5 gain another world achieve a place in heaven

7 cousin kinsman

11 s.d. It is unclear when Annabella opens the letter; inside it she will find the jewel mentioned at I.iii.81.

14 first sleep sleep during the first part of the night (after which a person might wake and take drink before sleeping again). The first sleep was thought to be associated with dreams, especially, in young women, erotic ones; compare Lording Barry, Ram Alley, 1483–6: ‘When maids awaked from their first sleep, / Deceived with dreams, began to weep / And think, if dreams such pleasures know, / What sport the substance then would show.’

17 Godamercy Thank you

18 prithee please

22 feeling… mind understanding of your intentions (punning on the tangible reward she has just received)

27 read it me oblige me by reading it (silently), not read it (aloud) to me; Florio uses the grammatical inflection known as the ethical dative, common in the seventeenth century but now obsolete, which is used to imply indirect involvement in an action. here right straight away

36–9 Perhaps Florio infers from Annabella’s polite words (lines 32–4) that she is genuinely interested in Bergetto.

44 match marry

46 What say? What do you say?

47 Please… freedom Punctuation as in Q; some other editors (beginning with Gifford in 1827) end the line with a question mark. This is not a necessary intervention, since Annabella may be using ‘please’ in the sense OED 3c, implying ‘May it please you’; its effect is to make her appear less forward, more uncertain with her father than if, as here and in Q, the line is played as a statement, have’t ed. (haue Q)

50 i.e. he is wasting his time

54 plain dealing frank honesty

57 s.d. ed.; after line 58 in Q

59 what… here? what’s he doing here?

60 sirs This must be addressed to Florio and Donado, the only two men already on stage when Bergetto and Poggio enter; probably the scene should be staged in such a way that Bergetto cannot initially see Donado’s face.

64 I – tickled Q’s dash may be intended to indicate inarticulacy, as Bergetto gropes for the right word.

65–6 But… Sweetheart This passage is open to many different interpretations in performance; which is chosen will depend on the director’s and actors’ broader understanding of the two characters and the relationship between them. If ‘Sirrah’ is taken to be spoken to Poggio, as punctuated here, then Poggio’s preceding remark can be spoken aloud; Bergetto’s response need not mean that he recognizes the inappropriateness of the bawdy reference to heavy petting – he could just be irritated at the interruption. Other editors take Q’s ‘Sirrah Sweetheart’ to be an inept form of address to Annabella, and accordingly make Poggio’s line an aside, either spoken to Bergetto (Dyce) or directly to the audience (Lomax).

67 riddle guess

70 take… me The ruffian forced Bergetto away from the wall and towards the middle of the street. The preferred walking position in seventeenth-century city streets was alongside the wall, because the drainage gutter or ‘kennel’ ran down the middle, making that part of the street not only wet but filthy; it was considered polite to step aside from the wall for someone of higher rank than yourself, whereas ‘taking the wall’ was considered offensive and sometimes provoked street-fights.

73 hilts Probably a colloquial rather than an ignorant usage, though it is not recorded in OED.

78 gull fool

81 here ’tis This moment is open to two distinct stagings, depending on whether or not Bergetto’s ‘plaster’ (a bandage, larger than a modern band-aid) is already visible to the audience and characters. Nobody remarks on it when he enters (unless this is a latent secondary meaning of Donado’s ‘coxcomb’ in line 59), which might be out of politeness or might be because they actually cannot see it. In the latter case Bergetto is probably wearing a hat, which he now removes to show the bandage. Alternatively, ‘here ’tis’ could be played as a comically fatuous line drawing attention to something that is already obvious.

86 la now an emphatic expression with no particular meaning

89 O, uncle This could be played either as an indication of Bergetto’s irrepressibility (as punctuated here) or a response to Donado’s previous comment (‘O uncle!’).

93 liked pleased

99 given … the lie To tell someone they were lying (‘give the lie’) was a grave insult which usually led to a duel. dry hard, severe

103 lineation ed. (Indeed / Shee … Judgement Q)

108 half-a-crown apiece Half-a-crown (2s. 6d.) was about twice the going rate for prostitutes in mid-seventeenth-century England; Bergetto is probably not speaking from experience.

110–14 lineation ed. (prose in Q)

111 recourse access

113 ’gainst in anticipation of (with the expectation that the jewel will be worn on the wedding day, hence Giovanni’s reaction at line 128)

117–20 Son… off lineation ed. (prose in Q)

119 humour quirk of personality

120 match appropriate marriage

122 the man … like my preferred candidate among the suitors

125–31 Putana is still present on stage during this exchange.

126–7 A lusty… Donado The passage is open to two distinct interpretations. As punctuated here, Annabella ironically calls old Donado a youth, expecting Giovanni’s complicity in the joke and not yet recognizing how far the gift of the ring has irritated him. Alternatively, ‘a lusty youth’ could be the teasing fiction and ‘Signor Donado’ the harmless truth; this interpretation requires a stronger pause after ‘youth’, in which her playfulness evaporates as she realizes she may have gone too far.

126–9 A … again lineation ed. (A… me / To … Marriage. /But… againe Q)