[22] [i.e., The hoar-frost.]
[23] [Old copy, flies upon.]
[24] [This line has been seriously corrupted, and it might be impossible to restore the true reading. The old copies have: Ask, he knew me, a means, &c.]
[25] [Having, however, been written and acted some years before it was printed in 1606.]
[26] Sloughing hotcockles is a sport still retained among children. The diversion is of long standing, having been in use with the ancients. See Pollux, lib. ix. In the copy it is spelt slauging.
[27] Old copy, which.
[28] [So in Wybarne's "New Age of Old Names," 1609, p. 12: "But stay, my friend: Let it be first manifest that my Father left Land, and then we will rather agree at home, then suffer the Butler's Boxe to winne all." The phrase occurs again in "Ram Alley," 1611.]
[29] [So the old copy, and rightly. Forne is a contracted form of beforne, a good old English word. Hawkins printed fore.]
[30] Query, if this be not a fling at Shakespeare? See "Cymbeline." —Hawkins. [Scarcely, for there are two sons recovered in that play, and the incident of finding a long-lost child is not an uncommon one in the drama. We have a daughter thus found in Pericles.—Ebsworth.]
[31] [Some of the old copies read make.]