[196] [Old copy, in a loath'd.]
[197] [Own, from the Latin proprius.]
[198] To lie at the ward was, and is still, a term in fencing; thus Fairfax, translating the fight between Tancred and Argantes in the 6th book of Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered," says—
"Close at his surest ward each champion lieth."
—"Godfrey of Bulloigne," 1600.
[199] The exit of Salisbury is not marked, but it of course takes place here.
[200] It seems singular that the author of this play should confound two such persons as the Shoemaker of Bradford, who made all comers "vail their staves," and George-a-Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield; yet such is the case in the text. The exploits of both are celebrated in the play of "The Pinner of Wakefield" (in Dyce's editions of Greene's Works), which seems to have been popular. Nevertheless Henslowe in his MSS. speaks of George-a-Greene as one dramatic piece, and of "The Pinner of Wakefield" as another, as if they were two distinct heroes. See "Malone's Shakespeare," by Boswell, iii. 300. Munday also makes Scathlock and Scarlet two separate persons. [Munday does not confound the Pinder of Wakefield with the Bradford hero, for he expressly distinguishes between them; but he errs in giving the latter the name of George-a-Greene.]
[201] To record, as applied to birds, is synonymous to the verb to sing: thus in "The Spanish Tragedy," act ii.—
"Hark, madam, how the birds record by night."
Shakespeare so employs the word in his "Two Gentlemen of Verona," act v. sc. 4, and in the notes upon the passage more than sufficient instances are collected.