ingleby's.]

[104] [Old copy, _puppet_.]

[105] [One of the copies at Oxford, and Dr Ingleby's, read _nimphs_. Two
others misprint _mips_.]

[106] [Old copy, _wail_.]

[107] Old copy, _and_.

[108] [Both the Oxford copies read _teate_.]

[109] [Both the Oxford copies have _beare_.]

[110] [Some of the copies, _break_.]

[111] To _moot_ is to plead a mock cause; to state a point of law by way
of exercise, a common practice in the inns of court.

[112] Old copy, _facility_.

[113] [Old copy, _high_.]

[114] [A slight departure from Ovid.]

[115] To _come off_ is equivalent to the modern expression to _come
down_, to pay sauce, to pay dearly, &c. In this sense Shakespeare uses
the phrase in "Merry Wives of Windsor," act iv. sc. 6. The host says,
"They [the Germans] shall have my horses, but I'll make them pay, I'll
sauce them. They have had my house a week at command; I have turned away
my other guests. They must come off; I'll sauce them." An eminent critic
says to _come off_ is to go scot-free; and this not suiting the context,
he bids us read, they must _compt off_, i.e., clear their reckoning.

[116] Old copy, _Craboun_.

[117] [Talons.]

[118] _Gramercy_: great thanks