A syllable is wanting; we have "_most_ worst" in Winter's Tale, iii. 2, and double comparatives and superlatives are common. * * * * * SC. 2. "Whom we to gain our peace have sent to peace." The first 'peace' was probably suggested, in the usual manner, by the second. We might read _seat_, or some such word (see Introd. p. 64). The 2nd folio has _place_. * * * * * "Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond." We should read _band_, riming with 'hand.' * * * * * "Light thickness and the crow Makes wing to the rooky wood. * * *" We might add, _on earth below_. We have, "In all designs begun _on earth below_" (Tr. and Cr. i. 3). * * * * * "Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill." It might be better to read 'themselves strong.' * * * * * SC. 4. "'Tis better thee without than he within." The 'he' had better probably be _him_. * * * * * "We'll hear _thee_ ourselves again." * * * * * "If trembling I inhabit, then protest me The baby of a girl." Neither 'inhabit' nor Pope's 'inhibit' makes sense. I would read _evitate it_. "Since therein she doth _evitate_ and shun" (Mer. Wives, v. 5; Introd. p. 67). The printer might easily make _inhab_ of _evitate_ badly written. We might also read _evade_ or _avoid it_. 'Baby' is doll. * * * * * "I hear it by the way; but I will send." We should of course read 'hear_d_.' * * * * * SC. 6. "Who cannot want the thought how monsterous," etc. This is evident nonsense; "yet," says Mr. Dyce, "I believe the text is not corrupt. Shakespeare was sometimes incorrect in these _minutiæ_." Shakespeare, however, never wrote nonsense; and if we read _We_ for 'Who,' we have the very word he wrote, and most excellent sense. * * * * * "Is gone to pray the holy king [up]on his aid." * * * * * "Hath so exasperate their king that he." For 'their' we must of course read _the_. ACT IV. SC. 1. "Toad that under cold stone." A syllable is lost. Pope read '_the_ cold'; Steevens 'cold_est_.' I read 'under_neath_,' as in Jonson's line, "Underneath this stone doth lie." * * * * * "Rebellious head rise never." This is Theobald's reading for _dead_ of the folio. Hanmer reads 'Rebellions,' which may be right, but 'head,' often means insurrectionary forces. * * * * * SC. 2. "But cruel are the times when we are traitors And do not know _it_ ourselves." * * * * * "_It_ shall not be long but I'll be here again." * * * * *