[245] The cant language of thieves. In Harman's Caveat for Cursitors, or some of Dekker's tracts, "Pedlars' French" may be found in abundance.
[246] I print this passage exactly as I find it in the MS. With a little trouble it might be turned into good law.
[247] Aut Shirley aut Diabolus. Cf. Duke's Mistress, iv. 1:
"You shall lead destiny in cords of silk,
And it shall follow tame and to your pleasure."
[248] Sc. swaggering.
[249] A Chrisome child was one that died within a month after birth, at the time of wearing the Chrisome cloth (i.e. the cloth formerly wrapt round a child after baptism). Device implies that his rival is perfectly helpless among ladies, a mere child.
[250] "In the City of London," says Nares, "young freemen who march at the head of their proper companies on the lord mayor's day, sometimes with flags, were called whifflers or bachelor whifflers, not because they cleared the way but because they went first as whifflers did.—'I look'd the next Lord Mayor's day to see you o' the livery, or one of the bachelor whifflers. City Match.'"
[251] These words are scored through in the MS.
[252] To "bear a brain" means to have understanding. The expression is very common.
[253] Not marked in the MS.