[311] _i.e._, Of a disease peculiar to horses. So in Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew"--
"His horse sped with spavins, rayed with the _yellows_."
--_Steevens._ [See Dyce's Shakesp. Gloss. in v.]
[314] See note to "The Spanish Tragedy," [v. 31].
[315] Misprinted _Fabian_ in edits. 1626, 1631, but corrected in that of 1655.
[317] [A band of fiddlers.] See a long note to "The Ordinary," act iv., sc. 1 (vol. xii.)
[318] There are, as will be seen opposite, two editions of "Ram-Alley," the first in 1611, and the other in 1636; the latter printed from the former with a number of additional errors. From the more corrupt of the two copies this play has been, hitherto reprinted, without any comparison of the two; they have now for the first time been accurately collated, and in many instances the correct reading has been restored.--_Collier._ [A few trifling corrections were introduced by Mr Collier, but the most serious corruptions and errors were overlooked, and all the faulty pointing retained. Such is the case with all the plays.
"Ram-Alley" may be characterised as a strongly-written and well-constructed domestic drama, valuable as a social monument of the times, and interesting as the author's only known production. But it is full of gross passages, allusions, and innuendoes. In "The Return from Parnassus," 1606 (ix. 117), occurs the phrase "Ram-Alley meditations," the saying having become proverbial, perhaps, for ruffianly language, as the locality was, no doubt, notorious for its bad characters.]
SIR OLIVER SMALL-SHANKS. JUSTICE TUTCHIN. THOMAS SMALL-SHANKS. WILLIAM SMALL-SHANKS. BOUTCHER. LIEUTENANT BEARD. THROAT. CAPTAIN FACE.[319] DASH. THREE GENTLEMEN. A DRAWER. CONSTABLE _and_ OFFICERS.
LADY SOMMERFIELD. CONSTANTIA SOMMERFIELD. FRANCES. TAFFATA. ADRIANA. CHAMBERMAID.
[319] This character is sometimes called Captain _Face_ and sometimes Captain _Puff_ in the body of the play, and probably the former is according to the intention of the author, as it so stands in the _Dramatis Personæ_, and as he is spoken of by the widow Taffata as Captain Face. Ben Jonson names the housekeeper in his Alchymist _Face_.--_Collier._
Home-bred mirth our Muse doth sing; The satyr's tooth and waspish sting, Which most do hurt, when least suspected, By this play are not affected. But if conceit with quick-turn'd scenes, Observing all those ancient streams, Which from the Horse-foot fount do flow,[320] As time, place, person: and to show Things never done with that true life, That thoughts and wits should stand at strife. Whether the things now shown be true, Or whether we ourselves now do The tilings we but present: if these, Free from the loathsome stage disease, (So overworn, so tir'd and stale, Not satirising but to rail) May win your favours, and inherit But calm acceptance for his merit: He vows by Paper, Pen, and Ink, And by the learned Sisters' drink, To spend his time, his lamps, his oil, And never cease his brain to toil, Till from the silent hours of night He doth produce for your delight Conceits so new, so harmless free, That Puritans themselves may see A play, yet not in public preach, That players such lewd doctrine teach, That their pure joints do quake and tremble, When they do see a man resemble The picture of a villain: this, As he a friend to Muses is, To you by me he gives his word; Is all his play doth now afford.