I.iii.42 (376,5) And prays you to believe him] The late learned and ingenious Mr. Thomas Clark, of Lincoln's Inn, read the passage thus: _And prays you to_ relieve _him_. But the present reading may stand. _He intreats you not to doubt the truth of this intelligence_. I.iii.54 (377,6) Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the general care] The word _care_, which encumbers the verse, was probably added by the players. Shakespeare uses _the general_ as a substantive, though, I think, not in this sense. I.iii.69 (373,8) though our proper son/Stood in your action] Were the man exposed to your _charge_ or _accusation_. I.iii.80 (378,9) The very head and front of my offending] The _main_, the _whole_, unextenuated. I.iii.85 (379,2) Their dearest action] That is _dear_, for which much is paid, whether money or labour; _dear action_, is action performed at great expence, either of ease or safety. I.iii.107 (380,4) overt test] Open proofs, external evidence. I.iii.108 (380,5) thin habits and poor likelihoods/Of modern seeming] Weak shew of slight appearance. I.iii.139 (381,6) And portance in my travel's history] [I have restored, _And with it all my travel's history_: From the old edition. It is in the rest, _And portance in my travel's history_. Rymer, in his criticism on this play, has changed it to _portents_, instead of _portance_. POPE.] Mr. Pope has restored a line, to which there is little objection, but which has no force. I believe _portance_ was the author's word in some revised copy. I read thus, _Of being----sold To slavery, of my redemption, thence, And portance in't; my travel's history._ My redemption from slavery, and behaviour in it. I.iii.140-170 (381,7) Wherein of antres vast, and desarts idle] Whoever ridicules this account of the progress of love, shows his ignorance, not only of history, but of nature and manners. It is no wonder that, in any age, or in any nation, a lady, recluse, timorous, and delicate, should desire to hear of events and scenes which she could never see, and should admire the man who had endured dangers and performed actions, which, however great, were yet magnified by her timidity. [Pope: deserts wild] Every mind is liable to absence and inadvertency, else Pope could never have rejected a word so poetically beautiful. Idle is an epithet used to express the infertility of the chaotic state, in the Saxon translation of the Pentateuch. (1773) I.iii.140 (382,8) antres] [French grottos. POPE.] Rather _caves_ and _dens_. I.iii.142 (382,9) It was my hint to speak] [W: hent] _Hent_ is not used in Shakespeare, nor, I believe, in any other author; _hint_, or _cue_, is comnonly used for occasion of speech, which is explained by, _such was the process_, that is, the course of the tale required it. If _hent_ be restored, it may be explained by _handle_. I had a _handle_, or _opportunity_, to speak of cannibals.