[Thus can the demi-god, Authority,
Make us pay down, for our offence, by weight.--
The words of heaven;--on whom it will, it will;
On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just]
[Warburton had emended the punctuation of the second line] I
suspect that a line is lost.
I.ii.162 (18,8) [the fault, and glimpse, of newness] _Fault_ and
_glimpse_ have so little relation to each other, that both can
scarcely be right: we may read _flash_ for _fault_ or, perhaps we
may read,
_Whether it be the fault_ or _glimpse_--
That is, whether it be the seeming enormity of the action, or
the glare of new authority. Yet the sane sense follows in the
next lines, (see 1765, I, 275, 4)
I.ii.188 (19,2) [There is a prone and speechless dialect] I can
scarcely tell what signification to give to the word _prone_. Its
primitive and translated senses are well known. The authour
may, by a _prone_ dialect, mean a dialect which men are _prone_ to
regard, or a dialect natural and unforced, as those actions seem
to which we are _prone_. Either of these interpretations are
sufficiently strained; but such distortion of words is not uncommon
in our authour. For the sake of an easier sense, we may read,
--_In her youth
There is a_ pow'r, _and speechless dialect,
Such as moves men._
Or thus,
_There is a_ prompt _and speechless dialect._
I.ii.194 (20,3) [under grievous imposition] I once thought it
should be _inquisition_, but the present reading is probably
right. _The crime would be under grievous_ penalties imposed.
I.iii.2 (20,4) [Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love Can
pierce a compleat bosom] Think not that a breast _compleatly
armed_ can be pierced by the dart of love that comes _fluttering
without force_.
I.iii.12 (21,5) [(A man of stricture and firm abstinence)] [W: strict ure]
_Stricture_ may easily be used for _strictness_; _ure_ is indeed
an old word, but, I think, always applied to things, never to
persons.
I.iii.43 (22,9) [To do it slander] The text stood,
_So do in slander_.--
Sir Thomas Hammer has very well corrected it thus,