[91] [See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 271.] Properly super ungulum, referring to knocking the jack on the thumb-nail, to show that the drinker had drained it. Ben Jonson uses it in his "Case is Altered:" "I confess Cupid's carouse; he plays super nagulum with my liquor of life."—Act iv. sc. 3.—Collier.
[92] This was the common cry of the English soldiers in attacking an enemy: we meet with it in Marlowe's "Edward II." where Warwick exclaims—
"Alarum to the fight!
St George for England, and the Baron's right!"
So also in Rowley's "When you see me, you know me," 1605: "King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table that were buried in armour are alive again, crying St George for England! and mean shortly to conquer Rome."
[93] From the insertion of Toy in this song instead of Mingo, as it stands on the entrance of Bacchus and his companions, we are led to infer that the name of the actor who played the part of Will Summer was Toy: if not, there is no meaning in the change. Again, at the end of the piece, the epilogue says in express terms: "The great fool Toy hath marred the play," to which Will Summers replies, "Is't true, Jackanapes? Do you serve me so?" &c. Excepting by supposing that there was an actor of this name, it is not very easy to explain the following expressions by Gabriel Harvey, as applied to Greene, in his "Four Letters and Certain Sonnets, 1592," the year when Nash's "Summer's Last Will and Testament" was performed: "They wrong him much with their epitaphs and solemn devices, that entitle him not at the least the second Toy of London, the stale of Paul's," &c.
[94] Nipitaty seems to have been a cant term for a certain wine. Thus Gabriel Harvey, in "Pierce's Supererogation," 1593, speaks of "the Nipitaty of the nappiest grape;" and afterwards he says, "Nipitaty will not be tied to a post," in reference to the unconfined tongues of man who drink it.—Collier.
[95] A passage quoted in Note 6 to "Gammer Gurton's Needle," from Nash's "Pierce Penniless," is precisely in point, both in explaining the word, and knocking the cup, can, or jack on the thumb-nail, previously performed by Bacchus.
[96] Closely is secretly: a very common application of the word in our old writers. It is found in "Albumazar"—
"I'll entertain him here: meanwhile steal you
Closely into the room;"
and in many other places.