295) were intended to begin both versions, and that they were followed in the earlier version by ll. 296–317 and in the later by ll. 318–365. See note on V. ii. 825–830.
IV. iii. 305. poisons up. Completely poisons. Theobald's emendation, 'prisons up,' is plausible and has been adopted by many editors.
IV. iii. 306. The nimble spirits in the arteries. The arteries were supposed to contain, not blood simply, but 'vital spirits.'
IV. iii. 336. When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd. The 'suspicious head of theft' may be interpreted either actively, i.e. the acutely watchful ears of a thief; or passively, i.e. the ears of one suspicious of being robbed. I think the former the more likely.
IV. iii. 364. For charity itself fulfils the law. Cf. Romans 13. 8: 'for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.'
IV. iii. 383. Sow'd cockle reap'd no corn. An elliptical and proverbial expression: if we plant weeds, we shall not reap corn; unless we make the proper preparations, we shall not gain the desired results.
V. i. 22. to speak 'dout,' fine, when he should say, 'doubt.' Holofernes belongs to the pedantic group which sought during the Renaissance to bring the spelling and pronunciation of English words as close as possible to the real or fancied Latin original. Thus the earlier doute was written and sounded doubt on the authority of Latin dubitum, and the earlier dette made into debt on the analogy of Latin debitum. The new, unhistorical spellings managed to establish themselves, but not the pronunciations upon which Holofernes and his class insisted.
V. i. 31. Priscian a little scratched. That is, your Latin is passable, but hackneyed. Priscian wrote, during the fifth century A.D., works which were long
