Note 58 — ACT II. SCENE I.
Reading edition
make a bolt or a shaft on’t] “This is a proverbial expression, and is enumerated by Ray in his Collection of Proverbial Phrases. The meaning is, that he would immediately try his fortune with the widow, and either be rejected or accepted. The same expression is used by Slender in the Merry Wives of Windsor, act. iii. sc. 4. See notes on the passage.” Editor of 1816.