Note 323 — No. XXXVI.[305]
Reading edition
These lines contain the Secret History of Quatremer’s deportation. He presumed in the Council of Five Hundred to arraign Madame De Stael’s conduct, and even to hint a doubt of her sex. He was sent to Guyana. The transaction naturally brings to one’s mind the dialogue between Falstaff and Hostess Quickly in Shakespeare’s Henry IV.
Fal. Thou art neither fish nor flesh—a man cannot tell where to have thee.
Quick. Thou art an unjust man for saying so—thou or any man knows where to have me.