—Edmund the base
Shall to th' legitimate.—
Hanmer, therefore, could hardly be charged with coining a word, though his explanation may be doubted. To toe him, is perhaps to kick him out, a phrase yet in vulgar use; or, to toe, may be literally to supplant. The word be has no authority.
I.ii.24 (331,1) subscrib'd his power!] To subscribe, is, to transfer by signing or subscribing a writing of testimony. We now use the term, He subscribed forty pounds to the new building.
I.ii.25 (331,2) Confin'd to exhibition!] Is allowance. The term is yet used in the universities.
I.ii.25 (331,3) All this done/Upon the gad!] So the old copies; the later editions read,
—All is gone
Upon the gad!—
which, besides that it is unauthorized, is less proper. To do upon the gad, is, to act by the sudden stimulation of caprice, as cattle run madding when they are stung by the gad fly.
I.ii.47 (332,4) taste of my virtue] Though taste may stand in this place, yet I believe we should read, assay or test of my virtue: they are both metallurgical terms, and properly joined. So in Hamlet,