[I.25] The text of the First Folio needs no emendation. It is good prose and involves a neat pun.
[I.26] proper: goodly, handsome. This word has often this meaning in Elizabethan literature, and is still so used in provincial England. Cf. The Tempest, II, ii, 63; Hebrews (King James version), xi, 23; Burns's The Jolly Beggars: "And still my delight is in proper young men."
[I.27] trod upon neat's-leather. This expression and "as proper a man as" are repeated in the second scene of the second act of The Tempest.—neat's-leather: ox-hide. 'Neat' is Anglo-Saxon neát, 'ox,' 'cow,' 'cattle,' and is still used in 'neat-herd,' 'neat's-foot oil.' See The Winter's Tale, I, ii, 125. The form 'nowt' is still in common use in the North of England and the South of Scotland. Cf. Burns's The Twa Dogs: "To thrum guitars an' fecht wi nowte."
[I.28] l. 34 Two lines in Ff.
[I.29] Many a time and oft. This form of emphasis occurs also in The Merchant of Venice, I, iii, 107. Cf. Timon of Athens, III, i, 25.
[I.30] Pompey? Many ... oft Have Rowe | Pompey many ... oft? Have Ff.
[I.31] windows, Rowe | Windowes? Ff.
[I.32] Rome: Ff | Rome? Rowe.
[I.33] That: so that. For the omission of 'so' before 'that,' see Abbott, § 283.
[I.34] her | his Rowe.