Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies by Samuel Johnson
page 69 of 398 (17%)
page 69 of 398 (17%)
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IV.iii.48 (397,8) already in the entertainment] That is, tho' not actually encamped, yet already in _pay_. To _entertain_ an army is to take them into pay. IV.iv.22 (398,1) So, with me:-- My birth-place hate I, and my love's upon This enemy's town:--I'll enter: if he slay me] He who reads this [My country have I and my lovers left;/This enemy's town I'll enter] would think that he was reading the lines of Shakespeare: except that Coriolanus, being already in the town, says, he _will enter it_. Yet the old edition exhibits it thus --_So with me. My birth-place have I; and my loves upon This enemic towne; I'll enter if he slay me_, &c. The intermediate line seems to be lost, in which, conformably to his former observation, he says, that _he has_ lost _his birth-place, and his loves upon_ a petty dispute, and is trying his chance in _this enemy town_, he then cries, turning to the house of Anfidius, _I'll enter if he slay me_. I have preferred the common reading, because it is, though faulty, yet intelligible, and the original passage, for want of copies, cannot be restored. |
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