[I.15] in respect of: in comparison with. So in The Psalter (Book of Common Prayer), xxxix, 6. Cf. Hamlet, V, ii, 120.
[I.16] cobbler. This word was used of a coarse workman, or a bungler, in any mechanical trade. So the Cobbler's answer does not give the information required, though it contains a quibble.
[I.17] in a straightforward manner, without evasion.
[I.18] soles | soules F1F2 | soals F4.
[I.19] soles. The First Folio spelling, 'soules,' brings out the pun. This 'immemorial quibble,' as Craik calls it, is found also in The Merchant of Venice, IV, i, 123: "Not on thy sole, but on thy soul."
[I.20] Flavius | Fla. Ff | Mur. Capell | Mar. Globe Camb.
[I.21] Modern editors give this speech to Marullus, but the Folio arrangement is more natural and dramatic, the two Tribunes alternately rating the people, as Knight puts it, like two smiths smiting on the same anvil.
[I.22] A quibble upon two common meanings of 'out'—(1) 'at variance,' as in "Launcelot and I are out," The Merchant of Venice, III, v, 34; and (2) as in 'out at heels,' or 'out at toes.'
[I.23] Marullus | Mur. Ff.
[I.24] withal I F1 | withall I F2F3 | withawl. I (Farmer's conj.) Camb Globe | with all. I Capell.