[158] Shakespeare, King John, Act 4, sc. 2:
That blood, which own'd the breadth of all this isle, Three foot of it doth hold.
King Henry IV. part I. Act 5, sc. 5:
Fare thee well, great heart! Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk! When that this body did contain a spirit, A kingdom for it was too small a bound; But now, two paces of the vilest earth Is room enough.
[159] Surely the full stop after πόλιν in v. 749 should be removed, and a colon, or mark of hyperbaton substituted. On looking at Paley's edition, I find myself anticipated.
[160] This is Griffiths' version of this awkward passage. I should prefer reading ἀλκὰν with Paley, from one MS. So also Burges.
[161] See my note on Soph. Philoct. 708, ed. Bohn.
[162] This seems the best way of rendering the bold periphrase, ὁ πολύβοτος αἰὼν βροτῶν. See Griffiths.
[163] I follow Paley. Dindorf, in his notes, agrees in reading τροφᾶς, but the metre seems to require ἐπίκοτος. Griffiths defends the common reading, but against the ancient authority of the schol. on Œd. Col. 1375. See Blomfield.
[164] Blomfield with reason thinks that a verse has been lost.