Chapter CXLVI: 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.

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"_In him_ when he is turned to poison? Oh, may."

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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.'

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"The more beast _I_, I say."

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"And just of the same piece
Is every flatterer's sport."

Theobald's reading, _spirit_ for 'sport,' should be received.

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"And kept his credit, with his purse, _upright_."

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"He does deny him, in respect of his _want_."

It is quite plain that this or some such word was effaced.

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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.'

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"I _may_ be thought a fool."

The 2nd folio added _I_; the _may_ seems also necessary.

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"Save the gods only. Now his friends are dead."

So also Hanmer; the folio has 'only the gods.'

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SC. 4. "We cannot take this for _an_ answer, sir."

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"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!

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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_.

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"And not endure all threats? sleep upon't."

With Hanmer, I read threat_nings_, for the sake of the metre.

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"Without repugnancy? if there be _then_."

Hanmer read '_But_ if.'

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"The fellow
Loaden with irons wiser than the judge."

For 'fellow' Johnson read _felon_, which I adopt.

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"Why, _I_ say, my lords, he has done fair service."

This is the reading of the 2nd folio.

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"He has made too much plenty with him_self_."

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"If there were no _other_ foes, this were enough."

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"Only in bone, that none may look _up_on you."

For 'in bone,' which is not very clear, Mr. Staunton would read _at home_.

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"Pours into captain's wounds?--_Ha!_ banishment!"

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SC. 6. "The swallow follows not summer more willing_ly_."

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"Who stuck and spangled _by_ you with flatteries."

Hanmer reads 'with you_r_ flatteries.'