Chapter LXIV: Act III

SC. 2. "This sessions--to our great grief we pronounce _it_."

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"To prate and talk for life and honour 'fore
Who please to come and hear."

We might be inclined to read _plead_ for 'prate'; but no change is required.

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"Since he came
With what encounter so uncurrent I
Have strain'd to appear thus."

I read 'have I Strain'd to appear thus?' in which I had been anticipated by Hanmer. An 'uncurrent encounter' was an unusual kind of meeting; and 'strain'd' signifies pulled against the line of my duty as a wife--a metaphor taken from dogs in a leash--

"What I was I am,
More _straining_ on for plucking back, not following
My leash unwillingly" (iv. 3).

It might also signify, acted indecorously, "Unless he know some _strain_ in me that I know not myself." Merry Wives, ii. 1.

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"You will not own it.--More than _I am_ mistress of."

So also Hanmer corrected.

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"Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself,
No father owning it."

If we read '_left_ to itself' we might get better sense.

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"But yet hear this; mistake me not. No! life--
I prize it not a straw.... But, for mine honour."

So we may best punctuate, with Hanmer. We might perhaps read '_For_ life,' as above.

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"Which you knew great, and to the hazard _boldly_."

The 2nd folio reads '_certain_ hazard.'

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"What studied torments, tyrant, hast _thou_ for me?
What wheels? _what_ racks? _what_ fires? what flaying, boiling,
In leads or oils?"

See above, i. 2. Introd. p. 55.

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"Who is lost too. Take your patience to you, _sir_."

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SC. 3. "Which may, if Fortune please, both breed thee, pretty _one_."

So Rowe also.

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"A boy or a child, I wonder."

I think we should read '_maid_-child', a term we meet with in Pericles, v. 3. We have _man-child_ in Cor. i. 3, and in the Bible. I made the correction without being aware of the passage in Pericles.

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"You're a made old man."

In the folio it is _mad_; but this correction, given by Theobald, is indubitable.