If any alteration be necessary, I should only propose, Be 't known, that we at greatest, &c.
V.ii.185 (259,1) Make not your thoughts your prisons] I once wished to read,
make not your thoughts your poison:—
Do not destroy yourself by musing on your misfortune. Yet I would change nothing, as the old reading presents a very proper sense. Be not a prisoner in imagination, when in reality you are free.
V.ii.215 (261,2) scald rhimers] Sir T. Hanmer reads,
—stall 'd rhimers.
Scald was a word of contempt, implying poverty, disease, and filth.
V.ii.216 (261,3) quick comedians] The gay inventive players.
V.ii.226 (261,5) Their most absurd intents] [T: assured] I have preserved the old reading. The design certainly appeared absurd enough to Cleopatra, both as she thought it unreasonable in itself, and as she knew it would fail.
V.ii.243 (263,7) the pretty worm of Nilus] Worm is the Teutonick word for serpent; we have the blind-worm and slow-worm still in our language, and the Norwegians call an enormous monster, seen sometimes in the northern ocean, the sea-worm.