Sc. 1.
"Forthwith a power of English shall we levy."
We might incline to read lead; but the text is right. Gifford quotes "Scipio before he levied his forces to the walls of Carthage," from Gosson's School of Abuse, and other passages in its defence.
"Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
Balk'd in their own blood did sir Walter see."
The explanations given of 'Balk'd' do not satisfy me. Steevens has given some good authority for Bak'd, the conjecture of Grey; but on the whole I incline to Heath's Bath'd. Still I have made no alteration.
"Mordake, the earl of Fife, and eldest son
To beaten Douglas, and the earls of Athol,