ON A PASSAGE IN "THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR," AND ON CONJECTURAL
EMENDATION.

The late Mr. Baron Field, in his _Conjectures on some Obscure and Corrupt
Passages of Shakspeare_, published in the "Shakspeare Society's Papers,"
vol. ii. p. 47., has the following, note on _The Merry Wives of Windsor_,
Act ii. Sc. 2.:--

"'_Falstaff._ I myself sometimes having the fear of heaven on the left
hand, and hiding mine honour in my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge,
and to lurch; and yet you, you rogue, will esconce your _rags_, your
cat-a-mountain looks, your red-lattice phrases and your bold-beating oaths,
under the shelter of your honour.'

"Pistol, to whom this was addressed, was an ensign, and therefore _rags_
can hardly bear the ordinary interpretation. A _rag_ is a beggarly fellow,
but that will make little better sense here. Associated as the phrase is, I
think it must mean _rages_, and I find the word used for _ragings_ in the
compound _bard-rags_, border-ragings or incursions, in Spenser's _Fairy
Queen_, ii. x. 63., and _Colin Clout_, v. 315."

Having on one occasion found that a petty larceny committed on the received
text of the poet, by taking away a superfluous _b_, made all clear, perhaps
I may be allowed to restore the abstracted letter, which had only been
_misplaced_ and read _brags_, with, I trust, the like success? Be it
remembered that Pistol, a braggadocio, is made up of _brags_ and slang; and
for that reason I would also read, with Hanmer, _bull-baiting_, instead of
the unmeaning "_bold-beating_ oaths."