III.
Line 13. It is bootles, etc.—Puns on the different meanings of the word boot are very common in Elizabethan writers, and the relevant use of the one frequently entails the irrelevant introduction of the other. See, for example, Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1, 27, etc.:
"Pro. Over the boots? Nay, give me not the boots.
Val. No, I will not, for it boots thee not."
And Every Man in his Humour, i. 3, 30, etc.:
"Brai. Why, you may ha' my master's gelding, to save your longing, sir.
Step. But I ha' no boots, that's the spite on't.
Brai. Why, a fine wisp of hay roll'd hard, Master Stephen.
Step. No, faith, it's no boot to follow him now."
"Give me not the boots" = "do not make a laughing-stock of me."
Line 48. Ioynd stooles.—The word joint-stool, meaning a seat made with joints, a folding-chair, is sometimes spelt join'd stool in old editions of Shakespeare. The porter's use of this form is probably intended to convey a jest; ioynd stooles is here equivalent to stooles joined to one another, and the term is used as a facetious synonym for bench.