"We'll not commend what we intend to sell." In Son. xxi. we have, "I will not praise that purpose not to sell." Hence some would add a negative here; but it is not necessary. He means that they would sell Helen dearly. * * * * * SC. 2. "As infants empty of all thought." Editors read 'infants' in the genitive. In either case I think _to_ has been omitted before it. * * * * * "Beshrew the witch! with venomous wights she stays As tediously as hell." No sense has been, or, I think, can be made of 'venomous wights.' I think 'venomous' must be an error. * * * * * "Good, good, my lord; the secrets of Nature have not More gift in taciturnity _than I_." * * * * * SC. 4. "To shame the seal of my petition to thee In praising her." We should read _zeal_, as is usually done. * * * * * SC. 5. "No trumpet answers.--'Tis but early day[s]." * * * * * "That give a coasting welcome ere it comes." There can be little doubt, I think, that 'coasting' is a noun; and I regard it as the same as '_costing_ by aphæresis from _accosting_. * * * * * "I shall forestall thee, Lord Ulysses, thou."-- Tyrwhitt's conjecture, _though_ for 'thou,' is a happy one, and should perhaps be admitted. * * * * * "Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him." Perhaps 'odd,' which is so unusual, should be _at odds_. ACT V. SC. 1. "Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and _thou_ idol." * * * * * "Thou art thought to be Achilles' male varlet." As he elsewhere, it might appear, calls him _brach_, Hanmer's reading _harlot_ would seem to have been the poet's word. But on the other hand, in the Honest Whore, _varlet_ is used as synonymous with _punk_, of a woman in man's clothes. "'Tis a _male varlet_ sure, my lord, for a woman's tailor never measured him." * * * * * "They say he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas' tent. I'll after _him_." The word _him_, requisite for the metre, had been lost. * * * * * SC. 2. "A juggling trick, to be open secretly." The 4tos and folio read 'secretly open.' * * * * * "And yet the spacious breadth of this division Admits no orifice for a point as subtle As Ariachne's broken woof to enter." This is a curious instance of a copyist's or printer's transposition. (Introd. p. 61.) It is downright nonsense; but read "As subtle as Arachne's broken woof, Admits no orifice for a point to enter,"