"'But your sufficiency as your worth is able,
And let them work.'
"It is not our purpose to remove obscurities by additions or omissions, and therefore we leave the passage as in the original, excepting a slight alteration in the punctuation. We believe it may be read thus, without much difficulty. 'Then no more remains (to say on government) But that, (your science) to your sufficiency, (joined to your authority) as your worth (as well as your virtue) is able (equal to the duty), and let them work (call them into action).'"
I cannot say that this exposition (paraphrastic as it is) is clear to me; and I feel confident that our great poet never wrote the words "But that," following as they do "Exceeds in that." What does "But that" refer to? It cannot refer to "science," as Mr. Knight imagines. The remedy lies in a very trifling correction of the press. In the MS. from which the play was printed, the words "But thrto" were thus written, and the compositor mistook "thr" for "tht;" there is no comma after that in the old copies. Replace "thereto" and the passage is perfectly clear as to sense.
"Then no more remains
But thereto your sufficiency, as your worth is able,
And let them work."
It may be necessary to show that the word I propose would be used by the poet just in the sense required here. The following passage from the Winter's Tale, Act I. Sc. 2., will, I think, place it beyond doubt:
"Camillo,
As you are certainly a gentleman, thereto