Marina. The more my fault,
To scape his hands, where I was like to die."
Pericles, Act IV. sc. iii.
[128] Cleo. Sir, you graced me
With the title of your mistress.] This alludes to the request in the first act, that he might be permitted to wear her colours. In those days of gallantry, I mean those of Massinger, not of Timoleon, to wear a lady's colours, that is, a scarf, or a riband, taken from her person, was to become her authorized champion and servant.—Gifford.
[129] Censured,] i. e. judged. It may be observed, that our ancestors used censure precisely as we now do judgment: sometimes for a quality of the mind, and sometimes for a judicial determination.—Gifford.
[130] The gods and fautors,] in the language of the author means the favouring gods.
[131] This Persian shape laid by,] i. e. the dress of a Persian slave, which Statilia had assumed, with the name of Timandra. Shape is a term borrowed from the tiring-room of the theatres. In the list of dramatis personæ prefixed to The Virgin Martyr, Harpax is said to be, "an evil spirit following Theophilus in the shape (habit) of a secretary."—Gifford.
[132] Notwithstanding all differences, and suits in late arising between you.] The suits in law subsisting between these fast friends of Massinger—Sir Francis Foljambe, of Walton, in the county of Derby, and Sir Thomas Bland, of Kippax Park, in the county of York—originated in a question as to the right of working some coal-mines.—Gilchrist.
[133] Show water,] i. e. to clear his sight. A proverbial periphrasis for a bribe, which, in Massinger's days, (though happily not since,) was found to be the only collyrium for the eyes of a courtier.—Gifford.
[134] Quarry,] i. e. the game sought.
[135] Trussing a point,] i. e. tying the strings that support the hose or breeches. These strings were tagged, and are therefore called points.
[136] The Malta habit.] The dress of the knights of Malta was black, having a cross of white waxed cloth on the left side of their cloak. None were admitted into the order but those who were noble both on the father and mother's side for four generations, unless they were, like Bertoldo, the natural sons of kings and princes.