1. SEN. You undergo too strict a paradox, Striving to make an ugly deed look fair:

Your words have took fuch pains, as if they la

bour'd

To bring manflaughter into form, fet quarrelling
Upon the head of valour; which, indeed,
Is valour misbegot, and came into the world
When fects and factions were newly born:
He's truly valiant, that can wifely fuffer

The worst that man can breathe; 5 and make his

wrongs

His outfides; wear them like his raiment, care

lefsly;

Behave, however, is ufed by Spenfer, in his Faery Queene, B. I. c. iii. in a fenfe that will fuit fufficiently with the paffage before

us:

"But who his limbs with labours, and his mind
Behaves with cares, cannot fo eafy miss.

To behave certainly had formerly a very different fignification from that in which it is now used. Cole in his Didionary, 1679, renders it by tracto, which he interprets to govern, or manage.

MALONE.

On fecond confideration, the fenfe of this paffage, (however perverfely expreffed on account of thyme,) may be this: He managed his anger with fuch fober and unnoted passion [i. e. Suffering, forbearance, before it was spent, [i. e. before that difpofition to endure the infult he had received, was exhaufted, ] that it feemed as if he had been only engaged in fupporting an argument he had advanced in converfatiou. Paffion may as well be used to fignify Juffering, as any violent commotion of the mind: and that our author was aware of this, may be inferred from his introducion of the Latin phrase -་་ "hysterica paffio," in King Lear. See alfo Vol. XVII.

p. 13, n. 9.

STEEVENS.

a

4 You undergo too firi& a paradox,] You undertake a paradox too hard.

5

STEEVENS.

that man can breathe;] i. e. can utter. So afterwards: You breathe in vain. MALONE.

Again, in Hamlet:

Having ever seen, in the prenominate crimes,

"The youth you breathe of, guilty." STEEVENS,'

And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart,
To bring it into danger.

If wrongs be evils, and enforce us kill,
What folly 'tis, to hazard life for ill?
ALCIB. My lord,-

1. SEN. You cannot make grofs fins look clear; To revenge is no valour, but to bear.

ALCIB. My lords, then, under favour, pardon me, If I fpeak like a captain.

6

Why do fond men expofe themselves to battle,
And not endure all threatnings? fleep upon it,
And let the foes quietly cut their throats,
Without repugnancy? but if there be
Such valour in the bearing, what make we
Abroad?" why then, women are more valiant,
That ftay at home, if bearing carry it;

8

And th' afs, more captain than the lion; the felon,3

threatnings?] Old copy threats.

This flight, but ju... In the next line but

dicious change, is Sir Thomas Hanmer's.
one, he also added, for the fake of metre, - but

Abroad? What do we, or what have we to do in the field.

See Vol. V. p. 151, n. 6. MALONE.

JOHNSON.

8 And th' afs, more captain than the lion; &c.] Here is another arbitrary regulation, [the omiffion of

thus:

what make we

captain] the original reads

Abroad? why then, women are more valiant
That ftay at home, if bearing carry it:

And the afs, more captain than the lion,

The fellow, loaden with irons, wifer than the judge,

If wisdom, &c.

I think it may be better adjufted thus:

what make we

Abroad? why then the women are more valiant

That lay at home;

Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge,
If wifdom be in fuffering. O my lords,
As you are great, be pitifully good:

Who cannot condemn rafhnefs in cold blood?
To kill, I grant, is fin's extremeft guft; 9

If bearing carry it, then is the afs

More captain than the lion; and the felon
Loaden with irons, wifer &c. JOHNSON.

if bearing carry it ;] Dr. Johnson, when he proposed to conced this hemiftich with the following line, inftead of the preceding words, feems to have forgot one of our author's favourite propeufities. I have no doubt that the present arrangement is right.

Mr. Pope, who rejected whatever he did not like, omitted the words more captain. They are fupported by what Alcibiades has already said:

My lords, then, under favour, pardon me, "If I fpeak like a captain...

