Chapter XLI: Act II

SC. 1. "Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,
The season's difference," etc.

As the Duke proceeds to show that he _did_ feel this difference, the text cannot be right. Critics, therefore, for 'not' read _but_, as these words were frequently confounded by the printers. But then a question arises, was 'the season's difference' any part of 'the penalty of Adam.' In Scripture that penalty was "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread;" and this was the very penalty that the Duke and his friends did not feel; for we have just been told of them (i. 1) that "they fleet away the time carelessly, as they did in the Golden World." Further, it does not appear that any writer anterior to Milton made the Ovidian change of seasons a part of Adam's penalty. The text may therefore be right, and a line, something like this, have been lost,

"Here is no toil; we have only to endure"

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"I would not change it."

Upton, most properly, made this the conclusion of the Duke's speech. (See on W. T. v. 1)

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"First for his weeping into the needless stream."

Pope's change of 'into' to _in_ has been generally followed, but without the slightest reason, by the decasyllabists. I am almost ashamed to say that I have joined them from pure inadvertence.

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"Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends."

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"The body of _the_ country, city, court."

The 2nd folio supplied _the_.

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"Send to his brother's; fetch that gallant hither."

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SC. 3. "When service should in my old limbs lie lame,
And unregarded age in corners thrown."

There is either a line lost after these, or we should read '_be_ in corners thrown,' as I have done. The omission of _be_ was not infrequent.

* * * * *

"The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty not for meed."

The 'service' in the first line arose from that in the second (See Introd. p. 64). I read _fashion_; Collier's folio has _favour_.

* * * * *

"From seventy years, till now almost fourscore."

Such is the reading of the folio--a convincing proof of how little the old printers are to be relied on. Editors, without exception, read _seventeen_.

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SC. 4. "O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits!"

'Weary' is Warburton's correction of _merry_ of the folio.

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"I pray you bear with me; I cannot go no further."

For 'cannot' the 2nd folio has _can_, the usual reading. Yet I doubt if the change was needed.

* * * * *

"From whom I took two cods."

Johnson read, as every man of sense would read, _peas_ for 'cods.' I have just shown the origin of the change.

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SC. 5. "And turn his merry note."

We still say _turn a tune_ and a _note_. Pope, then, was wrong in reading _tune_ for 'turn.' "When threadbare Martial _turns his merry note_" (Hall. Sat. vi. 1) was probably in the poet's mind.

* * * * *

SC. 7. "Doth very foolishly, although he smart,
_Not to_ seem senseless of the bob."

Both sense and metre demand this addition of Theobald's, whom all editors follow. We have the very same omission in

"Yet if it be your wills _not to_ forgive
The sin I have committed, let it not fall," etc.
Philaster, ii. 4.

where none of the editors have perceived the loss.

* * * * *

"Why who cries out on pride."

There is something wanting here; for in this play the speeches never begin thus with a short line. It is evident also that it is one kind of pride, that of dress, that is spoken of. I therefore read without hesitation 'pride of _bravery_,' and, three lines further on, _wearer's_ for 'weary,' in which I had been anticipated by Singer.

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"Of what kind should this cock come of."

This seems to be a third instance of effacement in a single page of the MS. I would add _I marvel_.

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"And take upon command what help we have."

"And in his room not only to eat his fill, but _be the lord_ of the feast." (Lodge, Rosalynde, p. 53.) "They covet not their neighbours' goods; but _command_ all that is their neighbours' as their own." (MS., 1559, _ap._ Froude, Hist. of Eng. viii. 3.)

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"_And_ then the whining schoolboy."

This is a proper addition of Pope's.