[I ne'er heard yet,
That any of those bolder vices wanted
Less impudence to gain--say what they did,
Than to perform it first]
It is apparent that according to the proper, at least according to
the present, use of words, _less_ should be _more_, or _wanted_ should
be _had_. But Shakespeare is very uncertain in his use of negatives.
It nay be necessary once to observe, that in our language two negatives
did not originally affirm, but strengthen the negation.
This mode of speech was in time changed, but as the change was
made in opposition to long custom, it proceeded gradually, and
uniformity was not obtained but through an intermediate confusion.
III.ii.82 (308,9) [My life stands in the level of your dreams] To be
_in the level_ is by a metaphor from archery _to be within the reach_.
III.ii.85 (308,1) [As you were past all shame, (Those of your fact
are so) [so past all truth] I do not remember that _fact_ is used any
where absolutely for _guilt_, which must be its sense in this place.
Perhaps we may read,
_Those of your_ pack _are so_.
_Pack_ is a low coarse word well suited to the rest of this royal
invective.
III.ii.107 (309,3) [I have got strength of limit] I know not well how
_strength_ of _limit_ can mean _strength to pass the limits_ of the
childbed chamber, which yet it must mean in this place, unless we read
in a more easy phrase, _strength of_ limb. _And_ now, &c.
III.ii.123 (310,4) [The flatness of my misery] That is, how low, how
_flat_ I am laid by my calamity.
III.ii.146 (310,5) [Of the queen's speed] Of the _event_ of the queen's
trial: so we still say, he _sped_ well or ill.
III.ii.173 (311,6) [Does my deeds make the blacker!] This vehement
retraction of Leontes, accompanied with the confession of more
crimes than he was suspected of, is agreeable to our daily experience
of the vicissitudes of violent tempers, and the eruptions
of minds oppressed with guilt.