FOOTNOTES:
[358] A cooling card is frequently mentioned in our ancient authors; but the precise sense in which it is used is difficult to be ascertained. In some places it seems to signify admonition or advice; in others, censure or reproof. In Lyly's "Euphues," p. 39, "Euphues, to the intent he might bridle the overlashing affections of Philautus, conveied into his studie a certeine pamphlet, which he tearmed A cooling card for Philautus; yet generally to bee applyed to all lovers."
So in the "First Part of Henry VI.," act v. sc. 4—
"There all is marr'd; there lies a cooling card."
And in the "Wounds of Civil War," 1594—
"I'll have a present cooling card for you."
[359] See Note to this play, p. [421].
[360] i.e., at the fall of water through a bridge. The idea seems to be taken from the noisy situation of the houses formerly standing on London Bridge.—Steevens.
[361] So in "Hamlet," act iii. sc. 4—
"This is the very coinage of your brain;
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in."
Mr Steevens observes that in this place, and many others, ecstasy means a temporary alienation of mind, a fit.
[362] Alluding to the fate of Polydorus, a son of King Priam. See Virgil's "Æneid," book iii. l. 49—
"Hunc Polydorum auri quondam cum pondere magno
Infelix Priamus furtim mandarat alendum
Threicio regi——
. . . . Polydorum obtruncat, et auro
Vi petitur."
[363] In the first edit. this line is thus—
"Black with the curls of snakes, sits a spectatrix."
It may be doubted whether Mr Reed had sufficient warrant for altering the old reading: at all events spectatrix, the word of the time, might have stood; perhaps, in the two next lines their should be changed to her.—Collier.
[364] So in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra"—
"Let me lodge Lichas on the horn o' th' moon."
—Steevens.
Again, Ovid's "Metam.," lib. 9. l. 215—
"Tremit ille pavetque
Pallidus; et timide verba excusantia dicit
Dicentem, genibusque manus adhibere parantem
Corripit Alcides; et terque quaterque rotatum
Mittit in Euboicas tormento fortius undas,
Ille per aerias pendens indurnit auras."
Of which the following is Gay's translation—
"The youth all pale with shiv'ring fear was stung,
And vain excuses falter'd on his tongue:
Alcides snatch'd him, as with suppliant face
He strove to clasp his knees, and beg for grace;
He toss'd him o'er his head with airy course,
And hurl'd with more than with an engine's force:
Far o'er the Eubœan main aloof he flies,
And hardens by degrees amid the skies."
[365] A cant term for a foolish fellow or idiot. See Mr Steevens's note on "Troilus and Cressida," act ii. sc. 1.
END OF VOL. XIII.
[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES]
Contents added by transcriber.
Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors.
Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.