Throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault;
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts]
The pathetick of Shakespeare too often ends in the ridiculous. It is
painful to find the gloomy dignity of this noble scene destroyed by the
intrusion of a conceit so far-fetched and unaffecting.
IV.xii.13 (226,1) Triple turn'd whore!] She was first for Antony, then
was supposed by him to have _turned_ to Caesar, when he found his
messenger kissing her hand, then she _turned_ again to Antony, and now
has _turned_ to Caesar. Shall I mention what has dropped into my
imagination, that our author might perhaps have written
_triple-tongued_? _Double-tongued_ is a common term of reproach, which
rage might improve to _triple-tongued_. But the present reading may
stand.
IV.xii.21 (227,2) That pannell'd me at heels] All the editions read,
_That_ pannell'd _me at heels_,--
Sir T. Hanmer substituted _spaniel'd_ by an emendation, with which it
was reasonable to expect that even rival commentators would be
satisfied; yet Dr. Warburton proposes _pantler'd_, in a note, of which
he is not injur'd by the suppression; and Mr. Upton having in his first
edition proposed plausibly enough,
_That_ paged _me at heels_,--
in the second edition retracts his alteration, and maintains _pannell'd_
to be the right reading, being a metaphor taken, he says, from a
_pannel_ of wainscot.
IV.xii.25 (227,3) this grave charm] I know not by what authority, nor
for what reason, _this_ grave _charm_, which the first, the only
original copy exhibits, has been through all the modern editors changed
to _this_ gay _charm_. By _this_ grave _charm_, is meant, _this sublime,
this majestic beauty_.
IV.xii.29 (227,4) to the very heart of loss] To the utmost loss
possible.
IV.xii.45 (228,7) Let me lodge, Lichas] Sir T. Hanmer reads thus,
--thy _rage_
Led thee _lodge Lichas_--and--
_Subdue_ thy _worthiest self_.--
This reading, harsh as it is, Dr. Warburton has received, after having
rejected many better. The meaning is, Let me do something in my rage,
becoming the successor of Hercules,
IV.xiv.19 (230,2) Pack'd cards with Caesar, and false play'd my
glory/Unto an enemy's triumph] [Warburton had explained and praised
Shakespeare's "metaphor"] This explanation is very just, the thought did
not deserve so good an annotation.
IV.xiv.39 (231,3) The battery from my heart] I would read,