V.ii.50 (251,9) If idle talk will once be necessary] [This nonsense should be reformed thus,

  If idle TIME whill once be necessary.

i.e. if repose be necessary to cherish life, I will not sleep.  WARBURTON.] I do not see that the nonsense is made sense by the change.  Sir T. Hanmer reads,

  If idle talk will once be accessary;

Neither is this better.  I know not what to offer better than an easy explanation.  That is, I will not eat, and if it will be necessary now for once to waste a moment in idle talk of my purpose, I will not sleep neither.  In common conversation we often use will be, with as little relation to futurity.  As, Now I am going, it will be fit for me to dine first.

V.ii.98 (254,2)

                      yet to imagine
  An Antony, were Nature’s piece ’gainst Fancy,
  Condemning shadows quite]

[W:  Nature’s prize] In this passage I cannot discover any temptation to critical experiments.  The word piece, is a term appropriated to works of art.  Here Nature and Fancy produce each their piece, and the piece done by Nature had the preference.  Antony was in reality past the size of dreaming; he was more by Nature than Fancy could present in sleep.

V.ii.121 (255,3) I cannot project mine own cause so well] [W:  procter] Sir T. Hanmer reads,

  I cannot parget my own cause—–­

meaning, I cannot whitewash, varnish, or gloss my cause.  I believe the present reading to be right.  To project a cause is to represent a cause; to project it well, is to plan or contrive a scheme of defense.

V.ii.139 (256,4) “tis exactly valued, Not petty things admitted] [T:  omitted] Notwithstanding the wrath of Mr. Theobald, I have restored the old reading.  She is angry afterwards, that she is accused of having reserved more than petty things.  Dr. Warburton and sir T. Hanmer follow Theobald.

V.ii.146 (257,5) seel my lips] Sew up my mouth.

V.ii.163 (258,7) Parcel the sum of my disgraces by] To parcel her disgraces, might be expressed in vulgar language, to bundle up her calamaties. (see 1765, VII, 244, 8)

V.ii.176 (259,8)

Cleo. Be’t known, that we, the greatest, are misthought for things that others do; and, when we fall, We answer others merits in our names; Are therefore to be pitied]

I do not think that either of the criticks [Warburton and Hanmer] have reached the sense of the author, which may be very commodiously explained thus;

We suffer at our highest state of elevation in the thoughts of mankind for that which others do, and when we fall, those that contented themselves only to think ill before, call us to answer in our own names for the merits of others.  We are therefore to be pitied.  Merits is in this place taken in an ill sense, for actions meriting censure.