In the first scene of the Distracted Emperor, l. 17, for the reading of the MS. "Can propp thy mynde, fortune's shame upon thee!" we should undoubtedly substitute "Can propp thy ruynde fortunes? shame upon thee!"
Dr. Reinhold Köhler of Weimar explains once for all the enigmatical letters at the end of the play:—"The line denotes:
Nella fidelta finiro la vita.
For as the letters [Greeek: ph d ph n r] must be read by their Greek names, so must also the B—better written [Greek: B]—be read by its Greek name [Greek: Baeta], or by Neo-Greek pronunciation vita. With this meaning the line is given in the work of Etienne Tabourot 'Les Bizarrures du Seigneur des Accords,' which is said to have appeared first in 1572 or 1582, in Chap. ii. on 'rébus par lettres.' I only know the passage by a quotation in an interesting work by Johannes Ochmann 'Zur Kentniss der Rebus,' Oppeln, 1861, p. 18. I have also found our rebus in a German novel entitled 'The Wonderful Life of the Merry Hazard,' Cosmopoli, 1706. In this book, p. 282, it is related that a priest wrote as a souvenir in Hazard's album:—
'Nella [Greek: phd]. [Greek: phnr] la [Greek: B].
As an assurance of his heart
That knows no joking
It said' … …
And further (p. 283):—'Hazard knew not what to make of these mere Greek letters and spent several days in fruitless thoughts, until the priest let him understand that he was only to pronounce them, then he would hear from the sounds that it was Italian and meant: Nella fideltá finiró la vita.' This is the solution of the various hypotheses that have been set up about the meaning of 'la B.'"
Vol. IV.—Everie Woman in her Humor.
P. 312 "Phy. Boy!—Sleepe wayward thoughts." The words "sleepe wayward thoughts" are from a song in Dowland's First Book of Songs or Airs of four parts, 1597. In Oliphant's Musa Madrigalesca the song is given thus:—
"Sleep, wayward thoughts, and rest you with my love;
Let not my love be with my love displeased;
Touch not, proud hands, lest you her anger move,
But pine you with my longings long diseased.
Thus, while she sleeps, I sorrow for her sake;
So sleeps my love—and yet my love doth wake.
But, oh! the fury of my restless fear,
The hidden anguish of my chaste desires;
The glories and the beauties that appear
Between her brows, near Cupid's closed fires!
Sleep, dainty love, while I sigh for thy sake;
So sleeps my love,—and yet my love doth wake."