... “His captain’s heart
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, _reneges_ all temper.”
It should be “reneagues,” or “reniegues,” as “fatigues,” &c.
_Ib._—
“Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world transform’d
Into a strumpet’s _fool_.”
Warburton’s conjecture of “stool” is ingenious, and would be a probable
reading, if the scene opening had discovered Antony with Cleopatra on his
lap. But, represented as he is walking and jesting with her, “fool” must
be the word. Warburton’s objection is shallow, and implies that he
confounded the dramatic with the epic style. The “pillar” of a state is so
common a metaphor as to have lost the image in the thing meant to be
imaged.
_Ib._ sc. 2.—
... “Much is breeding;
Which, like the courser’s hair, hath yet but life,
And not a serpent’s poison.”
This is so far true to appearance, that a horse-hair, “laid,” as
Hollinshed says, “in a pail of water,” will become the supporter of
seemingly one worm, though probably of an immense number of small slimy
water-lice. The hair will twirl round a finger, and sensibly compress it.
It is a common experiment with school boys in Cumberland and Westmoreland.