Page 136.—Dean Colet. John Colet (1456–1519), dean of St. Paul's in 1505. The school was founded in 1512.
Page 138.—Sir Thomas More. The well-known English author and statesman, born in 1473, and executed on Tower Hill in 1535.
No planets strike. That is, exert a baleful influence; an allusion to astrology.
No fairy takes. Blasts, or bewitches. Compare The Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4. 32: "blasts the tree and takes the cattle," etc.
Page 140.—It irks me. It is irksome to me, troubles me.
Fool was sometimes used as a term of endearment or pity. Compare The Winter's Tale (ii. 1. 18), where Hermione says to her women who are grieved at the unjust charge against her, "Do not weep, poor fools!"
The forked heads are heads of arrows. Ascham refers to such in his Toxophilus.
Page 141.—A poor sequester'd stag. Separated from his companions.
Page 145.—Professor Baynes. Thomas Spencer Baynes (1823–1887), professor of English Literature at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and editor of the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Page 146.—The vaward of the day. The vanguard, or early part of the day. Compare Coriolanus, i. 6. 53: "Their bands i' the vaward," etc.