419. _Wyl_, edit. 1569. Neither edition reads _wyl_, nor _wil_, but _wolde.--Collier_.
420. The oldest copy has it "as _nyche_ as ye wyll," and the edition of 1569, "as nie as ye wilt;" perhaps the meaning is "as _much_ as you will."--Collier. [More probably _nice_, which word seems to have borne a somewhat different pronunciation formerly. Compare a passage in Ingelend's "Disobedient Child"--
"Even as to a greate man, wealthy and ryche, Service and bondage is a harde thynge, So to a boye, both dayntie and _nyce_,"
where _nyce_ must be pronounced _nyche_, though not so spelled.]
423. Ready; _pret_, Fr. So in "Caesar and Pompey," 1607:
"What must be; Caesar's _prest_ for all."
See a note on "The Merchant of Venice," A. 1, S. 1.--_S_. Again Churchyard's "Challenge," 1593, p. 80--
"Then shall my mouth, my muse, my pen, and all, Be _prest_ to serve at each good subject's call." Cynthia's "Revels," A. 5, S. 4--
424. The reckoning. See Mr Steevens's note to "The First Part of King Henry IV.," A. 5, S. 3.
Again, in Churchyard's "Worthiness of Wales"--
"Behold besides, a further thing to note, The best cheap cheare they have that may be found; The _shot_ is great when each man pais his groate, If all alike the reckoning runneth round."
425. The third edition reads _swynking_. See note 26 to "Gammer Qurton's Needle," vol. ii.
426. In Sir John Hawkins's "History of Musick," vol. iii., p. 466, a passage, in Tusser's "Five Hundred Points of Husbandry," 1580, is cited, in which this line occurs--
upon which he makes this observation: "In singing the Bound is originally produced by the action of the lungs, which are so essential an organ in this respect, that to have a good _breast_ was formerly a common periphrasis to denote a good singer. The Italians make use of the terms _Voce di Petto_ and _Voce di Testa_ to signify two kinds of voice, of which the first is the best. In Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night,' after the clown is asked to sing, Sir Andrew Aguecheek says--
'By my troth, the fool hath an excellent _breast_'
And in the statutes of Stoke College, in Suffolk, founded by Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, is a provision in these words: 'Of which said queristers, after their _breasts_ are changed (i.e., their voices broke), we will the most apt of wit and capacity be holpen with exhibitions of forty shillings,'" &c.