$e m Book-,Aa>T^ /YAY SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDY OF CYMBELINE SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDY OF CYMBELINE Edited, with Notes, WILLIAM J. ROLFE, Litt.D., VORXIBRLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. WITH ENGRA VINGS. NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY ENGLISH CLASSICS. Edited by WM. J. ROLFE, Litt. D. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, 56 cents per volume. Shakespeare's Works. The Merchant of Venice. Richard III. Othello. Henry VIII. Julius Caesar. King Lear. A Midsummer-Night's Dream. The Taming of the Shrew. Macbeth. All 's Weil that Ends Well Hamlet. Coriolanus. Much Ado about Nothing. The Comedy of Errors. Romeo and Juliet. Cymbeline. As-You Like It. Antony and Cleopatra. The Tempest. Measure for Measure. Twelfth Night. Merry Wives of Windsor. Love's Labour 's Lost. The Winter's Tale. King John. Two Gentlemen ot Verona. Richard IL Timon of Athens. Henry IV. Part I. Troilus and Cressida. : .rt IL Pericles, Prince of/iyre V. The Two Noble Kinsme. Hcixi-y VI. Part I. "" 'nus ?'. ' Af^onis. Lur Henry VI. Part II. CO '"et; Henry VI. Part III. litus Andronicus. Goldsmith's Select Poems. Browning's Select Poems, Gray's Select Poems. Browning's Select Dramas. Minor Poems of John Milton. Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. Wordsworth's Select Poems. Lambs' Tales from Shakespeare's Comedies. Lambs' Tales from Shakespeare's Tragedies. Edited by WM. J. ROLFE, Litt. D. Illustrated. Cloth, 1 2mo, 50 cents per volume. Copyright, 1881 and 1898, hy^ Harper & Brothers. Copyright, 1909, ty^V^iLLiAM J. Rolf.^. Cymbeline. w. p. 6 ^ CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction to Cymbeline 9 I. The History of the Play 9 II. The Sources of the Plot 11 III. Critical Comments on the Play 12 CYMBELINE 39 Act 1 41 " II 67 " III 84 " IV no " V 130 Notes i6i VIEW NEAR MILFORD. INTRODUCTION TO CYMBELINE. I. THE HISTORY OF THE PLAY. Cymbeline was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it is the last play in the volume, occupying pages 369-399 (mis- printed 993) in the division of "Tragedies." The earliest allusion to it that has been discovered is in Dr. Simon For- man's MS. Diary (see Richard 11. p. 13, M. N. D. p. 10, and W. T. p. 10), which belongs to the years 1610 and 161 1. His sketch of the plot (not dated) is as follows :* * As given in the New Shaks. Soc. Transactions for 1875-6, p. 417. lO CYMBELINE. " Remember also the storri of Cymbalin king of England, in Lucius tyme, howe Lucius Cam from Octauus Cesar for Tribut, and being denied, after sent Lucius ^iih a greate Arme of Souldiars who landed at milford hauen, and Affter wer vanquished by Cimbalin, and Lucius taken prisoner, and all by means of 3 outlawes, of the w/^^ch 2 of them were the sonns of Cimbalim, stolen from him when they but 2 yers old by an old man whom Cymbalin banished, and he kept them as his own sonns 20 yers \^iih him in A caue. And howe [one] of them slewe Clotan, that was the quens sonn, goinge To milford hauen to sek the loue of Innogen the king^j- daughter, whom he had banished also for louinge his daughter, and howe the Italia?? that cam from her loue con- veied him self^ into A Cheste, and said yt was a chest of plate sent from her loue & others, to be p^-^sented to the kinge. And in the depest of the night, she being aslepe, he opened the cheste & cam forth of yt. And vewed her in her bed, and the markes of her body, & toke a-wai her braslet, & after Accused her of adultery to her loue, &c. And in thend howe he came w/t>^ the Romains into England & was taken prisoner, and after Reueled to Innogen who had turned her self into mans apparrell & fled to mete her loue at milford hauen, & chanchsed to fall on the Caue in the wod^j- wher her 2 brothers were, & howe by eating a sleping Dram they thought she had bin deed, & laid her in the wodd-j-, & the body of cloten by her in her loues apparrell that he left be- hind him, & howe she was found by lucius, &c." The play was probably a new one when Forman saw it in 1610 or 1611. Drake dates it in 1605, Chalmers in 1606, Malone in 1609 (after having at first assigned it to 1605), Fleay {Infrod. to Shakespearian Study) "■circa 1609," White "1609 or 1610," Delius, Furnivall, and Stokes in 1610, Dow- den and Ward at about the time when Forman saw it. The internal evidence of style and metre indicates that it was one of the latest of the plays. INTRODUCTION. II Cymbeline is badly printed in the folio, and the involved style makes the correction of the text a task of more than usual difficulty. The critics generally agree that the vision in V. 4 cannot be Shakespeare's. Ward considers that " there is no reason, on account of its style, which reminds one of the prefatory lines to the cantos of the Faerie Queene, to im- pugn Shakespeare's authorship of it;" but it seems to us very clearly the work of another hand. Cf. the rhymed epi- sode in A. Y. L. V. 4. 113 fol., and see our ed. p. 199 (note on 136). II. THE SOURCES OF THE PLOT. The poet took the names of Cymbeline and his two sons from Holinshed, together with a few historical facts concern- ing the king ; but the story of the stealing of the princes and of their life in the wilderness appears to be his own.* The story of Imogen, which is so admirably interwoven with that of the sons of Cymbeline, was taken, directly or in- directly, from the Decamerone of Boccaccio, in which it forms the ninth novel of the second day. No English translation of it is known to have been made in Shakespeare's time. A version appeared in a tract entitled Westward for Smelts, which' was published in 1620, Malone speaks of an edition of 1603 ; but this is probably an error, as the book was not entered upon the Stationers' Registers until 1619-20. This translation, moreover, lacks some important details which the play has in common with the Italian original.f * It has been pointed out by K. Schenkl that the incidents of Imogen's seeking refuge in the wilderness and her deathlike sleep occur in the Ger- man fairy-tale oi Schneewittchen. t For an outline of Boccaccio's novel, see the extract from Mrs. Jame- son below. The chief incidents of the story had been used in a French miracle-play of the Middle Ages, and also in the old French romances of La Violette and Flore et Jehanne ; but we have no reason to suppose that Shakespeare made any use of these. In one of the romances the lady has a mole upon her right breast; in Boccaccio, as in Shakespeare, it is on her left breast. This mark is not mentioned at all in Westward for 22 CYMBELINE. But, as Verplanck remarks, " from whatever source the idea of the plot might have been immediately drawn, the poet owes to his predecessors nothing more than the bare outline of two or three leading incidents. These he has raised, refined, and elevated into a higher sphere ; while the characters, dialogue, circumstances, details, descriptions, — the lively interest of the plot, its artful involution and skilful development, — are entirely his own. He has given to what were originally scenes of coarse and tavern-like profligacy a dignity suited to the state and character of his personages, and has poured over the whole the golden light, the rainbow hues, of imaginative poetry." III. CRITICAL COMMENTS ON THE PLAY. \From SchlegeVs " Dramatic Literature.^'' *] Cymbeline is one of Shakspeare's most wonderful compo- sitions. He has here combined a novel of Boccaccio's with traditionary tales of the ancient Britons, reaching back to Smelts. In the latter, moreover, the person corresponding to lachimo conceals himself under the bed in the lady's chamber, while in the French and Italian versions he is conveyed thither in a chest. White has noted another circumstance which seems to show that Shakespeare went directly to Boccaccio, and that the Winter's Tale and Cymbeline were composed at about the same period : " In Boccaccio's novel the convicted slanderer is condemned by the wSultan to be anointed with honey, and exposed to the rays of the sun, tied to a stake upon some elevated spot, and to remain there until his flesh falls away from his bones. From this doom it seems quite clear that Shakespeare took the hint for that mock sentence which Autolycus passes upon the young clown in W. Z". iv. 4. 812 : ' He has a son who shall be flayed alive ; then 'nointed over with honey . . . then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims, shall he be set against a brick wall, the sun looking with a southward eye upon him, where he is to behold him with flies blown to death.' " Westward for Sfjieits is reprinted in the "Variorum" ed. of 1821, vol. xiii., and in Collier's Shakespeare'' s Library, vol. ii. * Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, by A. W. Schlegel ; Black's translation, revised by Morrison (London, 1846), p. 397 fol, INTRODUCTION. 13 the times of the first Roman Emperors, and he has contrived, by the most gentle transitions, to blend together into one harmonious whole the social manners of the newest times with olden heroic deeds, and even with appearances of the gods. In the character of Imogen no one feature of female excellence is omitted : her chaste tenderness, her softness, and her virgin pride, her boundless resignation, and her mag- nanimity towards her mistaken husband, by whom she is un- justly persecuted, her adventures in disguise, her apparent death, and her recovery, form altogether a picture equally tender and affecting. The two Princes, Guiderius and Ar- viragus, both educated in the wilds, form a noble contrast to Miranda and Perdita. Shakspeare is fond of showing the superiority of the natural over the artificial. Over the ari which enriches nature, he somewhere says, there is a higher art created by nature herself As Miranda's unconscious and unstudied sweetness is more pleasing than those charms which endeavour to captivate us by the brilliant embellish- ments of a refined cultivation, so in these two youths, to whom the chase has given vigour and hardihood, but who are ignorant of their high destination, and have been brought up apart from human society, we are equally enchanted by a naive heroism which leads them to anticipate and to dream of deeds of valour, till an occasion is ofi'ered which they are irresistibly compelled to embrace. When Imogen comes in disguise to their cave ; when, with all the innocence of child- hood, Guiderius and Arviragus form an impassioned friend- ship for the tender boy, in whom they neither suspect a fe- male nor their own sister; when, on their return from the chase they find her dead, then " sing her to the ground," and cover the grave with flowers — these scenes might give to the most deadened imagination a new life for poetry. If a tragical event is only apparent in such case, whether the spectators are already aware of it or ought merely to suspect it, Shakspeare always knows how to mitigate the impres- u CYMBELINE. sion without weakening it: he makes the mourning musical, that it may gain in solemnity what it loses in seriousness. With respect to the other parts, the wise and vigorous Be- larius, who after long living as a hermit again becomes a hero, is a venerable figure ; the Italian lachimo's ready dis- simulation and quick presence of mind is quite suitable to the bold treachery which he plays ; Cymbeline, the father of Imogen, and even her husband Posthumus, during the first half of the piece, are somewhat sacrificed, but this could not be otherwise ; the false and wicked Queen is merely an in- strument of the plot; she and her stupid son Cloten (the only comic part in the piece) whose rude arrogance is por- trayed with much humour, are, before the conclusion, got rid of by merited punishment. As for the heroical part of the fable, the war between the Romans and Britons, which brings on the denouement, the poet in the extent of his plan had so little room to spare that he merely endeavours to represent it as a mute procession. But to the last scene, where all the numerous threads of the knot are untied, he has again given its full development, that he might collect together into one focus the scattered impressions of the whole. This example and many others are a sufficient refutation of Johnson's as- sertion, that Shakspeare usually hurries over the conclusion of his pieces. Rather does he, from a desire to satisfy the feelings, introduce a great deal which, so far as the under- standing of the denouement requires, might, in a strict sense, be justly spared : our modern spectators are much more im- patient to see the curtain drop, when there is nothing more to be determined, than those of his day could have been. \From Drake's " Shakespeare and his Times.^'' *] This play, if not in the construction of its fable one of the most perfect of our author's productions, is, in point of poetic * Shakespeare and his Times,hy Nathan Drake, M.D. (London, 1817), vol. ii. p. 466. INTRODUCTION, 1 5 beauty, of variety and truth of character, and in the display of sentiment and emotion, one of the most lovely and inter- esting. Nor can we avoid expressing our astonishment at the sweeping condemnation which Johnson has passed upon it; charging its fiction with folly, its conduct with absurdity, its events with impossibility ; terming its faults too evident for detection and too gross for aggravation. Of the enormous injustice of this sentence, nearly every page of Cymbeline will, to a reader of any taste or discrimi- nation, bring the most decisive evidence. That it possesses many of the too common inattentions of Shakspeare, that it exhibits a frequent violation of costume, and a singular con- fusion of nomenclature, cannot be denied; but these are tri- fles light as air when contrasted with its merits, which are of the very essence of dramatic worth, rich and full in all that breathes of vigour, animation, and intellect, in all that elevates the fancy and improves the heart, in all that fills the eye with tears or agitates the soul with hope and fear. Imogen, the most lovely and perfect of Shakspeare's fe- male characters — the pattern of connubial love and chastity, by the delicacy and propriety of her sentiments, by her sen- sibility, tenderness, and resignation, by her patient endurance of persecution from the quarter where she had confidently looked for endearment and protection — irresistibly seizes upon our affections. The scenes which disclose the incidents of her pilgrimage ; her reception at the cave of Belarius ; her intercourse with her lost brothers, who are ignorant of their birth and rank ; her supposed death, funeral rites, and resuscitation, are wrought up with a mixture of pathos and romantic wildness peculiarly characteristic of our author's genius, and which has had but few successful imitators. Among these few stands pre-eminent the poet Collins, who seems to have trod- den this consecrated ground with a congenial mind, and who has sung the sorrows of Fidele in strains worthy of their sub- 1(5 CYMBELINE. ject, and which will continue to charm the mind and soothe the heart " till pity's self be dead." When compared with this fascinating portrait, the other personages of the drama appear but in a secondary light. Yet are they adequately brought out and skilfully diversified: the treacherous subtlety of lachimo ; the sage experience of Belarius ; the native nobleness of heart and innate heroism of mind which burst forth in the vigorous sketches of Guide- rius and Arviragus ; the temerity, credulity, and penitence of Posthumus ; the uxorious weakness of Cymbeline ; the hypocrisy of his Queen ; and the comic arrogance of Cloten, half fool'and half knave, produce a striking diversity of ac- tion and sentiment. Poetical justice has been strictly observed in this drama ; the vicious characters meet the punishment due to their crimes ; while virtue, in all its various degrees, is propor- tionably rewarded. The scene of retribution, which is the closing one of the play, is a masterpiece of skill ; the devel- opment of the plot, for its fulness, completeness, and inge- nuity, surpassing any effort of the kind among our author's contemporaries, and atoning for any partial incongruity which the structure or conduct of the story may have previously displayed. \From Mrs. Jameson'' s " Characteristics of Womeny *] Others of Shakspeare's characters are, as dramatic and poetical conceptions, more striking, more brilliant, more pow- erful ; but of all his women, considered as individuals rather than as heroines, Imogen is the most perfect. Portia and Juliet are pictured to the fancy with more force of contrast, more depth of light and shade; Viola and Miranda, with more aerial delicacy of outline ; but there is no female por- trait that can be compared to Imogen as a woman — none in which so great a variety of tints are mingled together into * American ed. (Boston, 1857), p. 253 fol. INTRODUCTION. jy such perfect harmony. In her, we have all the fervour of youthful tenderness, all the romance of youthful fancy, all the enchantment of ideal grace— the bloom of beauty, the bright- ness of intellect, and the dignity of rank taking a peculiar hue from the conjugal character which is shed over all, like a consecration and a holy charm. In Othello and the Win- ter's Tale, the interest excited for Desdemona and ^lermione is divided with others; but in Cymbeline, Imogen is the angel of light, whose lovely presence pervades and animates the whole piece. The character altogether may be pronounced finer, more complex in its elements, and more fully devel- oped in all its parts, than those of Hermione and Desde- mona; but the position in which she is placed is not, I think, so fine— at least, not so effective, as a tragic situation. Shakspeare has borrowed the chief circumstances of Imo- gen's story from one of Boccaccio's tales. A company of Italian merchants who are assembled in a tavern at Paris are represented as conversing on the subject of their wives. All of them express themselves with levity, or scepticism, or scorn, on the virtue of women, except a young Genoese merchant named Bernabo, who maintains that by the especial favour of Heaven he possesses a wife no less chaste than beautiful. Heated by the wine, and excited by the arguments and the coarse raillery of another young merchant, Ambrogiolo, Bernabo proceeds to enumerate the various perfections and accomplishments of his Zinevra. He praises her loveliness, her submission, and her discretion — her skill in embroidery, her graceful service, in which the best trained page of the court could not exceed her; and he adds, as rarer accomplishments, that she could mount a horse, fly a hawk, write and read, and cast up accounts, as well as any merchant of them all. His enthusiasm only excites the laughter and mockery of his companions, particularly of Am- brogiolo, who, by the most artful mixture of contradiction and argument, rouses the anger of Bernabo, and he at length ex- 1 8 CYMBELINE. claims that he would willingly stake his life, his head, on the virtue of his wife. This. leads to the wager which forms so important an incident in the drama. Ambrogiolo bets one thousand florins of gold against five thousand that Zinevra, like the rest of her sex, is accessible to temptation — that in less than three months he will undermine her virtue, and bring her husband the most undeniable proofs of her false- hood. He sets off for Genoa in order to accomplish his pur- pose; but on his arrival,'all that he learns, and all that he be- holds with his own eyes, of the discreet and noble character of the lady, make him despair of success by fair means ; he therefore has recourse to the basest treachery. By bribing an old woman in the service of Zinevra, he is conveyed to her sleeping apartment concealed in a trunk, from which he issues in the dead of the night; he takes note of the furniture of the chamber, makes himself master of her purse, her morn- ing robe, or cymar, and her girdle, and of a certain mark on her person. He repeats these observations for two nights, and, furnished with these evidences of Zinevra's guilt, he re- turns \o Paris, and lays them before the wretched husband. Bernabo rejects every proof of his wife's infidelity except that which finally convinces Posthumus. When Ambrogiolo men- tions the " mole, cinque-spotted," he stands like one who has received a poniard in his heart ; without further dispute he pays down the forfeit, and filled with rage and despair both at the loss of his money and the falsehood of his wife, he re- turns towards Genoa. He retires to his country-house, and sends a messenger to the city with letters to Zinevra, desiring that she would come and meet him, but with secret orders to the man to despatch her by the way. The servant prepares to exscute his master's command, but overcome by her en- treaties for mercy and his own remorse, he spares her life, on condition that she will fly from the country forever. He then disguises her in his own cloak and cap, and brings back to her husband the assurance that she is killed, and that her INTR OD UC TION. 19 body has been devoured by the wolves. In the disguise of a mariner, Zinevra then embarks on board a vessel bound to the Levant, and on arriving at Alexandria she is taken into the service of the Sultan of Egypt, under the name of Sicurano. She gains the confidence of her master, who, not suspecting her sex, sends her as captain of the guard which was ap- pointed for the protection of the merchants at the fair of Acre. Here she accidentally meets Ambrogiolo, and sees in his possession the purse and girdle, which she immediately recognizes as her own. In reply to her inquiries, he relates with fiendish exultation the manner in which he had obtain- ed possession of them, and she persuades him to go back with her to Alexandria. She then sends a messenger -to Genoa in the name of the Sultan, and induces her husband to come and settle in Alexandria. At a proper opportunity, she summons both to the presence of the Sultan, obliges Am- brogiolo to make a full confession of his treachery, and wrings from her husband the avowal of his supposed murder of her- self; then, falling at the feet of the Sultan, discovers her real name and sex, to the great amazement of all. Bernabo is pardoned at the prayer of his wife, and Ambrogiolo is con- demned to be fastened to a stake, smeared with honey, and left to be devoured by the flies and locusts. This horrible sentence is executed ; while Zinevra, enriched by the pres- ents of the Sultan and the forfeit wealth of Ambrogiolo, re- turns with her husband to Genoa, where she lives in great honour and happiness, and maintains her reputation of virtue to the end of her life. These are the materials from which Shakspeare has drawn the dramatic situation of Imogen. He has also endowed her with several of the qualities which are attributed to Zinevra; but for the essential truth and beauty of the individual char- acter, for the sweet colouring of pathos, and sentiment, and poetry interfused through the whole, he is indebted only to nature and himself . . . 