[218] i.e., Other requisites towards the fitting out of a character. See a note on "Love's Labour Lost," vol. ii. p. 385, edit. 1778. —Steevens.
[219] A busk-point was, I believe, the lace of a lady's stays. Minsheu explains a buske to be a part of dress "made of wood or whalebone, a plated or quilted thing to keepe the body straight." The word, I am informed, is still in common use, particularly in the country among the farmers' daughters and servants, for a piece of wood to preserve the stays from being bent. Points or laces were worn by both sexes, and are frequently mentioned in our ancient dramatic writers.
[220] [Edits., hu, hu.]
[221] [i.e., Our modern pet, darling, a term of endearment.] Dr Johnson says that it is a word of endearment from petit, little. See notes on "The Taming of the Shrew," act i. sc. 1.
Again, in "The City Madam," by Massinger, act ii. sc. 2—
"You are pretty peats, and your great portions
Add much unto your handsomeness."
[222] Shirley, in his "Sisters," ridicules these hyperbolical compliments in a similar but a better strain—
"Were it not fine
If you should see your mistress without hair,
Drest only with those glittering beams you talk of?
Two suns instead of eyes, and they not melt
The forehead made of snow! No cheeks, but two
Roses inoculated on a lily,
Between a pendant alabaster nose:
Her lips cut out of coral, and no teeth
But strings of pearl: her tongue a nightingale's!
Would not this strange chimera fright yourself?"
—Collier.
[223] [i.e., Doff it in salutation.]