6. The tone of this inscription almost renders it allowable to infer that Sir Clement Dormer had communicated to Dodsley some of the plays which appear in his collection as originally published. Sir Clement Cotterel, who was probably related to Sir Clement Cotterel Dormer, was master of the ceremonies during the early Georgian era, and curious old books with his book-plate occasionally occur.
7. "Interlude of the Four Elements: An Early Moral Play." Edited by James Orchard Halliwell, F.R.S. London: Percy Society, 1848.
8. But see Mr Collier's reason for assigning it to 1517. "History of English Dramatic Poetry," ii. 321.
9. See Hazlitt's "Handbook," p. 463.
10. That is, a fool. "Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw."—"I Henry VI." ii. 4; Malone's Shakespeare, xviii. 61.—Halliwell.
11. Everlasting. It occurs twice in Shakespeare: see "Macbeth," iii. 2, apud Malone, xi. l54.—Halliwell.
12. That is, animal. This word is not always used by early writers in a bad sense. "By bestial oblivion" Hamlet refers to the want of intellectual reflection in animals, there applied to human beings. Still more clearly in "Othello"—"I have lost the immortal part, sir, of myself, and what remains is bestial." Even "bestial appetite," in change of lust, in "Richard III.," may be similarly interpreted.—Halliwell.
13. Establish or fix firmly in thy mind.
"Why doth not every earthly thing
Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny
The story that is printed in her blood!"
—Halliwell. —Much Ado about Nothing, iv. 1.