Volume III Part 32 (1/2)

[463] It was a common practice for gallants to sit upon hired stools in the stage, especially at the private theatres. From the _Induction_ to Marston's _Malcontent_ it appears that the custom was not tolerated at some of the public theatres. The ordinary charge for the use of a stool was sixpence.

[464] Malone was no doubt right in supposing that there is here an allusion to the ”private boxes” placed at each side of the balcony at the back of the stage. They must have been very dark and uncomfortable.

In the _Gull's Horn-Book_ Dekker says that ”much new Satin was there dampned by being smothered to death in darkness.”

IN QUINTUM. IV.

Quintus the dancer useth evermore His feet in measure and in rule to move: Yet on a time he call'd his mistress _wh.o.r.e_, And thought with that sweet word to win her love.

O, had his tongue like to his feet been taught, It never would have utter'd such a thought!

IN PLURIMOS. V.[465]

Faustinus, s.e.xtus, Cinna, Ponticus, With Gella, Lesbia, Thais, Rhodope, Rode all to Staines,[466] for no cause serious, But for their mirth and for their lechery.

Scarce were they settled in their lodging, when Wenches with wenches, men with men fell out, Men with their wenches, wenches with their men; Which straight dissolves[467] this ill-a.s.sembled rout.

But since the devil brought them thus together, To my discoursing thoughts it is a wonder, 10 Why presently as soon as they came thither, The self-same devil did them part asunder.

Doubtless, it seems, it was a foolish devil, That thus did part them ere they did some evil.

FOOTNOTES:

[465] MS. ”In meritriculas Londinensis.”

[466] MS. ”Ware.”

[467] MS. ”dissolv'd”

IN t.i.tUM. VI.

t.i.tus, the brave and valorous young gallant, Three years together in his town hath been; Yet my Lord Chancellor's[468] tomb he hath not seen, Nor the new water-work,[469] nor the elephant.

I cannot tell the cause without a smile,-- He hath been in the Counter all this while.

FOOTNOTES:

[468] Sir Christopher Hatton's tomb. See Dugdale's _History of St.

Paul's Cathedral_, ed. 1658, p. 83.

[469] ”The new water-work was at London Bridge. The elephant was an object of great wonder and long remembered. A curious ill.u.s.tration of this is found in the _Metamorphosis of the Walnut Tree of Borestall_, written about 1645, when the poet [William Ba.s.se] brings trees of all descriptions to the funeral, particularly a gigantic oak--