[85] The bishop's examining chaplain, so called from apposer. In a will of James I.'s reign, the curate of a parish is to appose the children of a charity-school. The term poser is still retained in the schools at [St Paul's,] Winchester and Eton. Two Fellows are annually deputed by the Society of New College in Oxford and King's College in Cambridge to appose or try the abilities of the boys who are to be sped to the fellowships that shall become vacant in the ensuing year.
[86] [The old copy gives this to the next act and scene; but Amoretto seems to offer the remark in immediate allusion to what has just passed. After all, the alteration is not very vital, as, although a new act and scene are marked, Academico and Amoretto probably remain on the stage.]
[87] Good.
[88] [Old copy, caches. A rache is a dog that hunts by scent wild beasts, birds, and even fishes; the female is called a brache.]
[89] [See Halliwell's "Dictionary," i. 115.]
[90] [He refers to Amoretto himself.]
[91] [Halliwell, in his "Dictionary," v. rheum (s.), defines it to mean spleen, caprice. He does not cite it as a verb. I suppose the sense here to be ruminating.]
[92] Old copy, ravished.
[93] [A play on personage and parsonage, which were formerly interchangeable terms, as both had originally one signification.]
[94] [Queen Elizabeth was born September 7, 1533; not her birthday, therefore, but her accession (17th November 1558), at the death of her sister Mary, is referred to by Immerito and Sir Raderic. Elizabeth died March 24, 1602-3. Inasmuch as there is this special reference in "The Return from Parnassus" to the Queen's day, and not to King James's day, we have a certain evidence that the play was written by or before the end of 1602-3. See also what may be drawn from the reference to the siege of Ostend, 1601-4, at the close of act iii. sc. 3 post —additional evidence for 1602.—Ebsworth.]