Note 1774 — BOOK IV THE PLAY-HOUSES (continued 5)
Reading edition
1 Ant. Mellida (Paul’s), prol., ‘select and most respected auditors’; What You Will (Paul’s), ind., ‘the female presence, the genteletza, the women’; Jack Drum’s Entertainment (Paul’s), ind., ‘this choise selected influence’. But it was still mixed enough; cf. Jonson’s c. v. to Faithful Shepherdess (Revels, c. 1608–9):
The wise and many-headed bench that sits Upon the life and death of plays and wits— Composed of gamester, captain, knight, knight’s man, Lady or pusill that wears mask or fan, Velvet or taffata cap, rank’d in the dark With the shop’s foreman, or some such brave spark, That may judge for his sixpence.