This couplet is not in the ballad, which is the complaint, not of a woman forsaken, but of a man rejected. These lines were probably added when it was accommodated to a woman.
IV.iii.94 (493,6) our former having] Our former allowance of experience.
IV.iii.107 (493,7) heaven me such usage send] —heaven me such uses send,] Such is the reading of the folio, and of the subsequent editions; but the old quarto has,
—such usage send.—
Usage is an old word for custom, and, I think, better than uses.
V.i.11 (494,1) I have rubb'd this young quat almost to the sense] In some editions,
I've rubb'd this young gnat almost to the sense,
And he grows angry.]
This is a passage much controverted among the editors. Sir T. Hanner reads quab, a gudgeon; not that a gudgeon can be rubbed to much sense, but that a man grossly deceived is often called a gudgeon. Mr. Upton reads quail, which he proves, by much learning, to be a very choleric bird. Dr. Warburton retains gnat, which is found in the early quarto. Theobald would introduce knot, a small bird of that name. I have followed the text of the folio, and third and fourth quartos.
A quat in the midland counties is a pimple, which by rubbing is made to smart, or is rubbed to sense. Roderigo is called a quat by the same mode of speech, as a low fellow is now termed in lay language a scab. To rub to the sense, is to rub to the quick.