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Why in this woolvish tongue should I stand here

To beg of Bob and Dick, that do appear,

Their needless vouches?]

Why stand I here in this ragged apparel to beg of Bob and Dick, and such others as make their appearance here, their unnecessary votes. I rather think we should read [instead of voucher], Their needless vouches. But voucher may serve, as it may perhaps signify either the act or the agent.

II.iii.122 (352) this woolvish gown] Signifies this rough hirsute gown.

II.iii.182 (355,1) ignorant to see't?] [W: "ignorant" means "impotent"] That ignorant at any time has, otherwise than consequentially, the same meaning with impotent, I do not know. It has no such meaning in this place. Were you ignorant to see it, is, did you want knowledge to discern it.

II.iii.208 (356,2) free contempt] That is, with contempt open and unrestrained.

II.iii.227 (357,4) Enforce his pride] Object his pride, and enforce the objection.

II.iii.258 (358,7) Scaling his present bearing with his past] That is, weighing his past and present behaviour.

II.iii.267 (359,8) observe and answer/The vantage of his anger] Mark, catch, and improve the opportunity, which his hasty anger will afford us.

III.i.23 (360,9) prank them in authority] Plume, deck, dignify themselves.

III.i.58 (362,3) This paltring/Becomes not Rome] That is, this trick of dissimulation, this shuffling.

Let these be no more believ'd

That palter with us in a double sense. Macbeth.

III.i.60 (362,4) laid falsly] Falsly for treacherously.

III.i.66 (362,5) Let them regard me, as I do not flatter, and/ Therein behold themselves] Let them look in the mirror which I hold up to them, a mirror which does not flatter, and see themselves.

III.i.89 (363,6) minnows] a minnow is one of the smallest river fish, called in some counties a pink.

III.i.90 (364,6) 'Twas from the canon] Was contrary to the established role; it was a form of speech to which he has no right.

III.i.98 (364,9) Then vail your ignorance] [W: "ignorance" means "impotence."] Hanmer's transposition deserves notice

—If they have power,

Let them have cushions by you; if none, awake

Your dang'rous lenity; if you are learned,

Be not as commmon fools; if you are not,

Then vail your ignorance. You are Plebeians, &c.

I neither think the transposition of one editor right, nor the interpretation of the other. The sense is plain enough without supposing ignorance to have any remote or consequential sense. If this man has power, let the ignorance that gave it him vail or bow down before him.

III.i.101 (365,1) You are Plebeians,

If they be Senators: and they are no less,

When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste

Most palates theirs]

These lines may, I think, be made more intelligible by a very slight correction.

—they no less [than senators]

When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste

Must palate theirs.

When the taste of the great, the patricians, must palate, must please [or must try] that of the plebeians.

III.i.124 (366,3) They would not thread the gates] That is, pass them. We yet say, to thread an alley.

III.i.129 (366,4) could never be the native] [Native for natural birth. WARBURTON.] Native is here not natural birth, but natural parent, or cause of birth. But I would read motive, which, without any distortion of its meaning, suits the speaker's purpose.

III.i.151 (367,7) That love the fundamental part of state/More than you doubt the change of't] To doubt is to fear. The meaning is, You whose zeal predominates over your terrours; you who do not so much fear the danger of violent measures, as wish the good to which they are necessary, the preservation of the original constitution of our government.

III.i.158 (368,2) Mangles true judgment] Judgment is judgment in its common sense, or the faculty by which right is distinguished from wrong.

III.i.159 (368,3) that integrity which should become it] Integrity is in this place soundness, uniformity, consistency, in the same sense as Dr. Warburton often uses it, when he mentions the integrity of a metaphor. To become, is to suit, to befit.