[181], [202-4]. durst . . . lady. Cf. Bussy D'Ambois, [i, ii, 96-179].
[181], [204-8]. emptied . . . were. Cf. Bussy D'Ambois, [iii, ii, 478-515].
[182], [234-5]. When . . . commanders. Monsieur's description in these and the following lines of Clermont's and Bussy's first appearance at Court is purely fictitious.
[183], [254]. a keele of sea-coale. A keel was a flat-bottomed boat, used in the northeast of England, for loading and carrying coal. Afterwards the word was also used of the amount of coal a keel would carry, i. e. 8 chaldrons, or 21 tons 4 cwt. Sea-coal was the original term for the fossil coal borne from Newcastle to London by sea, to distinguish it from char-coal. Cf. Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, i, iv, 9, "at the latter end of a sea-coal fire."
[184], [267]. a poore knights living. The knights of Windsor, a small body who had apartments in the Castle, and pensions, were often known as "poor knights."
[185], [278]. But killing of the King! Cf. Bussy D'Ambois, [iii, ii, 411].
[188], [332-3]. Why, is not . . . worthily. If this is a complimentary allusion to Jaques' speech in As You Like It, ii, vii, 140-166, it is remarkable as coming from the writer whom Shakespeare at an earlier date had probably attacked in his Sonnets.
[188], [335-42]. what the good Greeke moralist sayes . . . of both. This passage is based upon the Discourses of Epictetus, bk. iv, vii, 13, which, however, Chapman completely misinterprets. Epictetus is demonstrating that a reasonable being should be able to bear any lot contentedly. "θέλεις πενίαν? φέρε καὶ γνώσῃ τί ἐστιν πενία τυχοῦσα καλοῦ ὑποκριτοῦ. θέλεις ἀρχὰς? φέρε, καὶ πόνους."
ὑποκρίτης is used here metaphorically, of one who acts a part in life, not, as Chapman takes it, of an actor in the professional sense.
[188-189], [354-5]. The splenative philosopher . . . all. Democritus.