[178] Graceful. See Mr Malone's note on "Coriolanus," act ii. sc. 1.
[179] [Edits., blasting.] I would propose to read the blushing childhood, alluding to the ruddiness of Aurora, the rosy morn, as in act iii. sc. 6—
"Light, the fair grandchild to the glorious sun,
Opening the casements of the rosy morn," &c.
—S. Pegge.
[180] So in "Hamlet," act i. sc. 1—
"But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill."
[181] A fool's bauble, in its literal meaning, is the carved truncheon which the licensed fools or jesters anciently carried in their hands. See notes on "All's Well that Ends Well," act iv. sc. 5. —Steevens.
[182] Winstanley has asserted that Oliver Cromwell performed the part of Tactus at Cambridge: and some who have written the life of that great man have fixed upon this speech as what first gave him ideas of sovereignty. The notion is too vague to be depended upon, and too ridiculous either to establish or refute. It may, however, not be unnecessary to mention that Cromwell was born in 1599, and the first edition of this play [was printed in 1607, and the play itself written much earlier]. If, therefore, the Protector ever did represent this character, it is more probable to have been at Huntingdon School.
[183] [Old copies, scarve, and so the edit. of 1780. Mr Collier substituted change as the reading of the old copies, which it is not. See Mr Brae's paper read before the Royal Society of Literature, Jan. 1871, 8vo edit. 1873, p. 23, et seq.]
[184] Edits., deeds. Pegge thought that by deeds was intended Tactus himself; but it is hard to say how this could be made out, as Tactus cannot be translated deeds, though Auditus might be rendered by metonymy ears.