[115] 4to. staffe.
[116] 4to. strayne.
[117] 4to. his passions.
[118] "A corrupt oath, the origin of which is obscure and not worth inquiring."—Nares.
[119] The author certainly had in his mind Falstaff's puns on the names of the recruits, Mouldy, Shadow, &c. (ii. Henry IV. iii. 2).
[120] An extemporal play by the famous Richard Tarleton. The "plat" is preserved at Dulwich College. See Collier's "Hist. of Dramatic Poetry," iii. 394 (first edition).
[121] So the 4to, but I should prefer "So I have discharg'd myselfe of these hot-shots." The term "hot-shot" seems to have been originally applied to sharp-shooters.
[122] i.e., maid: an East-Anglian usage of the word "mother." See Forby's "Vocabulary of East Anglia." "Mauther" is the commoner form (found in Ben Jonson and others), but "mother" occurs in Chettle and Day's Blind Beggar and elsewhere.
[123] I find this expression of feminine impatience in Dekker's Honest Whore (Dramatic Works, ii. 26):—"Marry muffe, sir, are you growne so dainty!"
[124] Let me understand you. The expression is of constant occurrence.