Act V Sc. 1
“Aye, but their sense are shut.”
Editors read is for ‘are,’ but I rather think we should read ‘senses.’ Yet ‘sense’ may be a collective. Introd. p. 70.
Sc. 3
“Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.”
Percy and Collier’s folio read chair for ‘cheer.’ This may be right.
“My way of life
Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf.”
For ‘way’ Johnson proposed May, and this reading has been generally adopted; but there is no need of change.
“That keep her from her rest.—Cure her of that.”
The last her was supplied by 2nd folio. See Introd. p. 55.
“Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff.”
In the usual way, ‘stuff’ seems to have arisen from ‘stuff’d.’ I read matter.
“Shall expel
This something settled matter in his heart.”
Ham. iii. 2.
“What rhubarb, cymè, or what purgative drug.”
For ‘cymè,’ an uncommon word, Rowe read senna, and he has been universally followed. Yet it may not be the right word.
Sc. 4
“For where there is advantage to be given
Both more and less have given him the revolt.”
The ‘given’ of the first line was produced, in the usual way, by that of the second. I read taken.
Sc. 5
“Hang out our banners! On the outward walls
The cry is still They come!”
So I think we should punctuate. It was from the keep, not the walls, that the banner (as perhaps we should read) was hung. We have, no doubt, “Advance our waving colours on the walls” (1 Hen. VI. i. 6); but Orleans was a city, not a mere castle.
“The time has been my senses would have cool’d.”
Collier’s folio, which I follow, reads quail’d for ‘cool’d.’ “That so to see him made her heart to quail.” F. Q. iv. 3, 46.
“Gracious my lord, I shall report that which [I say]
I saw, but know not how to do’t.—Well, say, sir.”
‘I say’ is needless, and spoils the measure. It arose from ‘say’ in the next line.
Sc. 7
“Seems to be bruited. Let me find him, Fortune.”
“I see thee compass’d with thy kingdom’s pearl.”
I may observe that ‘pearl’ is here a collective term—a singular, with a plural sense. This word was often so used.
“We shall not spend a large expense of time.”
With Singer, I read make for ‘spend.’