Note 3 — Part II. HIS HOME LIFE
Reading edition
The spelling handkercher, common in these old books, and in the early editions of Shakespeare, indicates the pronunciation of the time. In As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Othello, and other plays, napkin is equivalent to handkerchief. This, indeed, is the only meaning of the word in Shakespeare, as often in other writers of the period.