In Dekker's "Satiromastix"—
"My wife's a woman; yet
'Tis more than I know yet, that know not her;
If she should prove mankind, 'twere rare; fie! fie!"
And in Massinger's "City Madam," act ii. sc. 1—
"You brach,
Are you turn'd mankind?"
[463] [Old copy, strumpets.]
[464] Whether I will or not. This mode of expression is often found in contemporary writers. So in Dekker's "Bel-man of London," sig. F 3: "Can by no meanes bee brought to remember this new friend, yet will hee, nill he, to the taverne he sweares to have him."
It may be worth remark that it is also found in "Damon and Pithias," from which the character of Grim is taken.
[465] [Old copy, reake.]
[466] Sometimes called Pucke, alias Hobgoblin. In the creed of ancient superstition he was a kind of merry sprite, whose character and achievements are recorded in a ballad printed in Dr Percy's "Reliques of Ancient Poetry." [See "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," iii. 39, et seq.]
[467] Pretty or clever. So in Warner's "Albion's England," b. vi. c. 31, edit. 1601—