V.ii.140 (331,4) if you did, it would not much approve me] If you knew I was not ignorant, your esteem would not nuch advance my reputation.  To approve, is to recommend to approbation.

V.ii.145 (331,5) I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence] I dare not pretend to know him, lest I should pretend to an equality:  no man can completely know another, but by knowing himself, which is the utmost extent of human wisdom.

V.ii.149 (332,6) in his meed] In his excellence.

V.ii.156 (332,7) impon’d] Perhaps it should be, depon’d.  So Hudibras,

  “I would upon this cause depone,
  “As much as any I have known.”

But perhaps imponed is pledged, impawned, so spelt to ridicule the affectation of uttering English words with French pronunciation.

V.ii.165 (332,9) more germane.] More_a-kin_.

V.ii.172 (333,1) The king, Sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath laid on twelve for nine] This wager I do not understand.  In a dozen passes one must exceed the other more or less than three hits.  Nor can I comprehend, how, in a dozen, there can be twelve to nine.  The passage is of no importance; it is sufficient that there was a wager.  The quarto has the passage as it stands.  The folio, He hath one twelve for mine.

V.ii.193 (333,2) This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head] I see no particular propriety in the image of the lapwing.  Osrick did not run till he had done his business.  We may read, This lapwing ran away—­That is, this fellow was full of unimportant bustle from his birth.

V.ii.199 (334,4) a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions] [W:  most fann’d] This is a very happy emendation; but I know not why the critic should suppose that fond was printed for fann’d in consequence of any reason or reflection.  Such errors, to which there is no temptation but idleness, and of which there was no cause but ignorance, are in every page of the old editions.  This passage in the quarto stands thus:  “They have got out of the habit of encounter, a kind of misty collection, which carries them through and through the most profane and renowned opinions.”  If this printer preserved any traces of the original, our author wrote, “the most fane and renowned opinions,” which is better than fann’d and winnow’d.

The meaning is, “these men have got the cant of the day, a superficial readiness of slight and cursory conversation, a kind of frothy collection of fashionable prattle, which yet carried them through the most select and approved judgment.  This airy facility of talk sometimes imposes upon wise men.”

Who has not seen this observation verified?

V.ii.201 (335,6) and do but blow them to their trials, the bubbles are out] These men of show, without solidity, are like bubbles raised from soap and water, which dance, and glitter, and please the eye, but if you extend them, by blowing hard, separate into a mist; so if you oblige these specious talkers to extend their compass of conversation, they at once discover the tenuity of their intellects.