[452] There is a tract, in prose and verse, attributed to Luke Hatton, entitled The Black Dog of Newgate; and we learn from Henslowe’s Diary that there was a play by Hathway, Day, Smith, and another poet, with the same title.—Dyce.
[453] i.e. Wandering.
[454] A proverbial expression for more concealed mischief.—Gifford.
[455] Literally, a bull-calf, sometimes used, as here, as an expression of kindness; but generally indicative of familiarity and contempt.—Gifford.
[456] i.e. Destroy.
[457] A notorious character of those days, whose real name was Mary Frith. She appears to have excelled in various professions, of which far the most honest and praiseworthy was that of picking pockets. By singular good fortune she escaped the gallows, and died, “in a ripe and rotten old age,” some time before the Restoration. Moll is the heroine of The Roaring Girl, a lively comedy by Middleton and Dekker, who have treated her with kindness.—Gifford.
[458] Creep in.
[459] Patronage, protection, responsibility.—Gifford.
[460] Footcloths were the ornamental housings or trappings flung over the pads of state-horses. On these the great lawyers then rode to Westminster Hall, and, as our authors intimate, the great courtiers to St. James’s. They became common enough in aftertimes.—Gifford. Briareus, the hundred-handed giant. The allusion is obvious.
[461] Compare “Revelation.” ch. xii.