The second Folio:
'And the Asse, more Captaine then the Lyon? the fellow
Loaden with Irons, wiser then the Iudge?
If Wisedome be in suffering. Oh my Lords,
&c. &c.'
The third and fourth Folios, spelling apart, follow the second.
Rowe placed a comma after 'Judge,' and this punctuation was adopted by all subsequent editors.
Pope altered the passage thus:
'The ass, more than the lion; and the fellow
Loaden with irons, &c.'
He was followed by Theobald, Hanmer and Warburton, and by Johnson in his text; the last named however proposed a different arrangement of the preceding line and the substitution of 'felon' for 'fellow' in line 49, thus:
'what make we
Abroad, why then the women are more valiant
That stay at home;
If bearing carry it, then is the ass
More captain than the lion, and the felon
Loaden with irons &c.'
This suggestion was adopted substantially by Rann. The reading 'felon' had been independently proposed by Theobald (Nichols's Illustrations, II. 475).
Capell and Steevens (1773) followed Pope. Steevens (1778) read: