[65] ——————that the world,
In her whole course of life, &c.] This is awkwardly expressed, a circumstance most unusual with Massinger; but seems to mean, in her various excellences and virtues.—Gifford.
[66] Glorious,] i. e. vain, empty, vaunting.
[67] All courtship,] i. e. all court breeding.
[68] Take up, take up.] i. e. stop, check yourself.
[69] He's blind with too much light.] Ennobled by Milton—"dark with excess of light."
[70] Tramontanes,] i. e. strangers, barbarians: so the Italians called, and still call, all who live beyond the Alps, ultra montes. In a subsequent speech, the author does not forget to satirize the acknowledged propensity of his countrymen to drinking: "Your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander, are nothing to your Englishman."
If Caponi, as well as Iago, be not, however, too severe upon us, it must be confessed that our ancestors were apt scholars, and soon bettered the instructions which they received. Sir Richard Baker (as Mr. Gilchrist observes), treating of the wars in the Low-Countries about the end of the sixteenth century, says, "Here it must not be omitted, that the English (who, of all the dwellers in the northern parts of the world, were hitherto the least drinkers, and deservedly praised for their sobriety) in these Dutch wars learned to be drunkards, and brought the vice so far to overspread the kingdom, that laws were fain to be enacted for repressing it." Chron. fol. p. 382.—Gifford.
[71] ——————Can charms
Be writ on such pure rubies?] This, I believe, alludes to a very old opinion, that some sorts of gems (from an inherent sanctity) could not be profaned, or applied to the purposes of magic. The notion took its rise probably from some superstitious ideas respecting the precious stones employed in the breastplate of the high-priest of the Jews.—Gifford.
[72] Stole courtesy from heaven.] This is from Shakspeare; and the plain meaning of the phrase is, that the affability and sweetness of Giovanni were of a heavenly kind.—Gifford.
[73] Smile at lovers' perjuries.