  Act i. sc. 2. Face's speech:— “Will take his oath o' the Greek Xenophon, If need be, in his pocket.” Another reading is “Testament.” Probably, the meaning is—that intending to give false evidence, he carried a Greek Xenophon to pass it off for a Greek Testament, and so avoid perjury—as the Irish do, by contriving to kiss their thumb-nails instead of the book. Act ii. sc. 2. Mammon's speech:— “I will have all my beds blown up; not stuft: Down is too hard.” Thus the air-cushions, though perhaps only lately brought into use, were invented in idea in the seventeenth century! |
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