V.i.1-33 (271,2) Yea, bloody cloth, I'll keep thee] This is a soliloquy of nature, uttered when the effervescence of a mind agitated and perturbed spontaneously and inadvertently discharges itself in words. The speech, throughout all its tenor, if the last conceit be excepted, seems to issue warm from the heart. He first condemns his own violence; then tries to disburden himself, by imputing part of the crime to Pisanio; he next sooths his mind to an artificial and momentary tranquility, by trying to think that he has been only an instrument of the gods for the happiness of Imogen. He is now grown reasonable enough to determine, that having done so much evil he will do no more; that he will not fight against the country which he has already injured; but as life is not longer supportable, he will die in a just cause, and die with the obscurity of a man who does not think himself worthy to be remembered. V.i.9 (271,3) to put on] Is to _incite_, to _instigate_. V.i.14 (272,4) To second ills with ills, each elder worse] For this reading all the later editors have contentedly taken, --each worse than other, without enquiries whence they have received it. Yet they know, or might know, that it has no authority. The original copy reads, --each elder worse, The last deed is certainly not the oldest, but Shakespeare calls the _deed_ of an _elder_ man an _elder deed_. V.i.15 (272,5) And make them dread it, to the doers' thrift] [T: dreaded, to] This emendation ia followed by HANMER. Dr. WARBURTON reads, I know not whether by the printer's negligence, And make them _dread_, to the doers' thrift. There seems to be no very satisfactory sense yet offered. I read, but with hesitation, And make them _deeded_, to the doers' thrift. The word _deeded_ I know not indeed where to find; but Shakespeare has, in another sense _undeeded_, in _Macbeth_: "--my sword "I sheath again _undeeded_."-- I will try again, and read thus, --others you permit To second ills with ills, each other worse, And make them _trade it_, to the doers' thrift. _Trade_ and _thrift_ correspond. Our author plays with _trade_, as it signifies a lucrative vocation, or a frequent practice. So Isabella says, "Thy sins, not accidental, but a _trade_." V.i.16 (273,9) Do your best wills,/And make me blest to obey!] So the copies. It was more in the manner of our author to have written, --Do your blest wills, And make me blest t' obey.-- V.iii.41 (276,3) A rout, confusion thick] [W: confusion-thick] I do not see what great addition is made to _fine diction_ by this compound. Is it not as natural to enforce the principal event in a story by repetition, as to enlarge the principal figure in a figure? V.iii.51 (276,4) bugs] Terrors. V.iii.53 (277,5) Nay, do not wonder at it] [T: do but] There is no need of alteration. Posthumus first bids him not wonder, then tells him in another mode of reproach, that wonder is all that he was made for.