20 CYMBELINE. When Ferdinand tells Miranda that she was " created of every creature's best," he speaks like a lover, or refers only to her personal charms: the same expression might be ap- plied critically to the character of Imogen ; for, as the por- trait of Miranda is produced by resolving the female charac- ter into its original elements, so that of Imogen unites the greatest number of those qualities which we imagine to con- stitute excellency in woman. Imogen, like Juliet, conveys to our mind the impression of extreme simplicity in the midst of the most wonderful complexity. To conceive her aright, we must take some peculiar tint from many characters, and so mingle them that, like the combination of hues in a sunbeam, the effect shall be as one to the eye. We must imagine something of the romantic enthusiasm of Juliet, of the truth and constancy of Helen, of the dignified purity of Isabel, of the tender sweet- ness of Viola, of the self-possession and intellect of Portia — combined together so equally and so harmoniously that we can scarcely say that one quality predominates over the oth- er. But Imogen is less imaginative than Juliet, less spirited and intellectual than Portia, less serious than Helen and Isa- bel; her dignity is not so imposing as that of Hermione — it stands more on the defensive; her submission, though un- bounded, is not so passive as that of Desdemona ; and thus, while she resembles each of these characters individually, she stands wholly distinct from all. It is true that the conjugal tenderness of Imogen is at once the chief subject of the drama and the pervading charm of her character; but it is not true, I think, that she is mere- ly interesting from her tenderness and constancy to her hus- band. We are so completely let into the essence of Imo- gen's nature that we feel as if we had known and loved her before she was married to Posthumus, and that her conjugal virtues are a charm superadded, like the colour laid upon a beautiful groundwork. Neither does it appear to me that INTRODUCTION. 21 Posthumus IS unworthy of Imogen, or only interesting on Imogen's account. His character, like those of all the other persons of the drama, is kept subordinate to hers; but this could not be otherwise, for she is the proper subject — the heroine of the poem. Everything is done to ennoble Post- humus and justify her love for him; and though we certain- ly approve him more for her sake than for his own, we are early prepared to view him with Imogen's eyes, and not only excuse, but sympathize in her admiration of one "Who sat 'mongst men like a descended god; ****** who liv'd in court — Which rare it is to do — most prais'd, most lov'd ; A sample to the youngest, to the more mature A glass that feated them." . . . One thing more must be particularly remarked, because it serves to individualize the character from the beginning to the end of the poem. We are constantly sensible that Imogen, besides being a tender and devoted woman, is a princess and a beauty, at the same time that she is ever su- perior to her position and her external charms. There is, for instance, a certain airy majesty of deportment — a spirit of accustomed command breaking out every now and then — the dignity, without the assumption, of rank and royal birth, which is apparent in the scene with Cloten and elsewhere; and we have not only a general impression that Imogen, like other heroines, is beautiful, but the peculiar style and char- acter of her beauty is placed before us. We have an image of the most luxuriant loveliness, combined with exceeding delicacy, and even fragility, of person; of the most refined elegance and the most exquisite modesty, set forth in one. or two passages of description; as when lachimo is contem^ plating her asleep: " Cytherea, How bravely thou becom'st thy bed ! fresh lily, And whiter than the sheets I 22 CYMBELINE. 'T is her breathing that Perfumes the chamber thus. The flame o' the taper Bow? towara her, and would underpeep her lids To see the enclosed lights, now canopied Under those windows, white and azure, lac'd With blue of heaven's own tinct !" The preservation of her feminine character under her masculine attire; her delicacy, her modesty, and her timid- ity, are managed with the same perfect consistency and un- conscious grace as in Viola. And we must not forget that her " neat cookery," which is so prettily eulogized by Guide- rius — ■" He cut our roots in characters, And sauc'd our broths, as Juno had been sick, And he her dieter " — formed part of the education of a princess in those remote times. ... The catastrophe of this play has been much admired for the peculiar skill with which all the various threads of inter- est are gathered together at last, and entwined with the des- tiny of Imogen. It may be added that one of its chief beau- ties is the manner in which the character of Imogen is not only preserved, but rises upon us to the conclusion with added grace: her instantaneous forgiveness of her husband before he even asks it, when she flings herself at once into his arms — " Why did you throw your wedded lady from you?" — and her magnanimous reply to her father, when he tells her that by the discovery of her two brothers she has lost a king- dom — ** No — I have got two worlds by 't " — clothing a noble sentiment in a noble image, give the finish- ing touches of excellence to this most enchanting portrait. On the whole, Imogen is a lovely compound of goodness, truth, and affection, with just so much of passion and Intel- INTRODUCTION, 23 lect and poetry as serve to lend to the picture that power and glowing richness of effect which it would otherwise have wanted; and of her it might be said, if we could condescend to quote from any other poet with Shakspeare open before us, that " her person was a paradise and her soul the cherub to guard it."* \jFroin Charles Cowden-Clarke^s*^ Shakespeare-Characters.''^ X\ It is not my purpose to enter upon a discussion of the small dramatic proprieties, as these are observed or ignored in the play of Cymbeline. They who are interested in the rigidities, perhaps the fussiness, of criticism, — who take more pleasure in detecting a lapse in the unity of such a composi- tion as this, — who would rather pride themselves upon ex- posing a deficiency in its chronology than in displaying its incomparable force and beauty of passion and fancy, of ten- derness, imagery, and splendour of language, — are referred to the supplementary notices of the Johnsonian school of criticism. For myself, I care not one straw about the viola- tion of the unities: I am content to be wafted on the wings of the poet's imagination, and to be with him to-day in Rome and to-morrow watching the weary pilgrimage of the divine Imogen towards Milford-Haven. It is enough for me that the play is one of the most romantic and interesting of Shakespeare's dramas; and this we say of every drama of his, as we read them in succession. The romance itself of this story is sublimated by an intensity of passion and heart- ennobling affection and endurance that I have yet to see ex- celled. Of all his heroines, no one conveys so fully the ideal of womanly perfection as Imogen. We have full faith in the love and steadfast endurance of Desdemona : we believe that * Dryden. t From the unpublished "Second Series" of the Shakespeare- Charac- ters (see 2 Hen. IV. p. 18), kindly sent to us by Mrs. Mary Cowden-Claike ^/ her home again. She hath despised me re- joicingly,— and I '11 be merry in my revenge." It will be remembered that she had rejected with ladylike dignity his swinish suit to her; INTR OD UC TION. 31 " I am much sorry, sir, You put me to forget a lady's mamiers, By being so verbal : and learn now, for all, That I, which know my heart, do here pronounce, By the very truth of it, I care not for you. And am so near the lack of charity, (To accuse myself) I hate you ; which I had rather You felt, than make 't my boast." In alluding to him in an after-part of the play, she says ; "That Cloten, whose love-suit hath been to me As fearful as a siege." Lastly, his reputed animal courage is sagaciously accounted for by Belarius, who imputes it to defective judgment. And this is the solution of much of the headlong bravery that we hear of in the world, which, at times, is referable to phlegm and obtuseness of constitution. Cloten is a masterly varied specimen in Shakespeare's class of half-witted characters : he is of the race, yet distinct and original in feature and bearing. One of the lords of the court says of him : "That such a crafty devil as his mother Should yield the world this ass ! a woman that Bears all down with her brain ; and this, her son, Cannot take two from twenty, for his heart, And leave eighteen." This play of Cymbeline, inwoven as it is with the loftiest sentiment, with superb imagery, and with the most condensed truths and worldly axioms, contains yet no scene more fruit- ful in matter for sedate meditation than the one between Posthumus and his gaoler. Some commentator has re- marked that Voltaire himself has nothing comparable to the humorous discussion of the philosophic gaoler in Cymbeline : probably so; but beneath that humour there are speculations calculated to give one pause, and to set one chewing the cud of serious thoughts. Under these quaint and rough exteri- ors, Shakespeare loved to read his brethren a lesson upon the subject most deeply interesting their future-world inter- ^2 CYMBELINE. ests; as Rabelais beautifully compared his own broad and coarse humour — investing worldly knowledge and wisdom — to the old-fashioned jars and bottles of the apothecaries, on the exteriors of which they used to paint grotesque figures and uncouth heads, yet within they contained precious unguents and healing balsams. The scene alluded to (v. 4. 150-201) is short, and not introduced on the stage — which it should be. The scenes in which old Belarius and the young princes, Guiderius and Arviragus, his adopted sons, and stolen by him from the king, are engaged, form the sunshine of the plav ; and their characters and mountain-life afford a bright relief to the court - treacheries, stormy passions, and heart- sickness of the other portion. It is palpable that, whenever our poet places his persons under the open canopy of heav- en, and in the unchartered wilds of rural nature, whether amid the solemn aisles and shadows brown of monumental oak, or on the crags and heathy slopes of the mountains old and bare, their language always takes a tone consonant with their free and primeval domain : — as witness all the scenes in the forest of Arden, in As You Like It — and so again, in this Cymbeline: — these wild huntsmen talk the finest and the most vivid poetry of them all ; and how different is its char- acter and pitch from those of the placid, ruminating shep- herds who compose the still-lif-^, as these mountaineers do the romantic and adventurous life, of rudest nature. What vigour is breathed into their every action ! and how finely are discriminated the energy, yet cautious circumspection of the old man, and the impetuosity and recklessness of the young and inexperienced ones: — what freshness, and what fancy too, — to say nothing of the homely wisdom, — in the sweet uses of their mountain life! " You, Polydore, have prov'd best woodman, and Are master of the feast : Cadwal and I Will play the cook and servant ; 't is om" match. The sweat of industry would dry and die. INTRODUCTION. 33 But for the end it works to. Come, our stomachs Will make what 's homely, savoury ; weariness Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth Finds the down pillow hard." What a superb illustration of the delight of an active em- ployment ! But this division of the play absolutely glitters with these drops of heavenly wisdom, like morning-dew upon the scented hawthorn. Again, what lustre and grandeur in Belarius's description of the dispositions in the two youths : "O tholi goddess, Thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon'st In these two prmcely boys ! They are as gentle As zephyrs, blowing below the violet. Not wagging his sweet head ; and yet as rough, Their royal blood enchaf'd, as the rud'st wind, That by the top doth take the mountain pine, And make him stoop to the vale." Yet again, we note the plausible advantage taken by the poet to signalize the old prejudice of mstinct of birth, to dis- tinguish the royal blood flowing in the veins of the two prince- ly youths. I do but refer to the advantage taken of the pop- ular prejudice, and have no argument for its physiological accuracy. Nevertheless, there is undeniable truth in the axioms put into the mouth of old Belarius ; for instance : « Cowards father cowards, and base things sire base : Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace." Again, referring to the youths, he says : " How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature ! These boys know little they are the sons of the king, Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive. They think they are mine ; and though trained up thus meanly I' the cave wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit The roofs of palaces ; and nature prompts them' Beyond the trick of others. This Polydore, — The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, whom The King his father call'd Guiderius,— Jove ! When on my three-foot stool I sit, and tell 34 CYMBELINE. The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out Into my story, — say, ' thus mine enemy fell, And thus I set my foot on 's neck ;' even then The princely blood flows in 's cheek, he sweats, Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in posture That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal, (Once Arviragus) in as like a figure. Strikes life into my speech, and shows much more His own conceiving." And SO, in the full spirit of this principle, the poet, with char- acteristic boldness, has followed out the conduct of the young prince Guiderius in his contest with the booby-bully, Cloten, in which unconscious self-estimation and brutal assumption are felicitously associated and as dramatically contrasted. The vulgarity of low life is sufficiently offensive ; but there is no vulgarity so repugnant as the vulgarity of high life, because it commonly arises from an obtuse defiance of all that the wisest and most graceful of mankind have deemed essential to social interests and good order. This scene (the 2d of the 4th act) is almost the only light one in the play. Cloten has followed Imogen in her flight towards Milford- Haven, and stumbled upon the young mountaineer, Guiderius, whom he orders to yield, and they go out fight- ings The prince afterwards returns with the boaster's head, saying : " This Cloten was a fool, an empty purse ; There was no money in 't : not Hercules Could have knocked out his brains, for he had none." That same instinct of nature Shakespeare has followed on, in the prompt and unconscious affection that the two youths discover for their disguised sister, claiming their hospitality on her pilgrimage. One of them calls her " Brother." " Brother, stay here ; are we not brothers ?" She replies : " So man and man should be ; But clay and clay differs in dignity. Whose dust is both alike." INTRODUCTION. 35 Like Perdita, in the Winters Tale, consciously and uncon- sciously the regal instinct manifests itself. The young moun- taineers are neither more nor less than kind-hearted, but ple- beian, foresters in her then estimation. Again, reiterating the " instinct " question, Guiderius says to his sister-brother : " I love thee, I have spoke it, * * * * ^ * * * * As I do love my father." Belarius exclaims : »' What ? how ! how ! Arviragus. If it be sin to say so, sir, I yoke me In my good brother's fault. I know not why I love this youth ; and I have heard you say, Love's reason 's without reason. The bier at door, And a demand who is 't shall die, I 'd say. My father, not this youth." And then, hovir like our Shakespeare, to put the following impelled justification of the ill-appreciated plebeians in the mouth of the grateful and womanly Inrogen : "These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies I have heard! Our courtiers say, all 's savage but at court." Lastly, upon the principle of " Breeding," and of the myste- rious influence of consanguinity, may be noted the allusion made to the " mole, cinque-spotted " upon Imogen's neck, by which lachimo traduced her to her husband. At the con- clusion of the play, when the two youths are discovered to be her brothers, it is said that Guiderius may be identified as a son of Cymbeline, and consequently as her brother, by his having " upon his neck a mole, a sanguine star." This touch of a personal triviality being brought to indicate a re- lationship, may, at first sight, appear insignificant to allude to; but it proves the close attention of the poet, and the pre- vailing sense of " harmony " in his mind, as a means he ad- hered to for perfecting a theory or a principle. A considerable portion, indeed, of the play is a practical 36 CYMBELINE. argument to enforce the dignity as well as the 2/«worthiness of "breeding" in the physical man ; at the same time, the secret and hidden force of "instinct." I scarcely know of any arrangement more appealing to the gentler emotions of our nature than in this portion of the play ; so triumphant- ly has been asserted the nobility of true bravery, as intimate- ly connected with gentleness of heart : and, assuredly^, the highest order of courage is never unattended by the proffer- ings of benevolence. Thus we have the daily practice in the two youths of paying honour to the grave of Euriphile, the wife of Belarius, and their supposed mother. Their primitive -and rational piety when entering upon their morn- ing labours, — " Hail, Heaven 1" No one better than Shake- speare knew how to combine true piety with bravery; or, in other words, what constitutes the most exalted magna- nimity. And, lastly, their affecting and child - like sorrow when they are performing the funeral rites of Fidele — sup- posed to be dead. • Guiderius. " Why he but sleeps. If he be gone, he '11 make his grave a bed ; With female fairies will his tomb be haunted, And worms will not come to thee. Arviragus. W^ith fairest flowers, Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, I '11 sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack The flower that 's like thy face, pale primrose; nor The azure hare-bell, like thy veins ; no, nor The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, Out-sweeten'd not thy breath. The ruddock would With charitable bill— ~0 bill, sore shaming Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie Without a monument! — bring thee all this; Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none. To winter-ground thy corse. Say, where shall 's lay him? Guiderius. By good Euriphile, our mother. Arviragus. Be it so; And let us, Polydore, though now our voices Have got the mamiish crack, sing him to the ground, INTRODUCTION. 