"The transposition is proved, further, by the separation of the doubtful lines:
'And consecrate commotion's bitter edge
To brother born an household cruelty,'
which are plainly continuous."
Mr Spedding writes: "I think some lines have been lost. If
'And consecrate commotion's bitter edge'
belongs to Westmoreland's speech, there must have been another line following, to complete the cadence both in sound and sense. And again, if
'There is no need of any such redress'
is the beginning of his next speech, it is equally clear that something about 'redress' must have been said between. The opposition between 'brother general' and 'brother born' reads to me like Shakespeare, and not likely to have come in by accident: and though the transposition of the lines [as suggested by Mr Lloyd] is ingenious and intelligible and in another context might be natural, it does not come naturally in the context proposed. Conjecture seems hopeless in such a case."
On the whole, we are of opinion that several lines have been omitted, and those which remain displaced, and that this is one of the many passages in which the true text is irrecoverable.