4. 7. 37-40. See variants. Gifford silently follows Whalley’s changes, which are utterly unwarrantable. Cunningham points out the wrong division in 37, 8. The scansion is thus indicated by Wilke (Metrische Untersuchungen, p. 3):
Of a/ most wor/thy gen/tleman./ Would one Of worth/ had spoke/ it: whence/ it comes,/ it is Rather/ a shame/ to me,/ ͝ then/ a praise.
The missing syllable in the third verse is compensated for by the pause after the comma. This is quite in accordance with Jonson’s custom (see Wilke, p. 1 f.).
4. 7. 45 Publication. See 3. 3. 137.
4. 7. 54 I sou’t him. See variants. Gifford says that he can make nothing of sou’t but sought and sous’d, and that he prefers the latter. Dyce (Remarks) confidently asserts that the word is the same as shue, ‘to frighten away poultry,’ and Cunningham accepts this without question. There seems, however, to be no confirmation for the theory that the preterit was ever spelt sou’t. Wright’s Dialect Dictionary gives: ‘Sough. 19. to strike; to beat severely,’ but the pronunciation here seems usually to be souff. Professor Wright assures me that sous’d is the correct reading, and that the others are ‘mere stupid guesses.’
4. 7. 62 in possibility. A legal phrase used of contingent interests. See note [4. 6. 38, 9].
4. 7. 65 Duke O’ Shore-ditch. ‘A mock title of honour, conferred on the most successful of the London archers, of which this account is given:
When Henry VIII became king, he gave a prize at Windsor to those who should excel at this exercise, (archery) when Barlo, one of his guards, an inhabitant of Shoreditch, acquired such honor as an archer, that the king created him duke of Shoreditch, on the spot. This title, together with that of marquis of Islington, earl of Pancridge, etc., was taken from these villages, in the neighborhood of Finsbury fields, and continued so late as 1683. Ellis’s History of Shoreditch, p. 170.
The latest account is this: In 1682 there was a most magnificent entertainment given by the Finsbury archers, when they bestowed the title of duke of Shoreditch, etc., upon the most deserving. The king was present. Ibid. 173.’—Nares, Gloss.
Entick (Survey 2. 65) gives an interesting account of a match which took place in 1583. The Duke of Shoreditch was accompanied on this occasion by the ‘marquises of Barlow, Clerkenwell, Islington, Hoxton, and Shaklewell, the earl of Pancras, etc. These, to the number of 3000, assembled at the place appointed, sumptuously apparelled, and 942 of them had gold chains about their necks. They marched from merchant-taylors-hall, preceded by whifflers and bellmen, that made up the number 4000, besides pages and footmen; performing several exercises and evolutions in Moorfields, and at last shot at the target for glory in Smithfield.’