37 As once our mother ; use like note and words. Save that Euriphile must be Fidele." Then follows an exquisite touch of natural pathos ; Guide- rius in answer says : ^ "Cadwal, I cannot sing: I '11 weep, and word it with thee ; For notes of sorrow out of tune are worse Than priests and fanes that lie." And to this succeeds one of those observances in the prim- itive church which the poet (true to his own nature) chose to honour ; having already put the axiom into the mouth of Imogen, " The breach of custom is the breach of all ;" and so here : one of the brothers, when they are proceeding to lay the body in the earth, objects : " Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to the east ; Our father hath a reason for 't." Having once given us a clue to the prevailing quality in their dispositions (" gentle as zephyrs blowing below the vio- let") the poet never loses the thread. They are punctually observant — even in the absence of their father — of his mi- nutest wish and injunction. Is not this absolute consistency in character delineation ? Never were obsequies perform'd with more graceful pathos than those at the funeral of the "fair Fidele;" and, surely, never was parting hymn more aptly appropriated to its subject and primitive occasion. No rural poet of the old world could have surpassed it in simple, natural dignity and tender regret. There is music in the words, and the music of the heart breathes like wafted odours through the entire composition. And the closing farewell, in undiminished beauty of sentiment, closes the scene: " Here 's a few flowers ; but 'bout midnight more. The herbs that have on them cold dew o' the night, Are strewings fitt'st for graves. Upon their faces. You were as flowers, now wither'd ; even so These herbs shall, which we upon you strew. — 38 CYMBELINE. The ground that gave them first has them again; Their pleasures here are past, so is their pain." I know of no composition to surpass in exquisite taste and tenderness tlie ceremony and the obsequies performed at the funeral of the divine little pilgrim to Milford-Haven. Let it be borne in mind that the predominance of rich ex- tracts quoted in these essays are lavished upon the second and third rate characters of our poet ; " The greatest is yet bebind." Be it repeated again and again that, to come at something like an estimate of the wealth of his mind, we have but to notice its prodigality, as heaped upon the less consequential, and even the insignificant, members of his dramatis personae. No being that ever lived studied less than Shakespeare the art of reserving his strength for the purpose of "making points," as the actors term it. He had no occasion to do this, and he must have known it; for his strength was ever at the flood ; and as the event arose, so he grappled with and overcame it ; like a mighty river that rolls on, resistless, now bearing all before it — rocks, trees, and spars whirled aloft in its mountain foam — or equally prevailing when it meanders through some flowery dale, calm as its own face, "And makes sweet music with th' enamell'd stones, Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge It overtaketh in its pilgrimage ; And so, by many winding nooks it strays With willing sport to the wild ocean." Such was the genius of Shakespeare. In other plays he has doubtless manifested sublimer bursts of passion; but in no one of them has he set forth the prevailing power of his own bland and sweet disposition in the omnipotence of meek forbearance and untiring affection as in the play of Cymbe- Urn, CYMBELINE. DRAMATIS PERSONS, Cymbeline, King of Britain. Cloten, son to the Queen by a former husband. PosTHUMus Leonatus, a gentleman, husband to Imo- gen. Belarius, a banished lord, disguised under the name of Morgan. (sons to Cymbeline, disguised under the (jruiDERius, » names of Polydore and Cadwal, supposed Arviragus, ( sons to Morgan. Philario, friend to Posthumus, I ^^^Xxzx.^. Iachimo, friend to Philano, ) Caius Lucius, general of the Roman forces. PiSANio, servant to Posthumus. Cornelius, a physician. A Roman Captain._ Two British Captains. A Frenchman, friend to Philario. Two Lords of Cymbeline's court. Two Gentlemen of the same. Two Gaolers. Queen, wife to Cymbeline. Imogen, daughter, to Cymbehne by a former queen. Helen, a lady attending on Imogen. Lords, Ladies, Roman Senators, Tribunes, a Soothsayer, a Dutchman, a Spaniard, Musicians, Officers, Captains, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants. Apparitions. Scene: Britain; Rome. _5^^^||%#^C^ ACT I. Scene I. Britain. The Gai'den of Cymheline's Palace. Efifer two Gentlemen. 1 Gentleman. You do not meet a man but frowns ; our bloods No more obey the heavens than our courtiers Still seem as does the king. 2 Gentleman. But what 's the matter? I Gentleman. His daughter, and the heir of *s kingdom, whom He purpos'd to his wife's sole son — a widow That late he married — hath referr'd herself 42 CYMBELINE. Unto a poor but worthy gentleman. She 's wedded. Her husband banish'd, she imprison'd ; all Is outward sorrow, though I think the king Be touch'd at very heart. 2 Gentleman. None but the king ? lo 1 Gentleman. He that hath lost her too ; so is the queen, That most desir'd the match; but not a courtier, Although they wear their faces to the bent Of the king's looks, hath a heart that is not Glad at the thing they scowl at. 2 Gentleman. And why so? 1 Gentleman. He that hath miss'd the princess is a thing Too bad for bad report ; and he that hath her — I mean, that married her, alack, good man ! And therefore banish'd — is a creature such As, to seek through the regions of the earth ^o For one his like, there would be something failing In him that should compare. I do not think So fair an outward and such stuff within Endows a man but he. 2 Gentleman, You speak him far. 1 Gentleman, I do extend him, sir, within himself, Crush him together rather than unfold His measure duly. 2 Gentleman. What 's his name and birth ? I Gentleman. I cannot delve him to the root. His father Was call'd Sicilius, who did join his honour Against the Romans with Cassibelan, 30 But had his titles by Tenantius, whom He serv'd with glory and admir'd success, So gain'd the sur-addition Leonatus ; And had, besides this gentleman in question. Two other sons, who in the wars o' the time Died with their swords in hand ; for which their father, Then old and fond of issue, took such sorrow ACT I. SCENE I. 43 That he quit being, and his gentle lady, Big of this gentleman our theme, deceas'd As he was born. The king he takes the babe 40 To his protection, calls him Posthumus Leonatus, Breeds him and makes him of his bed-chamber, Puts to him all the learnings that his time Could make him the receiver of; which he took, As we do air, fast as t was minister'd, And in 's spring became a harvest, liv'd in court— Which rare it is to do — most prais'd, most lov'd, A sample to the youngest, to the more mature A glass that feated them, and to the graver A child that guided dotards ; to his mistress, so For whom he now is banish'd, her own price Proclaims how she esteem'd him and his virtue; By her election may be truly read What kind of man he is. 2 Gentleman. I honour him Even Out of your report. But, pray you, tell me, Is she sole child to the king ? 1 Gentleman. His only child. He had two sons — if this be worth your hearing, Mark it — the eldest of them at three years old, I' the swathing-clothes the other, from their nursery Were stolen, and to this hour no guess in knowledge 60 Which way they went. 2 Ge?itlema?t. How long is this ago? 1 Gentleman. Some twenty years. 2 Gentleman. That a king's children should be so con- vey'd. So slackly guarded, and the search so slow. That could not trace them ! I Gentleman. Howsoe'er 't is strange, Or that the negligence may well be laugh'd at. Yet is it true, sir. 44 CYMBELINE. 2 Gentleman. T do well believe you. I Gentleman. We must forbear; here comes the gentle- man, The queen, and princess. [^Exeunt. Enter the Queen, Posthumus, and Imogen. Queen. No, be assur'd you shall not find me, daughter, 70 After the slander of most stepmothers, Evil-eyed unto you ; you 're my prisoner, but Your gaoler shall deliver you the keys That lock up your restraint. — For you, Posthumus, So soon as I can win the offended king, I will be known your advocate; marry, yet The fire of rage is in him, and 't were good You lean'd unto his sentence with what patience Your wisdom may inform you. Posthumus. Please your highness, I will from hence to-day. Queen. You know the peril. 80 I '11 fetch a turn about the garden, pitying The pangs of barr'd affections, though the king Hath charg'd you should not speak together. [Exit. Imogen. O Dissembling courtesy ! How fine this tyrant Can tickle where she wounds ! — My dearest husband, I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing — Always reserv'd my holy duty — what H,i$ rage can do on me. You must be gone; And I shall here abide the hourly shot Of angry eyes, not comforted to live, 90 But that there is this jewel in the world That I may see again. Posthumus. My queen ! my mistress! O lady, weep no more, lest I give cause To be suspected of more tenderness ACT I. SCENE I. 45 Than doth become a man. I will remain The loyal'st husband that did e'er plight troth; My residence in Rome at one Philario's, Who to my father was a friend, to me Known but by letter. Thither write, my queen, And with mine eyes I '11 drink the words you send, loo Though ink be made of gall. Re-enter Queen. Queen. Be brief, I pray you. If the king come, I shall incur I know not How much of his displeasure. \Aside\ Yet I '11 move him To walk this way. I never do him wrong. But he does buy my injuries to be friends, — Pays dear for my offences. \Exit Posthumus. Should we be taking leave As long a term as yet we have to live. The loathness to depart would grow. Adieu ! Imogen. Nay, stay a little ; Were you but riding forth to air yourself, no Such parting were too petty. Look here, love; This diamond was my mother's : take it, heart; But keep it till you woo another wife. When Imogen is dead. Posthumus. How, how! another?— You gentle gods, give me but this I have,- And sear up my embracements from a next With bonds of death ! — [Putting on the ring.] Remain, re- main thou here While sense can keep it on. — And, sweetest, fairest, As I my poor self did exchange for you. To your so infinite loss, so in our trifles 120 I still win of you: for my sake w^ear this; It is a manacle of love; I '11 place it Upon this fairest prisoner. [Putting a bracelet upon her arm. 46 CYMBELWE. Imogen. O the gods I When shall we see again ? Enter Cymbeline and Lords. Posthunius. Alack, the king ! Cymbeline. Thou basest thing, avoid ! hence, from my sight ! If after this command thou fraught the court With thy unworthiness, thou diest. Away ! Thou 'rt poison to my blood. Fosthumus. The gods protect you, And bless the good remainders of the court ! I am gone. \Exit. Imogen. There cannot be a pinch in death 130 More sharp than this is. Cymbeline. O disloyal thing, That shouldst repair my youth, thou heap'st A year's age on me ! Imogen. I beseech you, sir. Harm not yourself with your vexation. I am senseless of your wrath ; a touch more rare Subdues all pangs, all fears. Cymbeline. Past grace .'* obedience ? Imogen. Past hope, and in despair; that way, past grace. Cymbeline. That mightst have had the sole son of my queen ! Imogen. O blest, that I might not ! I chose an eagle, And did avoid a puttock. 140 Cymbeline, Thou took'st a beggar, wouldst have made my throne A seat for baseness. Imogen. No; I rather added A lustre to it. Cymbeli?ie. O thou vile one ! Imogen. Sir, ACT I. SCENE L * 47 It is your fault that I have lov'd Posthumus; You bred him as my playfellow, and he is A man worth any woman, overbuys me Almost the sum he pays. Cyrnbeline. What, art thou mad ? Imogen. Almost, sir; heaven restore me! Would I were A neat-herd's daughter, and my Leonatus Our neighbour shepherd's son ! Cymbeline. Thou foolish thing !— 15c Re-enter Queen. They were again together; you have done Not after our command. Away with her, And pen her up. Queen. Beseech your patience. — Peace, Dear lady daughter, peace ! — Sweet sovereign, Leave us to ourselves ; and make yourself some comfort Out of your best advice. Cymbelme. Nay, let her languish A drop of blood a day, and, being aged, Die of this folly ! [Exetmt* Cymbeline and Lords. Queen. Fie ! you must give way. Enter Pisanio. Here is your servant. — How now, sir ! What news ? Pisanio. My lord your son drew on my master. Q^'^^^n- Ha! z6o No harm, I trust, is done ? Pisanio. There might have been, But that my master rather play'd than fought, And had no help of anger; they wefe parted By gentlemen at hand. Queen. I am very glad on 't. Imogen. Your son 's my father's friend; he takes his part. — 48 * CYMBELINE. To draw upon an exile !^0 brave sir ! — I would they were in Afric both together, Myself by with a needle, that I might prick The goer-back. — Why came you from your master? Pisanio. On his command. He would not suffer me 170 To bring him to the haven; left these notes Of what commands I should be subject to, When 't pleas'd you to employ me. Queen. ' This hath been Your faithful servant; I dare lay mine honour He will remain so. Pisanio. I humbly thank your highness. Queen. Pray, walk awhile. Imogen. About some half-hour hence, I pray you, speak with me. You shall at least Go see my lord aboard; for this time leave me. \Exeunt. Scene II. The Same. A Public Place. Enter Cloten and two Lords. 1 Lord. Sir, I woujd advise you to shift a shirt; the vio- lence of action hath made you reek as a sacrifice. Where air comes out, air comes in ; there 's none abroad so whole- some as that you vent. Cloten. If my shirt were bloody, then to shift it. Have I hurt him ? 2 Lord. [Aside] No, faith; not so much as his patience. 1 Lord. Hurt him! his body's a passable carcass, if he be not hurt; it is a throughfare for steel, if it be not hurt. 10 2 Lord. [Aside'] His ^eel was in debt; it went o' the back- side the town. Cloten. The villain would not stand me. 2 Lord. [Aside] No; but he fled forward still, toward your face. ACT I. SCENE III. ^Q 1 Lord. Stand you ! You have land enough of your own; but he added to your having, gave you some ground. 2 Lord. [Aside] As many inches as you have oceans. — Puppies ! Cloten. I would they had not come between us. 20 2 Lord. [Aside] So would I, till you had measured how long a fool you were upon the ground. C/oien. And that she should love this fellow and refuse me ! 2 Lord. [Aside] If it be a sin to make a true election, she is damned. 1 Lord. Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and her brain go not together; she 's a good sign, but I have seen small reflection of her wit. 29 2 Lord. [Aside] She shines not upon fools, lest the reflec- tion should hurt her. C/ofen. Come, I '11 to my chamber. Would there had been some hurt done ! 2 Lord. [Aside] I wish not so; unless it had been the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt. Cloten. You '11 go with us ? 1 Lord. I '11 attend your lordship. Cloten. Nay, come, let 's go together. 38 2 Lord. Well, my lord. [Exeunt. Scene III. A Room in Cymbeline's Palace. Enter Imogen and Pisanio. Lmogen. I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' the ha- ven. And question'dst every sail ; if he should write, And I not have it, 't were a paper lost. As offer'd mercy is. What was the last That he spake to thee 1 Fisajiio. It was his queen, his queen I go CYMBELINE. Imogen. Then wav'd his handkerchief? Pisanio. And kissM it, madam. Imogen. Senseless linen ! happier therein than I ! — And that was all ? Pisanio. No, madam ; for so long As he could make me with this eye or ear Distinguish him from others, he did keep lo The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief, Still waving, as the fits and stirs of 's mind Could best express how slow his soul sail'd on, How swift his ship. Imogen. Thou shouldst have made him As little as a crow, or less, ere left To after-eye him. Pisanio. Madam, so I did. Imogen. I would have broke mine eye -strings, crack'd them, but To look upon him, till the diminution Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle. Nay, follow'd him, till he had melted from «o The smallness of a gnat to air, and then Have turn'd mine eye and wept. But, good Pisanio, When shall we hear from him ? Pisanio. Be assur'd, madam. With his next vantage. Imogen. I did not take my leave of him, but had Most pretty things to say : ere I could tell him How I would think on him at certain hours Such thoughts and such, or I could make him swear The shes of Italy should not betray Mine interest and his honour, or have charg'd him, 3° At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight, To encounter me with orisons, for then I am in heaven for him ; or ere I could Give him that parting kiss which I had set ACT I, SCENE IV. 5 1 Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father And, Hke the tyrannous breathing of the north. Shakes all our buds from growing. Enter a Lady. Lady. The queen, madam, Desires your highness* company. Imogen. Those things I bid you do, get them dispatch'd. — I will attend the queen. Fisanio, Madam, I shall. {Exeunt. Scene IV. Rome. Philarid's House. Enter Philario, Iachimo, a Frenchman, a Dutchman, and a Spaniard. Iachimo. Believe it, sir, I have seen him in Britain. He was then of a crescent note, expected to prove so worthy as since he hath been allowed the name of; but I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration, though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his side and I to peruse him by items. Philario. You speak of him when he was less furnished than now he is with that which makes him both without and within. Frenchman. I have seen him in France ; we had very many there could behold the sun with as firm e37es as he. " Iachimo. This matter of marrying his king's daughter, wherein he must be weighed rather by her value than his own, words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the mat- ter. Frenchman. And then his banishment — Iachimo. Ay, and the approbation of those that weep this lamentable divorce under her colours are wonderfully to ex- tend him; be it but to fortify her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beggar without less £2 CYMBELINE. quality. But how comes it he is to sojourn with you? How creeps acquaintance ? 22 Fhilario. His father and I were soldiers together ; to whom I have been often bound for no less than my life.— Here comes the Briton ; let him be so entertained amongst you as suits, with gentlemen of your knowing, to a stranger of his quality. — Enter Posthumus. I beseech you all, be better known to this gentleman, whom I commend to you as a noble friend of mine; how worthy he is I will leave to appear hereafter, rather than story him in his own hearing. 31 Frenchman. Sir, we have known together in Orleans. Posthumus. Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies, which I will be ever to pay and yet pay still. Frenchman. Sir, you o'errate my poor kindness. I was glad I did atone my countryman and you; it had been pity you should have been put together with so mortal a purpose as then each bore, upon importance of so slight and trivial a nature. 39 Posthumus. By your pardon, sir, I was then a young trav- eller; rather shunned to go even with what I heard than in my every action to be guided by others' experiences: but upon my mended judgment — if I offend not to say it is mend- ed^ — my quarrel was not altogether slight. Frenchman. Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrement of swords, and by such two that would by all likelihood have confounded one the other, or have fallen both. lachimo. Can we, with manners, ask what was the differ- ence ? 49 Frenchman. Safely, I think. 'T was a contention in pub- lic, which may, without contradiction, suffer the report. It was much like an argument that fell out last night, where each of us fell in praise of our country mistresses; this gen- tleman at that time vouching — and upon warrant of bloody ACT I. SCENE IV. 5^ affirmation — his to be more fair, virtuous, wise, chaste, con- stant-qualified, and less attemptable than any the rarest of our ladies in France. lachimo. That lady is not now living, or this gentleman's opinion by this worn out. Posthiimus. She holds her virtue still, and I my mind. 60 lachimo. You must not so far prefer her fore ours of Italy. Posthttmus. Being so far provoked as I was in France, I would abate her nothing, though I profess myself her adorer, not her friend. lachimo. As fair and as good — a kind of hand-in-hand comparison — had been something too fair and too good for any lady in Britain. If she went before others I have seen, as that diamond of yours outlustres many I have beheld, I could not but believe she excelled many; but I have not seen the most precious diamond that is, nor you the lady. 70 Posthumiis. I praised her as I rated her; so do I my stone. lachimo. What do you esteem it at.? Posthumus. More than the world enjoys. lachimo. Either your unparagoned mistress, is dead, or she 's outprized by a trifle. Posthumus. You are mistaken: the one may be sold, or given, if there were wealth enough for the purchase, or merit for the gift; the other is not a thing for sale, and only the gift of the gods. lachimo. Which the gods have given you? 80 Posthumus. Which, by their graces, I will keep. 