Chapter XXXVI: Act II

SC. 1. "Then is Alcides beaten by his page."

'page' is Theobald's undoubted correction; 4tos and folio read _rage_.

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"First forward to the temple! After dinner
Your hazard shall be made."

Surely 'temple' has no meaning here. Must not the poet have written _table_. In Lucrece (st. 168), in the Var. Shakespeare, "Her sacred _temple_" is printed "Her sacred _table_." I am not aware that any critic has observed this palpable error. The term 'table,' it may be observed, was much more used by our forefathers than by us. Thus in The Elder Brother (iii. 4) Miramont says to his brother, "May be I'll see your _table_ too," _i.e._ be of your dinner-party.

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SC. 2. "Certainly the Jew is the very Devil's incarnation."

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"Do you know me, father?"

Mr. Dyce thinks Shakespeare wrote '_not_ know,' which occurs again in Lancelot's next speech. I have adopted his reading.

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SC. 3. "If a Christian do not play the knave and get thee."

The 2nd folio properly read _did_. (See on Jul. Cæs. ii. 2.) This change of tense was not unfrequent. We often meet _see_ for _saw_.

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SC. 5. "Well thou shalt see; thy eyes shall be thy judge."

It might be better to read '_the_ judge.' Even at the present day printers confound these words.

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"Will be worth a Jewès eye,"

I prefer this, the reading of the old copies, to 'Jewess,' Pope's reading, which is usually followed.

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SC. 6. "How like a younker or a prodigal."

Rowe's correction for 'younger.'

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SC. 7. "Go draw aside the curtains."

So also at end of scene; but as in sc. ix. it is 'curtain,' I ascribe the _s_ to the printer.

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"But more than these in love I do deserve _her_."

See also Capell.

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"Gilded timber do worms infold."

Pope read _wood may_ for 'timber do' of the 4tos and folio; Johnson, who is always followed, read _tombs_; I read _woods_. The meaning is that gilded wooden work was often worm-eaten.