Note 909 — SCENE II.

like a bold Beacham] As bold as Beauchamp is a proverbial expression, said to have originated in the valour of Thomas, first earl of Warwick of that name, “who (says Ray, after Fuller), in the year 1346, with one squire and six archers, fought in hostile manner with an hundred armed men, at Hogges in Normandy, and overthrew them, slaying sixty Normans, and giving the whole fleet means to land.” Proverbs, p. 219, ed. 1742.—Follywit, however, seems to allude to one of the characters in a celebrated drama, produced before 1600, called The bold Beauchamps, which is frequently mentioned by our early writers: it no longer exists. The author of the false Second Part of Hudibras, 1663, canto 1. (in some lines quoted by Collier, Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 425), attributes it to Heywood; but his authority is of little weight.