—if Italy Have any glebe more fruitful than these fellows, I am deceived.
As source of the latter Dr. L. H. Holt (Mod. Lang. Notes, June, 1905) gives Plautus, Epidicus 2. 3. 306-7:
nullum esse opinor ego agrum in agro Attico aeque feracem quam hic est noster Periphanes.
3. 5. 2 the row. Stow (Survey, ed. 1633, p. 391) says that Goldsmith’s Row, ‘betwixt Breadstreete end and the Crosse in Cheap,’ is ‘the most beautifull Frame of faire houses and shops, that be within the Wals of London, or elsewhere in England.’ It contained ‘ten faire dwelling houses, and fourteene shops’ beautified with elaborate ornamentation. Howes (ed. 1631, p. 1045) says that at his time (1630) Goldsmith’s Row ‘was much abated of her wonted store of Goldsmiths, which was the beauty of that famous streete.’ A similar complaint is made in the Calendar of State Papers, 1619-23, p. 457, where Goldsmith’s Row is characterized as the ‘glory and beauty of Cheapside.’ Paul Hentzner (p. 45) speaks of it as surpassing all the other London streets. He mentions the presence there of a ‘gilt tower, with a fountain that plays.’
3. 5. 29, 30 answering
With the French-time, in flexure of your body.
This may mean bowing in the deliberate and measured fashion of the French, or perhaps it refers to French musical measure. See Gloss.
3. 5. 33 the very Academies. See note [2. 8. 20].
3. 5. 35 play-time. Collier says that the usual hour of dining in the city was twelve o’clock, though the passage in Case is Altered, Wks. 6. 331, seems to indicate an earlier hour:
Eat when your stomach serves, saith the physician, Not at eleven and six.
The performance of plays began at three o’clock. Cf. Histriomastix, 1610: