Note 232 — GAMMER GURTON'S NEEDLE.
Reading edition
To palter is, as Dr Johnson explains it, to shuffle with ambiguous expressions. Thus—
"And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd, That palter with us in a double sense." —Macbeth, act v., sc. 8.
In confirmation of Dr Johnson's explanation, Mr Steevens produces the following instances:—
"Now fortune, frown, and palter, if thou please." —Marius and Sylla, 1594.
"Romans that have spoke the word, And will not palter." —Englishmen for my Money, c. 3.—O. G.