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.

Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher · 第 121 / 186 题