ACT III.
Scene 1. Page 398.
Sim. Marry, sir, the city-ward——
"The old editions read pittie-ward, the modern editors pitty-wary," says Mr. Steevens, who in this edition has abandoned the best part of a former note where he had proposed to read petty-ward, which is the right word, and of the same import as the old one. That such a word formerly existed is demonstrable from its still remaining as a proper name, and near Wimbledon is a wood so called, probably from the owner. Mr. Steevens mistakes in supposing ward to mean towards in this instance, where it is put for the division of a city; nor does his quotation from William of Worcester assist him. The via de Petty and the Pyttey gate might be named after the hundred of Pyttey in Somersetshire. In Lyne's Map of Cambridge, 1574, we find the petticurie.
Scene 1. Page 399.
Evans. I will knog his urinals about his knave's costard——
This utensil was the usual concomitant of physicians in former times, as appears from most of the frontispieces to old medical books and other ancient prints.
Scene 2. Page 410.
Host. ... he smells April and May.
The same as if he had said he smells of youth and courtship, symbolized by these months, the former of which in old calendars is described in these lines: