IV.i.7 (390,1) Fortune's blows,/When most struck home, being gentle
wounded, craves/A noble cunning] This it the ancient and authentick
reading. The modern editors have, for _gentle wounded_, silently
substituted _gently warded_, and Dr. Warburton has explained _gently_ by
_nobly_. It is good to be sure of our authour's words before we go about
to explain their meaning.
The sense is, When Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded, and
yet continue calm, requires a generous policy. He calls this calmness
_cunning_, because it is the effect of reflection and philosophy.
Perhaps the first emotions of nature are nearly uniform, and one man
differs from another in the power of endurance, as he is better
regulated by precept and instruction.
_They bore as heroes, but they felt as men_.
(see 1765, VI, 577, 9)
IV.i.33 (391,3) cautelous baits and practice] By artful and false
tricks, and treason.
IV.ii.15 (393,6)
_Sic._ Are you mankind?
_Vol._ Ay, fool; Is that a shame? Note but this fool.
Was not a man my father?]
The word _mankind_ is used maliciously by the first speaker, and taken
perversely by the second. A _mankind_ woman is a woman with the
roughness of a man, and, in an aggravated sense, a woman ferocious,
violent, and eager to shed blood. In this sense Sicinius asks Volumnia,
if she be _mankind_. She takes _mankind_ for a _human creature_, and
accordingly cries out,
--_Note but this, fool.
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