[393] History does not record that Athelstane had either wife or daughter.
[394] Your old mind (or, more literally, inclination) of cajoling.
[395] Virtue. Greek.
[396] In the English translation from the original story of Fortunatus, as published in the Dutch, Andelocia invents the name of Damascus, or Damasco, for his apples, on the spur of the moment, so as to give them an air of rarety, the name apparently not being one previously used for any special kind of apple. In an earlier English edition of the story, published about 1650, however, they are otherwise described. It says there:—“They were brought from Jerusalem, and were from the Holy Garden.”
[397] A large sweet apple, full of juice [see Bailey’s Dictionary].
[398] John apple, a good keeping apple, which long retains its freshness.
[399] “That is too many, master.” Dekker’s Irish even surpasses his Dutch in unintelligibility, and it would need more space than mere footnotes can afford, to attempt any full elucidation.
[400] Stockings probably, from the use of the term for bales of wool.
[401] Dekker uses “Gallant,” as an equivalent in The Gull’s Horn-Book, but he means something more opprobrious;—“Masher,” as we would say to-day, a fool of fashion.
[402] An allusion to the comedy The Wisdom of Dr. Dodipoll.