Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
It thought-sick at the act]
[W: O'er this ... visage, and, as 'gainst] The word _heated_ [from the
"old quarto"], though it agrees well enough with _glow_, is, I think,
not so striking as _tristful_, which was, I suppose, chosen at the
revisal. I believe the whole passage now stands as the author gave it.
Dr. WARBURTON's reading restores two improprieties, which Shakespeare,
by his alteration, had removed. In the first, and in the new reading:
_Heaven's_ face _glows with tristful_ visage; and, _Heaven's face is_
thought-sick. To the common reading there is no just objection.
III.iv.52 (268,9) what act,/That roars so loud, and thunders in the
index?] The meaning is, _What is_ this act, of which the _discovery_, or
_mention_, cannot be made, but with this violence of clamour?
III.iv.82 (270,5) Rebellious hell,/If thou canst mutiny in a matron's
bones] I think the present reading right, but cannot admit that HANMER's
emendation ["Rebellious heat"] produces nonsense. May not what is said
of _heat_, be said of _hell_, that it will mutiny wherever it is
quartered? Though the emendation be elegant, it is not necessary. (1773)
III.iv.88 (271,6) reason panders will] So the folio, I think rightly;
but the reading of the quarto is defensible;
--_reason_ pardons _will_.
III.iv.90 (271,7) grained] Dyed in grain.
III.iv.92 (271,8) incestuous bed] The folio has _enseamed_, that is,
_greasy_ bed.
III.iv.98 (271,9) vice of kings!] a low mimick of kings. The vice is the
fool of a farce; from whom the modern _punch_ is descended.
III.iv.102 (272,2) A king of shreds and patches] This is said, pursuing
the idea of the _vice of kings_. The _vice_ was dressed as a fool, in a
coat of party-coloured patches.
III.iv.107 (272,3) lap's in time and passion] That, having suffered
_time_ to _slip_, and _passion_ to _cool, lets go_, &c.
III.iv.151 (274,6) And do not spread the compost on the weeds/To make
them ranker] Do not, by any new indulgence, heighten your former
offences.
III.iv.155 (274,7) curb] That is, _bend_ and _truckle_. Fr. _courber_.
III.iv.161 (274,8) That monster custom, who all sense doth eat/ Of
habits evil, is angel yet in this] [Thirlby: habits evil] I think
THIRLBY's conjecture wrong, though the succeeding editors have followed
it; _angel_ and _devil_ are evidently opposed. [Steevens accepted
"evil"]
III.iv.203 (277,5) adders fang'd] That is, adders with their _fangs_, or
_poisonous teeth_, undrawn. It has been the practice of mountebanks to
boast the efficacy of their antidotes by playing with vipers, but they
first disabled their fangs.
IV.i (278,l) _A royal apartment. Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and
Guildenstern_] This play is printed in the old editions without any
separation of the acts. The division is modern and arbitrary; and is
here not very happy, for the pause is made at a time when there is more
continuity of action than in almost any other of the scenes.
IV.i.18 (278,2) out of haunt] I would rather read, _out of_ harm.