And again in "The Two Noble Kinsmen," act v. sc. 4—
"Oh, you heavenly charmers,
What things you make of us!"
[323] i.e., Perceptive, feeling. Falstaff observes that sack makes the mind apprehensive, quick, &c.
[324] I reck not how is the true reading: Mr Reed allowed it to stand according to the error of the old copy, I wreak not how; but to reck and to wreak are words of a totally different signification. To reck means to care for, while to wreak means to revenge.
ACT IV., SCENE I.
Cæsar, Volusenus, Attendants.
Cæs. A story is't or fable that, stern Mars,
Thy weight did Romulus' sleepy mother press?
Since we, thy brood degenerous, stand at gaze,
Charm'd in the circle of a foaming flood,
And trail our dastard pikes? Burst, Janus' prison!
Roar as thou didst at Troy, drown Stentor's voice
By many eighths,[327] which Pindus may re-beat,
Which Caucasus may as a catch repeat,
And Taurus lough the same:[328] that pigmies small
May squeak, it thunders, and dive into burrows.
Let the four winds with dreadful clamours sing
Thy anger through th' affrighted world.
What Lemnian chain shackles our mounting eagle?
The moon's round concave is too strait a cage
For her advanced pinions.
Enter Mandubratius,[329] wounded and bloody, with Androgeus's young son.
Man. If pity can have room in angry breast,
Favour a Briton prince, his father slain,
His regiment bereft, his dearest blood
Drawn by the sword of false Cassibelane,
Having got crown, he then struck at my head;
Nor can I safely suck my native air.
His coz Androgeus also and whole regions
In open war withstand his violence,
Lo, Albion's aged arms spread wide t'enchain
Thee, as her patron, in a true-love knot.
Wherefore, dread Cæsar, let thy mercy strike
Revengeful fires, and be justly styled, [Kneels.
Tamer of tyrants. Then fame blows aloud,
When valour helps the weak, pulls down the proud.