'lachimo. You may wear her in title yours ; but, you know, strange fowl light upon neighbouring ponds. Your ring may be stolen too: so your brace of unprizable estimations, the one is but frail and the other casual ; a cunning thief, or a that way accomplished courtier, would hazard the winning both of first and last. Posthumus. Your Italy contains none so accomplished a courtier to convince the honour of my mistress, if, in the ^4 CYMBELINE. holding or loss of that, you term her frail. I do nothing doubt you have store of thieves; notwithstanding, I fear not my ring. 92 Philario. Let us leave here, gentlemen. Posthumus. Sir, with all my heart. This worthy signior, I thank him, makes no stranger of me; we are familiar at first. lachimo. With five times so much conversation, I should get ground of your fair mistress, make her go back, even to the yielding, had I admittance and opportunity to friend. Posthumus. No, no. 99 lachimo. I dare thereupon pawn the moiety of my estate to your ring, which, in my opinion, o'ervalues it something: but I make my wager rather against your confidence than her reputation ; and, to bar your offence herein too, I durst attempt it against any lady in the world. Posthumus. You are a great deal abused in too bold a persuasion ; and I doubt not you sustain what you 're worthy of by your attempt. lachimo. What 's that ? Posthumus.^ A repulse ; though your attempt, as you call it, deserve more, — a punishment too. no Philario. Gentlemen, enough of this: it came in too sud- denly ; let it die as it was born, and, I pray you, be better acquainted. lachimo. Would I had put my estate and my neighbour's on the approbation of what I have spoke ! Posthumus. What lady would you choose to assail.^ lachimo. Yours, whom in constancy you think stands so safe. I will lay you ten thousand ducats to your ring, that, commend me to the court where your lady is, with no more advantage than the opportunity of a second conference, and I will bring from thence that honour of hers which you im- agine so reserved. 122 Posthumus. I will wage against your gold, gold to it: my ring I hold dear as my finger; 't is part of it. ACT I. SCENE IV. 55 lachimo. You are afraid, and therein the wiser. If you buy ladies' flesh at a million a dram, you cannot preserve it from tainting; but I see you have some religion in you, — that you fear. Posthumus. This is but a custom in your tongue ; you bear a graver purpose, I hope. 130 lachimo. I am the master of my speeches, and would un- dergo what 's spoken, I swear. Posthumus. Will you ? I shall but lend my diamond till your return. Let there be covenants drawn between 's. My mistress exceeds in goodness the hugeness of your unworthy thinking. I dare you to this match j here 's my ring. Philario. I will have it no lay. lachimo. By the gods, it is one. — If I bring you no suffi- cient testimony that I have enjoyed the dearest bodily part of your mistress, my ten thousand ducats are yours; so is your diamond too. If I come off, and leave her in such honour as you have trust in, she your jewel, this your jewel, and my gold are yours; provided I have your commenda- tion for my more free entertainment. 144 Posthumus. I embrace these conditions; let us have arti- cles betwixt us. Only, thus far you shall answer: if you make your voyage upon her and give me directly to understand you have prevailed, I am no further your enemy; she is not worth our debate : if she remain unseduced, you not making it ap- pear otherwise, for your ill opinion and the assault you have made to her chastity you shall answer me with your sword. lachimo. Your hand; a covenant. We will have these things set down by lawful counsel, and straight away for Britain, lest the bargain should catch cold and starve. I will fetch my gold and have our two wagers recorded. 155 Posthumus. Agreed. [Exeunt Posthumus and lachimo. Frenchman. Will this hold, think you ? Philario. Signior lachimo will not from it. Pray, let us follow 'em. [Exeunt. 56 CYMBELINE. Scene V. Britain. A Room in Cymbeline's Palace. Enter Queen, Ladies, and Cornelius. Queen. Whiles yet the dew 's on ground, gather those flowers ; Make haste. Who has the note of them ? I Lady. I, madam. Queen. Dispatch. — • \Exeunt Ladies. Now, master doctor, have you brought those drugs? Cornelius. Pleaseth your highness, ay; here they are, mad- am. \Presenting a small box. But I beseech your grace, without offence, — My conscience bids me ask — wherefore you have Commanded of me these most poisonous compounds, Which are the movers of a languishing death, But though slow, deadly? Queen. I wonder, doctor, w Thou ask'st me such a question. Have I not been Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learn'd me how To make perfumes? distil? preserve? yea, so That our great king himself doth woo me oft For my confections? Having thus far proceeded, — Unless thou think'st me devilish, — is 't not meet That I did amplify my judgment in Other conclusions? I will try the forces Of these thy compounds on such creatures as We count not worth the hanging, but none human, 20 To try the vigour of them and apply Allayments to their act, and by them gather Their several virtues and effects. Cornelius. Your highness Shall from this practice but make hard your heart; Besides, the seeing these effects will be Both noisome and infectious. Queen. ^ O; content thee. — ACT I. iiCENE V. 57 Enter Pisanio. \Aside\ Here comes a flattering rascal ; upon him Will I first work : he 's for his master, And enemy to my son. — How now, Pisanio !^ Doctor, your service for this time is ended ; 3° Take your own way. Cornelius. [Aside] I do suspect you, madam ; But you shall do no harm. Qiieen. [To Fisanio'] Hark thee, a word. Cornelius. [Aside] I do not like her. She doth think she has Strange lingering poisons; I do know her spirit, And will not trust one of her malice with A drug of such damn'd nature. Those she has Will stupefy and dull the sense awhile ; Which first, perchance, she '11 prove on cats and dogs, Then afterward up higher: but there is No danger in what show of death it makes, 4© More than the locking-up the spirits a time, To be more fresh, reviving. She is fool'd With a most false effect; and I the truer, So to be false with her. Queen. No further service, doctor, Until I send for thee. Cornelius. I humbly take my leave. [Exit. Queen. Weeps she still, say'st thou? Dost thou think in time She will not quench and let instructions enter Where folly now possesses? Do thou work. When thou shalt bring me word she loves my son, I '11 tell thee on the instant thou art then 50 As great as is thy master, — greater, for His fortunes all lie speechless and his name Is at last gasp : return he cannot, nor c8 CYMBELINE. Continue where he is ; to shift his being Is to exchange one misery with another, And every day that comes comes to decay A day's work in him. What shalt thou expect. To be depender on a thing that leans, Who cannot be new built, nor has no friends, So much as but to prop him? \The Queen drops the box; Pisanio takes it up.] — Thou tak'st up 60 Thou know'st not what ; but take it for thy labour. It is a thing I made, which hath the king Five times redeem'd from death; I do not know What is more cordial. Nay, I prithee, take it; It is an earnest of a further good That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how The case stands with her ; do 't as from thyself. Think what a chance thou changest on, but think Thou hast thy mistress still ; to boot, my son, Who shall take notice of thee. I '11 move the king 70 To any shape of thy preferment such As thou 'It desire ; and then myself, I chiefly, That set thee on to this desert, am bound To load thy merit richly. Call my women. Think on my words. — [£xit Pisanio. A sly and constant knave. Not to be shak'd ; the agent for his master. And the remembrancer of her to hold The hand-fast to her lord. I have given him that Which, if he take, shall quite unpeople her Of liegers for her sweet, and which she after, 8© Except she bend her humour, shall be assur'd To taste of too. — Re-enter Pisanio and Ladies. So, so ; well done, well done. The violets^ cowslips, and the primroses, ACT I. SCENE VI. 59 Bear to my closet. — ^Fare thee well, Pisanio ; Think on my words. [Exeunt Queen and Ladies. Pisanio. And shall do: But when to my good lord I prove untrue, I '11 choke myself; there 's all I '11 do for you. \Exit Scene VI. The Same. Another Room in the Palace. Enter Imogen. Imogen. A father cruel, and a step-dame false; A foolish suitor to a wedded lady, That hath her husband banish'd: — O, that husband! My supreme crown of grief! and those repeated Vexations of it! Had I been thief-stolen, As my two brothers, happy ! but most miserable Is the desire that 's glorious ; blest be those, How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills, Which seasons comfort. — Who may this be ? Fie ! Enter Pisanio and Iachimo. Pisanio. Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome, lo Comes from my lord with letters. Iachimo. Change you, madam ? The worthy Leonatus is in safety And greets your highness dearly. \Presents a letter. Imogen. Thanks, good sir ; You 're kindly welcome. Iachimo. [Aside'] All of her that is out of door most rich! If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare. She is alone the Arabian bird, and I Have lost the wager. Boldness be my friend! Arm me, audacity, from head to foot ! Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight; ao Rather, directly fly. 6o CYMBELINE. Imogen. [Reads] ' He is one of the noblest note, to whosf kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon him accord- ingly, as you value your truest . Leonatus.' So far I read aloud ; But even the very middle of my heart - Is warm'd by the rest, and takes it thankfully. You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I Have words to bid you, and shall find it so In all that I can do. lachimo. .Thanks, fairest lady. — 30 What, are men mad.? Hath nature given them eyes To see this vaulted arch, and the rich crop Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt The fiery orbs above and the twinn'd stones Upon the unnumber'd beach? and can we not Partition make with spectacles so precious 'Twixt fair and foul ? Imogen. What makes your admiration? lachimo. It cannot be i' the eye, for apes and monkeys 'Twixt two such shes would chatter this way and Contemn with mows the other ; nor i' the judgment, 40 For idiots in this case of favour would Be wisely definite; nor i' the appetite; Sluttery to such neat excellence oppos'd Should make desire vomit emptiness, Not so allur'd to feed. Imogen. What is the matter, trow? lachimo. The cloyed will, That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub Both fill'd and running, ravening first the lamb. Longs after for the garbage. Imogen. What, dear sir. Thus raps you ? Are you well ? so lachimo. Thanks, madam; well. — \To Pisanid\ Beseech you, sir, desire ACT I. SCENE VI. 5 1 My man's abode where I did leave him ; he Is strange and peevish. Pisanio, I was going, sir, To give him welcome. \Exit. Imogen. Continues well my lord.'' His health, beseech you ? lachimo. Well, madam. Imogen. Is he dispos'd to mirth.? I hope he is. lachimo. Exceeding pleasant ; none a stranger there So merry and so gamesome ; he is call'd The Briton reveller. Imogen. When he was here 60 He did incline to sadness, and oft-times Not knowing why. lachimo. I never saw him sad. There is a Frenchman his companion, one An eminent monsieur, that, it seems, much loves A Gallian girl at home ; he furnaces The thick sighs from him, whiles the jolly Briton — Your lord, I mean — laughs from 's free lungs, cries * O, Can my sides hold, to think that man, who knows By history, report, or his own proof, What woman is, yea, what she cannot choose 70 But must be, will his free hours languish for Assured bondage ?' Imogen. Will my lord say so ? lachimo. Ay, madam, with his eyes in flood with laughter; It is a recreation to be by, And hear him mock the Frenchman. But, heavens know, Some men are much to blame. Imogen. Not he, I hope. lachimo. Not he : but yet heaven's bounty towards him might Be us'd more thankfully. In himself, 't is much; In you, which [ account his beyond all talents, 62 CYMBELINE. Whilst I am bound to wonder, I am bound 80 To pity too. Imogen. What do you pity, sir ? lachimo. Two creatures heartily. Imogen. Am I one, sir ? You look on me ; what wrack discern you in me Deserves your pity? lachimo. Lamentable! What! To hide me from the radiant sun, and solace I' the dungeon by a snuff.'' Imogen. I pray you, sir, Deliver with more openness your answers To my demands. Why do you pity me ? lachimo. That others do — I was about to say — enjoy your — — But 90 It is an office of the gods to venge it, Not mine to speak on 't. Imogen. You do seem to know Something of me, or what concerns me : pray you, — Since doubting things go ill often hurts more Than to be sure they do ; for certainties Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing, The remedy then born, — discover to me What both you spur and stop. lachimo. Had I this cheek To bathe my lips upon ; this hand, whose touch. Whose every touch, would force the feeler's soul soo To the oath of loyalty; this object, which Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye. Fixing it only here; should I, damn'd then. Slaver with lips as common as the stairs That mount the Capitol, join gripes with hands Made hard with hourly falsehood — falsehood, as With labour; then by-peeping in an eye Base and unlustrous as the smoky light ACT I. SCENE VI. 63 That 's fed with stinking tallow; it were fit That all the plagues of hell should at one time no Encounter such revolt. Imogen. My lord, I fear, Has forgot Britain. lachimo. And himself. Not I, Inclin'd to this intelligence, pronounce The beggary of his change ; but 't is your graces That from my mutest conscience to my tongue Charms this report out. Imogen. Let me hear no more. lachimo. O dearest soul ! your cause doth strike my heart With pity, that doth make me sick. A lady So fair, and fasten'd to an empery. Would make the great'st king double, — to be partner'd .120 With tomboys hir'd with that self exhibition Which your own coffers yield ! with diseas'd ventures That play with all infirmities for gold Which rottenness can lend nature ! such boil'd stuff As well might poison poison ! Be reveng'd j Or she that bore you was no queen, and you Recoil from your great stock. Imogen. Reveng'd ! How should I be reveng'd? If this be true, — As I have such a heart that both mine ears Must not in haste abuse, — if it be true, 130 How should I be reveng'd ? lachimo. Should he make me Live, like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets, Whiles he is vaulting variable ramps. In your despite, upon your purse ? Revenge it. I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure, More noble than that runagate to your bed. And will continue fast to your afiection, Still close as sure. H CYMBELINE. Imogen. What ho, Pisanio ! lachimo. Let me my service tender on your lips. Imogen. Away! I do condemn mine ears that have i^n So long attended thee. If thou wert honourable, Thou wouldst have told this tale for virtue, not For such an end thou seek'st, — as base as strange. Thou wrong'st a gentleman, who is as far From thy report as thou from honour, and Solicit'st here a lady that disdains Thee and the devil alike. — What ho, Pisanio! — The king my father shall be made acquainted Of thy assault; if he shall think it fit, A saucy stranger in his court to mart j.so As in a Romish stew and to expound His beastly mind to us, he hath a court He little cares for and a daughter who He not respects at all. — What ho, Pisanio! lachimo. O happy Leonatus ! I may say; The credit that thy lady hath of thee Deserves thy trust, and thy most perfect goodness Her assur'd credit— Blessed live you long ! A lady to the worthiest sir that ever Country call'd his ! and you his mistress, only lo^ For the most worthiest fit ! Give me your pardon. I have spoke this, to know if your affiance Were deeply rooted, and shall make your lord, That which he is, new o'er : and he is one The truest manner'd, such a holy witch That he enchants societies into him; Half all men's hearts are his. Imogen. You make amends. lachimo. He sits 'mongst men like a descended god ; He hath a kind of honour sets him off, More than a mortal seeming. Be not angry, 170 Most mighty princess, that I have adventur'd ACT L SCENE VI. 65 To try your taking of a false report; which hath Honour'd with confirmation your great judgment In the election of a sir so rare, Which you know cannot err. The love I bear him Made me to fan you thus, but the gods made you, Unlike all others, chaffless. Pray, your pardon. Imogen. All's well, sir. Take my power i' the court for yoiub lachimo. My humble thanks. I had almost forgot To entreat your grace but in a small request, iSo And yet of moment too, for it concerns Your lord; myself and other noble friends Are partners in the business. Imogen. Pray, what is 't ? lachimo. Some dozen Romans of us and your lord — ■ The best feather of our wing — have mingled sums To buy a present for the emperor; Which I, the factor for the rest, have done In France: 't is plate of rare device, and jewels Of rich and exquisite form, their values great; And I am something curious, being strange, 19c To have them in safe stowage. May it please you To take them in protection ? Imogen. Willingly, And pawn mine honour for their safety; since My lord hath interest in them, I will keep them In my bedchamber. lachimo. They are in a trunk, Attended by my men. I will make bold To send them to you, only for this night; I must aboard to-morrow. Imogen. O, no, no. lachimo. Yes, I beseech ; or I shall short my word By lengthening my return. From Gallia 200 I cross'd the seas on purpose and on promise To see your grace. 66 CYMBELINE. Imogen. I thank you for your pains; But not away to-morrow ! lachimo. O, I must, madam. Therefore I shall beseech you, if you please To greet your lord with writing, do 't to-night; I have outstood my time, which is material To the tender of our present. Imogen. I will write. Send your trunk to me; it shall safe be kept. And truly yielded you. You 're very welcome. [Exeunt, STONEHENGE. ACT II. Scene I. Britain. Before Cymbeline's Palace, Enter Cloten and two Lords. Cloten. Was there ever man had such luck ! when I kissed the jack, upon an up-cast to be hit away ! I had a hundred pound on 't : and then a whoreson jackanapes must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure. 1 Lord. What got he by that? You have broke his pate with your bowl. 2 Lord. [Aside] If his wit had been like him that broke it, it would have run all out. 9 68 CYMBELINE, Cloten. When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha? 2 Lord. No, my lord; [Aside] nor crop the ears of them. Cloten. Whoreson dog ! I give him satisfaction ? Would he had been one of my rank ! 2 Lord. [Aside] To have smelt like a fool. Cloten. I am not vexed more at any thing in the earth. A pox on 't ! I had rather not be so noble as I am ; they dare not fight with me, because of the queen my mother. Every Jack-slave hath his bellyful of fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock that nobody can match. 21 2 Lord. [Aside] You are cock and capon too; and you crow, cock, with your comb on. Cloten. Sayest thou } 2 Lord. It is not fit your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offence to. Clotett. No, I know that; but it is fit I should commit of- fence to my inferiors. 2 Lord. Ay, it is fit for your lordship only. Cloten. Why, so I say. 30 1 Lord. Did you hear of a stranger that 's come to court to-night ? Cloten. A stranger, and I not know on 't ! 2 Lord. [Aside] He 's a strange fellow himself, and knows it not. 1 Lord. There *s an Italian come ; and, 't is thought, one of Leonatus' friends. Cloten. Leonatus ! a banished rascal ; and he 's another, whatsoever he be. Who told you of this stranger? Y Lord. One of your lordship's pages. 