FOOTNOTES: [3] A word defaced in the manuscript. MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. ACT I. SCENE 1. Page 309. SLEN. She has brown hair, and _speaks small like a woman_. It may be doubted whether the _real humour_ of this speech has been pointed out. Does it not consist in Slender's characterizing Ann Page by a property belonging to himself, and which renders him ridiculous? The audience would naturally smile at hearing him deliver the speech in an effeminate tone of voice. SCENE 1. Page 314. FAL. But not kiss'd your keeper's daughter. This has the appearance of a fragment of some old ballad. SCENE 1. Page 317. PIST. He hears with ears. EVA. The tevil and his tarn! what phrase is this, _he hears with ear_? Why it is affectations. If, according to Mr. Henderson, Sir Hugh be justified in his censure of this phrase as a pleonasm, we must also censure the parson in his turn for having forgot that the common prayer would have furnished an example of Pistol's language. See also _Jerem._ xxvi. 11. SCENE 1. Page 317. SLEN. Seven groats in _mill-sixpences_, and two _Edward shovel-boards_ that cost me two shillings and twopence apiece. These sixpences were coined in 1561, and are the first milled money used in this kingdom. The invention is due to the French, and was introduced here by a native of France, who misapplied his talents by private coining, and suffered the penalty of the law. That seven groats could be lost in sixpences must be placed to the account of Master Slender's simplicity of wit. With respect to the _Edward shovel-boards_:--Mr. Malone's inference from the reading in the old quarto that "Slender means the broad _shilling_ of _one of our kings_," is sufficiently maintained by the other notes; but that it was the shilling of _Edward the Sixth_ there is no doubt, no _other_ Edward having coined such a piece of money. It still remains to explain how these shillings could have cost Master Slender two and twopence apiece; because, if Dr. Farmer's quotation from Folkes had gone far enough, it would have appeared that the thick shillings mentioned by that writer were _pattern-pieces_, even originally of great rarity, and never in circulation. Folkes could have seen very few of such pieces, and it would be extremely difficult at present to find a single one; whereas the common shillings of Edward the Sixth remain in great numbers. We must suppose then that the shillings purchased of the miller had been hoarded by him, and were in high preservation, and heavier than those which had been worn in circulation. These would consequently be of greater importance to a nice player at the game of shovel-board, and induce him, especially if an opulent man, to procure them at a price far beyond their original value. SCENE 1. Page 321.