Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners: / with Dissertations on the Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare; on a Collection of Popular Tales Entitled Gesta Romanorum; and on the English Morris dance.

by Francis Douce

Whether the purple of Tyre be here alluded to is doubtful. There is a Turkish city of some celebrity in Natolia called Tiria, where, according to the account of Paul Lucas, carpets are manufactured; and in the Comedy of errors, Act IV. Scene 1, mention is made of Turkish tapestry.

ACT III.

Scene 1. Page 470.

Luc. ... for, but I be deceiv'd.

Mr. Malone has well explained this word as meaning unless, in which sense it is often used by Shakspeare. It is the Saxon buꞇon, nisi. Sometimes it was used with if, as "I wol breake thy heed but if thou get the hense;" from Terence's "Diminuam ego tibi caput, nisi abis," Udall's Floures from Latine, 1533, 12mo.

Scene 2. Page 487.

Pet. Go to the feast, revel and domineer.

So in Tarlton's Jests, "T. having been domineering very late at night with two of his friends." In these instances to domineer is to bluster.

Scene 2. Page 487.