Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies by Samuel Johnson
page 62 of 398 (15%)
page 62 of 398 (15%)
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If they be Senators: and they are no less,
When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste Most palates theirs] These lines may, I think, be made more intelligible by a very slight correction. --_they no less [than senators] When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste_ Must palate _theirs._ When the _taste_ of the _great_, the patricians, must _palate_, must _please_ [or must _try_] that of the plebeians. III.i.124 (366,3) They would not thread the gates] That is, _pass_ them. We yet say, to _thread_ an alley. III.i.129 (366,4) could never be the native] [_Native_ for natural birth. WARBURTON.] _Native_ is here not natural birth, but _natural parent_, or _cause of birth_. But I would read _motive_, which, without any distortion of its meaning, suits the speaker's purpose. III.i.151 (367,7) That love the fundamental part of state/More than you doubt the change of't] To _doubt_ is to _fear_. The meaning is, You whose zeal predominates over your terrours; you who do not so much fear the danger of violent measures, as wish the good to which they are necessary, the preservation of the original constitution of our government. III.i.158 (368,2) Mangles true judgment] _Judgment_ is _judgment_ in its |
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