[381] [Edits.], stare-wearer, which means no doubt stair-wearer, or wearer of the stairs by going up and down them so frequently at call. —Collier.
[382] [Edit. 1607, ha't for you.]
[383] "Red lattice at the doors and windows were formerly the external denotements of an alehouse; hence the present chequers." Mr Steevens observes (note to "Merry Wives of Windsor," act ii. sc. 2) that "perhaps the reader will express some surprise when he is told that shops with the sign of the chequers, were common among the Romans. See a view of the left-hand street of Pompeii (No. 9) presented by Sir William Hamilton (together with several others equally curious) to the Antiquary Society." [Compare "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," ii. 277-8.] Marston, in the "First Part of Antonio and Mellida," act v., makes Balurdo say: "No, I am not Sir Jeffrey Balurdo: I am not as well known by my wit as an alehouse by a red lattice."
[384] i.e., Defiles. See note on "Macbeth," edit. 1778, iv. 524. —Steevens.
[385] [See note at p. 470.]
[386] The first edit, reads, and any man else and he.
[387] Three different departments of a prison, in which debtors were confined according to their ability or incapacity to pay for their accommodations: all three are pretty accurately described by Fennor in "The Compter's Commonwealth," 1617.
[388] [Edits., importance.]
[389] Sack with sugar was formerly a favourite liquor. Although it is mentioned very often in contemporary writers, it is difficult to collect from any circumstances what the kind of wine then called sack was understood to be. In the Second Part of "Henry IV.," act iv. sc. 3, Falstaff speaks of sherris sack; and Dr Johnson supposes the fat knight's admired potation was what we now call sherry, which he says is drunk with sugar. This last assertion is contradicted by Mr Steevens, who with more truth asserts that sherry is at this time never drunk with sugar, whereas Rhenish frequently is. Dr Warburton seems to be of opinion that the sweet wine still denominated sack was that so often mentioned by Falstaff, and the great fondness of the English nation for sugar rather countenances that idea. Hentzner, p. 88, edit. 1757, speaking of the manners of the English, says, In potu copiosae immittunt saccarum—they put a great deal of sugar in their drink; and Moryson, in his "Itinerary," 1617, p. 155, mentioning the Scots, observes, "They drinke pure wines, not with sugar, as the English;" again, p. 152, "But gentlemen garrawse onely in wine, with which many mixe sugar, which I never observed in any other place or kingdome to be used for that purpose: and because the taste of the English is thus delighted with sweetnesse, the wines in tavernes (for I speak not of merchants or gentlemen's cellars) are commonly mixed at the filling thereof, to make them pleasant." Sack and sugar are mentioned in "Jack Drum's Entertainment," sig. G 3; "The Shoemaker's Holiday," sig. E; "Everie Woman in Her Humour," sig. D 4; and "The Wonderful Yeare," 1603. It appears, however, from the following passage in "The English Housewife," by Gervase Markham, 1631, p. 162, that there were various species of sack: "Your best sacke are of Seres in Spaine, your smaller of Galicia and Portugall: your strong sackes are of the islands of the Canaries and of Malligo, and your Muscadine and Malmseys are of many parts of Italy, Greece, and some speciall islands." [But see an elaborate note on sack (vin sec) in Dyce's "Shakespeare Glossary," in v.]
[390] [Edit., courses.]