Act II Sc. 1
“Whither away so fast?—Oh! God save you, sir.”
“To have brought, vivâ voce, to his face.”
For ‘have’ the folio has him. The correction was made in the 4th folio.
“No black envy
Shall mark my grave.”
This is the reading of Warburton, generally followed. The folio has make for ‘mark.’
“Yet are the King’s; and till my soul forsake.”
We may, with Rowe, read ‘forsake me’ making ‘vows and prayers’ the subj. to ‘Shall cry’; but a line may have been lost, as ‘my soul’ is a more suitable subj. to ‘cry.’
Sc. 2
“I know your Majesty has always lov’d her
So dear in heart, not to deny her that.”
It would seem that ‘So’ should be Too; but then the negative may make a difficulty. ‘Not’ is, as not.
Sc. 3
“To leave’s a thousand times more bitter than.”
“Yet if that quarrel, by fortune, do divorce.”
I think the passage thus gains sense: “I found by fortune” (Othel. v. 2). “And shalt, by fortune, once more resurvey” (Son. xxxii.). Hanmer read ‘quarreler,’ and Warburton said ‘quarrel’ was arrow. ‘It’ is the ‘pomp’ just mentioned.
“You’d venture an emballing.”
Warburton read embalming; Steevens empalling.
“Commends his good opinion of you [to you] and
Does purpose honour to you.”
The first ‘To you’ was evidently caused by the second. See Introd. p. 59.
“Would I had no being
If this salute my blood a jot. It faints me.”
‘Faints’ is here a causative. (See Introd. p. 71.) For ‘salute,’ which is used in a rather unusual connexion, Collier’s folio reads elate, not a Shakespearian word. We have, however, “It greets me, as an enterprise of kindness” (Peric. iv. 4), which is similar, and
“For why should others’ false adulterate eyes
Give salutation to my sportive blood?”
Son. cxxi.
Sc. 4
“What friend of mine,
That had to him derived your anger, did I
Continue in my liking? Nay, gave notice
He was from thence discharg’d.”
I think we should read ‘gave not notice.’
“My father, King of Spain, was reckoned one
The wisest prince that there had reigned.”
“For he is one the truest knight alive.”
F. Q. i. 3. 37.
“It shall be therefore bootless
That longer you desire the court. * *”
It is difficult to make any good sense of ‘desire’ here; and a foot is wanting. The 4th folio, for ‘desire,’ reads defer. We might add deferr’d or delay’d at the end.
“Sir... I am about to weep.”
This seems to be the right punctuation.
“As you have done my truth. If he then know.”
“Where powers are your retainers; and your words,
Domestics to you, serve your will.”
For ‘words,’ which certainly makes no sense, Tyrwhitt read wards. I doubt if either be right.
“And marriage ’twixt the Duke of Orleans and.”
For the first ‘And’ Pope properly read A, as above, i. 3.
“This respite shook
The bosom of my conscience.”
For ‘bosom’ Theobald read bottom. In Holingshed the King’s words are, “Which words conceived within the secret bottom of my conscience,” which I think settles the question. We have also, “Twill purge the bottoms of their consciences” (Fletch. Span. Cur. iv. 5).
“Yea with a splitting power, and made to tremble.”
The folio has spitting; the correction was made in the 2nd folio.