ACT V.
Scene 3. Page 193.
Man. ... and hit that woman, who cry'd out, Clubs!
It has been observed, in illustration of this practice of crying out clubs, that it was usually adopted in any quarrel or tumult in the streets; but it remains to point out the persons that were so called, because the watchmen's weapon was the bill. Stowe informs us, that "when prentizes and journeymen attended upon their masters and mistresses in the night, they went before them carrying a lanthorne and candle in their hands, and a great long club on their neckes."—Annales, p. 1040, edit. 1631. The frequency of this exclamation in nocturnal quarrels might in process of time adapt the expression to general occasion.
Scene 4. Page 199.
It is submitted that the stage exhibition of Elizabeth's christening should be conducted according to the curious and circumstantial details of the manner in which it was really performed, to be found in Halle's Chronicle, and copied from him by Stowe into his Annales.