Note 259 — ACT I. SCENE I.

footmen to noblemen and others] When this play was written many English “noblemen and others” had Irish running footmen in their service. So in Cupid’s Whirligig, ed. 1616, “Come, thou hast such a running wit, ’tis like an Yrish foote boy,” sig. E 3; in Brathwait’s Strappado for the Diuell, 1615,

“For see those thin breech Irish lackies runne,” p. 191;

and in Dekker’s English Villanies six several times prest to death by the printers, &c., 1632, “The Deuils foote-man was very nimble of his heeles, for no wild Irish-man could outrunne him, sig. B 4. It appears (see note on A Fair Quarrel, act iv. sc. 4) that these Irish footmen used to carry “darts” in their hands.