This match shall on, for I intend to prove
Which thrives the best, the mean or lofty love.
Whether fit wedlock vow’d ’twixt like and like,
Or prouder hopes, which daringly o’erstrike 340
Their place and means. ’Tis honest time’s expense,
When seeming lightness bears a moral sense.
Work upon that now.
[Exit.
[5] Compare the turn of this sentence with a passage of The Fawn (vol. ii. p. 181):—“His brother your husband, right; he cuckold his eldest brother, true; he get her with child, just.”
[6] Darling.
[7] An allusion to the proverbial expression, “cut and long tail” (i.e., dogs of every kind).
[8] “Marry, faugh”—a common expression of disgust.
[9] A nickname for a citizen.
[10] “Give arms”—show armorial bearings.
[11] Scraps of Pistol’s rant.—“To the infernal deep with Erebus and tortures vile also,” &c.
[12] The parishes of St. Ewin, St. Nicholas, and part of St. Sepulchre’s were amalgamated into one large parish and called Christ Church. It has been suggested that the reference is to Christ Church in Hampshire!