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Chapter LXXXIX: Act III

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SC. 1. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or fill the walls up with our English dead."

Johnson thought that a line was lost here. I would add _In, in!_ at the end of the first line, and read 'to' for 'unto,' the printer's word. Introd. p. 67.

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SC. 3. "Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters."

'Defile' is Pope's correction of _desire_ in the folio; and it probably is right. It makes very good sense.

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SC. 5. "Can sodden water
A drench for surrein'd steeds, their barley broth," etc.

For 'surrein'd' the 4tos read _swolne_. Steevens quotes from Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601:--

"Writes he not a good cordial sappy style?--
A _surrein'd_ jaded wit, but he rubs on."

'Surrein'd' may mean overriden. In Massinger we have,

"Let passion work, or, like a _hot-rein'd_ horse,
'Twill quickly tire itself."
Unnat. Comb. iv. 2.

Shakespeare may, however, have written _surbeat_, or some other word.

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"Poor _may_ we call them in their native lords."

Sense and metre seem to require _may_.

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"They bid us _go_ to the English dancing-schools."

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"And for achievement offer us his ransom."

Mr. Staunton proposes '_fore_ achievement'; but no change need be made.

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SC. 6. "Which they trick up with new-tuned oaths."

For 'tuned' Pope read _turned_; Collier's folio _coined_.

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SC. 7. "The Dolphin longs for _the_ morning."

The metre requires a syllable.

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