Act III Sc. 1
“This slave
Unto his honour has my lord’s meat in him.”
As this is not sense it requires emendation, and the simplest, I think, is dishonour for ‘his honour.’ I had also conjectured this hour, in which I had been anticipated. Collier’s folio reads humour. Mr. Dyce thinks the error is in ‘slave,’ for which he reads scandal, quoting “This scandal of his blood” (R. II. i. 1). “Thou slander of thy heavy mother’s womb” (R. III. i. 3). It must be observed that neither slave nor scandal is followed by unto elsewhere in Shakespeare.
“In him when he is turned to poison? Oh, may.”
Sc. 2
“Yet had he mistook him and sent to me.”
I do not see the meaning of ‘mistook’ here, and I have no probable emendation to offer. For ‘so many talents’ here and elsewhere in this scene some read ‘fifty talents.’
“The more beast I, I say.”
“And just of the same piece
Is every flatterer’s sport.”
Theobald’s reading, spirit for ‘sport,’ should be received.
“And kept his credit, with his purse, upright.”
“He does deny him, in respect of his want.”
It is quite plain that this or some such word was effaced.
Sc. 3
“Has Lucullus and Ventidius denied him?
And does he send to me? Three... humph! It shows
But little love or judgement in him. Must I
Be his last refuge? His friends, like physicians,
Thrice give him over.”
For ‘Thrice,’ the correction of Johnson, the folio reads Thrive, which Steevens and Malone retain. It also reads ‘Ventidius and Lucullus.’
“I may be thought a fool.”
The 2nd folio added I; the may seems also necessary.
“Save the gods only. Now his friends are dead.”
So also Hanmer; the folio has ‘only the gods.’
Sc. 4
“We cannot take this for an answer, sir.”
“Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius, Ullorxa, all.”
The barbarous term ‘Ullorxa’ is, I suspect, a mere corruption of all on ’em. How it has perplexed the critics!
Sc. 5
“He did behave his anger, ere ’twas spent.”
‘Behave’ is Warburton’s reading for ‘behove’ of the folio. It is generally followed, but I am dubious of it. Jackson and Singer have proposed behood.
“And not endure all threats? sleep upon’t.”
With Hanmer, I read threatnings, for the sake of the metre.
“Without repugnancy? if there be then.”
Hanmer read ‘But if.’
“The fellow
Loaden with irons wiser than the judge.”
For ‘fellow’ Johnson read felon, which I adopt.
“Why, I say, my lords, he has done fair service.”
This is the reading of the 2nd folio.
“He has made too much plenty with himself.”
“If there were no other foes, this were enough.”
“Only in bone, that none may look upon you.”
For ‘in bone,’ which is not very clear, Mr. Staunton would read at home.
“Pours into captain’s wounds?—Ha! banishment!”
Sc. 6
“The swallow follows not summer more willingly.”
“Who stuck and spangled by you with flatteries.”
Hanmer reads ‘with your flatteries.’