172 ([return])
[ and he and I, snicle hand too fast, strangled a friar] There is surely some corruption here. Steevens (apud Dodsley's O. P.) proposes to read "hand TO FIST". Gilchrist (ibid.) observes, "a snicle is a north-country word for a noose, and when a person is hanged, they say he is snicled." See too, in V. SNICKLE, Forby's VOC. OF EAST ANGLIA, and the CRAVEN DIALECT.—The Rev. J. Mitford proposes the following (very violent) alteration of this passage;
"Itha. I carried the broth that poisoned the nuns; and he
and I—
Pilia. Two hands snickle-fast—
Itha. Strangled a friar.">[
173 ([return])
[ incony: i.e. fine, pretty, delicate.—Old ed. "incoomy.">[
174 ([return])
[ they stink like a hollyhock: "This flower, however, has no offensive smell. STEEVENS (apud Dodsley's O. P.). Its odour resembles that of the poppy.]
175 ([return])
[ mushrooms: For this word (as, indeed, for most words) our early writers had no fixed spelling. Here the old ed. has "Mushrumbs": and in our author's EDWARD THE SECOND, the 4tos have "mushrump.">[