[244] Various periods are assigned for the duration of the dog days: perhaps July 3 to Aug. 11 is that most commonly accepted. The dog days were so called because they coincided with the heliacal rising of Sirius or Canicula (the little dog).
[245] An inn with this title (and probably a picture of the brothers) painted on its signboard.
[246] Whom.
[247] The Act of Uniformity was passed in 1661. It required all municipal officers and all ministers to take the communion according to the ritual of the Church of England, and to sign a document declaring that arms must never be borne against the King. For refusing obedience to this tyrannical measure, some two thousand Presbyterian ministers were deprived of their livings.
[248] Madness, as in Hamlet, act iii. sc. 1.
[249] "Represented themselves," etc., i.e., presented themselves to my sight.
[250] "Dead part of the night," i.e., from midnight to dawn. Compare,
"In the dead waste and middle of the night." Hamlet, act i. sc 2.
[251] "Have been critical," etc., i.e., have claimed to have knowledge enough to say.
[252] Being introduced.