p. 283. p. 287. p. 288. You have [done] work for me": word 'done' was supplied by Malone. -The necessary :- Here Malone "Enter Flavius, and two Senators commenced Scene II. But manifestly there is no change of scene supposed; for Timon has just retired to his cave, and Flavius, after exchanging a few words with his companions, says, "Here is his cave," and Timon enters. So the third folio: the first "It is [in] vain," &c. : omitsin.' Mr. “It is our part and promise to the Athenians": Sidney Walker very plausibly proposes to read, "It is our pact," &c. "And chance it as it may":- The folio, "And chanc'd," &c., which the second folio corrected. "Of it own fail":— The folio, The folio, "Of it owne fall.” But the sense is, that the Senate was remorsefully conscious of its failure in sending aid to Timon; and the change which Capell made is necessary. As to "it own, see the Note on "it's folly," &c., The Winter's Tale, Act I. Sc. 2, p. 385. let him take his haste : The reading of Mr. Collier's folio of 1632, "take his halter," has found great favor with many persons, who, in objecting to the phraseology of the text, must surely have forgotten that, in the last Scene of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oberon says, "With this field dew consecrate and in the story of Joseph, we are told that "Israel took "Who, once a day," &c.: Here who,' used for 'which,' according to the custom of Shakespeare's day, refers to the "everlasting mansion." SCENE II. Mr. Dyce "Whom though in general part," &c.: says 'Whom' is but "the old ungrammatical use of the relative," and rightly. But the whole speech is very loosely written. Even if we should read, 'Who,' there is no verb to which it could stand nominative. p. 289. p. 290. p. 291. " SCENE III. "Some beast rear'd this": - The folio has, "reade this." The correction, which was made by Warburton, seems absolutely necessary. No man in his senses, however ignorant or however misanthropic, (yet see Staunton's Shakespeare,) would think of calling upon a beast to read an inscription; but in his surprise at finding a rude tumulus upon a desolate sea shore, and before he saw that there was an inscription upon it, he might exclaim, Some beast must have reared this! SCENE IV. Shame, that they wanted cunning":— i. e., intelli gence. "On those that are, revenges : Steevens added an s to the 'revenge' of the folio. The phraseology of the preceding speech and the rhythm of this line justify the addition. Descend, and open":- The folio misprints, "Defend," &c. "But shall be rendered to your public laws": - The folio has, "remedied to your public laws;" and, in spite of "at heaviest answer," it was left for Mason to point out the correct reading. "Here lies a wretched corse," &c.: Here two epitaphs appear as one. They are both given in North's Plutarch thus in the Life of Marc Antony: "Heere lyes a wretched corse, of wretched soule bereft. Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked wretches left. It is reported that Timon him selfe, when he lived, made thy gate." |