Chapter XC: Act IV

_Chor._ "Thawing cold fear. Then, mean and gentle all."

'Then' is Theobald's correction, and a true and good one, of _that_ of the folio. See Introd. p. 68.

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SC. 1. "Subject _un_to the breath of every fool."

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"What is thy soul of adoration?"

It would seem better to read _source_. Johnson read '_O_ adoration!'

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"_He_ ne'er sees horrid Night, the child of Hell," etc.

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"The sense of reckoning of the opposed numbers.
Pluck their hearts from them not to-day, O Lord!
Oh, not to-day!--Think not upon the fault," etc.

So I punctuate. Many editors follow Tyrwhitt in reading '_if_ the' for 'of the' in the first line. Theobald read _lest_ for 'of.'

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SC. 2. "And doubt them with superfluous courage."

For 'doubt' Pope read _daunt_; Rowe, followed by Dyce and Cambridge editors, _dout_. As the 'superfluous courage' seems to be the blood spun out, the word may be _daub_.

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"I stay but for my guard. On to the field!"

A most happy emendation was that made by Dr. Thackeray, and by an Anon. _ap._ Rann: "I stay but for my _guidon_.--To the field!" This is amply confirmed by the following line, and by this passage of Holinshed, "The Duke of Brabant, when his standard was not come, caused a banner to be taken from a trumpet and fastened to a spear, the which he commanded to be borne before him instead of a standard." _Guidon_ is a term still in use in the cavalry service.

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SC. 3. "He that shall see this day and live _to_ old age."

Pope, who has been usually followed, transposed 'see' and 'live.' I rather think _to_ was omitted, and see no necessity for transposition.

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"They'll be in fresher robes; for they will pluck," etc.

The 4to and folio both, which all the editors follow, read 'or they'; my own and Hanmer's conjecture is 'for they,' which alone gives sense, by explaining how they would be 'in fresher robes.' How easily might the _f_ have been lost or omitted!

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SC. 4. "_Calitay! Callinó castorè me!_"

I have ventured to change the 'Qualtitie' of the folio to _Calitay_, the English mode of pronouncing _qualité_, with the accent on the last syllable; which suggests _Callino_, etc., for which see Index _s. v._ The French _qualité_ would never suggest _quality_ to an illiterate Englishman.

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SC. 5. "Let us die in ... Once möre back again."

By this punctuation the reading of the folio becomes clear. Knight, whom late editors follow, reads 'in _honour_,' which occurs in the 4to.

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SC. 7. "To book our dead and then to bury them."

Collier's folio reads _look_, which might seem preferable.

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SC. 8. "Now, Herald, are the dead _all_ numbered?"

It might be better to read 'the dead on _both sides_.'