tho' trained up thus meanly
I' the cave, wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit
The roof of palaces]
[W: wherein they bow] HANMER reads,
I' the cave, _here in this brow_.--
I think the reading is this:
I' the cave, wherein the BOW, &c.
That is, they are trained up in the _cave, where their thoughts_ in
hitting the _bow_, or arch of their habitation, _hit the roofs of
palaces_. In other words, though their condition is low, their thoughts
are high. The sentence is at last, as THEOBALD remarks, abrupt, but
perhaps no less suitable to Shakespeare. I know not whether Dr.
WARBURTON's conjecture be not better than mine.
III.iii.101 (223,2) I stole these babes] Shakespeare seems to intend
Belarius for a good character, yet he makes him forget the injury which
he has done to the young princes, whom he has robbed of a kingdom only
to rob their father of heirs.--The latter part of this soliloquy is very
inartificial, there being no particular reason why Belarius should now
tell to himself what he could not know better by telling it.
III.iv.15 (224,2) drug-damn'd Italy] This is another allusion to Italian
poisons.
III.iv.39 (225,4) Kings, queens, and states] Persons of highest rank.
III.iv.52 (225,6) Some jay of Italy,/Whose mother was her painting]
_Some jay of Italy_, made by art the creature, not of nature, but of
painting. In this sense _painting_ may be not improperly termed her
_mother_. (see 1765, VII, 325, 9)
III.iv.63 (226,7) So thou, Posthumus,/Wilt lay the leaven on all proper
men] HANMER reads,
--lay the _level_--
without any necessity.
III.iv.97 (228,1) That now thou tir'st on] A hawk is said to _tire_ upon
that which he pecks; from _tirer_, French.