Chapter CXLVII: Act IV: SC. 1. "Thy mistress is o' the brothel."

I read without hesitation '_at_ the brothel.' The _t_ in _at_ was not sounded. See Introd. p. 52.

* * * * *

"Pluck the lin'd crutch from thy old limping sire."

In its ordinary sense, and I know no other, 'lined' cannot be applied to a crutch. I therefore read _lean'd_, with an ellipsis, in the usual manner, of _on_, which would give a tolerable sense. See Tr. and Cr. v. 3.

"Rise mov'd, and _gravely leaning on one crutch_,
Lift the other like a sceptre."
Fletch. Beggar's Bush, ii. 1.

* * * * *

"And yet confusion live!"

I prefer _let_; Hanmer did the same.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "As we do turn our backs
From our companion thrown into his grave,
So his familiars to his buried fortunes ...
Slink all away, leave their false vows with him," etc.

If we read _Upon_ or _On_ for 'From,' and point as I have done, all seems simple enough. M. Mason ingeniously transposed 'From' and 'to.' After all, however, 'From' may have been the poet's word.

* * * * *

"And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck."

A 'dying deck' is an odd expression; _sinking_ would apparently make better sense. Yet _dying bed_, i.e. death-bed, may still be heard.

* * * * *

"Who would be so mock'd with glory? or to live
But in a dream of friendship, _and survive_
To have his pomp and all what state comprehends
But only painted, like his varnish'd friends?"

I have ventured on these corrections, as this part of the speech is in rime. The folio reads 'com_pounds_.' Collier's folio and Sidney Walker also propose _comprehends_. For 'or to live' we might read 'or _would_ live.' See Temp. iii. 1.

* * * * *

"I'll follow and enquire him out, _and then_."

* * * * *

SC. 3. "The greater scorns the lesser; not _even that_ nature,
To which all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune
But by contempt of nature. Raise me this beggar,
And deny't that lord, the senator shall bear
Contempt hereditary, the beggar native honour.
It is the pasture lards the rother's sides,
The want that makes him lean."

The excellent correction of 'rother' for _brother_ of the folio is due to Mr. Singer, and to Collier's folio. _Rother_-(_hryther_ A.S.) _beast_ is _juvencus_; there was a _rother_-market in Stratford.

"A thousand herds of _rother_-beasts he in his field did keep."
Golding, Ovid. p. 52.

For 'lean' the folio has _leave_, an evident misprint. With respect to the addition to the first line, it is demanded by the metre, and the meaning is that even a diseased beggar, a Lazarus as it were, would have to change his nature to be able to bear prosperity with equanimity.

* * * * *

"Black, white; foul, fair; wrong, right; * * *"

Perhaps the lost words may have been _guilt, innocence_, or _guilty, innocent_.

* * * * *

"Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads."

Hanmer read '_sick_ men's,' alluding to a practice of hired nurses.

* * * * *

"This, _this_, it is
That makes the wappen'd widow wed again."

For 'wappen'd' Singer read _wapper'd_, worn out, debilitated, of the use of which word he gives examples.

* * * * *

"With man's blood paint the ground gules, gules; _for if_."

A foot has certainly been lost. Sense seems to require this addition.

* * * * *

"_For_ that by killing
Of villains thou wast born to conquer my country."

* * * * *

"For those milk-paps
That through the window barne bore at men's eyes,
Are not within the leaf of pity writ,
But set 'em down horrible traitors. Spare not the babe."

This is a difficult passage. 'Milk-paps' seems to mean tender young maidens, and editors are probably right in reading _bars_ for 'barne.' The 'bars,' as Mr. Staunton observes, seem to mean the cross-lacing on the bosom, still to be seen in Switzerland. We should perhaps omit ''em,' not 'But,' as the editors do, in the last line.

* * * * *

"And be no turn-coats. Yet may your pains six months _thence_."

* * * * *

"Nor sound his quillets shrilly; hoar the flamen."

Singer adopts Upton's reading of _hoarse_ for 'hoar'; but though it would agree with what follows, I know of no such verb. We might read '_make_ hoar,' or '_make_ hoar_se_.'

* * * * *

"Derive some pain from you. Plague all _of them_."

* * * * *

"Men daily find it _so_. Get thee away."

* * * * *

"Teems and feeds all; whose self-same _forming_ metal."

* * * * *

"Yield him who all the human sons doth hate."

Here again, as so often, we have 'the' for _thy_.

* * * * *

"Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas."

For 'marrows' Mr. Dyce reads 'marrow_y_,' Collier's folio _meadows_. I read _married_ sc. to the elms, etc. The marriage of the elm and the vine is noticed in Com. of Errors, ii. 2, Cymb. i. 7.

* * * * *

"Whereof ungrateful man, with liquorish draughts,
And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind."

As 'pure' is rather an odd expression in the mouth of Timon, we should perhaps read '_im_pure.' The negative is often thus omitted. See on Com. of Err. ii. 2.

* * * * *

"From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place?"

The folio has 'change of future'; the correction was made independently by Southern and Rowe.

* * * * *

"Will these moist trees
That have outliv'd the eagle."

Hanmer's emendation of _moss'd_ for 'moist' has been generally and justly received.

* * * * *

"Willing misery
Outlives incertain pomp, is crown'd before _it_."

* * * * *

"At duty, more than I could frame employment;"

There is evidently a line lost here.

* * * * *

"If thou wilt curse thy father, that poor rag."

For 'rag' Johnson read _rogue_, which is also in Singer's folio, and is probably right, as he afterwards terms him "poor rogue hereditary."

* * * * *

"First mend my company. Take thyself away."

The folio reads _thy_ for 'my.'

* * * * *

"'Twixt natural son and sire."

The folio reads _sun and fire_.

* * * * *

"Do villainy, do, since you profess to do it."

The reading of the folio is 'protest,' and also 'villain.'

* * * * *

"Break open shops; _for_ nothing can you steal
But thieves do lose it. Steal _not the_ less for this."

Rowe also added _not_, which was indispensable.

* * * * *

"It almost turns my dangerous nature wild."

The context plainly shows that for 'wild' we should, with Warburton, read _mild_.

* * * * *

"No more I pray _you_--and, he is a steward."

* * * * *

"If not a usuring kindness, and, as rich men deal gifts."

It was the opinion of the sagacious Tyrwhitt that 'If not' is a mere insertion of the printer's, suggested by 'Is not' in the preceding line. I have, however, little doubt but it should be, as I have printed it, "_Is it_ not a usuring kindness?"

* * * * *

"Exchange _it_ for this one wish, that you had power."