Chapter XXXII: Act I: Oldcraft's speech

I'm arm'd at all points, &c.

It would be very easy to restore all this passage to metre, by supplying a sentence of four syllables, which the reasoning almost demands, and by correcting the grammar. Read thus:--

Arm'd at all points 'gainst treachery, I hold
My humor firm. If, living, I can see thee
Thrive by thy wits, I shall have the more courage,
Dying, to trust thee with my lands. If not,
The best wit, I can hear of, carries them.
For since so many in my time and knowledge,
Rich children of the city, have concluded
_For lack of wit_ in beggary, I'd rather
Make a wise stranger my executor,
Than a fool son my heir, and have my lands call'd
After my wit than name: and that's my nature!

Ib. Oldcraft's speech:--

To prevent which I have sought out a match for her.--

Read

Which to prevent I've sought a match out for her.

Ib. Sir Gregory's speech:--

--Do you think I'll have any of the wits hang upon me after I am
married once?

Read it thus:--

Do you think
That I'll have any of the wits to hang
Upon me after I am married once?

and afterwards--

Is it a fashion in London,
To marry a woman, and to never see her?

The superfluous 'to' gives it the Sir Andrew Ague-cheek character.

THE FAIR MAID OF THE INN.