14. Wondrously; and so "wonders" for "wondrous," elsewhere in this interlude. In "Adam Bel," 1536, we have "wonderly"—
"These gates be shut so wonderly well."
15. Similar to the phrase, "Let the world slide," in the "Taming of the Shrew."—Halliwell. But the latter saying occurs in the "Towneley Mysteries," p. 101.
16. Compare "A.C. Mery Talys," No. 7. If the edition of that work, dated 1526, was the first, of which we have no proof, we might almost be tempted to infer that this interlude was not printed till after that time, since it is more likely that a passage in a play would be borrowed from a prose jest-book than the reverse.
17. Old copy, they venteres.
18. See "Merie Tales of Skelton," No. 4. Old English Jest-Books, 1864, vol. ii.
19. Perhaps this may be one of the earliest passages, in which this afterwards rather favourite phrase occurs. The meaning is clear.
20. The work of Copernicus appeared in 1543, but the author's silence on the new theories of that astronomer can scarcely be considered an argument one way or the other in the question that has been raised respecting the date of the interlude. Even Recorde, in 1556, who appears to have been one of the earliest Copernicans in this country, dared only to allude to it, and thus prefaces his observations on the subject:—"But as for the quietnes of the earth, I neede not to spende anye tyme in prooving of it, syth that opinion is so firmelye fixed in moste mennes headdes, that they accompt it mere madnes to bring the question in doubt; and therefore it is as muche follye to travaile to prove that which no man denieth, as it were with great study to diswade that thinge which no man doth covette, nother anye manne alloweth; or to blame that which no manne praiseth, nother anye manne lyketh."—Castle of Knowledge, 1556. There is no scientific advance in the play on what we find in the very curious poem of the time of Edward I., printed in Wright's Popular Treatises on Science, 8vo. 1841.—Halliwell.
21. That is, with great exactness, complete in every respect. "You are rather 'point-device' in your accoutrements," As you Like it, iii. 2.
"The wenche she was full proper and nyce,
Amonge all other she bare great price,
For sche coude tricke it point-device,
But fewe like her in that countree."
The Miller of Abingdon, n.d.