Cyp. Sir, the two sheriffs are
Within, and have both brought their wives.
Ware. The feast
Intended for my wedding shall be yours.
To which I add—May you so love to say,
When old, your time was but one marriage-day.
FOOTNOTES:
[256] Dr Warburton observes (note to "Henry IV.," Part I., act ii. sc. 4) that in the persecutions of the Protestants in Flanders under Philip II. those who came over into England on that occasion brought with them the woollen manufactory. These being Calvinists were joined by those of the same persuasion from other countries, and amongst the rest from Geneva.
[257] Rosemary was anciently supposed to strengthen the memory, and was therefore distributed at marriages and funerals. See a note on "Hamlet," x. 355, edit. 1778.
[258] [Old copies, ach.]
[259] The stately step and pompous manner, used by the prologue-speakers of the times, are still retained in delivering the few lines used as a prologue in "Hamlet." These particularities seem to have been delivered traditionally to the present race of actors from their brethren in the seventeenth century.
[260] See a note on "Timon of Athens," edit. 1778, viii. 409.—Steevens.