2. 1. 102 muscatell. The grape was usually called muscat. So in Pepys’ Diary, 1662: ‘He hath also sent each of us some anchovies, olives and muscatt.’ The wine was variously written muscatel, muscadel, and muscadine. Muscadine and eggs are often mentioned together (cf. Text, 2. 2. 95-96; New Inn 3. 1; Middleton, Wks. 2. 290; 3. 94; and 8. 36), and were used as an aphrodisiac (Bullen). Nares quotes Minsheu: ‘Vinum muscatum, quod moschi odorem referat; for the sweetnesse and smell it resembles muske.’
2. 1. 116, 7 the receiu’d heresie, That England beares no Dukes. ‘I know not when this heresy crept in. There was apparently some unwillingness to create dukes, as a title of honour, in the Norman race; probably because the Conqueror and his immediate successors were dukes of Normandy, and did not choose that a subject should enjoy similar dignities with themselves. The first of the English who bore the title was Edward the black prince, (son of Edward III.) who was created duke of Cornwall, by charter, as Collins says, in 1337. The dignity being subsequently conferred on several of the blood-royal, and of the nobility, who came to untimely ends, an idea seems to have been entertained by the vulgar, that the title itself was ominous. At the accession of James I. to the crown of this country, there was, I believe, no English peer of ducal dignity.’—G.
The last duke had been created in the reign of Henry VIII., who made his illegitimate son the Duke of Richmond, and Charles Brandon, who married his sister Mary, Duke of Suffolk. After the attainder and execution of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, in 1572, there was no duke in England except the king’s sons, until the creation of the Duke of Richmond in 1623. (See New Int. Cyc. 6. 349.)
2. 1. 144 Bermudas. ‘This was a cant term for some places in the town with the same kind of privilege as the mint of old, or the purlieus of the Fleet.’—W.
‘These streights consisted of a nest of obscure courts, alleys, and avenues, running between the bottom of St. Martin’s Lane, Half-moon, and Chandos-street. In Justice Overdo’s time, they were the receptacles of fraudulent debtors, thieves and prostitutes.’—G. (Note on Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 407.)
‘On Wednesday at the Bermudas Court, Sir Edwin Sandys fell foul of the Earl of Warwick. The Lord Cavendish seconded Sandys and the Earl told the Lord, “By his favour he believed he lied.” Hereupon, it is said, they rode out yesterday, and, as it is thought, gone beyond sea to fight.—Leigh to Rev. Joseph Mede, July 18, 1623.’ (Quoted Wh-C. 1. 169.) So in Underwoods, Wks. 8. 348:
turn pirates here at land, Have their Bermudas and their Streights i’ the Strand.
Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 407: “The Streights, or the Bermudas, where the quarrelling lesson is read.”
It is evident from the present passage and the above quotations that ruffians like Everill kept regular quarters in the ‘Bermudas’, where they might be consulted with reference to the settlement of affairs of honor.
2. 1. 151 puts off man, and kinde. ‘I. e., human nature.’—G. Cf. Catiline, Wks. 4. 212: