[55] Tim means to ask, is it four or six shilling beer, supposing that such was the beverage, to which the Captain replies scornfully, Four or six! 'Tis rich Canary, &c. This was omitted by Mr Reed.—Collier.
[56] [Former edits., Pox on you heilding. Heildom is a health, and the lieutenant means to say that Tim should propose one.]
[57] [See Dyce's Middleton, i. 66.]
[58] This battle was fought at Weisenberg, near Prague, 18th November 1620, and was fatally decisive against the Elector Palatine who, in consequence of it, not only lost his new kingdom of Bohemia, but also was deprived by the Emperor of his hereditary dominions.
[59] [In the former edits, this passage stands, "jeers ye puffs really of.">[
[60] Tim, who has hidden or ensconced himself, looks out, and not the Captain, as Mr Reed made it, by misplacing the stage direction.—Collier.
[61] A sconce is a petty fortification. The verb to ensconce occurs more than once in Shakespeare. See note on "The Merry Wives of Windsor," act ii. sc. 2.—Steevens. [This note amounts to nothing, as the word ensconce is very common, and all that is here intended is that Tim, frightened at the Ancient, had hidden himself behind a chest of drawers (a very petty fortification!) or some other article of furniture.]
[62] i.e., Whether. It is frequently so [spelled] in ancient writers. See Ben Jonson's "New Inn," act v. sc. 2., and Mr Whalley's note, [Gifford's edit., v. 428.]
[63] From a passage in "Ram Alley," [x. 313], it has already appeared there were two taverns at this time with the same sign.
[64] [Former edits., he.]