Note 826 — SCENE IV.

footmen ... Irish dart] See note, p 131. An allusion to the darts carried by the Irish running footmen occurs at p. 176. In Field’s Amends for Ladies, 1618 (reprinted by Mr. Collier in a supplementary volume to Dodsley’s Old Plays), is a stage-direction, “Enter Maid, like an Irish foot-boy with a dart,” act ii. sc. 3, where the editor observes, “the dart ... was perhaps intended as an indication of the country from which they came, as being part of the accoutrements of the native Irish: thus, in the description of the dumb-shew preceding act ii. of The Misfortunes of Arthur, we find the following passage; ‘after which there came a man bare-headed, with long black shagged hair down to his shoulders, apparelled with an Irish jacket and shirt, having an Irish dagger by his side, and a dart in his hand.’”