[371] Shrove-Tuesday was a holiday for apprentices and working people, as appears by several contemporary writers. So in Dekker's "Seven Deadly Sinnes of London," 1606, p. 35: "They presently (like prentises upon Shrove-Tuesday) take the lawe into their owne handes, and doe what they list."
[372] The omission of the preposition by Mr Reed spoiled the metre of the line.—Collier.
[373] So in "Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2: "To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia." See the notes of Mr Theobald, Dr Johnson, and Mr Steevens, thereon. [See also Dyce's "Shakespeare Glossary," 1868, in voce.]
[374] [Old copy, hides.]
[375] A very popular book, which is still reprinted.
[376] Hector is one of the Seven Worthies. He appears as such in "Love's Labour's Lost." Nothing was once more common than the portraits of these heroes; and therefore they might have found their way occasionally into shops which we know to have been anciently decorated with pictures for the amusement of some customers whilst others were served. Of the Seven Worthies, the Ten Sibyls, and the Twelve Cæsars, I have seen many complete sets in old halls and on old staircases.—Steevens.
[377] The 4o reads Moreover. The alteration was made by Mr Reed.—Collier.
[378] A designed play on the word virginal, a spinnet.—Steevens.
[379] Desired or recommended.
[380] This was Samuel Daniel, who was an historian as well as a poet. The work above alluded to is probably "Hymen's Triumph," a pastoral tragi-comedy, acted at the Queen's Court in the Strand, at the nuptials of Lord Roxburgh.