Chapter 123

“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.

“The Fair Maid Of The Inn.”