“Wit at Several Weapons”
Act i. Oldcraft’s speech:—
“I’m arm’d at all points,” &c.
It would be very easy to restore all this passage to metre, by supplying a sentence of four syllables, which the reasoning almost demands, and by correcting the grammar. Read thus:—
“Arm’d at all points ’gainst treachery, I hold
My humour firm. If, living, I can see thee
Thrive by thy wits, I shall have the more courage,
Dying, to trust thee with my lands. If not,
The best wit, I can hear of, carries them.
For since so many in my time and knowledge,
Rich children of the city, have concluded
For lack of wit in beggary, I’d rather
Make a wise stranger my executor,
Than a fool son my heir, and have my lands call’d
After my wit than name: and that’s my nature!”
Ib. Oldcraft’s speech:—
“To prevent which I have sought out a match for her.”
Read—
“Which to prevent I’ve sought a match out for her.”
Ib. Sir Gregory’s speech:—
... “Do you think
I’ll have any of the wits hang upon me after I am married once?”
Read it thus:—
... “Do you think
That I’ll have any of the wits to hang
Upon me after I am married once?”
and afterwards—
... “Is it a fashion in London
To marry a woman, and to never see her?”
The superfluous “to” gives it the Sir Andrew Ague-cheek character.