Merry Wives of Windsor
Act I Sc. 1
“The Council shall hear of it; it is a riot.”
The metre requires of, which makes the expression more idiomatic. Sir Hugh naturally omits it.
“And I thank you always with my heart la!”
The folio reads ‘love you’; the correction is Farmer’s. So also in Shallow’s next speech.
Sc. 3
“The good humour is to steal at a minute’s rest.”
As “minim’s rest” occurs in Rom. and Jul. ii. 1, Langton and Collier’s folio would so read here; but it may be, and probably is, a mere blunder of Nym’s.
“He hath studied her well, and translated her well.”
The folio reads will; in both places the 4tos have ‘well’ in the first, and omit it in the last.
“Hold, sirrah, bear you these two letters tightly.”
“For the revolt of mine is dangerous.”
For ‘the’ we must, with Pope, read this. We have, “For this revolt of thine” (Hen. V. ii. 1). Theobald, whom some critics follow, read mien for ‘mine,’ which I utterly reject. (See on Two Gent. ii. 4.) I do not think ‘revolt’ occurs anywhere in the sense of mere change.