from
“my house, if I had it,”
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, i. 1.
244
;
“So, I commend me from our house in grief,”
THE RAPE OF LUCRECE, 1308.
The usual formula at the conclusion of letters in Shakespeare's time was from the house of the writer. As to the words, if I had it, in the first of these passages,—the
same sort of joke is found in the translation of the Menæchmi, 1595, by W. W. [William Warner?]:
“Men. What, mine owne Peniculus?
Pen. Yours (if aith) bodie and goods, if I had any.” Sig. B.
“Men. What, mine owne Peniculus?
Pen. Yours (if aith) bodie and goods, if I had any.” Sig. B.
