II.ii.362 (218,4) Will they pursue quality no longer than they can sing?] Will they follow the profession of players no longer than they keep the voices of boys? So afterwards he says to the player, Come, give us a taste of your quality; come, a passionate speech.
II.ii.370 (219,6) to tarre them on to controversy] To provoke any animal to rage, is to tarre him. The word is said to come from the Greek. (1773)
II.ii.380 (219,8) It is not very strange, for mine uncle is king of Denmark] I do not wonder that the new players have so suddenly risen to reputation, my uncle supplies another example of the facility with which honour is conferred upon new claimants.
II.ii.412 (220,2) Buz, buz!] Mere idle talk, the buz of the vulgar.
II.ii.414 (220,3) Then came each actor on his ass] This seems to be a line of a ballad.
II.ii.420 (221,6) For the law of writ, and the liberty, these are the only men] All the modern editions have, the law of wit, and the liberty; but both my old copies have, the law of writ, I believe rightly. Writ, for writing, composition. Wit was not, in our author's time, taken either for imagination, or acuteness, or both together, but for understanding, for the faculty by which we apprehend and judge. Those who wrote of the human mind distinguished its primary powers into wit and will. Ascham distinguishes boys of tardy and of active faculties into quick wits and slow wits.
II.ii.438 (221,8) the first row of the pious chanson] [It is pons chansons in the first folio edition. POPE.] It is pons chansons in the quarto too. I know not whence the rubric has been brought, yet it has not the appearance of an arbitrary addition. The titles of old ballads were never printed red; but perhaps rubric may stand for marginal explanation.
II.ii.439 (222,9) For, look, where my abridgment comes] He calls the players afterwards, the brief chronicles of the time; but I think he now means only those who will shorten my talk.
II.ii.448 (223,2) be not crack'd within the ring] That is, crack'd too much for use. This is said to a young player who acted the parts of women.
II.ii.450 (223,3) like French faulconers] HANMER, who has much illustrated the allusions to falconry, reads, like French falconers. [French falconers is not a correction by Hanmer, but the reading of the first folio. STEEVENS.] (see 1765, VIII, 198, 1)