III.vi.77 (242,4) then had my prize/Been less; and so more equal ballasting] HANMER reads plausibly, but without necessity, price, for prize, and balancing, for ballasting.  He is followed by Dr. WARBURTON.  The meaning is, Had I been a less prize, I should not have been too heavy for Posthumus.

III.vi.86 (243,5) That nothing-gift of differing multitudes] [T:  deferring] He is followed by Sir T. HANMER and Dr. WARBURTON; but I do not see why differing may not be a general epithet, and the expression equivalent to the many-headed rabble.

III.vii.8 (244,2)

  and to you, the tribunes,
  For this immediate levy, he commands
  His absolute commission]

The plain meaning is, he commands the commission to be given to you.  So we say, I ordered the materials to the workmen.

IV.ii.10 (245,1) Stick to your journal course:  the breach of custom/ Is breach of all] Keep your daily course uninterrupted; if the stated plan of life is once broken, nothing follows but confusion.

IV.ii.17 (246,2) How much the quantity] I read, As much the quantity.—­

IV.ii.38 (247,3) I could not stir him] Not move him to tell his story.

IV.ii.39 (247,4) gentle, but unfortunate] Gentle, is well born, of birth above the vulgar.

IV.ii.59 (248,6) And let the stinking elder, Grief, untwine/ His perishing root, with the encreasing vine!] Shakespeare had only seen English vines which grow against walls, and therefore may be sometimes entangled with the elder.  Perhaps we should read untwine from the vine.

IV.ii.105 (251,9) the snatches in his vice,/And burst of speaking] This is one of our author’s strokes of observation.  An abrupt and tumultuous utterance very frequently accompanies a confused and cloudy understanding.

IV.ii.111 (251,1) for the effect of judgment/Is oft the cause of fear] HANMER reads, with equal justness of sentiment,

  —­for defect of judgment
  Is oft the cure of fear.—­

But, I think, the play of effect and cause more resembling the manner of our author.

IV.ii.118 (252,2) I am perfect, what] I am well informed, what.  So in this play,

  I’m perfect, the Pannonians are in arms.

IV.ii.121 (252,3) take us in] To take in, was the phrase in use for to apprehend an out-law, or to make him amenable to public justice.

IV.ii.148 (253,5) the boy Fidele’s sickness/Did make my way long forth] Fidele’s sickness made my walk forth from the cave tedious.

IV.ii.159 (254,6) revenges/That possible strength might meet] Such pursuit of vengeance as fell within any possibility of opposition.

IV.ii.168 (254,7) I’d let a parish of such Clotens blood] [W:  marish] The learned commentator has dealt the raproach of nonsense very liberally through this play.  Why this is nonsense, I cannot discover.  I would, says the young prince, to recover Fidele, kill as many Clotens as would fill a parish.