Volume Iii Part 147 (2/2)

p. 420 _a Curtain or Hangings_. When several scenes had to be set one behind another the device of using a curtain or tapestries was common.

cf. Dryden and Lee's _The Duke of Guise_ (1682), Act v, where after four or five sets 'the scene draws, behind it a traverse'. We then have the Duke's a.s.sa.s.sination--he shrieks out some four lines and dies, whereon 'the traverse is drawn'. The traverse was merely a pair of curtains on a rod. All the grooves were in use for the scenes already set.

p. 422 _Harpsicals_. A common corruption of harpsicords on the a.n.a.logy of virginals. The two 4tos, 1687 and 1688, and the 1711 edition all read 'harpsicals'. 1724 gives 'Harpsicords'.

p. 435 _Ebula_. The Ebelus was a jewel of great price bestowed upon Gonzales by Irdonozur. He tells us that: 'to say nothing of the colour (the Lunar whereof I made mention before, which notwithstanding is so incredibly beautiful, as a man should travel 1000 Leagues to behold it), the shape is somewhat flat of the breadth of a _Pistolett_, and twice the thickness. The one side of this, which is somewhat more Orient of Colour than the other, being clapt to the bare skin of a man, in any part of his body, it taketh away from it all weight or ponderousness; whereas turning the other side it addeth force unto the attractive beams of the Earth, either in this world or that, and maketh the body to weigh half so much again as it did before.'

p. 446 _Guzman of Salamanca_. A Guzman was a common term of abuse. The first English translation (by James Mabbe) of Aleman's famous romance is, indeed, ent.i.tled _The Rogue_, and it had as running t.i.tle _The Spanish Rogue_. There is a novel by George Fidge ent.i.tled _The English Gusman; or, The History of that Unparalleled Thief James Hind_ (1652, 4to). Salamanca had an unsavoury reputation owing to the fictions of t.i.tus Gates. cf. _The Rover_ (II), Act v: 'Guzman Medicines.'

p. 446 _Signum Mallis_. This curious phrase, which is both distorted cant and canine, would appear to mean 'your rogue's phiz'.

p. 446 _Friskin_. 'A gay lively person.'--Halliwell.

p. 446 _Jack of Lent_. A puppet set up to be thrown at; in modern parlance, 'Aunt Sally'. Hence a b.u.t.t for all.

p. 451 _Spitchc.o.c.k'd_. To spitchc.o.c.k is to split lengthwise, as an eel, and then broil.

p. 458 _Stentraphon_. A megaphone.

p. 460 _They fight at Barriers_. A comic combat between Harlequin and Scaramouch forms one of the traditional incidents (_Lazzi_), which occur repeatedly in the Italian and Franco-Italian farces. cf. Dryden's Epilogue spoken by Hart when _The Silent Woman_ was played before the University of Oxford in 1673:--

Th' _Italian_ Merry-Andrews took their place, And quite debauch'd the Stage with lewd Grimace: Instead of Wit and Humours, your Delight Was there to see two Hobby-horses fight, Stout _Scaramoucha_ with Rush Lance rode in, And ran a Tilt at Centaure _Arlequin_.

<script>