159 midriff ed. (Midasse, Q1)

Cecily Bumtrinket Eyre later uses this name to refer to Margery’s maid (4.32), but here applies it to Margery herself. The name is used by several early modern playwrights as a disparaging term for any female.

161 Tawsoone ed. (Too soone, Q1); from Welsh Taw son, ‘hold your tongue’

165 Termagant ‘Name of an imaginary deity held in medieval Christendom to be worshipped by Muslims: in the mystery plays represented as a violent overbearing personage’ (O.E.D.).

166-7 Lord of Ludgate Simon Eyre’s favourite oath; he uses it again at line 215 in this scene, and at 4.65, 7.33-4, 17.34, and 21.16. Presumably a reference to King Lud, the mythical pagan king supposed to have rebuilt London in the time of the Romans. A statue of Lud and his two sons, in Roman gear, stood on the east side of Ludgate in Dekker’s time; another statue of Queen Elizabeth stood on the west side. The gate was also used as a debtors’ prison. See Introduction, pp. xix-xxv.

167 tall valiant dapper skilful

171 gull fool not ed. (omitted Q1)

172 hap fortune

174 for because of

175 A . . . him i.e. he will be accorded more respect than recruits usually get

181 stirrup shoemaker’s strap

182 gimlet penetrating tool (lending itself to bawdy interpretation)

188 s.d. (after ‘thither’ Q1)

189 parasite servant; with associations of scheming, like the notorious ‘parasite’ Mosca in Ben Jonson’s Volpone.

190 arrant’st varlet most unmitigated rascal

192 pickthank sycophantic

193 salved remedied

197 colours regimental standard

198 there is (Q2; theres Q1) 202 as verse ed. (prose in Q1)

203 groats fourpenny coins (worthless when damaged)

mustard tokens substitute and hence virtually worthless coins; also a synonym for the yellow spots of plague

208 card comb or tease wool to prepare it for spinning

209 bombast-cotton-candle quean pricey wench (bombast is cotton-wool, expensive candles had cotton wicks, and quean is a prostitute). The term is a standard item from Eyre’s lexicon of playful abuse; he uses it again at 7.35-6 in relation to Margery.

212 cordwainers leather-workers (deriving from Cordoba in Spain, a source of good leather); a common term for shoemakers, to distinguish them from mere ‘cobblers’. Saint Martins the parish of St Martin-le-Grand, a centre for shoemaking

213 Bedlam Bethelem Hospital, a lunatic asylum outside Bishopsgate; like the previous two locations, the area around the hospital may have been a shoemaking district.

214 crowns heads, with a quibble on ‘French crown’, meaning a) a kind of coin, b) the French king, and c) a bald head caused by the ‘French disease’, i.e. syphilis; this last association is apparent also in line 221.

218 wash our souls buy us a drink

219 basa mon cues Firk’s malapropism for ‘baisez mon cul’, i.e. kiss-my-arse, a derogatory term for the French.

220 heavy sad

221 slops breeches

230 pinked perforated for eyelets (and decorated in the shape of Jane’s initials)

235 moe more

1 flow’ry bank Henslowe’s 1598 inventory of stage properties includes two ‘moss banks’ (p. 320), one of the few pieces of scenery used on the otherwise bare Elizabethan stage. See Introduction, pp. xiv.