7 miscarry die prematurely, without continuing the family line

16 presently now

17 Three thousand florins Roughly equivalent to £250; a substantial but not lavish annual income for a landed gentleman.

20 free passage access to speak to Annabella

27 s.d. ed.; after line 28 in Q

27 in good time at the appropriate moment, ‘as if on cue’

29 s.p. POGGIO Q. The implied stage action has Bergetto rushing across the stage, a man with his mind on the fairground and anxious to get there quickly, while Poggio follows calling after: he may just be struggling to keep up (the verb to podge, which is echoed in his name, means to dawdle), or he may be giving Bergetto a gentle hint not to rush rudely past his uncle. All other editors since Weber reassign the line to Donado, primarily because it is uncharacteristic for Poggio to address his master by name; but this makes good enough sense either as a lapse of courtesy in the haste of the moment or a calculated way of getting Bergetto’s attention and so forestalling the faux pas he is about to commit.

30–1 news… mint the newest news. The reference to the mint is double-edged: Bergetto means it to suggest the news’s authenticity (in that the mint is the source of the currency), but minting is also a process of fabrication.

34 uncle, ed. (uncle? Q)

35–6 to make… sandbags This probably refers to a perpetual motion machine.

37–39 a strange horse… tail is A famous fairground fraud: punters were charged to see this wondrous animal, which turned out to be an ordinary horse with its tail tied to a manger (where its head would normally be).

41 barber Barbers were notorious purveyors of false news, so the line can be played with sardonic irony, introducing the possibility that Poggio is somewhat brighter than Bergetto. forsooth truly

42 thither ed. (hither Q)

45 puppet-play another traditional fairground entertainment

46 wilt… wilt ed. (wu’t… wu’t Q)

46 May-game laughing-stock

49 still constantly abroad out of doors

51 hobby-horses trivial pastimes; but the word also meant ‘prostitutes’, so Donado may alternatively suspect that Bergetto has ulterior motives for going out, which would compromise his suit to Annabella

53 Uds sa’ me an oath, minced from ‘God save me’

58 parmesan (Q Parmasent). Probably an Italian style of drinking (OED B.2) rather than an absurd reference to parmesan cheese (though the latter tends to raise a bigger laugh in the modern theatre).

71 glory He means ‘shame’; this kind of ignorant misapplication of words had been a common source of comedy in drama since Shakespeare’s time.

72 white boy a term of endearment for a favourite child

72 gulled duped, conned (i.e. deprived of his inheritance by fraud)

74 fit her answer her aptly

75–76 prose ed. (Ah … nature, / Well… still Q)

80 enclose… letter Envelopes were not used in the seventeenth century: the paper of the letter itself will be folded around the jewel to make a small packet, and then sealed with wax.