Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies by Samuel Johnson
page 68 of 398 (17%)
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.
DigitalOcean Referral Badge