I.ii.285 (22,4) upon my wit to defend my wiles] So read both the copies) yet perhaps the author wrote,

  Upon my wit to defend my will.

The terms wit and will were, in the language of that time, put often in opposition.

I.ii.300 (23,5) At your own house; there he unarms him] [These necessary words added from the quarto edition.  POPE.] The words added are only, there he unarms him.

I.ii.313 (23,6) joy’s soul lies in the doing] So read both the old editions, for which the later editions have poorly given,

  —­the soul’s joy lies in doing.

I.ii.316 (23,7) That she] Means, that woman.

I.iii.31 (25,2) With due observance of thy godlike seat] [T:  godlike seat] This emendation [for goodly seat] Theobald might have found in the quarto, which has,

  —­the godlike seat.

I.iii.32 (25,3) Nestor shall apply/Thy latest words] Nestor applies the words to another instance.

I.iii.54 (26,7) Returns to chiding fortune] For returns, Hanmer reads replies, unnecessarily, the sense being the same.  The folio and quarto have retires, corruptly.

I.iii.62 (27,8)

both your speeches; which are such, As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece Should hold up high in brass; and such again, As venerable Nestor, hatch’d in silver, Should with a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears To his experienc’d tongue]

Ulysses begins his oration with praising those who had spoken before him, and marks the characteristick excellencies of their different eloquence, strength, and sweetness, which he expresses by the different metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for the instruction of posterity.  The speech of Agamemnon is such that it ought to be engraven in brass, and the tablet held up by him on the one side, and Greece on the other, to shew the union of their opinion.  And Nestor ought to be exhibited in silver, uniting all his audience in one mind by his soft and gentle elocution.  Brass is the common emblem of strength, and silver of gentleness.  We call a soft voice a silver voice, and a persuasive tongue a silver tongue.—­I once read for hand, the band of Greece, but I think the text right.—­To hatch is a term of art for a particular method of engraving. Hatcher, to cut, Fr.

I.iii.78 (28,1) The specialty of rule] The particular rights of supreme authority.

I.iii.81 (29,2) When that the general is not like the hive] The meaning is, When the general is not to the army like the hive to the bees, the repository of the stock of every individual, that to which each particular resorts with whatever be has collected for the good of the whole, what honey is expected? what hope of advantage?  The sense is clear, the expression is confused.