Chapter 29

... “His captain’s heart Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst The buckles on his breast, _reneges_ all temper.”

It should be “reneagues,” or “reniegues,” as “fatigues,” &c.

_Ib._—

“Take but good note, and you shall see in him The triple pillar of the world transform’d Into a strumpet’s _fool_.”

Warburton’s conjecture of “stool” is ingenious, and would be a probable reading, if the scene opening had discovered Antony with Cleopatra on his lap. But, represented as he is walking and jesting with her, “fool” must be the word. Warburton’s objection is shallow, and implies that he confounded the dramatic with the epic style. The “pillar” of a state is so common a metaphor as to have lost the image in the thing meant to be imaged.

_Ib._ sc. 2.—

... “Much is breeding; Which, like the courser’s hair, hath yet but life, And not a serpent’s poison.”

This is so far true to appearance, that a horse-hair, “laid,” as Hollinshed says, “in a pail of water,” will become the supporter of seemingly one worm, though probably of an immense number of small slimy water-lice. The hair will twirl round a finger, and sensibly compress it. It is a common experiment with school boys in Cumberland and Westmoreland.