Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies by Samuel Johnson
page 68 of 398 (17%)
page 68 of 398 (17%)
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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. Was not a man my father?_ IV.ii.18 (394,7) Hadst thou foxship] Hadst thou, fool as thou art, mean cunning enough to banish Coriolanus? IV.iii.9 (395,7) but your favour is well appear'd by your tongue] [W: well appeal'd] I should read, --_is well_ affear'd, That is, _strengthened, attested,_ a word used by our authour. _My title is_ affear'd. Macbeth. To _repeal_ may be _to bring to remembrance_, but _appeal_ has another meaning. |
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