Worshipfull and woorthy Master Proctor, wheras I, your poore vassaile, in charitye towardes my afflicted brother, have stepped over the shooes of my duetye in participatinge or accommodatinge my blacke staffe to the easinge of his over-charged artickles & members, wherby I have iustlye plucked the oulde house, or rather the maine beame of your indignation, upon my impotent and impudent shoulders, I doe now beseech you upon the knees of my sorrowfullnes and marybones of repentance to forgive mee all delictes & crimes as have beene10 formerly committed.
And wheras you, contrary to my desertes, have out of the bottomles pitt of your liberalitye restored mee out of the porters lodge of miserye into the tower of fælicitie, by giving that which was due from mee (silly mee) vnto your worshippfull selfe, I meane my ladye pecunia; lett mee intreate you that I may burden the leggs of your liberalitie so much farther, as to deliver mee the afore-said blacke staffe, without which I am a man & noe beast, a wretch & no porter. But wheras it is thus20 by my most vnfortunate fate, that so woorthy a President F. 85r rev.hath seene so vnworthy a present, I cannott but condole my tragedies, committing you to the profunditye or abisse of your liberalitie, & my selfe to the 3 craues of my adversitie. Dixi.
NOTES TO THE PLAY OF "NARCISSUS."
NOTES TO THE PLAY OF "NARCISSUS."
Line 1. Master and Mistris.—Doubtless the President of S. John's and his wife. The office was held at this time by Ralph Hutchinson, who had been elected to it in 1590, after holding for some years the college living of Charlbury, Oxon. Little seems to be known of Mrs. Hutchinson beyond the fact that after her husband's death in 1606 she placed his effigy in the college chapel.
Line 39. Rebateth.—To rebate, to blunt or disedge; see Measure for Measure, i. 4, 60—"Doth rebate and blunt his natural edge."
Line 55. Quaffe.—The substantival use of this word is not uncommon in contemporary writings. Cf., in 1579, L. Tomson, Calvin's Sermons on Timothy, &c., p. 512, col. 2: "Now they thinke that a sermon costeth no more then a quaffe wil them."