'Come, come;
I am a king, my masters; Know you that?'
The arrangement adopted in our text is that which Steevens gave in his edition of 1778. Jennens, from whom Steevens borrowed as usual without acknowledgement, had given in 1770 the same arrangement, omitting the word 'smug.' In his edition of 1793 Steevens reads 'Ay and for laying autumn's dust,' making 'Ay ... sir' one line.
Mr Collier prints 'I will die bravely;' in a line by itself, adopting in the former line the arrangement of Steevens, and in what follows that of the Folios. Keightley reads 'Ay, and laying autumn's dust ... bravely' as one line.
Note XIX.
V. 1. 26. 'Not bolds the king' is usually interpreted as an elliptical phrase for 'Not as it emboldens the king.' This is however a very harsh construction, and the word 'bolds' occurs nowhere else in Shakespeare with this meaning, though we have, according to the most probable reading, 'dear'd,' for 'endear'd,' in Antony and Cleopatra, I. 4. 44. Possibly these words are corrupt and a line has dropped out before them. Albany ought to say something of this kind: 'I should be ready to resist any mere invader, but the presence in the invader's camp of the king and other Britons, who have just cause of enmity to us, dashes my courage.'
Note XX.
V. 3. 315. Capell reads 'rough' in his text, believing that he had the authority of the first Quarto for it; but in his own copy and that of the Duke of Devonshire, the reading is plainly 'tough,' though the 't' is broken.