, _grand merci_; or I thank ye, _Je vous
remercie_. In this sense it is constantly used by our first writers. A
very great critic pronounces it an obsolete expression of surprise,
contracted from _grant me mercy_; and cites a passage in "Titus
Andronicus" to illustrate his sense of it; but, it is presumed, that
passage, when properly pointed, confirms the original acceptation--

CHIRON. Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius,
He hath some message to deliver us.

AARON. Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.

BOY. My lords, with all the humbleness I may,
I greet your honours from Andronicus--
And pray the Roman gods confound you both. [_Aside_.

DEMETRIUS. _Gramercy_, lovely Lucius; what's the news?

BOY. That you are both decipher'd (that's the news)
For villains mark'd with rape. [_Aside_] May it please you,
My grandsire, well advis'd, hath sent by me
The goodliest weapon of his armoury,
To gratify your honourable youth,
The hope of Rome: for so he bid me say;
And so I do, and with his gifts present
Your lordships, that whenever you have need,
You may be armed and appointed well.
And so I leave you both--like bloody villains. [_Aside_.

--Hanmer's 2d edit., act iv. sc. 2. [The text is the same in Dyce's 2d
edit., vi. 326-7.]

[119] "Poetaster," act v. sc. 3. [Gifford's edit. ii. 524-5, and the
note.]

[120] [So in the old copy Kemp is made, perhaps intentionally, to call
Studioso. See also _infra_, p. 198.]

[121] [See Kemp's "Nine Daies Wonder," edit. Dyce, ix.]

[122] _Sellenger's round_, corrupted from St Leger, a favourite dance
with the common people.

[123] Old copy reads--

"As you part in _kne_

KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with _sice kne_," &c.

The genuine reading, it is presumed, is restored to the text--

"As your part in _cue_.

KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with _size cue_," &c.

A pun upon the word _cue_, which is a hint to the actor to proceed in
his part, and has the same sound with the letter _q_, the mark of a
farthing in college buttery-books. To _size_ means to _battle_, or to be
charged in the college accounts for provisions. [A _q_ is so called
because it is the initial letter of _quadrans_, the fourth part of a
penny.]

[124] This seems to be quoted from the first imperfect edition of "The
Spanish Tragedy;" in the later (corrected) impression it runs thus--

"Wh