Note 226 — SCENE II.

The country has been laid, means that the country has been way-laid for the purpose of catching him. This was the common mode of expression at the time, as appears from Middleton's "Chaste Maid in Cheapside," 1630, and other authorities—

"Lay the water-side—she's gone for ever else!"

Again, in the same play—

"My mother's gone to lay the common staires."

—Collier.