Act II: Scene ii
[p. 252] Mundungus. Shag, or rank tobacco. cf. Sir R. Howard, The Committee (folio, 1665), ii: ‘A Pipe of the worst Mundungus.’ Shadwell, The Humourists (1671), iii, speaks with contempt of ‘bottle ale ... and a pipe of Mundungus.’ Johnson in his Dictionary (1755) has: ‘Mundungus. Stinking tobacco. A cant word.’
Act II: Scene iv
[p. 261] a Bob. cf. Prologue, The False Count (Vol. III, p. 100), ‘dry bobs,’ and note on that passage, pp. 479-80. [ Cross-Reference: The False Count]
[p. 263] barbicu. Better ‘barbecu’. An Americanism meaning to broil over live coals. Beverley, Virginia, iii, XII (1705), thus explains it: ‘Broyling ... at some distance above the live coals [the Indians] & we from them call Barbecuing.’ cf. Pope, Imitations of Horace, Sat. ii, 25, 26:—
Oldfield with more than Harpy throat endued
Cries, ‘Send me, Gods, a whole hog barbecued!’
Act III: Scene i
[p. 264] De-Wit. ‘To De-Wit’ = to lynch. The word often occurs; it is derived from the deaths of John and Cornelius De Wit, opponents of William III (when stadt-holder). They were murdered by a mob in 1672. cf. ‘to godfrey’ = to strangle, from the alleged murder of Sir Edmond Bury Godfrey* in 1678. Crowne, Sir Courtly Nice (1685), ii, II, has: ‘Don’t throttle me, don’t Godfrey me.’ The N.E.D. fails to include ‘to godfrey’.
* It is now pretty certainly established that this melancholist committed suicide.