[116] More usually written "mammets," i.e., puppets (Rom. & Jul. iii. 5; though, no doubt, in Hen. IV., ii. 3, Gifford was right in connecting the word with Lat. mamma).
[117] Cf. Drayton's Fairy Wedding:—
"Besides he's deft and wondrous airy,
And of the noblest of the fairy!
Chiefe of the Crickets of much fame
In fairy a most ancient name."
So in Merry Wives, v. 5, l. 47.
[118] Quy. What kind o' God, &c.
[119] "There is a kind of crab-tree also or wilding that in like manner beareth twice a yeare." Holland's Plinie, b. xvi.
[120] "Assoyle" usually = absolve; here resolve, explain.
[121] The italics are my own, as I suppose that the four lines were intended to be sung.
[122] 4to. It is, it is not, &c.
[123] The sense of "fine, rare," rather than that of "frequent, abundant" (as Nares explains), would seem to suit the passages in Shakespeare and elsewhere where the word is used colloquially.