[62] A favourite word with Marston. It is ridiculed by Ben Jonson in The Poetaster, v. 1:—
“What, shall thy lubrical and glibbery muse
Live, as she were defunct, like punk in stews?”
[63] Old eds. “tiptoed.”
[64] It was a common form of abuse to compare a person to a may-pole. Hermia, railing at Helena, addresses her as “thou painted may-pole” (Midsummer Night’s Dream, iii. 2).
[65] Accoutrements.—Elsewhere Marston has the original French form “accoustrements,” which is also found in Spenser.
[66] “Close fight is an old sea-term. ‘A ship’s close fights are small ledges of wood laid cross one another, like the grates of iron in a prison window, betwixt the main-mast and fore-mast, and are called gratings or nettings.’ Smith’s Sea Grammar, 1627.”—Halliwell.
[67] The form “Brittany,” for “Britain,” is not uncommon. Marlowe uses it in Edward II., ii. 2. l. 42; and I have restored it, metri causa, in the prologue to the Jew of Malta, l. 29.
[68] Ed. 1633 “swounded.”
[69] Old eds. “Ros.”
[70] Thick, curdled.