[33] Old ed. "1 Nun."
[34] Can this word be right? Qu. "cloisters"?
[35] Old ed. "_Nun._"
[36] _I.e._, sometime.
[37] Dyce reads "forgive," perhaps rightly.
[38] Here the old ed. gives "+" (to indicate the notch in the plank under which the treasure was concealed).
[39] I have added the second "go" for the sake of the metre.
[40] Scene: before Barabas" house.
[41] Collier notices that ll. 1, 2, are found (with slight variation) in Guilpin"s _Skialetheia_, 1598. Cf. Peele"s _David and Bethsabe_:--
"Like as the fatal raven, that in his voice Carries the dreadful summons of our death."
[42] Cf. _Dido_, iii. 3:--
"Who would not undergo all kind of toil To be well stored with such a _winter"s tale_."
The words "in my _wealth_" have little meaning; I suspect that we should read "in my _youth_."
[43] Cf. _Hamlet_, i. 1:--
"Or if thou hast uph.o.a.rded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, Speak of it."
[44] Old ed. "walke."
[45] Old ed. "Birn para todos, my ganada no er." I have adopted Dyce"s reading.
[46] Dyce thinks that Shakespeare recollected this pa.s.sage when he wrote:--
"But soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East and Juliet is the sun."
[47] Cf. _Job_ xli. 18:--"By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the _eyelids of the morning_." So Sophocles in the _Antigone_ speaks of the sun as ~hameras blepharon~. The reader will remember the line in _Lycidas_:--
"Under the opening _eyelids of the morn_."
[48] "Perhaps what is meant here is an exclamation on the beautiful appearance of money, Hermoso parecer de los dinos, but it is questionable whether this would be good Spanish."--_Collier._ Dyce gives "Hermoso Placer."
[49] Scene: the Senate-house.
[50] _I.e._, did not lower our sails. Cf. _1 Tamburlaine_, i. 2, l. 193.
[51] Old ed. "Spanish."
[52] Old ed. "left and tooke." The correction was made by Dyce.
[53] Established.
[54] Cf. _King John_, i. 2:--
"And now instead of _bullets wrapt in fire_."
[55] Scene: the market-place.
[56] The modern editors give "Poor villains, such as," &c.; but the reading of the 4to. is quite intelligible.
[57] Cf. Shylock"s "Still have I borne it with a patient shrug."
[58] Dyce quotes from Barnabe Barnes" _Divils Charter_, 1607, "For I must _have a saying to_ those bottels."
[59] Pieces of silver. Cf. _Ant. and Cleo._:--
"Realms and islands were As _plates_ dropt from his pocket."
[60] Old ed. "_Itha._"
[61] A cant word still in use.
[62] Old ed. "_Ith._"
[63] An allegorical character in the old moralities. Cf. _1 Henry IV._ ii. 4:--"That reverend _vice_, that grey _iniquity_, that _vanity_ in years." In the _Devil is an a.s.s_, "Lady Vanity" is coupled with "Iniquity."
[64] Old ed. "Mater."
[65] Stop our conversation.
[66] I have followed Dyce"s suggestion in adding this word.
[67] An important part in Barabas" get-up was his large nose. In William Rowley"s _Search for Money_, 1609, there is an allusion to the "artificial Jew of Malta"s nose."
[68] In _t.i.tus Andronicus_ Aaron gives a somewhat similar catalogue of villainies.
[69] Use.
[70] Heartily.
[71] The scene shifts to the front of Barabas" house.
[72] Dyce"s correction for the old copy"s "vow to love him."
[73] Affianced. "Accordailles, the betrothing or _making sure_ of a man and woman together."--_Cotgrave._
[74] The word "he" was inserted by Cunningham for the sake of the metre.