You do not meet a man, but frowns: our bloods
No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers'
Still seen, as does the king's]
[W: brows/No more] This passage is so difficult, that commentators may
differ concerning it without animosity or shame. Of the two emendations
proposed, Hanmer's is the more licentious; but he makes the sense clear,
and leaves the reader an easy passage. Dr. Warburton has corrected with
more caution, but less improvement: his reasoning upon his own reading
is so obscure and perplexed, that I suspect some injury of the press.--I
am now to tell my opinion, which is, that the lines stand as they were
originally written, and that a paraphrase, such as the licentious and
abrupt expressions of our author too frequently require, will make
emendation unnecessary. _We do not meet a man but frowns; our
bloods_--our countenances, which, in popular speech, are said to be
regulated by the temper of the blood,--_no more obey_ the laws of
_heaven_,--which direct us to appear what we really are,--_than our
courtiers_;--that is, than the_ bloods of our courtiers_; but our
bloods, like theirs,--_still seem, as doth the king's_.
I.i.25 (155,3) I do extend him, Sir, within himself] I extend him within
himself: my praise, however _extensive_, is _within_ his merit.
I.i.46 (156,4) liv'd in court,/(Which rare it is to do) most prais'd,
most lov'd] This encomium is high and artful. To be at once in any great
degree _loved_ and _praised_ is truly _rare_.
I.i.49 (156,5) A glass that feated them] _A glass that featur'd them_]
Such is the reading in all the modern editions, I know not by whom first
substituted, for