Note 202 — ACT I., SCENE 1.
Reading edition
A fox was formerly a cant word for a sword. So in Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair," act ii. sc. 6: "What would you have, sister, of a fellow that knows nothing but a basket-hilt and an old fox in't?" Again, in "Philaster," by Beaumont and Fletcher, act iv.—
"I made my father's old fox fly about his ears."
And in "Henry V.," by Shakespeare, act iv. sc. 4—
"Thou diest on point of fox."
See Steevens's note on the latter passage, where many passages of our ancient writers are produced to prove the explanation.