Chapter LXXIV: Act IV

SC. 1. "Can you not read it? is it not fair_ly_ writ?"

The reply proves that we should read so.

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"And quench this fiery indignation."

The context shows that 'this' should be _his_.

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SC. 2. "Doth make a stand at what your Highness will_s_."

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"And more, more strong then lesser, is my fear."

I read '_in_ my fear.' We have _Is_ for _In_ also in Jul. Cæs. i. 3; the same confusion of these words occurs more than once in Chaucer. I have often met with it in books printed in the last century; and I myself, in writing these Notes, have frequently confounded these words.

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"If what in rest you have in right you hold,
Why then your fears--which, as they say, attend
The steps of wrong--should move you to mew up
Your tender kinsman," etc.

As it is plain, from what went before, that they should not have that effect, editors have made a transposition of 'then' and 'should.' It seems to me, however, that here, as in so many other places, the printer omitted the negative after 'should.' I do not perfectly understand 'rest' in the preceding line, but it may be tranquillity, tranquil, undisturbed possession, a sense it bears in Scripture. See Ps. xcv. 11, cxvi. 7.

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"That you'_d_ have bid us ask his liberty."

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"How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
Makes ill deeds done!"

So also Capell and Collier's folio have transposed in the last line.

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"As bid me tell my tale in express words."

For 'As' Pope read _Or_, Malone _And_.

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"Thou art a murderer.--Do not prove me so;
Yet am I none."

For 'not,' which makes no sense, we should read _you_ or _but_. I prefer the latter.