I cannot perceive the second line to be intolerable, or to be nonsense.
The speaker only rises in his ideas. _She has all courtly parts_, says
he, _more exquisite than_ any _lady_, than all _ladies_, than all
_womankind_. Is this nonsense?
III.v.101 (236,3) _Pia._ Or this, or perish] These words, I think,
belong to Cloten, who, requiring the paper, says,
Let's see't: I will pursue her
Even to Augustus' throne. Or this, or perish.
Then Pisanio giving the paper, says to himself,
She's far enough, &c.
III.vi.12 (239,1) To lapse in fullness/Is sorer, than to lye for need]
Is a _greater_, or _heavier_ crime.
III.vi.23 (239,3) If any thing that's civil, speak; if savage,/Take, or
lend] [W: Take 'or 't end.] I suppose the emendation proposed will not
easily be received; it is strained and obscure, and the objection
against Hanmer's reading is likewise very strong. I question whether,
after the words, _if savage_, a line be not lost. I can offer nothing
better than to read,
--Ho! who's here?
If any thing that's civil, _take or lend_,
If savage, _speak_.
If you are _civilised_ and _peaceable, take_ a price for what I want, or
_lend_ it for a future recompence; if you are _rough inhospitable_
inhabitants of the mountain, _speak_, that I may know my state.
III.vi.77 (242,4) then had my prize/Been less; and so more equal
ballasting] HANMER reads plausibly, but without necessity, _price_, for
_prize_, and _balancing_, for _ballasting_. He is followed by Dr.
WARBURTON. The meaning is, Had I been a less prize, I should not have
been too heavy for Posthumus.
III.vi.86 (243,5) That nothing-gift of differing multitudes] [T:
deferring] He is followed by Sir T. HANMER and Dr. WARBURTON; but I do
not see why _differing_ may not be a general epithet, and the expression
equivalent to the _many-headed_ rabble.