Vol. VII

CORIOLANUS


1.i.19 (292,1) but they think, we are too dear] They think that the
charge of maintaining us is more than we are worth.

I.i.23 (292,3) ere we become rakes] It is plain that, in our authour's
time, we had the proverb, _as lean as a rake_. Of this proverb the
original is obscure. _Rake_ now signifies a _dissolute man_, a man worn
out with disease and debauchery. But the signification is, I think, much
more modern than the proverb. _Raekel_, in Islandick, is said to mean a
_cur-dog_, and this was probably the first use among us of the word
_rake_; _as lean as a rake_ is, therefore, as lean as it dog too
worthless to be fed.

1.i.94 (294,4) I will venture/To scale't a little more] [Warburton had
taken Theobald to task for emending to "stale't", offering two
quotations to prove that "scale" meant "apply."] Neither of Dr.
Warburton's examples afford a sense congruous to the present occasion.
In the passage quoted, to _scale_ may be to _weigh_ and _compare_, but
where do we find that _scale_ is to _apply_? If we _scale_ the two
criticks, I think Theobald has the advantage.

I.i.97 (295,5) fob off our disgraces with a tale] _Disgraces_ are
_hardships, injuries_.

I.i.104 (295,6) where the other instruments] _Where_ for _whereas_.