Act II Sc. 1
“That they do know my son, come you more nearer;
Than your particular demand will touch it.”
By punctuating thus, and recollecting that ‘Than’ is then, we remove all difficulty.
“You must not put another scandal on him,
That he is open to incontinency.”
For ‘That’ we must read Than. Introd. p. 68.
“To speak of horrors—he comes in before me.”
The addition of in, besides improving the metre, adds greatly to the force and vivacity of the passage.
“As he would draw it. Long time stay’d he so.”
Sc. 2
“Pleasant and helpful to him.—Ay, amen.”
The folio omits ‘Ay’; I read ‘Amen, amen,’ as the metre requires.
“Both to my God, one to my gracious King.”
So the folio reads; the 4tos, more simply, have and for ‘one.’
“My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.”
So the 4tos properly read; the folio has news for ‘fruit.’
“If I had play’d the desk or table-book.”
Perhaps ply’d, as pretending to be occupied. In Tit. Andron. v. 2, the 4tos read ‘ply,’ the folio ‘play my theme.’
“And we all wail for.—Do you think ’tis this?”
The originals read ‘all we.’
“To mark the encounter. If he love her not.”
“Being a good kissing carrion.—Have you a daughter?”
Warburton for ‘good’ read god, which alone makes sense. We have “common-kissing Titan” (Cymb. iii. 4). Malone also quoted from King Edward III.:—
“The freshest summer’s-day doth soonest taint
The loathed carrion that it seems to kiss.”
“But not as your daughter may conceive.”
The 4tos omit ‘not,’ which was supplied by the folio, and is indispensable.
“Little eyases that cry out on the top of question.”
This is hard to understand; but there is no reason to suspect any corruption of the text. The allusion seems to be to the loud shrill tones of the children in acting.
“Like to some boy, that acts a tragedy,
Speaks burly words and roars out passion.”
Marston, Ant. and Mel. II. iv. 5.
“I know a hawk from a handsaw.”
The proper word is hernshaw; but the phrase may, as was not unusual, have undergone a change.
“The first row of the Pons Chanson will show you more.”
What ‘Pons Chanson’ is, no one has divined. Editors therefore read ‘pious chanson,’ meaning the ballad of Jephtha and his daughter.
“May be the devil and the devil has power.”
For the first ‘the devil,’ 4to 1604 reads a deale; so the reading was probably ‘a devil,’ which is best.