_Bullen._--A vigorous pamphleteer of the preceding age.
Title. _Wit and Will_ is the first of the 'five discourses.' Below, in the second motto, 'Vir_e_s' should of course be 'vir_u_s,' being no doubt a mere misprint.
_Gods forbod._--Dr. Grosart 'forbobod,' which appears a _vox nihili_. 'Past all gods forbod' seems to be pretty much = our 'past all praying for.'
_Then_ (as constantly and not to be noticed hereafter) = 'than.'
_Byrd._ Apparently not in the sense in which 'byrd' or 'burd' is used by the ballad poets, for that is always of a girl, and Will is 'he.'
_Buts length._--The ordinary distance between targets.
_Flights shotte._--As far as the bow will carry.
Will's Latin here and elsewhere is a good deal better than his modern languages.
_Corsi[v]e_ = 'corrosive,' something that frets and worries.
_Labra_, copies _labe_; either a mere misprint or a blunder for _labea_ = _labia_, regardless of the verse. Latin is often very carelessly printed in these tracts.
_Wearied._--'Weary' and 'worry' have no real connection, but the former is close in spelling and sound to 'wirian,' the O.E. form of the latter.
_Nips_, etc., cant names for different classes of sharpers and thieves.
_Ball._--Said to be a play on the proper name of Greene's mistress and her brother.
The allotment and discussion of the parts in this tirade as belonging to Marlowe and others of the earlier contemporaries of Shakespeare have employed much ink, and need no more.
_Young Iuuenall_ is apparently Lodge: 'thou no lesse deseruing' Peele.
_Barnabe Barnes_, the author of _Parthenophil and Parthenophe_, was no despicable minor poet; the others were less known to fame, and a future page (175) tells most that is known about them.
_Ale cunners._--'Conners or kenners,' the official inspectors of Beer.
A _reache_ is an advantage. By 'fiue and a reache,' either card and dice sharping or pocket-picking must be meant.
Here Nash takes his customary side in the Marprelate business.
_Ram Alley_, the great locality for cook-shops.
The _Old Swanne_, still known on the river as a pier and starting-place.
_Lambeake._ The simple verb 'lam,' surviving in 'lam into him,' had divers compounds--'lambaste,' 'lambeak,' (_v. ante_) and the like.