Act IV Sc. 1
“Enough to fetch him in. See it be done.”
“Thou,—and thou,—and thou.—You have all serv’d me well.”
Sc. 2
“Haply you shall not see me more, or, if
You do, a mangled shadow.”
Sc. 4
“Come, my good fellow, put mine iron on.”
The folio has thine for ‘mine’; Rowe also added my.
Sc. 6
“Alexas did revolt, and went to Jewry
On affairs of Antony’s; there did dissuade
Great Herod to incline himself to Cæsar.”
Malone has shown from North’s Plutarch that persuade, not ‘dissuade,’ was the poet’s word. In the first line for ‘and’ I read He, which may have been written A’.
Sc. 7
“Cæsar himself has work, and our oppression
Exceeds what we expected.”
The right word is ‘opposition,’ also the reading of Hanmer and Warburton.
“And let the Queen know of our guests.”
He had no guests. Theobald read gests, which must be right, though Shakespeare uses it nowhere else.
“Each man’s like me; you have shown yourselves all Hectors.”
Sc. 9
“Hark! the drums
Demurely wake the sleepers.”
It is rather remarkable that Mr. Dyce and I should have simultaneously conjectured Do merrily, of which I think there can be little doubt. See Introd. p. 67.
Sc. 10
“And they have put forth the haven * *”
Rowe proposed Further on; Capell Hie we on; Tyrwhitt Let us go; and Malone Let’s seek a spot. I read “We’ll take our stand.”
“But being charg’d we will be still by land.”
Here both ‘But’ and ‘still’ may cause some difficulty. The former is to be taken in its original and proper sense, except, unless; the latter in the sense of quiet.
“The hearts
That spaniel’d me at heels.”
The folio has pannell’d; Hanmer made the correction.
“Oh! this false soul of Egypt! this grave charme.”
In my Edition, yielding to an impulse I could not resist, I have added a final r to ‘charme’ both here and a few lines before; thus making it accord with ‘witch’ and ‘gypsy,’ as he also calls her. But he likewise terms her ‘spell,’ and Perdita (W. T. iv. 3) is called ‘enchantment,’ both, however, in the vocative. It is also rather improbable that the last letter of the same word should have been effaced in two places; but this may be explained by supposing an effacement of the ends of many of the lines in a page of the MS.; and while the others were restored, ‘charme,’ as making sense, was not supposed to have been injured. By ‘Egypt’ is meant the Queen, so styled elsewhere also. ‘Grave’ is heavy, powerful, oppressive; as in the gravibus Persis of Horace, Carm. iii. 5. 4.
“And hoist thee up unto the shouting plebeians.”
Sc. 12
“That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct.”
It might be better to read dislimbs.
“Pack’d cards with Cæsar[’s].”
“Unarm me, Eros; the long day’s work is done.”
“The courage of a woman; less noble-minded.”
It is evident that the final syllable had been effaced.
Sc. 13
“His death’s upon him, but he is not dead.”
“Burn the great sphere thou mov’st in! darkling stand on.”
“No more, but e’en a woman.”
The folio has in for ‘e’en’; the correction is Johnson’s.