Usher. His news is welcome, whatso’er it be.
Smith. How, sir, do you mean that? Whether it be good or bad?
Act III: Scene iii
[p. 172] tabering. Beating on; tapping; drumming. This rare word occurs in Nahum, ii, VII: ‘Her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves tabering upon their breasts.’
Act IV: Scene ii
[p. 180] Hansel’d. To handsel is to inaugurate with some ceremony of an auspicious kind, e.g. to begin the New Year by presenting a new comer with a gift.
[p. 183] She leapt into the River. The Rehearsal, Act v, burlesques this:— ‘The Argument of the Fifth Act ... Cloris in despair, drowns herself: and Prince Pretty-man, discontentedly, walks by the River side.’
Act IV: Scene iv
[p. 188] foutering. Fouter (Fr. foutre; Lat. futuere), verbum obscaenum. cf. the noun in phrase ‘to care not a fouter’ (footra, footre, foutre), 2 Henry IV, v, III. To ‘fouter’ is also used (a vulgarism and a provincialism) in a much mitigated sense = to meddle about aimlessly, to waste time and tongue doing nothing, as of a busybody. [ Text note]
[p. 189] Niperkin. This would seem to be a slang expression, as Grose gives it meaning ‘a small measure’. It was also used for the actual stone jug. cf. D’Urfey, Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719): ‘Quart-pot, Pint-pot, nipperkin.’ N.E.D., quoting this passage, explains as ‘a small quantity of wine, ale, or spirits.’