[8b] Debtors were often let out of prison at the coronation of a new king; but creditors never paid by him.
[21a] The word here omitted is quite illegible. It appears to have some reference to the language of the Highlanders. That it was rough and outlandish is apparent from the reprimand of Sir Thomas.
[29a] By this deposition it would appear that Shakspeare had formed the idea, if not the outline, of several plays already, much as he altered them, no doubt, in after life.
[38a] The greater part of the value of the present work arises from the certain information it affords us on the price of small needles in the reign of Elizabeth. Fine needles in her days were made only at Liege, and some few cities in the Netherlands, and may be reckoned among those things which were much dearer than they are now.
[39b] Mr. Tooke had not yet published his Pantheon.
[44a] This was really the case within our memory.
[45a] It was formerly thought, and perhaps is thought still, that the hand of a man recently hanged, being rubbed on the tumour of the king’s evil, was able to cure it. The crown and the gallows divided the glory of the sovereign remedy.
[46a] And yet he never did sail any farther than into Bohemia.
[50a] Smock, formerly a part of the female dress, corresponding with shroud, or what we now call (or lately called) shirt of the man’s. Fox, speaking of Latimer’s burning, says, “Being slipped into his shroud.”
[50b] Faith nailing the ears is a strong and sacred metaphor. The rhyme is imperfect,—Shakspeare was not always attentive to these minor beauties.