I. SEN. You undergo too ftrict a paradox, Striving to make an ugly deed look fair:

Your words have took fuch pains, as if they labour'd

To bring manflaughter into form, fet quarrelling
Upon the head of valour; which, indeed,
Is valour misbegot, and came into the world.
When fects and factions were newly born:
He's truly valiant, that can wifely suffer

The worst that man can breathe; and make his

wrongs

His outfides; wear them like his raiment, care

lefsly;

Behave, however, is ufed by Spenfer, in his Faery Queene, B. I. c. iii. in a fenfe that will fuit fufficiently with the paffage before

us:

"But who his limbs with labours, and his mind
"Behaves with cares, cannot fo easy mifs."

To behave certainly had formerly a very different fignification from that in which it is now used. Cole in his Dictionary, 1679, renders it by tracto, which he interprets to govern, or manage.

MALONE.

On fecond confideration, the fenfe of this paffage, (however perversely expreffed on account of rhyme,) may be this: He managed his anger with fuch fober and unnoted paffion [i. e. fuffering, forbearance,] before it was fpent, [i. e. before that difpofition to endure the infult he had received, was exhaufted,] that it seemed as if he had been only engaged in fupporting an argument he had advanced in converfation. Paffion may as well be used to fignify Juffering, as any violent commotion of the mind: and that our author was aware of this, may be inferred from his introduction of the Latin phrafe" byfterica paffio," in King Lear. See alfo Vol. XII. p. 249, n. 9. STEEVENS.

4 You undergo too ftrict a paradox,] You undertake a paradox too hard. JOHNSON.

S - that man can breathe;] i. e. can utter. So afterwards: "You breathe in vain." MALONE.

Again, in Hamlet :

66

Having ever feen, in the prenominate crimes,
"The youth you breathe of, guilty." STEEVENS.

And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart,
To bring it into danger.

If wrongs be evils, and enforce us kill,
What folly 'tis, to hazard life for ill?
ALCIB. My lord,-

I. SEN.

To revenge

You cannot make grofs fins look clear; is no valour, but to bear.

ALCIB. My lords, then, under favour, pardon me, If I speak like a captain.

Why do fond men expose themselves to battle,
And not endure all threatnings?" fleep upon it,
And let the foes quietly cut their throats,
Without repugnancy? but if there be
Such valour in the bearing, what make we
Abroad? why then, women are more valiant,
That stay at home, if bearing carry it;

And th' afs, more captain than the lion; the felon,'

a threatnings?] Old copy-threats. This flight, but judicious change, is Sir Thomas Hanmer's. In the next line but one, he alfo added, for the fake of metre,-but-. STEEVENS.

Abroad?] What do we, or what have we to do in the field.

See Vol. III. p. 447, n. 6. MALONE.

JOHNSON.

8 And th' afs, more captain than the lion; &c.] Here is another arbitrary regulation, [the omiffion of-captain] the original reads

thus:

what make we

Abroad? why then, women are more valiant

That stay at home, if bearing carry it :

And the afs, more captain than the lion,

The fellow, loaden with irons, wifer than the judge,

If wisdom, &c.

I think it may be better adjusted thus:

what make we

Abroad? why then the women are more valiant

That Ray at home;

Loaden with irons, wifer than the judge,
If wisdom be in fuffering. O my lords,
As you are great, be pitifully good:
Who cannot condemn rafhnefs in cold blood?
To kill, I grant, is fin's extremest guft;"

If bearing carry it, then is the afs
More captain than the lion; and the felon
Loaden with irons, wifer &c. JOHNSON.

if bearing carry it;] Dr. Johnfon, when he propofed to connect this hemiftich with the following line inftead of the preceding words, feems to have forgot one of our author's favourite propenfities. I have no doubt that the prefent arrangement is right.

