[And what poor duty cannot do,
Noble respect takes it in might, not merit.]
The sense of this passage, as it now stands, if it has any sense,
is this: _What the inability of duty cannot perform, regardful
generosity receives as an act of ability, though not of merit._
The contrary is rather true: _What dutifulness tries to perform
without ability, regardful generosity receives as having the merit,
though not the power, of complete performance._
We should therefore read,
_And what poor duty cannot do,
Noble respect takes not in might, but merit._
V.i.147 (95,4) [Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade] Mr.
Upton rightly observes, that Shakespeare in this line ridicules
the affectation of beginning many words with the same letter. He
night have remarked the same of
_The raging rocks
and shivering shocks._
Gascoigne, contemporary with our poet, remarks and blames the
same affectation.
V.i.199 (97,6) [And like Limander am I trusty still] Limander and
Helen, are spoken by the blundering player, for Leander and Hero.
Shafalus and Procrus, for Cephalus and Procris.
V.i.254 (99,1) [in snuff] An equivocation. _Snuff_ signifies both the
cinder of a caudle, and hasty anger.
V.i.379 (104,2) [And the wolf beholds the moon] [W: behowls] The
alteration is better than the original reading; but perhaps the
author meant only to say, that the wolf _gazes at_ the moon, (see 1765,
I,173,2)