]
[196] [Old copy, _in a loath'd_.]
[197] [Own, from the Latin _proprius_.]
[198] _To lie at the ward_ was, and is still, a term in fencing; thus
Fairfax, translating the fight between Tancred and Argantes in the 6th
book of Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered," says--
"Close _at his surest ward_ each champion _lieth_."
--"Godfrey of Bulloigne," 1600.
[199] The _exit_ of Salisbury is not marked, but it of course takes
place here.
[200] It seems singular that the author of this play should confound two
such persons as the Shoemaker of Bradford, who made all comers "vail
their staves," and George-a-Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield; yet such is
the case in the text. The exploits of both are celebrated in the play of
"The Pinner of Wakefield" (in Dyce's editions of Greene's Works), which
seems to have been popular. Nevertheless Henslowe in his MSS. speaks of
George-a-Greene as one dramatic piece, and of "The Pinner of Wakefield"
as another, as if they were two distinct heroes. See "Malone's
Shakespeare," by Boswell, iii. 300. Munday also makes Scathlock and
Scarlet two separate persons. [Munday does not confound the Pinder of
Wakefield with the Bradford hero, for he expressly distinguishes between
them; but he errs in giving the latter the name of George-a-Greene.
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