II.v.28 (139,4) [My staff understands me] This equivocation, miserable as it is, has been admitted by Milton in his great poem. B. VI.
"——The terms we sent were terms of weight,
"Such as we may perceive, amaz'd them all,
"And stagger'd many who receives them right,
"Had need from head to foot well understand,
"Not understood, this gift they have besides,
"To shew us when our foes stand not upright."
II.vi (141,5) [Enter Protheus] It is to be observed, that in the first folio edition, the only edition of authority, there are no directions concerning the scenes; they have been added by the later editors, and may therefore be changed by any reader that can give more consistency or regularity to the drama by such alterations. I make this remark in this place, because I know not whether the following soliloquy of Protheus is so proper in the street.
II.vi.7 (141,6) [O sweet-suggesting love] To suggest is to tempt in our author's language. So again:
"Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested."
The sense is, O tempting love, if thou hast influenced me to sin, teach me to excuse it. Dr. Warburton reads, if I have sinn'd; but, I think, not only without necessity, but with less elegance.
II.vi.35 (142,7) [Myself in counsel, his competitor] Myself, who am his competitor or rival, being admitted to his counsel.
II.vi.37 (142,8) [pretended flight] We may read intended flight.
II.vi.43 (142,9) [Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift, As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift!] I suspect that the author concluded the act with this couplet, and that the next scene should begin the third act; but the change, as it will add nothing to the probability of the action, is of no great importance.
III.i.45 (146,1) [be not aimed at] Be not guessed.