4c Cloten. Is it fit I went to look upon him ? is there no der- ogation in 't? 2 Lord. You cannot derogate, my lord. Cloten. Not easily, I think. ACT 11. SCENE II. 69 2 Lord. [Aside] You are a fool granted ; therefore your issues, being foolish, do not derogate. Cioten. Come, I '11 go see this Italian; What I have lost to-day at bowls I '11 win to-night of him. Come, go. 2 Lord. I '11 attend your lordship. — [Exeunt Cioten and i Lord. That such a crafty devil as is his mother 50 Should yield the world this ass ! a woman that Bears all down with her brain; and this her son Cannot take two from twenty, for his heart, And leave eighteen. Alas, poor princess, Thou divine Imogen, what thou endur'st, Betwixt a fattier by thy step-dame govern'd, A mother hourly coining plots, a wooer More hateful than the foul expulsion is Of thy dear husband, than "that horrid act Of the divorce he 'd make ! The heavens hold firm 60 The walls of thy dear honour, keep unshak'd That temple, thy fair mind, that thou mayst stand, To enjoy thy banish'd lord and this great land ! [Exit. Scene II. Imogen^ s Bedchamber; a trunk in one corfier of it. Imogen in bed, reading; a Lady attending. Lmogen. Who 's there ? my woman Helen t Lady. Please you, madam. Lmogen. What hour is it ? Lady. Almost midnight, madam. Lmogen. I have read three hours then. Mine eyes are weak; Fold down the leaf where I have left : to bed. Take not away the taper, leave it burning; And if thou canst awake by four o' the clock, I prithee, call me. Sleep hath seiz'd me wholly. — [Exit Lady, yo CYMBELINE, To your protection I commend me, gods ! From fairies and the tempters of the night Guard me, beseech ye ! lo \Sleeps. lachimo comes from the trunk, lachimo. The crickets sing, and man's o'erlabour'd sense Repairs itself by rest. Our Tarquin thus Did softly press the rushes, ere he waken'd The chastity he wounded.— Cytherea, How bravely thou becom'st thy bed, fresh lily, And whiter than the sheets ! That I might touch ! But kiss; one kiss ! — Rubies unparagon'd. How dearly they do 't ! — 'T is her breathing that Perfumes the chamber thus; the flame o' the taper Bows toward her, and would under-peep her lids, 20 To see the enclosed lights, now canopied Under these windows, white and azure, lac'd With blue of heaven's own tinct. — But my design, To note the chamber. I will write all down : Such and such pictures; there the window; such The adornment of her bed; the arras-figures. Why, such and such; and the contents o' the story. Ah, but some natural notes about her body. Above ten thousand meaner movables Would testify, to enrich mine inventory. — 30 O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her ! And be her sense but as a monument. Thus in a chapel lying ! — Come off, come off; — \Taking off her bracelet As slippery as the Gordian knot was hard I — 'T is mine; and this will witness outwardly, As strongly as the conscience does within, To the madding of her lord.— On her left breast A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops t' the bottom of a cowslip : here 's a voucher. Stronger than ever law could make ; this secret 40 ACT II. SCENE III, 71 Will force him think I have pick'd the lock and ta'en The treasure of her honour. No more. To what end? Why should I write this down, that 's riveted, Screw'd to my memory ? She hath been reading late The tale of Tereus; here the leaf's turn'd down Where Philomel gave up. — I have enough ; To the trunk again, and shut the spring of it. — Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning May bare the raven's eye ! I lodge in fear ; 49 Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here. \Clock strikes. One, two, three ; — time, time ! \Goes into the trunk. The scene doses. Scene III. An Ante - chamber adjoining Imogen's Apart- ments. Enter Cloten and Lords. I Lord. Your lordship is the most patient man in loss, the most coldest that ever turned up ace. Cloten. It would make any man cold to lose. I Lord. But not every man patient after the noble temper of your lordship. You are most hot and furious when you win. Cloten. Winning will put any man into courage. If I could get this foolish Imogen, I should have gold enough. It 's almost morning, is 't not t I Lord. Day, my lord. 9 Cloten. I would this music would come. I am advised to give her music o' mornings ; they say it will penetrate. — Enter Musicians. Come on; tune: if you can penetrate her with your finger- ing, so; we '11 try with tongue too : if none will do, let her re- main ; but I '11 never give o'er. First, a very excellent good- conceited thing; after, a wonderful sweet air, with admirable rich words to it ;— and then let her consider. ^2 CYMBELINE. Song. Harky hark / the lark at heaven^ s gate sings. And Phoebus gins arise, His steeds to water at those springs On chalic' d flowers that lies ; 20 And winking Mary-buds begin To ope their golden eyes ; With every thing that pretty is, My lady sweet, arise; Arise, arise I Cloten'. So, get you gone. If this penetrate, I will consider your music the better; if it do not, it is a vice in her ears, which horse-hairs and calves'-guts, nor the voice of eunuch to boot, can never amend. [Exeunt Musicians. 2 Lord. Here comes the king. 30 Cloten. I am glad I was up so late; for that 's the reason I was up so early : he cannot choose but take this service I have done fatherly. — Enter Cymbeline and Queen. Good morrow to your majesty and to my gracious mother. Cymbeline. Attend you here the door of our stern daugh- ter? Will she not forth ? Cloten. I have assailed her with music, but she vouchsafes no notice. Cymbeline. The exile of her minion is too new ; She hath not yet forgot him : some more time 40 Must wear the print of his remembrance out. And then she 's yours. Queen. You are most bound to the king, Who lets go by no vantages that may Prefer you to his daughter. Frame yourself To orderly solicits, and be friended ACT IL SCENE III. y^ With aptness of the season ; make denials Increase your services; so seem as if You were inspir'd to do those duties wliich You tender to her; that you in all obey her, Save when command to your dismission tends, 50 And therein you are senseless. Cloten. Senseless ! not so. Enter a Messenger. Messenger. So like you, sir, ambassadors from Rome \ The one is Caius Lucius. Cymbeline. A worthy fellow, Albeit he comes on angry purpose now; But that 's no fault of his : we must receive him According to the honour of his sender; And towards himself, his goodness forespent on us. We must extend our notice. — Our dear son. When you have given good morning to your mistress, > Attend the queen and us; we shall have need 60 To employ you towards this Roman. — Come, our queen. \Exeu?it all but Cloten. Cloten. If she be up, I '11 speak with her; if not, Let her lie still and dream. — [ Knocks^ By your leave, ho!— I know her women are about her; what If I do line one of their hands? 'T is gold Which buys admittance; oft it doth; yea, and makes Diana's rangers false themselves, yield up Their deer to the stand o' the stealer; and 't is gold Which makes the true man kill'd and saves the thief; Nay, sometime hangs both thief and true man: what 70 Can it not do and undo? I will make One of her women lawyer to me, for I yet not understand the case myself.— \Knocks?^ By your leave. 74 CYMBELINE. Enter a Lady. Lady. Who 's there that knocks? Cloten. A gentleman. Lady. No more? Cloten. Yes, and a gentlewoman's son. Lady. That 's more Than some whose tailors are as dear as yours Can justly boast of. What 's your lordship's pleasure ? Cloten. Your lady's person ; is she ready t Lady. Ay, To keep her chamber. Cloten. There is gold for you ; 80 Sell me your good report. Lady. How! my good name? or to report of you What I shall think is good ? — The princess 1 Enter Imogen. Cloten. Good morrow, fairest ; sister, your sweet hand. \Exit Lady. Lmogen. Good morrow, sir. You lay out too much pains For purchasing but trouble ; the thanks I give Is telling you that I am poor of thanks And scarce can spare them. Cloten. Still, I swear I love you. Lmogen. If you but said so, 't were as deep with me ; If you swear still, your recompense is still 90 That I regard it not. Cloten. This is no answer. Lmogen. But that you shall not say I yield being silent, I would not speak. I pray you, spare me ; faith, I shall unfold equal discourtesy To your best kindness. One of your great knowing Should learn, being taught, forbearance. Cloten. To leave you in your madness, 't were my sin ; T will not. ACT II. SCENE III jr^ Imogen. Fools are not mad folks. Cloten. Do you call me fool? Imogen. As I am mad, I do : ,00 If you '11 be patient, I '11 no more be mad; That cures us both. I am much sorry, sir, ^ You put me to forget a lady's manners, By being so verbal : and learn now, for all, That I, which know my heart, do here pronounce, By the very truth of it, I care not for you, And am so near the lack of charity — To accuse myself — I hate you ; which I had rather You felt than make 't my boast. Cloten. You sin against Obedience, which you owe your father. For no The contract you pretend with that base wretch. One bred of alms and foster'd with cold dishes, With scraps o' the court, it is no contract, none; And though it be allow'd in meaner parties — Yet who than he more mean? — to knit their souls, On whom there is no more dependency But brats and beggary, in self-figur'd knot, Yet you are curb'd from that enlargement by • The consequence o' the crown, and must not soil The precious note of it with a base slave, „o A hilding for a livery, a squire's cloth, A pantler, not so eminent. Imogen. Profane fellow! Wert thou the son of Jupiter and no more But what thou art besides, thou wert too base To be his groom ; thou wert dignified enough, Even to the point of envy, if 't were made Comparative for your virtues, to be styl'd The under-hangman of his kingdom, and hated For being preferr'd so well. Cloten, The south-fog rot him! 76 CYMBELINE. Imogen. He never can meet more mischance than come To be but nam'd of thee. His meanest garment, 131 That ever hath but clipp'd his body, is dearer In my respect than all the hairs above thee, Were they all made such men. — How now, Pisanio! Enter Pisanio. Cloten. His garment ! Now the devil — Lnogen. To Dorothy niy woman hie thee presently — Cloten. His garment ! Imogen. I am sprited with a fool, Frighted, and anger'd worse. — Go bid my woman Search for a jewel that too casually Hath left mine arm: it was thy master's; 'shrew me, mq If I would lose it for a revenue Of any king's in Europe. I do think I saw 't this morning: confident I am Last night 't was on mine arm ; I kiss'd it. I hope it be not gone to tell my lord That I kiss aught but he. Pisanio. 'T will not be lost. Imoge7t, I hope so j go and search. \Exit Pisamo. Cloten. You have abus'd me. — His meanest garment! Imogen. Ay, I said so, sir ; If you will make 't an action, call witness to 't.' Cloten. I will inform your father. Imogen. Your mother too; 150 She 's my good lady, and will conceive, I hope, But the worst of me. So, I leave you, sir, To the worst of discontent. \Exit. Cloten. I '11 be reveng'd ! His meanest garment!— Well. \ExU AC -J' JL SCENE IV. 77 Scene IV. Rome. Philarid's House. Enter Posthumus and Philario. Posthumus. Fear it not, sir; I would I were so sure To win the king as I am bold her honour Will remain hers. Philario. What means do you make to him? Posthumus. Not any, but abide the change of time, Quake in the present winter's state and wish That warmer days would come. In these fear'd hopes, I barely gratify your love ; they failing, I must die much your debtor. » Philario. Your very goodness and your company Overpays all I can do. By this, your king 10 Hath heard of great Augustus: Caius Lucius Will do 's commission throughly; and I think He '11 grant the tribute, send the arrearages, Or look upon our Romans, whose remembrance Is yet fresh in their grief. Posthumus. I do believe. Statist though I am none, nor like to be, That this will prove a war; and you shall hear The legions now in Gallia sooner landed In our not-fearing Britain than have tidings , Of any penny tribute paid. Our countrymen 2 Are men more order'd than when Julius Caesar Smil'd at their lack of skill, but found their courage Worthy his frowning at ; their discipline, Now mingled with their courages, will make known To their approvers they are people siich That mend upon the world. Enter Iachimo. Philario. See! Iachimo? 78 C y MB EL WE. Posthumus. The swiftest harts have posted you by land, And winds of all the corners kiss'd your sails, To make your vessel nimble. Philario. Welcome, sir. Posthumus. I hope the briefness of your answer made 3a The speediness of your return. lachimo. Your lady Is one of the fairest that I have look'd upon. Posthumus. And therewithal the best; or let her beauty Look through a casement to allure false hearts And be false with them. lachimo, Here are letters for you. Posthumus. Their tenour good, I trust. lachimo. 'T is very like. Philario. Was Caius Lucius in the Britain court When you were there? lachimo. He was expected then, But not approach'd. Posthumus. All is well yet. — Sparkles this stone as it was wont? or is 't not 40 Too dull for your good wearing? lachimo. If I had lost it, I should have lost the worth of it in gold. I '11 make a journey twice as far, to enjoy A second night of such sweet shortness which Was mine in Britain, for the ring is won. Posthumus. The stone 's too hard to come by. lachimo. Not a whit. Your lady being so easy. Posthumus. Make not, sir. Your loss your sport; I hope you know that we Must not continue friends. lachimo. Good sir, we must. If you keep covenant. Had I not brought so The knowledge of your mistress home, I grant ACT IL SCENE IV. 79 We were to question further: but 1 now Profess myself the winner of her honour, Together with your ring; and not the wronger Of her or you, having proceeded but By both your wills. Posthumus. If you can make 't apparent That you have tasted her in bed, my hand And ring is yours; if not, the foul opinion You had of her pure honour gains or loses Your sword or mine, or masterless leaves both 60 To who shall find them. lachimo. Sir, my circumstances. Being so near the truth as I will make them. Must first induce you to believe ; whose strength I will confirm with oath, which, I doubt not, You '11 give me leave to spare, when you shall find You need it not. Posthumus, Proceed. lachimo. First, her bedchamber, — Where, I confess, I slept not, but profess Had that was well worth watching — it was hang'd With tapestry of silk and silver ; the story Proud Cleopatra, when she met her Roman, 7c And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for The press of boats or pride : a piece of work So bravely done, so rich, that it did strive In workmanship and value ; which I wonder'd Could be so rarely and exactly wrought, Since the true life on 't was — Posthumus. This is true; And this you might have heard of here, by me, Or by some other. lachimo. More particulars Must justify my knowledge. Posthumus. So they mustj Or do your honour injury. 3o CYMBELINE. lachimo. The chimney ^o Is south the chamber, and the chimney-piece Chaste Dian bathing: never saw I figures So likely to report themselves ; the cutter Was as another nature, dumb, — outwent her, Motion and breath left out. Posthumus. This is a thing Which you might from relation likewise reap, Being, as it is, much spoke of. lachimo. The roof] o' the chamber With golden cherubins is fretted ; her andirons— I had forgot them — were two winking Cupids Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely , 90 Depending on their brands. Posthumus. This is her honour! Let it be granted you have seen all this — and praise Be given to your remembrance — the description Of what is in her chamber nothing saves The wager you have laid. lachimo. Then, if you can, [Showing the bracelet. Be pale. I beg but leave to air this jewel; see! — And now 't is up again : it must be married To that your diamond; I '11 keep them. Posthumus. Jove! — Once more let me behold it ; is it that Which I left with her? lachimo. Sir — I thank her — that. ioo She stripp'd it from her arm; I see her yet; Her pretty action did outsell her gift. And yet enrich'd it too. She gave it me, and said She priz'd it once. Posthumus. May be she pluck'd it off To send it me. lachimo. She writes so to you, doth she? ACT IL SCENE IV. 8 1 Posthumus. O, no, no, no! 't is true. Here, take this too; \Gives the ring. It is a basilisk unto mine eye. Kills me to look on 't.— Let there be no honour Where there is beauty ; truth, where semblance ; love, Where there 's another man : the vows of women no Of no more bondage be, to where they are made. Than they are to their virtues, which is nothing. — O, above measure false ! Philario. Have patience, sir. And take your ring again ; 't is not yet won. It may be probable she lost it; or Who knows if one of her women, being corrupted, Hath stolen it from her? Posthumus. Very true ; And so, I hope, he came by 't. — Back my ring. — Render to me some corporal sign about her. More evident than this ; for this was stolen. 120 lachimo. By Jupiter, I had it from her arm. Posthumus. Hark you, he swears ; by Jupiter he swears. 'T is true ; — nay, keep the ring — 't is true. I am sure She would not lose it ; her attendants are All sworn and honourable. — They induc'd to steal it! And by a stranger ! — No, he hath enjoy'd her. The cognizance of her incontinency Is this ; she hath bought the name of whore thus dearly.— There, take thy hire ; and all the fiends of hell Divide themselves between you ! Philario. Sir, be patient : ^30 This is not strong enough to be believ'd Of one persuaded well of — lachimo. If you seek For further satisfying, under her breast — Worthy the pressing — lies a mole, right proud Of that most delicate lodging '; by my life, 82 CYMBELINE. I kiss'd it, and it gave me present hunger To feed again, though full. You do remember This stain upon her ? Posthumus. Ay, and it doth confirm Another stain, as big as hell can hold, Were there no more but it. lachimo. Will you hear more ? 140 Posthumus. Spare your arithmetic : never count the turns ; Once, and a million ! lachimo. I '11 be sworn — Posthumus. No swearing. If you will swear you have not done 't, you lie j And I will kill thee, if thou dost deny Thou 'st made me cuckold. lachimo. I '11 deny nothing. Posthumus. O, that I had her here, to tear her limbmeal ! I will go there and do 't, i' the court, before Her father. I '11 do something— {Exit. Philario. Quite besides The government of patience ! You have won. Let 's follow him, and pervert the present wrath 150 He hath against himself. lachimo. With all my heart. [Exeunt. Scene V. Another Room in Philai-id's House. Enter Posthumus. Posthumus. Is there no way for men to be but women Must be half-workers ? We are all bastards ; And that most venerable man which I Did call my father, was I know not where When I was stamp'd ; some coiner with his tools Made me a counterfeit : yet my mother seem'd The Dian of that time ; so doth my wife The nonpareil of this. O, vengeance, vengeance ! ACT 11. SCENE V. ^Z Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain'd, And pray'd me oft forbearance ; did it with lo A pudency so rosy the sweet view on 't Might well have warm'd old Saturn; that I thought her As chaste as unsunn'd snow. — Could I find out The woman's part in me ! For there 's no motion That tends to vice in man, but I affirm It is the woman's part: be it lying, note it, The woman's ; flattering, hers ; deceiving, hers ; Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers ; revenges, hers ; Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain, Nice longing, slanders, mutability, 2c All faults that may be nam'd, nay, that hell knows, Why, hers, in part or all, — but rather, all; For even to vice They are not constant, but are changing still One vice, but of a minute old, for one Not half so old as that. I '11 write against them, Detest them, curse them : yet 't is greater skill, In a true hate, to pray they have their will; The very devils cannot plague them better. \Exit Well, madam, we must take a short farewell {ni. 4. 185). ACT III. Scene I. Britain. A Hall i?t Cymbeline's Palace. Enter in state, Cymbeline, Queen, Cloten, ajid Lords at one^ door, and at another Caius Lucius and Attendants. Cymbeline. Now say, what would Augustus Caesar with us ? Lucius. When Julius Caesar, whose remembrance yet Lives in men's eyes and will to ears and tongues Be theme and hearing ever, was in this Britain And conquer'd it, Cassibelan, thine uncle, — Famous in Cesar's praises, no whit less Than in his feats deserving it, — for him And his succession granted Rome a tribute, ACT IIL SCENE 1. 85 Yearly three thousand pounds, which by thee lately Is left untender'd. Queen. And, to kill the marvel 10 Shall be so ever. Cloten. There be many Caesars Ere such another Julius. Britain is A world by itself, and we will nothing pay For wearing our own noses. Queen. That opportunity Which then they had to take from 's, to resume We have again. — Remember, sir, my liege, The kings your ancestors, together with The natural bravery of your isle, which stands As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in With rocks unscalable and roaring waters, 20 With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats. But suck them up to the topmast. A kind of conquest Csesar made here, but made not here his brag Of ' Came and saw and overcame.' With shame— The first that ever touch'd him — he was carried From off our coast, twice beaten ; and his shipping — Poor ignorant baubles ! — on our terrible seas, Like egg-shells mov'd upon their surges, crack'd As easily 'gainst our rocks : for joy whereof The famed Cassibelan, who was once at point — ?o O giglot fortune !