12 bauble trifle, play-thing

13-14 dares not show his head we do not know the reason for the merchant’s fear; but Dekker may have had in mind the recent expulsion from England in 1597 of Hanseatic merchants, who were similarly forced to sell their remaining goods.

16-17 reasonable day of payment fair time in which to raise the money

19 porpentines porcupines (Firk’s malapropism for ‘portagues’)

20 earnest-penny down payment

22 Saint Mary Overy church in Southwark, so called because it was ‘over’ the river

25 Monday’s our holiday ‘Cobbler’s Monday’ (a traditional holiday for shoemakers in many parts of England)

26 Sir Sauce Margery’s formal version of ‘saucy youth’ (a common way of addressing an impudent person) beshrew curse

29 take down humiliate

35-6 bombast-cotton-candle quean see note to 1.209

36 Queen of Clubs physically aggressive troublemaker, with a pun on both the playing card and the apprentices’ conventional rallying cry of ‘Clubs’ (see note to 18.30). 40 pass? ed. (passe, Q1)

42 Prince . . . born Deloney’s Gentle Craft offers a similar motto: ‘A Shoemaker’s son is a prince born’.

44 kitchen-stuff dripping; general refuse of the kitchen

46 sort bunch, gang

48 venentory Firk’s malapropism for ‘inventory’.

51 more maids than Malkin proverbial (Tilley, M39); Malkin was a common name for a girl.

55-6 Turk . . . shoot at see note to scene 1.61. Effigies of Turks and other ‘infidels’ were sometimes used as archery targets.

59 Rip get out

59-60 brown-bread tannikin brown-bread was disparaged for its coarseness; tannikin was a diminutive form of ‘Anne’, and often applied derogatorily to Dutch or German girls.

60 Move anger

63-4 powder-beef quean cf. note to 4.4.

66 chitterling sausage 66-7 Boar’s Head possibly the same tavern as the famous Eastcheap inn of the same name in Shakespeare’s Henry the Fourth.

72 Mesopotamians one of Eyre’s many extravagant terms of address.

81 Yerk pull the stitches tight

83 from the bias off the point (cf. note to 1.85)

85 give earnest make the down-payment

90-1 Skellum-Skanderbag-can-you-Dutch-spreaken i.e. the skipper. Skellum is probably Firk’s version of the German ‘schelm’ (rogue or scoundrel); Skanderbag was the name of a legendary fifteenth-century Albanian fighter against the Turks, Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbag, also known as Iskender Bey (Turkish for Lord Alexander).

91-2cypress . . . sugar-candy Firk garbles the skipper’s account of the ship’s goods (lines 1-3). ‘Cypress’ is a fabric, originally from Cyprus.

93 s.d. (after 92 Q1)

94 guarded ornamented around the borders

96-7 seal-ring . . . damask cassock These two accessories also appear in Deloney’s rather different account of the episode. See Appendix, p. 119.

98 proud . . . doublet proverbial (Tilley, D452); used to designate something ridiculous or unconventional.

99 beaten embroidered with metal

100 for . . . nap in case you ruffle the threads of cloth at the surface

104 give you the wall allow you to pass on the inside (the position nearest the wall was the safest in terms of cleanliness and vulnerability to attack)