Copesmate, I believe, means only companion, a word which was used both in a bad and good sense by our ancestors. To cope is to meet with, to encounter. Thus Hamlet—
"As e'er my conversation cop'd withall."
—Steevens.
Again, in Wither's "Abuses Stript and Whipt," 1613, bk. ii. s. 1—
"Nay be advised (quoth his copesmate) harke,
Lets stay all night, for it grows pest'lence darke."
[41] See note to "Gammer Gurton's Needle," [iii. 178], and also the notes of Dr Percy, Mr Steevens, and Mr Tollet, to the "First Part of King Henry IV.," act i. sc. 2.
[42] [A constant allusion in our old plays.]
[43] This reply, and the preceding question of Randall, were omitted by Dodsley and Reed.
[44] [It is still a common expression, that a person will "see his grandmother" after taking so and so.]
[45] Mr Reed allowed it to stand continuance instead of discontinuance, which made nonsense of the passage.—Collier.