— to master Caesar's sword, Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright And Britons strut with courage. Cloten. Come, there 's no more tribute to be paid. Our kingdom is stronger than it was at that time ; and, as I said, there is no moe such Caesars: other of them may have crooked noses, but to owe such straight arms, none. Cymbeline. Son, let your mother end. 38 Cloten. We have yet many among us can gripe as hard as Cassibelan. I do not say I am one ; but I have a hand.— 86 CYMBELINE. Why tribute? why should we pay tribute? If Caesar can hide the sun from us with a blanket, or put the moon in his pocket, we will pay him tribute for light; else, sir, no more tribute, pray you now. Cymbeline. You must know, Till the injurious Romans did extort This tribute from us, we were free. Caesar's ambition, Which swell'd so much that it did almost stretch The sides o' the world, against all colour here Did put the yoke upon 's; which to shake off s* Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon Ourselves to be, Cloten. We do. Cymbeline. Say, then, to Caesar, Our ancestor was that Mulmutius which Ordain'd our laws, whose use the sword of Caesar Hath too much mangled; whose repair and franchise Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed. Though Rome be therefore angry. Mulmutius made our laws, Who was the first of Britain which did put His brows within a golden crown and call'd Himself a king. Lucius. I am sorry, Cymbeline, 6c That I am to pronounce Augustus Caesar — Caesar, that hath moe kings his servants than Thyself domestic officers — thine enemy: Receive it from me, then : war and confusion In Caesar's name pronounce I 'gainst thee; look For fury not to be resisted. Thus defied, I thank thee for myself. Cymbeline. Thou art welcome, Caius. Thy Caesar knighted me ; my youth I spent Much under him; of him I gather'd honour; Which he to seek of me again, perforce, 70 ACT III. SCENE II. 87 Behoves me keep at utterance. I am perfect That the Pannonians and Dahnatians for Their Hberties are now in arms ; a precedent Which not to read would show the Britons cold : So Caesar shall not find them. Lucius. Let proof speak. Cioten. His majesty bids you welcome. Make pastime with us a day or two, or longer. If you seek us afterwards in other terms, you shall find us in our salt-water girdle : if you beat us out of it, it is yours. If you fall in the advent- ure, our crows shall fare the better for you ; and there 's an end. 81 Lucius. So, sir. Cymbeline. I know your master's pleasure and he mine; Ail the remain is, Welcome! [Exeunt. Scene II. Another Room in the Palace, Enter Pisanio, with a letter. Pisanio. How ! of adultery ? Wherefore write you not What monster 's her accuser ! — Leonatus ! O master ! what a strange infection Is fallen into thy ear! What false Italian, As poisonous-tongued as handed, hath prevail'd On thy too ready hearing? — Disloyal! No; She 's punish'd for her truth, and undergoes. More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults As would take in some virtue. — O my master! Thy mind to her is now as low as were « Thy fortunes. — How! that I should murther her? Upon the love and truth and vows which I Have made to thy command? I, her? her blood? If it be so to do good service, never Let me be counted serviceable. How look I, That I should seem to lack humanity 88 CYMBELINE. So much as this fact comes to? [Reading] ''Do V.- the letter That I have sent her^ by her own command Shall give thee opportunity.'' — O damn'd paper! Black as the ink that 's on thee ! Senseless bauble, 20 Art thou a fedary for this act, and look'st So virgin-like without?— Lo, here she comes. I am ignorant in what I am commanded. Enter Imogen. Imogen. How now, Pisanio ! Pisanio. Madam, here is a letter from my lord. Imogen. Who? thy lord? that is my lord, Leonatus! O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer That knew the stars as I his characters; He 'd lay the future open. — You good gods, Let what is here contain'd relish of love, ' 30 Of my lord's health, of his content, yet not That we two are asunder, — let that grieve him : Some griefs are med'cinable; that is one of them, For it doth physic love : — of his content, All but in that! — Good wax, thy leave. — Blest be You bees that make these locks of counsel ! Lovers And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike; Though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet You clasp young Cupid's tables.— Good news, gods! 39 ■ [Reads] ' Justice, and your father'' s wrath, should he take me in his dominion, could not be so cruel to me, as you, O the dearest of creatures, would even renew me with your eyes. Take notice that I am in Cambria, at Milf or d- Haven ; what your own love will out of this advise you, follow. So he wishes you all happiness, that remains loyal to his vow, a7id your, increasing in love, Leonatus Posthumus.' O, for a horse with wings ! — Hear'st thou, Pisanio? He is at Milford-Haven; read, and tell me ACT III. SCENE II. 89 How far 't is thither. If one of mean affairs May plod it in a week, why may not I go GHde thither in a day? Then, true Pisanio, — Who long'st, like me, to see thy lord ; who long'st, — • O, let me bate ! — but not like me, — yet long'st. But in a fainter kind, — O, not like me. For mine 's beyond beyond! — say, and speak thick, — Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing. To the smothering of the sense, — how far it is To this same blessed Milford : and by the way Tell me how Wales was made so happy as To inherit such a haven ; but, first of all, 60 How we may steal from hence, and for the gap That we shall make in time, from our hence-going And our return, to excuse, — but, first, how get hence. Why should excuse be born or ere begot? We '11 talk of that hereafter. Prithee, speak, How many score of miles may we well ride 'Twixt hour and hour? Pisanio. One score 'twixt sun and sun, Madam, 's enough for you, — and too much too. Imogen. Why, one that rode to 's execution, man, Could never go so slow; I have heard of riding wagers, ^c Where horses have been nimbler than the sands That run i' the clock's behalf — But this is foolery. — Go bid my woman feign a sickness, say She '11 home to her father; and provide me presently A riding-suit, no costlier than would fit A franklin's housewife. Pisanio. Madam, you 're best consider. Imogen. I see before me, man ; nor here, nor here, Nor what ensues, but have a fog in them. That I cannot look through. Away, I prithee; Do as I bid thee. There 's no more to say; 80 Accessible is none but Milford way. \Exeuni. go CYMBELINE. Scene III. Wales: a Mountainous Country with a Cave, Enter, jro?n the cave, Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus. Belarius. A goodly day not to keep house, with such Whose roof 's as low as ours ! Stoop, boys ; this gate Instructs you how to adore the heavens, and bows you To a morning's holy office: the gates of monarchs Are arch'd so high that giants may jet through And keep their impious turbans on, without Good morrow to the sun. — Hail, thou fair heaven ! We house i' the rock, yet use thee not so hardly As prouder livers do. Guiderius. Hail, heaven ! Arviragus. Hail, heaven ! Belarius. Now for our mountain sport. Up to yond hill! Your legs are young \ I '11 tread these flats. Consider, When you above perceive me like a crow. That it is place which lessens and sets off; And you may then revolve what tales I have told you Of courts, of princes, of the tricks in war. This service is not service, so being done. But being so allow'd : to apprehend thus, Draws us a profit from all things we see 3 And often, to our comfort,. shall we find The sharded beetle in a safer hold 20 Than is the full-wing'd eagle. O, this life Is nobler than attending for a check, Richer than doing nothing for a bribe. Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk; Such gain the cap of him who makes 'em fine, Yet keeps his book uncross'd: no life to ours. Guiderius. Out of your proof you speak; we, poor un. fiedg'd, ACT III, SCENE III, 91 Have never wing'd from view o' the nest, nor know not What air 's from home. Haply this life is best, If quiet life be best ; sweeter to you 30 That have a sharper known, well corresponding With your stiff age: but unto us it is A cell of ignorance, travelling abed, A prison for a debtor, that not dares To stride a Hmit. Arviragus. What should we speak of When we are old as you? when we shall hear The rain and wind beat dark December, how In this our pinching cave shall we discourse The freezing hours away? We have seen nothing; We are beastly, subtle as the fox for prey, 40 Like warlike as the wolf for what we eat; Our valour is to chase what flies ; our cage We make a quire, as doth the prison'd bird, And sing our bondage freely. Belarius. How you speak! Did you but know the city's usuries And felt them knowingly ; the art o' the court, As hard to leave as keep; whose top to climb Is certain falling, or so slippery that 1 The fear 's as bad as falling; the toil o' the war, A pain that only seems to seek out danger 50 r the name of fame and honour; which dies i' the search, And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph As record of fair act ; nay, many times. Doth ill deserve by doing well ; what 's worse, Must curtsy at the censure. — O boys, this story The world may read in me : my body 's mark'd With Roman swords, and my report was once First with the best of note. Cymbeline lov'd me. And when a soldier was the theme, my name Was not far off: then was I as a tree t,o 92 CYMBELINE. Whose boughs did bend with fruit; but in one night, A storm or robbery, call it what you will, Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves. And left me bare to weather. Guiderius. Uncertain favour! Belarius. My fault being nothing — as I have told you oft — But that two villains, whose false oaths prevail'd Before my perfect honour, swore to Cymbeline I was confederate with the Romans: so Follow'd my banishment, and this twenty years This rock and these demesnes have been my world; 70 Where I have liv'd at honest freedom, paid More pious debts to heaven than in all The fore-end of my time. — But up to the mountains! This is not hunters' language. — He that strikes The venison first shall be the lord o' the feast; To him the other two shall minister, And we will fear no poison, which attends In place of greater state. I '11 meet you in the valleys. — \Exeu?it Guiderius atid Arviragus. How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature ! These boys know little they are sons to the king; 80 Nor Cymbeline. dreams that they are alive. They think they are mine; and though train'd up thus meanly r the cave wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit The roofs of palaces, and nature prompts them In simple and low things to prince it much Beyond the trick of others. This Polydore, The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, who The king his father call'd Guiderius, — Jove! When on my three-foot stool I sit and tell The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out 90 Into my story : say ' Thus mine enemy fell, And thus I set my foot on 's neck ;' even then ACT III. SCENE Il\ 53 The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats, Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in posture That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal, .Once Arviragus, in as like a figure, Strikes life into my speech and shows much more His own conceiving. — Hark, the game is rous'd! — O Cymbeline! heaven and my conscience knows Thou didst unjustly banish me; whereon, hoo At three and two years old, I stole these babes, Thinking to bar thee of succession, as Thou reft'st me of my lands. — Euriphile, Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for their mother, And every day do honour to her grave : Myself, Belarius, that am Morgan call'd. They take for natural father. — The game is up. \Exit. Scene IV. Near Milf or d- Haven. Enter Pisanio and Imogen. Imogen. Thou told'st me, when we came from horse, the place Was near at hand. — Ne'er long'd my mother so To see me first, as I have now. — Pisanio! man! Where is Posthumus? What is in thy mind. That makes thee stare thus? Wherefore breaks that sigh From the inward of thee? One, but painted thus, Would be interpreted a thing perplex'd Beyond self-explication ; put thyself Into a haviour of less fear, ere wildness Vanquish my staider senses. What 's the matter? lo Why tender'st thou that paper to me, with A look untender? If 't be summer news. Smile to 't before; if winterly, thou need'st But keep that countenance still. — My husband's hand! That drug-damn'd Italy hath out-craftied him, 94 CYMBJELINE. And he 's at some hard point. — Speak, man; thy tongue May take off some extremity, which to read Would be even mortal to me. Pisanio. Please you, read ; And you shall find me, wretched man, a thing The most disdain'd of fortune. 20 hnogen. [Reads] ' l^hy mistress^ Pisanio^ hath played the strumpet in my bed; the testimofiies whereof lie bleeding in me. I speak not out of iveak surmises, but fro?n proof as strong as my grief and as certain as I expect my revenge. That part thou, Pisanio, must act for me, if thy faith be not tainted ivith the breach of hers. Let thine own hands take away her life; I shall give thee opportunity at Milf or d- Haven. She hath my letter for the purpose ; where, if thou fear to strike and to make me certain it is done, thou art the pander to her dishonour and equally to me disloyal.^ 30 Pisanio. What shall I need to draw my sword? the paper Hath cut her throat already. — No, 't is slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath Rides on the posting winds and doth belie All corners of the world ; kings, queens, and states, Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave This viperous slander enters. — What cheer, madam? Imogen. False to his bed! What is it to be false? To lie in watch there and to think on him? 4 Re-enter Posthumus, and seconds the Britons ; they rescue. Cymbeline, and exeunt. Then re-enter Lucius a?id Iach- IMO, with Imogen. Lucius. Awa}^ boy, from the troops, and save thyself; For friends kill friends, and the disorder 's such As war were hoodwink'd. lachimo. 'T is their fresh supplies. Lucius. It is a day turn'd strangely; or betimes Let 's reinforce, or fly. {Exeunt. Scene III. Another Part of the Field. Enter Posthumus and a British Lord. Lord. Cam'st thou from where they made the stand? Posthumus. I did; Though you, it seems, come from the fliers. ACT V, SCENE III, 133 Lord. I did. Posthumus. No blame be to you, sir; for all was lost, But that the heavens fought. The king himself Of his wings destitute, the army broken, And but the backs of Britons seen, all flying Through a strait lane; the enemy full-hearted. Lolling the tongue with slaughtering, having work More plentiful than tools to do 't, struck down Some mortally, some slightly touch'd, some falling ic Merely through fear; that the strait pass was damm'd With dead men hurt behind, and cowards living To die with lengthen'd shame. Lord. Where was this lane.? Posthumus. Close by the battle, ditch'd, and wall'd with turf; Which gave advantage to an ancient soldier, — An honest one, I warrant, — who deserv'd So long a breeding as his white beard came to. In doing this for 's country. Athwart the lane. He, with two striplings,— lads more like to run The country base than to commit such slaughter; 20 With faces fit for masks, or rather fairer Than those for preservation cas'd, or shame, — Made good the passage, cried to those that fled, ' Our Britain's harts die flying, not our men ; To darkness fleet souls that fly backwards. Stand! Or we are Romans and will give you that Like beasts which you shun beastly, and may save. But to look back in frown : stand, stand !' — These three, Three thousand confident, in act as many — For three performers are the file when all 30 The rest do nothing — with this word ' Stand, stand,' Accommodated by the place, more charming With their own nobleness, which could have turn'd A distaff to a lance, gilded pale looks, 134 CYMBELINE. Part shame, part spirit renew'd ; that some, turn'd coward But by example — O, a sin in war, Damn'd in the first beginners! — ^gan to look The way that they did, and to grin like lions Upon the pikes o' the hunters. Then began A stop i' the chaser, a retire, anon A rout, confusion thick ; forthwith they fly Chickens, the way which they stoop'd eagles; slaves, The strides they victors made. And now our cowards, Like fragments in hard voyages, became The life o' the need; having found the back-door open Of the unguarded hearts, heavens, how they wound! Some slain before, some dying, some their friends O'er-borne i' the former wave ; ten, chas'd by one, Are now each one the slaughter-man of twenty: Those that would die or ere resist are grown 50 The mortal bugs o' the field. Lord. This was strange chance: A narrow lane, an old man, and two boys. Posthumus. Nay, do not wonder at it ; you are made Rather to wonder at the things you hear Than to work any. Will you rhyme upon 't, And vent it for a mockery? Here is one: 'Two boys, an old man twice a boy, a lane, Preserv'd the Britons, was the Romans' bane.' Lord. Nay, be not angry, sir. Posthumus. 'Lack, to what end? Who dares not stand his foe, I '11 be his friend; 6a For if he '11 do as he is made to do, I know he '11 quickly fly my friendship too. You have put me into rhyme. Lord. Farewell; you 're angry. Posthumus. Still going? — {Exit Lord.] This is a lord! O noble misery. To be i' the field, and ask 'what news?' of me! ACT V. SCENE III. 135 To-day how many would have given their honours To have sav'd their carcases ! took heel to do 't, And yet died too! I, in mine own woe charm'd, Could not find death where I did hear him groan, Nor feel him where he struck. Being an ugly monster, 70 'T is strange he hides him in fresh cups, soft beds. Sweet words, or hath moe ministers than we That draw his knives i' the war. Well, I will find him; For being now a favourer to the Briton, No more a Briton, I have resum'd again The part I came in. Fight I will no more, But yield me to the veriest hind that shall Once touch my shoulder. Great the slaughter is Here made by the Roman; great the answer be Britons must take. For me, my ransom 's death; 80 On either side I come to spend my breath. Which neither here I '11 keep nor bear again, But end it by some means for Imogen. Enter two British Captains and Soldiers. 1 Captain. Great Jupiter be prais'd! Lucius is taken. *T is thought the old man and his sons were angels. 2 Captain. There was a fourth man, in a silly habit. That gave the affront with them. 1 Captain. So 't is reported ; But none of 'em can be found. — Stand! who 's there.?. Fosthumus. A Roman, Who had not now been drooping here if seconds 9° Had answer'd him. 2 Captain. Lay hands on him; a dog! A leg of Rome shall not return to tell What crows have peck'd them here. He brags his service As if he were of note. Bring him to the king. 136 CYMBELINE, Enter Cymbeline, Belarius, Guiderius, Arviragus, Pi- SANio, Soldiers, Attendants, and Roman Captives. The Captains present Posthumus to Cymbeline, who delivers him over to a Gaoler ; then exeunt omnes. Scene IV. A British Prison. Enter PosthuMus and two Gaolers. 1 Gaoler. You shall not now be stolen, you have locks upon you; So graze as you find pasture. 2 Gaoler. Ay, or a stomach. [Exeunt Gaolers. Posthumus. Most welcome, bondage ! for thou art a way, I think, to liberty ; yet am I better Than one that 's sick o' the gout, since he had rather Groan so in perpetuity than be cur'd By the sure physician, death, who is the key To unbar these locks. My conscience, thou art fetter'd More than my shanks and wrists; you good gods, give me The penitent instrument to pick that bolt, » Then, free for ever! Is 't enough I am sorry? So children temporal fathers do appease ; Gods are more full of mercy. Must I repent? I cannot do it better than in gyves, Desir'd more than constrain'd ; to satisfy, If of my freedom 't is the main part, take No stricter render of me than my all. I know you are more clement than vile men, Who of their broken debtors take a third, A sixth, a tenth, letting them thrive again to On their abatement; that 's not my desire. For Imogen's dear life take mine: and though ACT V. SCENE IV. 137 'T is not so dear, yet 't is a life ; you coin'd it. Tween man and man they weigh not every stamp ; Though light, take pieces for the figure's sake: You rather mine, being yours; and so, great powers, If you will take this audit, take this life, And cancel these cold bonds. — O Imogen I I '11 speak to thee in silence. \Sleepz. Solemn music. Enter ^ as in an apparition^ Sicilius Leona- i\js>, father to Posthumus^ an oldman^ attired like a warrior; leading in his hand an ancient matron^ his wife, and mother to Posthumus^ with music before them : then, after other music, follow the two young Leonati, brothers to Posthumus, with wounds as they died in the wars. They circle Posthumus round as he lies sleeping. Sicilius. No more, thou thunder-master, show 30 Thy spite on mortal flies; With Mars fall out, with Juno chide, That thy adulteries Rates and revenges. Hath my poor boy done aught but well, Whose face I never saw? I died whilst in the womb he stay'd Attending nature's law ; Whose father then — as men report Thou orphans' father art — 40 Thou shouldst have been, and shielded him From this earth-vexing smart. Mother. Lucina lent not me her aid. But took me in my throes; That from me was Posthumus ript, Came crying 'mongst his foes, A thing of pity ! 