Chapter LXXIII: Act III

SC. 1. "As true as I believe you think them false."

The poet probably wrote 'you_'ll_' think.

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"I will instruct my sorrows to be proud;
For Grief is proud, and makes his owner stoop."

Hanmer reads _stout_ for 'stoop,' but I see no need of change. We talk of a person being bowed to the earth with grief, and this is what the poet meant. 'Owner' was used of one who simply had, as "But like the _owner_ of a foul disease" (Ham. iv. 1).

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"But as we under Heaven are supreme head,
So under Him that great supremacy."

Collier's folio reads _Heaven_ for 'Him,' which is very good.

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"In likeness of a new, untrimmed bride."

This would seem intended to express the indecent haste of the wedding, the bride having, as it were, no _trousseau_, but being married in her ordinary clothes. In ii. 2 it was termed an "unlook'd-for, unprepared pomp." Theobald proposed '_and_ trimm'd' and '_be_trimm'd'; Dyce reads '_up_trimm'd.'

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"A cased lion by the mortal paw."

As 'cased' is skinned, it can hardly be right. I read, as Mitford, I find, had done, _caged_.

"So looks a _pent-up_ lion, o'er the wretch
That trembles under his _devouring paws_."
3 Hen. VI. i. 3.

As Shakespeare had re-made this play not long before, the image may have remained in his mind. We might also read _raged_, i.e. enraged--

"In war was never lion rag'd more fierce" (Rich. II. ii. 1);

or, with Theobald, _chafed_--

"So looks the _chafed_ lion
Upon the daring huntsman that ha gall'd him"
(Hen. VIII. iii. 2).

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"By what thou swear'st against the thing thou swear'st."

I rather think that the second 'swear'st' should be _swor'st_. Possibly _to_ or _by_ was lost at the end of the line; but we have, "Thou swear'st thy gods in vain." Lear, i. 1.

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SC. 2. "Some airy devil hovers in the sky."

Warburton proposed _fiery_, needlessly.

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"_Here_, Hubert, keep this boy.--Philip, make up."

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SC. 3. "Of hoarding abbots; imprison'd angels
Set at liberty: the fat ribs of peace."

Never was a more happy and a more certain correction than S. Walker's transposition of 'imprison'd angels' and 'Set at liberty,' which restores the metre of two lines.

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"Sound on into the drowsy race of Night."

As Shakespeare had read, in the Faerie Queen, of Night "To run her timely _race_" (i. 5. 45), the attempted corrections of 'race' are all superfluous. So also is Warburton's reading of _one_ for 'on'; for 'Sound on' is keep sounding.

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"Then in despight of brooded, watchful day."

As 'brooded' is brooding, no just objection can be made. Pope proposed _broad-eyed_, Mitford _broad and_.

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SC. 4. "So by a roaring tempest, on the flood
A whole armado of convicted sail," etc.

For 'convicted' I read _conflicted_, i.e. dashed, or dashing together. We have "_conflicting_ wind and rain" (Lear, iii. 1), "_conflicting_ elements" (Tim. iv. 3). It seems more probable than any of the various corrections proposed.

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"No scope of Nature, no distempered day."

I adopt Pope's reading, _'scape_.

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"Strong reasons make strong actions."

So 2nd folio properly reads; the 1st has '_strange_ actions.'