"

and by Shakspeare's 66th Sonnet, where the word captain is used with at leaft as much harfhnefs as in the text:

"And captive good attending captain ill.

Again, in another of his Sonnets:

"Like ftones of worth they thinly placed are,

"Or captain jewels in the carkanet.

Dr. Johnlon with great probability proposes to read felon inftead of fellow. MALONE.

The word captain has cannot be the author's is wife be a metrical line that he meant to use it

been very injudiciously restored. That it evident from its spoiling what will otherNor is bis ufing it elsewhere any proof here. RITSON.

I have not fcrupled to infert Dr. Johnfon's emendation, felon, for fellow, in the text; but do not perceive how the line can become ftridly metrical by the omiffion of the word-captain, unlefs, with Sir Thomas Hanmer, we tranfpofe the conjunctionand, and read:

9

The afs more than the lion, and the felon,

fin's extremeft guft;] Guft, for aggravation.

STEEVENS.

WARBURTON.

Guft is here in its common fenfe; the utmost degree of appetite for fin. JOHNSON.

But, in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just.*
To be in anger, is impiety;

But who is man, that is not angry?
Weigh but the crime with this.

2. SEN. You breathe in vain.
ALCIB.

In vain? his fervice done

At Lacedæmon, and, Byzantium, Were a fufficient briber for his life. 1. SEN. What's that?

ALCIB.

Why, I fay, my lords, h'as done fair

fervice,

And flain in fight many of your enemies:
How full of valour did he bear himself

In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds? 2. SEN. He has made too much plenty with 'em, 4 he

I believe guft means rafhness. The allufion may be to a fudden guft of wind. STEEVENS.

So we fay, it was done in a fudden guft of paffion. MALONE. by mercy, 'tis mofi juft.] By mercy is meant equity. But we muft read:

2

'tis made juft. WARBURTON.

Mercy is not put for equity. If fuch explanation be allowed, what can be difficult? The meaning is, I call mercy herself to witnefs, that defenfive violence is juft. JOHNSON.

The meaning, I think, is, Homicide in our own defence, hy a merciful and lenient interpretation of the laws, is confidered as juftifiable. MALONE.

Dr. Johnfon's explanation is the more spirited; but a paffage in King John thould seem to countenance that of Mr. Malone:

"Some fins do bear their privilege on earth,
"And fo doth yours." STEEVENS.

3 Why, Ifay,] The perfonal pronoun was inferted by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

4

with 'em,] The folio with him. JOHNSON.

The correction was made by the editor of the fecond folio.

MALONE.

Is a fworn rioter: 5 h'as a fin that often
Drowns him, and takes his valour prifoner:
If there were no foes, that were enough alone"
To overcome him: in that beaftly fury
He has been known to commit outrages,
And cherish factions: 'Tis inferr'd to us,
His days are foul, and his drink dangerous.
1. SEN. He dies.

ALCIB. Hard fate! he might have died in war. My lords, if not for any parts in him,

(Though his right arm might purchase his own time,
And be in debt to none,) yet, more to move you,
Take my deferts to his; and join them both:
And, for I know, your reverend ages love
Security, I'll pawn' my victories, all

My honour to you, upon his good returns.
If by this crime he owes the law his life,
Why, let the war receiv't in valiant gore;
For law is ftrict, and war is nothing more.

1. SEN. We are for law, he dies; urge it no more, On height of our displeasure: Friend, or brother, He forfeits his own blood, that fpills another.

man who practifes JOHNSON.

5 Is a fworn rioter:] A fworn rioter is a riot, as if he had by an oath made it his duty. The expreffion, a fworn rioter, feems to be fimilar to that of Sworn brothers. See Vol. XIII. p. 308, n. 4. MALONE.

6 alone-] This word was judiciously fupplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer, to complete the measure. Thus, in All's well that ends well:

"Is good." STEEVENS.

7 your reverend ages love

Security, I'll pawn &c.] He charges them obliquely with being ufurers. JOHNSON.