[for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld]
[W: for pall'd, thy blazed youth Becomes assuaged] Here again I
think Dr. Warburton totally mistaken. Shakespeare declares that
man has _neither youth nor age_; for in _youth_, which is the
_happiest_ time, or which might be the happiest, he commonly wants
means to obtain what he could enjoy; he is dependent on _palsied
eld_; _must beg alms_ from the coffers of hoary avarice: and being
very niggardly supplied, _becomes as aged_, looks, like an old man,
on happiness which is beyond his reach. And when _he is old and
rich_, when he has wealth enough for the purchase of all that
formerly excited his desires, he has no longer the powers of enjoyment,
--_has neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make _his _riches pleasant_.--
I have explained this passage according to the present reading,
which may stand without much inconvenience; yet I am willing to
persuade my reader, because I have almost persuaded myself, that
our authour wrote,
--_for all thy_ blasted _youth
Becomes as aged_--
III.i.37 (66,2) [Thou has neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty
To make thy riches pleasant] [W: nor bounty] I am inclined to
believe, that neither man nor woman will have much difficulty to
tell how _beauty makes riches pleasant_. Surely this emendation,
though it it elegant and ingenious, is not such as that an opportunity of
inserting it should be purchased by declaring ignorance
of what every one knows, by confessing insensibility to what
every one feels.
III.i.40 (66,3) [more thousand deaths] For this sir T. Hammer reads,
----_ a thousand deaths_:----
The meaning is not only _a thousand deaths_, but _a thousand deaths_
besides what have been mentioned.
III.i.55 (67,5) [Why, as all comforts are; most good in Deed] If this
reading be right, Isabella must mean that she brings something
better than _words_ of comfort, she brings an assurance of _deeds_.
This is harsh and constrained, but I know not what better to offer. Sir
Thomas Hammer reads,--_in_ speed.
III.i.59 (68,6) [an everlasting leiger. Therefore your best appointment]
_Leiger_ is the same with resident. _Appointment_; preparation;
act of fitting, or state of being fitted for any thing. So
in old books, we have a knight well _appointed_; that is, well
armed and mounted or fitted at all points.