Mr. Pope, who rejected whatever he did not like, omitted the words-more captain. They are fupported by what Alcibiades has already faid:

My lords, then, under favour, pardon me,

"If I fpeak like a captain.

and by Shakspeare's 66th Sonnet, where the word captain is used with at least as much harshness as in the text:

"And captive good attending captain ill."

Again, in another of his Sonnets:

"Like ftones of worth they thinly placed are,

"Or captain jewels in the carkanet."

Dr. Johnfon with great probability proposes to read felon instead of fellow. MALONE.

The word captain has been very injudiciously restored. That it cannot be the author's is evident from its fpoiling what will otherwife be a metrical line. Nor is his ufing it elsewhere any proof that he meant to use it here. RITSON.

I have not fcrupled to infert Dr. Johnson's emendation, felon, for fellow, in the text; but do not perceive how the line can become ftrictly metrical by the omiffion of the word-captain, unlefs, with Sir Thomas Hanmer, we tranfpofe the conjunction—and, and read:

The afs more than the lion, and the felon, STEEVENS. 9-fin's extremeft guft;] Guft, for aggravation.

WARBURTON.

Guft is here in its common fenfe; the utmoft degree of appetite for fin. JOHNSON.

But, in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just.1
To be in anger, is impiety;

But who is man, that is not angry?
Weigh but the crime with this.

2. SEN. You breathe in vain.
ALCIB.

In vain? his fervice done

At Lacedæmon, and Byzantium,

Were a fufficient briber for his life.

1. SEN. What's that?

ALCIB. Why, I fay, my lords, h'as done fair service,

And flain in fight many of your enemies :
How full of valour did he bear himself

In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds? 2. SEN. He has made too much plenty with 'em,✦

he

I believe gust means rafbnefs. The allufion may be to a fudden guft of wind. STEEVENS.

So we fay, it was done in a sudden guft of paffion. MALONE. - by mercy, 'tis moft juft.] By mercy is meant equity. But we must read:

2

'tis made juft. WARBURTON.

Mercy is not put for equity. If fuch explanation be allowed, what can be difficult? The meaning is, I call mercy herself to witnefs, that defenfive violence is juft. JOHNSON.

The meaning, I think, is, Homicide in our own defence, by a merciful and lenient interpretation of the laws, is confidered as justifiable. MALONE.

Dr. Johnfon's explanation is the more fpirited; but a passage in King John fhould feem to countenance that of Mr. Malone: "Some fins do bear their privilege on earth,

"And fo doth yours" STEEVENS.

3 Why, I fay,] The perfonal pronoun was inferted by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

4 - with 'em,] The folio with him. JOHNSON.

The correction was made by the editor of the second folio.

MALONE.

Is a fworn rioter: h'as a fin that often
Drowns him, and takes his valour prisoner:
If there were no foes, that were enough alone"
To overcome him: in that beastly fury
He has been known to commit outrages,
And cherish factions: 'Tis inferr'd to us,
His days are foul, and his drink dangerous.
I. SEN. He dies.

ALCIB. Hard fate! he might have died in war. My lords, if not for any parts in him,

(Though his right arm might purchase his own time,
And be in debt to none,) yet, more to move you,
Take my deserts to his, and join them both:
And, for I know, your reverend ages love
Security, I'll pawn' my victories, all
My honour to you, upon his good returns.
If by this crime he owes the law his life,
Why, let the war receiv't in valiant gore;
For law is ftrict, and war is nothing more.

I. SEN. We are for law, he dies; urge it no more, On height of our displeasure: Friend, or brother, He forfeits his own blood, that fpills another.

Is a fworn rioter:] Afworn rioter is a man who practises riot, as if he had by an oath made it his duty. JOHNSON. The expreffion, a fworn rioter, feems to be fimilar to that of fworn brothers. See Vol. IX. p. 308, n. 4. MALONE.

6-alone- This word was judiciously fupplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer, to complete the meafure. Thus, in All's well that ends well:

-your reverend love

ages

Security, I'll pawn &c.] He charges them obliquely with being ufurers. JOHNSON.