138 CYMBELINE. Sicilius. Great nature, like his ancestry, Moulded the stuff so fair, That he deserv'd the praise o' the world, 50 As great Sicilius' heir. 1 Brother. When once he was mature for man, In Britain where was he That could stand up his parallel, Or fruitful object be In eye of Imogen, that best Could deem his dignity? Mother. With marriage wherefore was he mock'd, To be exil'd, and thrown From Leonati seat, and cast eo From her his dearest one. Sweet Imogen? Sicilius. Why did you suffer lachimo. Slight thing of Italy, To taint his nobler heart and brain With needless jealousy; And to become the geek and scorn O' the other's villany? 2 Brother. For this from stiller seats we came, Our parents and us twain, 70 That striking in our country's cause Fell bravely and were slain. Our fealty and Tenantius' right With honour to maintain. I Brother. Like hardiment Posthumus hath To Cymbeline perform'd; Then, Jupiter, thou king of gods, Why hast thou thus adjourn'd The graces for his merits due, Being all to dolours turn'd? So ACT V. SCENE IV, I^g Sicilius. Thy crystal wind9w ope, look out; No longer exercise Upon a valiant race thy harsh And potent injuries. Mother. Since, Jupiter, our son is good, Take off his miseries. Sicilius. Peep through thy marble mansion; help! Or we poor ghosts will cry To the shining synod of the rest Against thy deity. go Both Brothers. Help, Jupiter; or we appeal, And from thy justice fly. Jupiter descends in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle; he throws a thunderbolt. The Ghosts fall on their knees. jfupiter. No more, you petty spirits of region low, _-. Offend our hearing; hush! — How dare you ghosts > Accuse the thunderer, whose bolt, you know, _-^ Sky-planted, batters all rebelling coasts? < Poor shadows of Elysium, hence, and rest- • Upon your never-withering banks of flowers: Be not with mortal accidents opprest ; -*-' No care of yours it is ; you know 't is ours. ---\ loo Whom best I love I cross; to make my gift ^ The more delay'd, delighted. Be contenTj Yf\ Your low-laid son our godhead will uplift: -V^^ His comforts thrive, his trials well are spent. \ Our Jovial star reign'd at his birth, and in Our temple was he married. Rise, and fade. — » He shall be lord of lady Imogen, ^ And happier much by his affliction made. 140 CYMBELINE. This tablet lay upon his breast, wherein Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine j And so, away! no further with your din Express impatience, lest you stir up mine.— Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline. Sicilius. He came in thunder; his celestial breath Was sulphurous to smell: the holy eagle Stoop'd, as to foot us. His ascension is More sweet than our blest fields; his royal bird Prunes the immortal wing and cloys his beak, As when his god is pleas'd. All. - Thanks, Jupiter! Sicilius. The marble pavement closes, he is enter'd 120 His radiant roof. — Away! and, to be blest, , Let us with care perform his great behest. \The Ghosts vanish. Posthumus. [ Waking\ Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and begot A father to me ; and thou hast created A mother and two brothers. But, O scorn ! Gone! they went hence so soon as they were born; And so I am awake. — Poor wretches that depend On greatness' favour dream as I have done, Wake and find nothing. — But, alas, I swerve: Many dream not to find, neither deserve, 130 And yet are steep'd in favours; so am I, That have this golden chance and know not why. What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one! Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment Nobler than that it covers ; let thy efifects So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers, As good as promise. [Reads] ' Whe7tas a lion^s whelp shall^ to himself unknown^ without seeking find^ and he embraced by a piece of tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall be lopped branches which. Tt^ ACT V. SCENE IV. 141 being dead many years, shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock, and freshly grow; then shall Fosthiimus e?td his miseries, Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty 'T is still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen Tongue and brain not; either both or nothing) ^ Or senseless speaking or a speaking such As sense cannot untie. Be what it is, The action of my life is like it, which I '11 keep, if but for sympathy. Re-enter Gaolers. I Gaoler. Come, sir, are you ready for death? 150 Posthumus. Over-roasted rather; ready long ago. I Gaoler. Hanging is the word, sir; if you be ready for that, you are well cooked. Fosthiimus. So, if I prove a good repast to the spectators, the dish pays the shot. I Gaoler. A heavy reckoning for you, sir. But the com- fort is, you shall be called to no more payments, fear no more tavern-bills, which are often the sadness of parting, as the procuring of mirth. You come in faint for want of meat, de- part reeling with too much drink ; sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you are paid too much ; purse and brain both empty; the brain the heavier for being too light, the purse too light, being drawn of heaviness: of this con- tradiction you shall now be quit. O, the charity of a penny cord! it sums up thousands in a trice: you have no true debitor and creditor but it; of what 's past, is, and to come, the discharge. — Your neck, sir, is pen, book, and counters ; so the acquittance follows. i6s Posthumus. I am merrier to die than thou art to live. I Gaoler. Indeed, sir, he that sleeps feels not the toothache : but a man that were to sleep your sleep, and a hangman to help him to bed, I think he would change places with his offi- cer; for, look you, sir, you know not which way you shall %o- 142 CYMBELINE. Posthumus. Yes, indeed do I, fellow. I Gaoler. Your death has eyes in 's head then ; I have not seen him so pictured. You must either be directed by some that take upon them to know, or take upon yourself that which I am sure you do not know, or jump the after in- quiry on your own peril \ and how you shall speed in your journey's end, I think you '11 never return to tell one. iSo Posthumus. I tell thee, fellow, there are none want eyes to direct them the way I am going, but such as wink and will not use them. I Gaoler. What an infinite mock is this, that a man should have the best use of eyes to see the way of blindness! I am sure hanging 's the way of winking. Enter a Messenger. Messenger. Knock off his manacles; bring your prisoner to the king. Posthumus. Thou bring'st good news; I am called to be made free. 190 I Gaoler. I 'II be hanged then. Posthumus. Thou shalt be then freer than a gaoler; no bolts for the dead. \Exeu7it all but i Gaoler. I Gaoler. Unless a man would marry a gallows and beget young gibbets, I never saw one so prone. Yet, on my con- science, there are verier knaves desire to live, for all he be a Roman : and there be some of them too that die against their wills ; so should I, if I were one. I would we were all of one mind, and one mind good. O, there were desolation of gaolers and gallowses! I speak against my present prof- it, but my wish hath a preferment in 't. {Exit. ACT V. SCENE V. 143 Scene V. Cymbeline's Tent. Enter Cymbeline, Belarius, Guiderius, Arviragus, Pisa- Nio, Lords, Officers, and Attendants. Cymbeline. Stand by my side, you whom the gods have made Preservers of my throne. Woe is my heart That the poor soldier that so richly fought; Whosfe rags sham'd gilded arms, whose naked breast Stepp'd before targes of proof, cannot be found. He shall be happy that can find him, if Our grace can make him so. Belarius. I never saw Such noble fury in so poor a thing. Such precious deeds in one that promis'd nought But beggary and poor looks. Cymbeline. No tidings of him ? 10 Fisanio. He hath been search'd among the dead and liv- ing, But no trace of him. Cymbeline. To my grief, I am The heir of his reward ; \To Belarius, Guiderius, and Arvira- gus'] which I will add To you, the liver, heart, and brain of Britain, By whom I grant she lives. 'T is now the time To ask of whence you are. Report it. Belarius. Sir, In Cambria are we born, and gentlemen. Further to boast were neither true nor modest, Unless I add, we are honest. Cymbeline. Bow your knees. Arise m} mights o' the battle; I create you ao Companions to our person, and will fit you With dignities becoming your estates. 144 CYMBELINE. Enter Cornelius and Ladies. There 's business in these faces. — Why so sadly Greet you our victory? you look like Romans, And not o' the court of Britain. Cornelius. Hail, great king I To sour your happiness, I must report The queen is dead. Cymbeline. ' Who worse than a physician Would this report become.'* But I consider, By medicine life may be prolong'd, yet death Will seize the doctor too. — How ended she? 30 Cornelius. With horror, madly dying, like her life, Which, being cruel to the world, concluded Most cruel to herself What she confess'd I will report, so please you; these her women Can trip me, if I err, who with wet cheeks Were present when she finish'd. , Cymbeline. Prithee, say. Cornelius. First, she confess'd she never lov'd you, only Affected greatness got by you, not you; Married your royalty, was wife to your place, Abhorr'd your person. Cymbeline. She alone knew this; 40 And, but she spoke it dying, I would not Believe her lips in opening it. Proceed. Cornelius. Your daughter, whom she bore in hand to love With such integrity, she did confess Was as a scorpion to her sight; whose life, • But that her flight prevented it, she had Ta'en off by poison. Cymbeline. O most delicate fiend! Who is 't can read a woman ?-— Is there more? Cornelius. More, sir, and worse. She did confess she had For you a mortal mineral, which, being took, 50 ACT V. SCENE V. 145 Should by the minute feed on life and lingering By inches waste you ; in which time she purpos'd, By watching, weeping, tendance, kissing, to O'ercome you with her show, and in time. When she had fitted you with her craft, to work Her son into the adoption of the crown : But, failing of her end by his strange absence. Grew shameless-desperate; open'd, in despite Of heaven and men, her purposes ; repented The evils she hatch'd were not effected ; so 60 Despairing died. Cymbeline. Heard you all this, her women ? I Lady. We did, so please your highness. Cymbelme. Mine eyes Were not in fault, for she was beautiful ; Mine ears, that heard her flattery, nor my heart. That thought her like her seeming; it had been vicious To have mistrusted her: yet, O my daughter! That it was folly in me, thou mayst say, And prove it in thy feeling. Heaven mend all ! Enter Lucius, Iachimo, the Soothsayer, and other Roman prisoners, guarded; Posthumus behind, and Imogen. Thou com'st not, Caius, now for tribute; that The Britons have raz'd out, though with the loss 70 Of many a bold one ; whose kinsmen have made suit That their good souls may be appeas'd with slaughter Of you their captives, which ourself have granted: So think of your estate. Lucius. Consider, sir, the chance of war : the day Was yours by accident ; had it gone with us, We should not, when the blood was cool, have threaten'd Our prisoners with the sword. But since the gods Will have it thus, that nothing but our lives May be call'd ransom, let it come; sufficeth 80 146 CYMBELINE. A Roman with a Roman's heart can suffer. Augustus lives to think on 't ; and so much For my peculiar care. This one thing only I will entreat: my boy, a Briton born, Let him be ransom'd; never master had A page so kind, so duteous, diligent. So tender over his occasions, true, So feat, so nurse-like. L^t his virtue join With my request, which I '11 make bold your highness Cannot deny; he hath done no Briton harm, 9q Though he have serv'd a Roman. Save him, sir, And spare no blood beside. Cymbeline. I have surely seen him \ His favour is familiar to me. — Boy, Thou hast look'd thyself into my grace, And art mine own. I know not why nor wherefore To say live, boy: ne'er thank thy master; live. And ask of Cymbeline what boon thou wilt, Fitting my bounty and thy state, I '11 give it; Yea, though thou do demand a prisoner, The noblest ta'en. Imogen. I humbly thank your highness, 100 Lucius. I do not bi(f thee beg my life, good lad ; And yet I know thou wilt. Imogen. No, no: alack, There 's other work in hand. — I see a thing Bitter to me as death. — Your life, good master, Must shuffle for itself Lucius. The boy disdains me, He leaves me, scorns me; briefly die their joys That place them on the truth of girls and boys. — Why stands he so perplex'd? Cymbeline. What wouldst thou, boy? I love thee more and more ; think more and more What 's best to ask. Know'st him thou look'st on ? speak. Wilt have him live? Is he thy kin ? thy friend.? m ACT V. SCENE V. 147 Imogen. He is a Roman ; no more kin to me Than I to your highness, who, being born your vassal, Am something nearer. Cymbeline. Wherefore eyest him so ? Imogen. I '11 tell you, sir, in private^ if you please To give me hearing. Cymbeline. Ay, with all my heart. And lend my best attention. What 's thy name? Imogen. Fidele, sir. Cymbeline. Thou 'rt my good youth, my page ; I '11 be thy master. Walk with me ; speak freely. \Cymbeline and Imogen converse apart. Belarius. Is not this boy reviv'd from death? Arviragus. One sand another Not more resembles that sweet rosy lad 121 Who died, and was Fidele. — What think you? Guiderius. The same dead thing alive. Belarius. Peace, peace 1 see further; he eyes us not; for- bear. Creatures may be alike ; were 't he, I am sure He would have spoke to us. Guiderius. But we saw him dead. Belarius. Be silent; let 's see further. Pisanio. [Aside] It is my mistress ! Since she is living, let the time run on To good or bad. [Cymbeline and Imogen come forward. Cymbeline. Come, stand thou by our side • Make thy demand aloud. — [To lachimo'] Sir, step you forth; 139 Give answer to this boy, and do it freely. Or, by our greatness and the grace of it, Which is our honour, bitter torture shall Winnow the truth from falsehood. — On, speak to him. Imogen. My boon is, that this gentleman may render Of whom he had this ring. 148 CYMBELINE. Posthumus. \Aside\ What 's that to him ? Cymbeline. That diamond upon your finger, say How came it yours ? lachimo. Thou 'It torture me to leave unspoken that Which, to be spoke, would torture thee. Cymbeline. How! me? 140 lachimo, I am glad to be constrain'd to utter that Which torments me to conceal. By villany I got this ring ; 't was Leonatus' jewel, Whom thou didst banish ; and — which more may grieve thee, As it doth me — a nobler sir ne'er liv'd 'Twixt sky and ground. Wilt thou hear more, my lord ? Cymbeline. All that belongs to this. lachimo. That paragon, thy daughter, — For whom my heart drops blood, and my false spirits Quail to remember — Give me leave; I faint. Cymbeline. My daughter ! what of her ? Renew thy strength ; 150 I had rather thou shouldst live while nature will Than die ere I hear more. Strive, man, and speak. lachimo. Upon a time, — unhappy was the clock That struck the hour ! — it was in Rome, — accurs'd The mansion where ! — 't was at a feast, — O, would Our viands had been poison'd, or at least Those which I heav'd to head ! — the good Posthumus — What should I say? he was too good to be W^here ill men were, and was the best of all Amongst the rar'st of good ones, — sitting sadly, 160 Hearing us praise our loves of Italy For beauty that made barren the swell'd boast Of him that best could speak ; for feature, laming The shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva, Postures beyond brief nature ; for condition, A shop of all the qualities that man ACT V. SCENE V. 1 49 Loves woman for, besides that hook of wiving, Fairness which strikes the eye — • Cymbeline. I stand on fire ; Come to the matter. lachimo. All too soon I shall, Unless thou wouldst grieve quickly. This Posthumus, 170 Most like a noble lord in love and one That had a royal lover, took his hint ; And, not dispraising whom we prais'd, — therein He was as calm as virtue, — he began His mistress' picture ; which by his tongue being made, And then a mind put in 't, either our brags Were crack'd of kitchen-trulls, or his description Prov'd us unspeaking sots. Cymbeline. Nay, nay, to the purpose. lachimo. Your daughter's chastity — there it begins. He spake of her, as Dian had hot dreams, 180 And she alone were cold ; whereat I, wretch, Made scruple of his praise, and wager'd with him Pieces of gold 'gainst this which then he wore Upon his honour'd finger, to attain In suit the place of 's bed and win this ring By hers and mine adultery. He, true knight, No lesser of her honour confident Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring; And would so, had it been a carbuncle Of Phcebus' wheel, and might so safely, had it »9o Been all the worth of 's car. Away to Britain Post I in this design ; well may you, sir, Remember me at court, where I was taught Of your chaste daughter the wide difference 'Twixt amorous and villanous. Being thus quench'd Of hope, not longing, mine Italian brain Gan in your duller Britain operate Most vilely, — -for my vantage, excellent, — 1^0 CYMBELINE. And, to be brief, my practice so prevail'd, • That I return'd with simular proof enough aoo To make the noble Leonatus mad, By wounding his belief in her renown With tokens thus, and thus ; averring notes Of chamber-hanging, pictures, this her bracelet, — cunning, how I got it ! — nay, some marks Of secret on her person, that he could not But think her bond of chastity quite crack'd, 1 having ta'en the forfeit. Whereupon — Methinks, I see him now^ — Fosthiimus. \Advancing\ Ay, so thou dost, Italian fiend !— ^Ay me, most credulous fool, 210 Egregious murtherer, thief, any thing That 's due to all the villains past, in being. To come ! — O, give me cord, or knife, or poison^ Some upright justicer ! Thou, king, send out For torturers ingenious ; it is I That all the abhorred things o' the earth amend By being worse than they. I am Posthumus, That kill'd thy daughter ;— villain-like, I lie — That caus'd a lesser villain than myself, A sacrilegious thief, to do 't : the temple sao Of virtue was she, — yea, and she herself. Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set The dogs o' the street to bay me ; every villain Be call'd Posthumus Leonatus, and Be villany less than 't was ! — O Imogen! My queen, my life, my wife ! O Imogen, Imogen, Imogen ! Imogen. Peace, my lord ; hear, hear— Posthumus. Shall 'shave a play of this? Thou scornful page, There lie thy part. ^Striking her : she falls. Pisanifl. O, gentlemen, help ! Mine and your mistress !^0, my lord Posthumus ! 239 ACT V. SCENE V. i^I You ne'er kill'd Imogen till now. — Help, help ! Mine honour'd lady ! Cymbeline. Does the world go round ? Posthumus. How comes these staggers on me? Pisafiio. Wake, my mistress ! Cymbeli?ie. If this be so, the gods do mean to strike me To death with mortal joy. ..;.!. Pisanio. How fares my mistress ? Imoge?t. O, get thee from my sight ; Thou gav'st me poison : dangerous fellow, hence! Breathe not where princes are. Cymbeline. ~ The tune of Imogen ! Pisa7no. Lady, . . The gods throw stones of sulphur on nre, if 240 That box I gave you was not thought by me A precious thing; I had it from the queeti. Cymbeline. New matter still? Imogen. It poison 'd me. Cornelius. O gods ! I left out one thing which the queen confessed,- Which must approve thee honest; 'If Pisanio Have,' said she, 'given his mistress that confection Which I gave him for cordial, she is serv'ti As I would serve a rat.' . _. Cymbeline. What 's this, Cornelius ? Cornelius. The queen, sir, very oft impoftUn'd me To temper poisons for her, stiH pretending 250 The satisfaction of her knowledge only In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs, Of no esteem. I, dreading that her purpose Was of more danger, did compound for her A certain stuff which, being ta'en, would cease The present power of life, but in short time All offices of nature should again Do their due functions.^Have-ybu ta'en of it? ^e2 CYMBELINE. Imogen. Most like I did, for I was dead. Belarius. My boys, There was our error. Guiderius. This is, sure, Fidele. 