Volume Xi Part 74 (1/2)

”Gallants, men and women, And of all sorts tag rag, been seen to flock here In threaves these ten weeks as to a _second Hogsden_ In days of _Pimlico_ and Eye-bright.”

--[Gifford's edit., 1816, v. 164.]

Pimlico, near Westminster, was formerly resorted to on the same account as the former at Hoxton.

[191] Derby ale has ever been celebrated for its excellence. Camden, speaking of the town of Derby, observes that ”its present reputation is for the a.s.sizes for the county, which are held here, and from the _excellent ale brewed in it_.” In 1698 Ned Ward published a poem ent.i.tled, ”Sots' Paradise, or the Humours of a Derby Alehouse; with a Satire upon Ale.”

[192] _i.e._, Pleases me. See note to ”Cornelia” [v. 188.]

[193] Henslowe, in his Diary, mentions a play [by Martin Slaughter]

called ”Alexander and Lodwicke,” under date of 14th Jan. 1597, and in Evans's ”Collection of Old Ballads,” 1810, there is a ballad with the same t.i.tle, and no doubt upon the same story.--_Collier._ [It is the same tale as ”Amis and Amiloun.” See Hazlitt's ”Shakespeare's Library,” 1875, introd. to ”Pericles.”]

[194] So in ”King Richard III.”--

”Thou troublest me: I am not in the vein.”

--_Steevens._

[195] [Compare pp. 230-1.]

[196] [Compare p. 206.]

[197] [Compare p 206.]

[198] [The author had a well-known pa.s.sage in Shakespeare in his recollection when he wrote this. The edits, read--

”His h.e.l.l, his habitation; nor has he Any other local place.”]

[199] [Edits., _men_.]

[200] [_i.e._, The pox.]

[201] Reed observes: ”A parody on a line from 'The Spanish Tragedy'--

”'O eyes! no eyes; but fountains fraught with tears,'”

on which Mr Collier writes: ”If a parody be intended, it is not a very close one. The probability is, that the line is quoted by Rash from some popular poem of the day.”

It would be just as reasonable to call the following opening of a sonnet by Sir P. Sidney a parody upon a line in the ”Spanish Tragedy”--

”O tears! no tears; but rain from beauty's skies.”

In fact, it was a common mode of expression at the time. Thus in ”Alb.u.mazar,” we have this exclamation--

”O lips! no lips; but leaves besmeared with dew.”

[202] See note to ”Cornelia,” [_v._ 225.]

[203] These lines are taken from Marlowe's ”Hero and Leander,” 4 1600, sig. B 3, [or Dyce's Marlowe, iii. 15.]

[204] Again, in ”Cynthia's Revels,” act v. sc. 3: ”From _stabbing of arms_, flapdragons, healths, whiffs, and all such swaggering humours, good Mercury defend us,” [edit. 1816, ii. 380.