Anc. Yes, and in the quantity.
Moll. Why, then, I pray, keep the quantity of your wit from the quality of my maidenhead, and you shall find my maidenhead more than your wit.
Anc. A witty maidenhead, by this hand. [Exeunt severally.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Refuse me, or God refuse me, appears to have been among the fashionable modes of swearing in our author's time. So in "The White Devil," act i. sc. 1, Flamineo says, God refuse me. Again, in "A Dogge of Warre," by Taylor the Water-poet, Works, 1630, p. 229—
"Some like Dominicall Letters goe,
In scarlet from the top to toe,
Whose valours talke and smoake all;
Who make (God sink 'em) their discourse
Refuse, Renounce, or Dam that's worse:
I wish a halter choake all."
Again, in "The Gamester," by Shirley, Wilding says, "Refuse me, if I did."
[2] Not is omitted in the 4o.—Collier.
[3] See [Randolph's Works, by Hazlitt, p. 179.]
[4] See note to "The Heir," [vol. xi. 535.]