To covet so much deer,
When horns enough upon his head,
Most plainly did appear.
Had not his Worship one deer left?
What then? He had a wife
Took pains enough to find him horns
Should last him during life."[406:A]
The quibble upon the word deer in these lines strongly tends to authenticate them as a genuine production of our bard; for he has in more places than one of his dramas amused himself with a similar jingle: thus in the First Part of Henry the Sixth, allowing this play to have issued from his pen, Talbot, encouraging his forces, exclaims
"Sell every man his life as dear as mine,
And they shall find dear deer of us my friends;"[406:B]