III.ii.116 (382,1) Tent in my cheeks] To tent is to take up residence.

III.ii.121 (382,2) honour mine own truth] [Greek:  Panton de malis aischuneui sauton].  Pythagoras.

III.ii.125 (382,3) let/Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear/ Thy dangerous stoutness] This is obscure.  Perhaps, she means, Go, do thy worst; let me rather feel the utmost extremity that thy pride can bring upon us, than live thus in fear of thy dangerous obstinacy.

III.iii.17 (384,3)

  Insisting on the old prerogative
  And power in’ the truth o’ the cause]

This is not very easily understood.  We might read,

  —­o’er the truth o’ the cause.

III.iii.26 (384,4) and to have his word/Of contradiction] To have his word of contradiction is no more than, he is used to contradict; and to have his word, that is, not to be opposed.  We still say of an obstinate disputant, he will have the last word.

III.iii.29 (384,5) which looks/With us to break his neck] To look is to wait or expect.  The sense I believe is, What he has in his heart is waiting there to help us to break his neck.

III.iii.57 (386,8) Rather than envy you] Envy is here taken at large for malignity or ill intention.

III.iii.64 (386,9) season’d office] All office established and settled by time, and made familiar to the people by long use.

III.iii.96 (387,1) has now at last] Read rather,

  —­has now at last [instead of as now at last].

III.iii.97 (387,2) not in the presence] Not stands again for not only.

III.iii.114 (388,3) My dear wife’s estimate] I love my country beyond the rate at which I value my dear wife.

III.iii.127 (389,4)

        Have the power still
  To banish your defenders’; till, at length,
  Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels)]

Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the city but yourselves, who are always labouring your own destruction.

It is remarkable, that, among the political maxims of the speculative Harrington, there is one which he might have borrowed from this speech. The people, says he, cannot see, but they can feel.  It is not much to the honour of the people, that they have the same character of stupidity from their enemy and their friend.  Such was the power of our authour’s mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private and civil.

IV.i.7 (390,1) Fortune’s blows,/When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves/A noble cunning] This it the ancient and authentick reading.  The modern editors have, for gentle wounded, silently substituted gently warded, and Dr. Warburton has explained gently by nobly.  It is good to be sure of our authour’s words before we go about to explain their meaning.