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"Thy sins, not accidental, but a trade."

V.i.16 (273,9) Do your best wills,/And make me blest to obey!] So the copies. It was more in the manner of our author to have written,

—Do your blest wills,

And make me blest t' obey.—

V.iii.41 (276,3) A rout, confusion thick] [W: confusion-thick] I do not see what great addition is made to fine diction by this compound. Is it not as natural to enforce the principal event in a story by repetition, as to enlarge the principal figure in a figure?

V.iii.51 (276,4) bugs] Terrors.

V.iii.53 (277,5) Nay, do not wonder at it] [T: do but] There is no need of alteration. Posthumus first bids him not wonder, then tells him in another mode of reproach, that wonder is all that he was made for.

V.iii.79 (278,8) great the answer be] Answer, as once in this play before, is retaliation.

V.iii.87 (278,9) That gave the affront with them] That is, that turned their faces to the enemy.

V.iv.1 (279,1) You shall not now be stolen, you have locks upon you;/So, graze, as you find pasture] This wit of the gaoler alludes to the custom of putting a lock on a horse's leg, when he is turned to pasture.

V.iv.27 (280,3) If you will take this audit, take this life,/And cancel those cold bonds] This equivocal use of bonds is another instance of our author's infelicity in pathetic speeches.

V.iv.45 (281,5) That from me my Posthumus ript] The old copy reads,

That from me was Posthumus ript.

Perhaps we should read,

That from my womb Posthumus ript,

Came crying 'mongst his foes.

V.iv.146 (284,7)

'Tis still a dream; or else such stuff, as madmen

Tongue, and brain not: either both or nothing:

Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such

As sense cannot untie. Be what it is,

The action of my life is like it]

The meaning, which is too thin to be easily caught, I take to be this: This is a dream or madness, or both—or nothing—but whether it be a speech without consciousness, as in a dream, or a speech unintelligible, as in madness, be it as it is, it is like my course of life. We might perhaps read,

Whether both, or nothing—

V.iv,164 (285,8) sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you are paid too much] Tavern bills, says the gaoler, are the sadness of parting, as the procuring of mirth—you depart reeling with too much drink; sorry that you have paid too much, and—what? sorry that you are paid too much. Where is the opposition? I read, And merry that you are paid so much. I take the second paid to be paid, for appaid, filled, satiated.

V.iv.171 (286,9) debtor and creditor] For an accounting book.

V.iv.188 (286,1) jump the after-enquiry] That is, venture at it without thought. So Macbeth,

"We'd jump the life to come." (see 1765, VII, 382, 7)

V.v.9 (288,1) one that promis'd nought/But beggary and poor looks] To promise nothing but poor looks, may be, to give no promise of courageous behaviour.

V.v.88 (291,2) So feat] So ready; so dextrous in waiting.

V.v.93 (291,3) His favour is familiar to me] I am acquainted with his countenance.

V.v.120 (292,4) One sand another/Not more resembles. That sweet rosy lad] [W: resembles, than be th' sweet] There was no great difficulty in the line, which, when properly pointed, needs no alteration.

V.v.203 (296,8) averring notes/Of chamber-hanging, pictures] Such marks of the chamber and pictures, as averred or confirmed my report.

V.v.220 (297,9) the temple/Of virtue was she; yea, and she herself] That is, She was not only the temple of virtue, but virtue herself.

V.v.233 (297,1) these staggers] This wild and delirious perturbation. Staggers is the horse's apoplexy.

V.v.262 (298,2) Think, that you are upon a rock; and now/Throw me again] In this speech, or in the answer, there is little meaning. I suppose, she would say, Consider such another act as equally fatal to me with precipitation from a rock, and now let me see whether you will repeat it.

V.v.308 (300,3) By tasting of our wrath] [W: hasting] There is no need of change; the consequence is taken for the whole action;