[308] Probably we ought to read, Now bear with me.—Collier. This is hardly satisfactory, yet the true reading is difficult to guess at.
[309] [Edits., speak.]
[310] [Edits., Jenert's bank, which Steevens defends and explains. Mine Host, it should be observed, talks much at random; but surely Jenert's bank is rank nonsense.]
"I once suspected this passage of corruption, but have found reason to change my opinion. The merry Host seems willing to assemble ideas expressive of trust and confidence. The old quartos begin the word jenert with a capital letter, and therefore we may suppose Jenert's bank to have been the shop of some banker, in whose possession money could be deposited with security. The Irish still say, as sure as Burton's Bank; and our own countrymen, as safe as the Bank of England. We might read my house, instead of my horse, as the former agrees better with castle. The services of a horse are of all things the most uncertain."—Steevens.
[311] i.e., Of a disease peculiar to horses. So in Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew"—
"His horse sped with spavins, rayed with the yellows."
—Steevens. [See Dyce's Shakesp. Gloss. in v.]
[312] Edits., manger.
[313] [Tobacco.]
[314] See note to "The Spanish Tragedy," [v. 31].