Act IV.
Sc. 1.
"You were used
To say extremities was the trier of spirits."
The 2nd folio reads 'extremity,' and it is usually followed, and is perhaps right; yet the text is not wrong. See Introd. p. [72].
"That Fortune's blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves
A noble cunning."
Though this may seem devoid of sense, it is, I think, what the poet wrote. If so, we must take 'wounded' actively, like "Under my burden groan'd" (Temp. i. 2). "It is twice blessed" (M. of Ven. v. 1) etc.; and then 'gentle' will denote that the blows were open and honourable ones. (See the parallel passage in Tr. and Cress, i. 3.) If this should not satisfy, we might perhaps read in the gentle-minded. Pope read 'gentle-warded.' 'Cunning' here is skill taken in a good sense, as in "May my right-hand forget her cunning" (Ps. cxxxvii).