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for a seller, when he is bid what he thinks too little for his goods, to say, I will not leave them for that money.

P. 223.-175.-273.

I hope my master's suit will be but cold,

Since she respects my mistress' love so much.

Malone is right; there is no occasion for changing my to his.

THE

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

P. 241.-191.-303.

Shall. Sir Hugh, persuade me not.

It is so likewise in the university of Oxford.

P. 241.-191.-304.

Shall. Ay, Cousin Slender, and Cust-alorum,

I agree with Dr. Johnson. How a mode of abbreviation "not authorised by any precedent," should be intended to be ridiculed, I do not conceive. If the intention had been to ridicule legal abbreviations it would have been Cust. Rot.

P. 246.-194.-310.

Shal. Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?
Eva. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny.
Shal. I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts.

I think these two speeches are rightly assigned to Shallow.

P. 250.-197.-314.

Shal. The Council shall know this.

Fal. 'Twere better for you, if it were known in counsel :
you'll be laugh'd at.

The modern editors read, if 'twere not known in council, and perhaps rightly.

Slen.

P. 250.-198.-315.

they carried me to the tavern, and made me drunk, and afterwards pick'd my pocket.

Falstaff might have heard before that Slender charged his followers with picking his pocket. I find by Mr. Steevens's note, in the edition of 1793, that he agrees with me.

P. 256.-202.-322.

Slen. I had rather than forty shillings, I had my book
of Songs and Sonnets here:-

Mr. Malone's gratuitous supposition that Lord Surrey's Poems are here meant, reminds me of an old story in a jest book: "A student of Oxford shewing the Museum to some company, one of them enquired the history of an old rusty sword which was there. This, says the student, is the sword with which Balaam was going to kill his ass. I never knew, said the stranger, that Balaam had any sword; I understood that, not having one, he wished for one. You are right, replied the Oxonian, and this is the very sword he wished for."

P. 263.-207.-330.

Host. What says my bully-rook?

I incline to think with Mr. Whalley.

Host.

P. 264.-207.-332.

let me see the froth, and lime.

I see no necessity for the change from live to lime.

P. 267.-209.-335.

Pist. He hath study'd her well, and translated her well;
out of honesty into English.

Nym. The anchor is deep: Will that humour pass?

I believe Mr. Malone is right. The emendation proposed by Dr. Johnson is, however, very ingenious and plausible.

P. 273.-213.-343.

Sim. No, forsooth: he hath but a little wee face

Is certainly right. I find by Mr. Ritson's note in the edition of 1793, that he agrees with me.

P. 280.-219.—351.

Ask me no reason why I love you; for though love
use reason for his precisian, he admits him not for his
counsellor.

I incline to Dr. Johnson's reading. There seems an opposition intended between physician and counsellor.

P. 282.-220.-353.

Why, I'll exhibit a bill in the Parliament for the putting
down of fat men.

Theobald is certainly right.

P. 283.-221.-355.

Mrs. Page. What ?-thou liest !-Sir Alice Ford!-
These knights will hack; and so thou shouldst not alter
the article of thy gentry.

The meaning undoubtedly is, These knights will become so common, that by being knighted you will not be advanced in rank, you will gain nothing in point of precedence. The conjectures of Warburton and Johnson appear to me perfectly ridiculous.

P. 287.-223.-359.

O, that my husband saw this letter, it would give eternal
food to his jealousy.

I think Mr. Steevens is right.

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I know not what to make of this. I am not perfectly satisfied with any thing that is proposed.

P. 295.-228.-367.

Have with you, mine host.

This speech certainly belongs to Shallow. Ford did not go with them.

P. 298.-230.-371.

Fal. I have grated upon my good friends for three re-
prieves for you and your coach-fellow, Nym.

I incline to couch-fellow, but either reading will do.

P. 303.-233.-377.

Quick. Marry, this is the short and the long of it; you
have brought her into such a canaries, as 'tis wonderful.

By canaries Mrs. Quickly certainly means quandaries.

P. 314.-242.-389.

Eleven o'clock the hour.

Malone is right.

P. 317.-244.-394.

Host. A word, monsieur Mock-water.

Caius. Mock-vater! vat is dat?

Host. Mock-water, in our English tongue, is valour,
bully.

I have sometimes thought, that by mock-water the Host (availing himself, as Mr. Malone says, of the Doctor's ignorance of English) means to call Dr. Caius a counterfeit; that is, to insinuate that he is an empiric, and not a regular physician. The colour or complexion of a diamond is called

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