on this side of the question is from Bulleine's _Dialogue between soarnesse and chirurgi_, 1579, where the _long foining rapier_ is also mentioned as "a _new_ kind of instrument to let blood withall." On the opposite side, Mr. Ritson produces a quotation from Nashe's _Life of Jacke Wilton_, who lived in the reign of Henry the Eighth, to show that _rapiers_ were used at that period. This sort of evidence might appear, on a first view, inadmissible, on the ground that Nashe had committed an error, very common with Shakspeare, in ascribing a custom of his own time to a preceding one, if it were not supported by the manuscript cited by Mr. Steevens in vol. iii. p. 327, in which, but not in the quotation from it, it appears that the _rapier_ actually was in use in the time of Henry the Eighth; and therefore it is impossible to decide that this weapon, which, with its name, we received from the French, might not have been known as early as the reign of Henry the Fourth, or even of Richard the Second. Shallow's ridicule of _passes and stoccadoes_ seems more objectionable, and may possibly deserve the appellation of anachronism. It is not a little remarkable that the _rapier_ was an article of exportation from this country in Cromwell's time. See _Oliverian acts_, A.D. 1657. SCENE 1. Page 369. FORD. Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so firmly on _his_ wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off _my_ opinion so easily: she was in his company, &c. This speech is surely not so obscure as the notes seem to consider it. Ford says that _Page_ makes a firm stand with respect to, or on the question of, _his_ wife's frailty. What follows better deserves explanation, because the grammatical construction of the last sentence is, that _Page's_ wife was in Falstaff's company; whereas Ford means to say, "I cannot put off _my_ opinion, i. e. of _my own wife_, so easily; as _she_ was in Falstaff's company," &c. The emphasis should be laid on the words _his_ and _my_, and then the whole will be far more intelligible. SCENE 2. Page 375. FAL. Your _cat-a-mountain_ looks. A term borrowed from the Spaniards, who call the wild cat _gato-montes_. SCENE 2. Page 375. FAL. Your _red lattice_ phrases.