ACT II.
Scene 1. Page 276.
Ther. ... an assinego may tutor thee.
Some doubt having arisen whether an assinego is an ass or an ass-driver, the following passages from Ligon's History of Barbadoes, 1673, will serve to decide the question in favour of the four-legged animal; and demonstrate at the same time that the above term is not exclusively applied to a male ass, as Mr. Ritson had supposed. "We found it was far better for a man that had money, goods, or credit, to purchase a plantation there ready furnish'd, and stockt with servants, slaves, horses, cattle, assinigoes, camels, &c." And again, "And though I found at Barbadoes some who had musical minds; yet I found others, whose souls were so fixt upon, and so riveted to the earth, and the profits that arise out of it, as their souls were lifted no higher; and those men think, and have been heard to say, that three whip-sawes going all at once in a frame or pit, is the best and sweetest musick that can enter their ears; and to hear a cow of their own low, or an assinigo bray, no sound can please them better."—pp. 22, 107.
Scene 3. Page 309.
Ulyss. Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck.
This ungrammatical line, though perhaps the property of Shakspeare, might as well be corrected.
Scene 3. Page 309.
Ulyss. Let Mars divide eternity in twain
And give him half.
How Mars was to accomplish this the metaphysicians must decide. The idea is an odd compound of grandeur and absurdity. It might have turned to some account in the hands of the ingenious Edgworths.