An expedient occurred, not produced
by the comparison of one method with another, or by a regular deduction
of consequences, but before he _could make a prologue to his brains,
they had begun the play_. Before he could summon his faculties, and
propose to himself what should be done, a complete scheme of action
presented itself to him. His mind operated before he had excited it.
This appears to me to be the meaning.
V.ii.41 (326,5) As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,/ And
stand a comma 'tween their amities] HANMER reads,
_And stand a_ cement--
I am again inclined to vindicate the old reading.
The expression of our author is, like many of his phrases, sufficiently
constrained and affected, but it is not incapable of explanation. The
_comma_ is the note of _connection_ and continuity of sentences; the
_period_ is the note of _abruption_ and disjunction. Shakespeare had it
perhaps in his mind to write, That unless England complied with the
mandate, _war should put a_ period _to their amity_; he altered his mode
of diction, and thought that, in an opposite sense, he might put, that
_Peace should stand a_ comma between their amities_. This is not an easy
stile; but is it not the stile of Shakespeare?
V.ii.43 (327,6) as's of great charge] _Asses_ heavily _loaded_. A
quibble is intended between _as_ the conditional particle, and _ass_ the
beast of burthen.
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