260 Imogen. Why did you throw your wedded lady from you? Think that you are upon a rock, and now Throw me again. [Embracing him. Posthumus. Hang there like fruit, my soul. Till the tree die ! Cymbeline. How now, my flesh, my child I What,mak'st thou me a dullard in this act? Wilt thou not speak to me ? Imogen. [Kneeling] Your blessing, sir. Belarius. [ To Guiderius and Arviragus] Though you did love this youth, I blame ye not; You had a motive for 't. Cymbeline. My tears that fall Prove holy water on thee ! Imogen, Thy mother's dead. Imogen. I am sorry for 't, my lord. 270 Cymbeline. O, she was naught ; and long of her it was That we meet here so strangely : but her son Is gone, we know not how nor where. Pisanio. My lord, Now fear is from me, I '11 speak troth. Lord Cloten, Upon my lady's missing, came to me With his sword drawn, foam'd at the mouth, and swore, If I discover'd not which way she was gone. It was my instant death. By accident, I had a feigned letter of my master's Then in my pocket, which directed him 280 To seek her on the mountains near to Milford ; Where, in a frenzy, in my master's garments. Which he enforc'd from me, away he posts ACT V. SCENE V, 153 With unchaste purpose and with oath to violate My lady's honour. What became of him I further know not. Guiderius. Let me end the story; I slew him there. Cymbeline. Marry, the gods forfend ! I would not thy good deeds should from my lips Pluck a hard sentence; prithee, valiant youth, Deny 't again. Guiderius. I have spoke it, and I did it. 290 Cymbeline. He was a prince. Guiderius. A most incivil one ; the wrongs he did me Were nothing prince-like, for he did provoke me With language that would make me spurn the sea, If it could so roar to me. I cut off 's head, And am right glad he is not standing here To tell this tale of mine. Cymbeline. I am sorry for thee. By thine Own tongue thou art condemn'd, and must Endure our law; thou 'rt dead. Imogen. That headless man I thought had been, my lord. Cymbeline. Bind the offender, 300 And take him from our presence. Belarius. Stay, sir king ! This man is better than the man he slew, As well descended as thyself, and hath More of thee merited than a band of Clotens Had ever scar for. — \To the Gj4ard'\ Let his arms alone; They were not born for bondage. Cymbeline. Why, old soldier, Wilt thou undo the worth thou art unpaid for, By tasting of our wrath ? How of descent As good as we ? Arviragus. In that he spake too far. J- . CYMBELINE. Cymbeline. And thou shalt die for 't. Belarius. We will die all three, But I will prove that two on 's are as good 3" As I have given out him.— My sons, I must, ^ For mine own part, unfold a dangerous speech, Though, haply, well for you. Arviragiis. Your danger 's ours. Guiderms. And our good his. Belarius. Have at it then, by leave.— Thou hadst, great king, a subject who Was call'd Belarius. Cymbeline. What of him ? he is A banish'd traitor. Belarius-. He it is that hath Assum'd this age ; indeed a banish'd man, I know not how a traitor. Cymbeline. Take him hence ; 320 The whole world shall not save him. Belarius. Not too hot ! First pay me for the nursing of thy sons ; And let it be confiscate all, so soon As I have receiv'd it. : , : Cymbeline. Nursing of my sons ! Belarius. I am too blunt and saucy; here 's my knee. Ere I arise, I willprefer my sons; Then spare not the old father. Mighty sir. These two young gentlemen, that call me father And think they are my sons, are none of mine; They are the issue of your loins, my hege, 33c And blood of your begetting. Cymbeline. How ! my issue ! Belarius. So sure as you your father's. I, old Morgan, Am that Belarius whom you sometime banish'd. Your pleasure was my mere offence, my punishment Itself, and all my treason ; that I suffer'd ACT V. SCENE V. 155 Was all the harm I did. These gentle princes— For such and so they are — these twenty years Have I train'd up : those arts they have as I Could put into them ; my breeding was, sir, as Your highness knows. Their nurse, Euriphile, 340 Whom for the theft I wedded, stole these children Upon my banishment. I moved her to 't, Having receiv'd the punishment before For that which I did then ; beaten for loyalty Excited me to treason. Their dear loss, The more of you 't was felt, the more it shap'd Unto my end of stealing them. But, gracious sir, Here are your sons again ; and I must lose Two of the sweet'st companions in the world. — The benediction of these covering heavens 35° , Fall on their heads like dew! for they are worthy To inlay heaven with stars. Cymbelifie. Thou weep'st, and speak'st. The service that you three have done is more Unlike than this thou tell'st. I lost my children; If these be they, I know not how to wish A pair of worthier sons. Belarius. Be pleas'd awhile. This gentleman, whom I call Polydore, Most worthy prince, as yours, is true Guiderius. This gentleman, my Cadwal, Arviragus, Your younger princely son ; he, sir, was lapp'd 360 In a most curious mantle, wrought by the hand . Of his queen mother, which for more probation I can with ease produce. Cymbeline. Guiderius had Upon his neck a mole, a sanguine star; It was a mark of wonder. Belarius. This is he, Who hath upon him still that natural stamp. 156 CYMBELINE, It was wise nature's end in the donation, To be his evidence now. Cymbeline. O, what, am I A mother to the birth of three ? Ne'er mother Rejoic'd deliverance more. — Blest pray you be, 370 That, after this strange starting from your orbs, You may reign in them now ! — O Imogen, Thou hast lost by this a kingdom. Imogen. No, my lord ; I have got two worlds by 't— O my gentle brothers, Have we thus met? O, never say hereafter Bat I am truest speaker : you call'd me brother. When I was but your sister ; I you brothers, When ye were so indeed. Cymbeline. Did you e'er meet? Arviragus. Ay, my good lord. Guiderius. And at first meeting lov'd; Continued so, until we thought he died. 380 Cornelius. By the queen's dram she swallow'd. Cymbeline. O rare instinct! When shall I hear all through? This fierce abridgment Hath to it circumstantial branches, which Distinction should be rich in. — Where? how liv'd you? And when came you to serve our Roman captive? How parted with your brothers? how first met them? Why fled you from the court? and whither? These, And your three motives to the battle, with I know not how much more, should be demanded, And all the other by-dependances, 390 From chance to chance ; but nor the time nor place Will serve our long inter'gatories. See, Posthumus anchors upon Imogen, And she, like harmless lightning, throws her eye On him, her brothers, me, her master, hitting Each object with a joy ; the counterchange ACT V. SCENE K 15 7 Is severally in all. Let 's quit this ground, And smoke the temple with our sacrifices. — \^To Belarius\ Thou art my brother; so we '11 hold thee ever. Imogen. You are my father too, and did relieve me, 400 To see this gracious season. Cymbeline. All o'erjoy'd. Save these in bonds; let them be joyful too, For they shall taste our comfort. Imogen. My good master, I will yet do you service. Lucius. Happy be you ! Cymbeline. The forlorn soldier, that so nobly fought, He would have well becom'd this place, and grac'd The thankings of a king. Posthumus. I am, sir. The soldier that did company these three In poor beseeming; 't was a fitment for The purpose I then follow'd. — That I was he, 410 Speak, lachimo ; I had you down, and might Have made you finish. lachimo. \Kneeling\ I am down again; But now my heavy conscience sinks my knee, As then your force did. Take that life, beseech you. Which I so often owe ; but your ring first. And here the bracelet of the truest princess That ever swore her faith. .Posthumus. Kneel not to me ; The power that I have on you is to spare you, The malice towards you to forgive you. Live, And deal with others better. Cymbeline. Nobly doom'd! 420 We '11 learn our freeness of a son-in-law ; Pardon 's the word to all. Arviragus. You holp us, sir. j^S CYMBELINE. As you did mean indeed to be our brother; Joy'd are we that you are. Posthumus. Your servant, princes. — Good my lord of Rome, Call forth your soothsayer. As I slept, methought Great Jupiter, upon his eagle back'd, Appear'd to me, with other spritely shows Of mine own kindred. When I wak'd, I found This label on my bosom, whose containing 430 Is so from sense in hardness, that I can Make no collection of it ; let him show His skill in the construction. Lucius. Philarmonus! Soothsayer. Here, my good lord. Lucius. Read, and declare the meaninst- Soothsayer. [Reads] ' Whenas a lion's whelp s hall ^ to him- self unknown, without seeking fijid, and be embraced by a piece of tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall be lopped branches which, being dead many years, shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock, a7id freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his miseries, Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.'' 44- Thou, Leonatus, art the lion's whelp; The fit and apt construction of thy name, Being Leo-natus, doth import so much. — \To Cymbeline\ The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daughter, Which we call 'mollis aer;' and 'mollis aer' We term it 'mulier:' which ' mulier ' I divine Is this most constant wife; who, even now. Answering the letter of the oracle, Unknown to you, unsought, were clipp'd about 450 With this most tender air. Cymbeline. This hath some seeming. Soothsayer. The lofty cedar, royal Gymbeline, Personates thee ; and thy lopp'd branches point ACT V. SCENE V. 59 Thy two sons forth, who, by Belarius stolen, For many years thought dead, are now reviv'd, To the majestic cedar join'd, whose issue Promises Britain peace and plenty. Cymbeline. Well, My peace we will begin. — And, Caius Lucius, Although the victor, we submit to Caesar And to the Roman empire, promising 460 To pay our wonted tribute, from the which We were dissuaded by our wicked queen ; Whom heavens, in justice, both on her and hers, Have laid most heavy hand. Soothsayer. The fingers of the powers above do tune The harmony of this peace. The vision Which I made known to Lucius, ere the stroke Of yet this scarce-cold battle, at this instant Is full accomplish'd ; for the Roman eagle, From south to west on wing soaring aloft, 470 Lessen'd herself, and in the beams o' the sun So vanish'd : which foreshow'd our princely eagle, The imperial Caesar, should again unite His favour with the radiant Cymbeline, Which shines here in the west. Cymbeline. Laud we the gods; And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils From our blest altars. Publish we this peace To all our subjects. Set we forward. Let A Roman and a British ensign wave Friendly together ; so through Lud's town march, 480 And in the temple of great Jupiter Our peace we '11 ratify, seal it with feasts. — Set on there! — Never was a war did cease, Ere bloody hands were wash'd, with such a peace. \Exeunt NOTES, ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES. Abbott (or Gr.), Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar (third edition). A. S., Anglo-Saxon. A. v.. Authorized Version of the Bible (1611). B. and F., Beaumont and Fletcher. B. J., Ben Jonson. Camb. ed., " Cambridge edition'* of Shakespeare, edited by Clark and Wright. Cf. {confer), compare. Clarke, " Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare," edited by Charles and Mary Cowden- Clarke (London, n. d.). Coll., Collier (second edition). Coll. MS.,- Manuscript Corrections of Second Folio, edited by Collier. D., Dyce (second edition). H., Hudson (" Harvard" ed.). Halliwell, J. O. Halliwell (folio ed. of Shakespeare). Id. {idem), the same. J. H., J. Hunter's ed. of Cymb. (London, i878\. K., Knight (second edition). Nares, Glossary, edited bv Halliwell and Wri'gnt (London, 1859). Prol., Prologue. S., Shakespeare. Schmidt, A. Schmidt's Shakespeare- Lexicon (Berlin, 1874). Sr., Singer. St., Staunton. Theo., Theobald. v., Verplanck. W., R. Grant White. Walker, Wm. Sidney Walker's Critical Examination of the Text of Shakespeare (London, i860). Warb., Warburton. Wb., Webster's Dictionary (revised quarto edition of 1879). Wore, Worcester's Dictionary (quarto edition). The abbreviations of the names of Shakespeare's Plays will be readily understood; as T. N. for Twelfth Night, Cor. for Coriolanus, 3 Hen. VI. for The Third Part of Ki7ig Hetzry the Sixth, etc. P. P. refers to The Passionate Pilgrim ; V. and A . to Venus and Adonis ; L. C. to Lover* s Complaint ; and Sonn. to the Sonnets. When the abbreviation of the name of a play is followed by a reference to page., Rolfe's edition of the play is meant. The numbers of the lines (except for the present play) are those of the " Globe " ed. or of the American reprint of that ed. NOTES. ROMAN AND BRITISH WEAPONS. INTRODUCTION. The following extracts from Holinshed (see p. ii above) include all the portions of the chronicle which Shakespeare can have used in writ- ing the play : " After the death of Cassibelane, Theomantius or Lenantius, the young- est son of Lud, was made king of Britain in the year of the world 3921, after the building of Rome 706, and before the coming of Christ 45. *. . Theomantius ruled the land in good quiet, and paid the tribute to the Romans which Cassibelane had granted, and finally departed this life after he had reigned twenty-two years, and was buried at London. " Kymbeline or Cimbeline, the son of Theomantius, was of the Brit- ains made king, after the decease of his father, in the year of the world 3944, after the building of Rome 728, and before the birth of our Saviour 33. This man (as some write) was brought up at Rome, and there made knight by Augustus Caesar, under whom he served in the wars, and was in such favour with him that he was at liberty to pay his tribute or not. . . . Touching the continuance of the years of Kymbeline's reign some writers do vary, but the best approved af&rm that he reigned thirty-five years and then died, and was buried at London, leaving behind him two sons, Guiderius and Arviragus. But here is to be noted that, although our 164 NOTES. histories do affirm that as well this Kymbeline, as also his father Theoi mantius, lived in quiet with the Romans, and continually to them paid the tributes which the Britains had covenanted with Julius Caesar to pay, yet we find in the Roman writers, that after Julius Caesar's death, when Augustus had taken upon him the rule of the empire, the Britains refused to pay that tribute : whereat, as Cornelius Tacitus reporteth, Augustus (being otherwise occupied) was contented to wink ; howbeit, through earnest calling upon to recover his right by such as were desirous to see the uttermost of the British kingdom ; at length, to wit, in the tenth year after the death of Julius Csesar, which was about the thirteenth year of the said Theomantius, Augustus made provision to pass with an army over into Britain, and was come forward upon his journey into Gallia Celtica, or, as we may say, into these hither parts of France. " But here receiving advertisements that the Pannonians, which inhab- ited the country now called Hungary, and the Dalmatians, whom now we call Slavons, had rebelled, he thought it best first to subdue those rebels near home, rather than to seek new countries, and leave such in hazard whereof he had present possession ; and so, turning his power against the Pannonians and Dalmatians, he left off for a time the wars of Britain, whereby the land remained without fear of any invasion to be made by the Romans till the year after the building of the city of Rome, 725, and about the nineteenth year of Theomantius' reign, that Augustus with an army departed once again from Rome to pass over into Britain there to make war. But after his coming into Gallia, when the Britains sent to him certain ambassadors to treat with him of peace, he staid there to set- tle the state of things among the Galles, for that they were not in very good order. ... But whether this controversy, which appeareth to fall forth betwixt the Britains and Augustus, was occasioned by Kymbeline, or some other prince of the Britains, I have not to avouch : for that by our writers it is reported that Kymbeline, being brought up in Rome, and knighted in the court of Augustus, ever showed himself a friend to the Romans, and chiefly was loth to break with them, because the youth of the British nation should not be deprived of the benefit to be trained and brought up among the Romans, whereby they might learn both to be- have themselves like civil men, and to attain to the knowledge of feats of war, ... •' Mulmucius Dunwallo, the son of Cloten, got the upper hand of the other dukes or rulers : and after his father's decease began his reign over the whole monarchy of Britain, in the year of the world 3529. This Mul- mucius Dunwallo proved a right worthy prince. He builded within the city of London, then called Troinovant, a temple, and called it the Tem- ple of Peace. He also made many good laws, which were long after used, called Mulmucius' laws. After he had established his land, and set his Britains in good and convenient order, he ordained him by the ad- vice of his lords a crown of gold, and caused himself with great solemni- ty to be crowned, according to the custom of the pagan laws then in use : and because he was the first who bare a crown here in Britain, after the opinion of some writers, he is named the first king of Britain, and all the other before rehearsed are named rulers, dukes, or governors." ACT I. SCENE I. 165 ACT I. Scene I.— i. Bloods. Temperaments, dispositions ; as in 2 Hen. IV. iv. 4. 38 : " When you perceive his blood inclin'd to mirth," etc. The plural is used, as often, because more than one person is referred to. Cf. Rich. II. p. 206, note on Sights. 3. Still seem as does the king. The folios have " kings," and some modern editors read " king's " (that is, the king's blood). King is Tyr- whitt's conjecture (also in the Coll. MS.), and is adopted by K., Coll., D., W., Clarke, and others. The sense is : Our temperaments are not more surely controlled by planetary influences than the aspect of our courtiers is by that of the king ; their looks reflect the sadness of his. Cf. 13 just below. 4. Ofs. Such contractions are especially frequent in the latest plays of S. See many instances below. 10. None but the king? "Are all but the king in outward sorrow- only.? none else touched at heart.?" (J. H.). 13. To the bent. According to the cast or aspect. Cf. A. and C. i. 3. 3" • . " Eternity was in our lips and eyes, Bliss in our brows' bent," etc. 23. Outzuard. For the noun, cf. So7in. 69. 5 : " Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd ;" T. and C. iii. 2. 169 : " Outliving beauty's outward," etc. 24. Biit he. Changed by Rowe to " but him." Cf. A. Y. L. 1. 2. 18 : "my father hath no child but I." See also Gr. 205 fol. You speak him far. You go far in what you say of him. Cf. v. 5. 309 below. 25. I do extend him, sir, within himself. That \%,far as I speak him, I keep within the bounds of his merit. Malone paraphrases the passage thus : " My eulogium, however extended it may seem, is short of his real excellence ; it is abbreviated rather than expanded." 29. Did join his honour. Gave his noble aid or alliance. The passage has troubled many of the commentators, who have suggested " win," "gain," and "earn" {ox join, and "banner" for hojiour ; but no change seems really called for. 30. Cassibelan. Lud's younger brother, while Tenantius,vi\iom Holms- hed (see p. 163 above) calls " theomantius or Lenantius," was Lud's son. On the death of his brother, Cassibelan usurped the throne. 31. But had his titles, etc. That is, though he had jomed the party of the usurper, he was forgiven and honoured by the rightful kmg. 33. Sur-addition. Surname ; used by S. only here. " The name of Leonatus he found in Sidney's Arcadia. Leonatus is there the legitimate son of the blind King of Pnphlagonia, on whose story the episode of Gloster, Edgar, and Edmund is formed in King Z^ar" (Malone). Cf. Lear, p. 159. 37. Fond of issue. The Coll. MS. has " of 's " for of; but, as Coll. re- marks, the change is needless. 41. Leonatus. Omitted by Pope for the sake of the metre ; but proper l66 NOTES. names are often used in this loose way at the end of a line. See Gr. 469. 43. Learnings. The only instance of the plural in S. His ^ime=his age. 46. /n 's. See on 4 above. Pope changed in 'j to " his." 47. Which rare it is to do. " This encomium is high and artful. To be at once in any degree loved and praised is truly rare " (Johnson). 49. Feated. Fashioned, "featured" (Rowe's reading) ; used by S. only here. Sr. quotes Palsgrave, 1530: "I am well feted or shapen of my lymmes ; je suis bien aligne." Steevens compares 2 Heji. J[V. ii. 3. 21 [see also 31] : " he was indeed the glass Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves;" and Ham. iii. i. 161 : "The glass of fashion and the mould of form." 50. To his mistress. Mason says that to \s~^^ as to." We prefer to consider the passage an instance of " construction changed by change of thought" (Gr. 415). 58. Mark it. " Shakespeare's dramatic art uses this expedient, natu- rally introduced into the dialogue, to draw special attention to a circum- stance that it is essential should be borne in mind, and which otherwise might escape notice in the course of narration" (Clarke). 63. Conveyed. Stolen. Cf. /?zV/^. //. iv. i. 317 :" O, good ! Convey.?— conveyers are you all ;" and see our ed. p. 206. 70. Efiter the Queen, etc. The folio begins " Scena Secunda" here, and some modern editors follow it. Rowe was the first to continue the scene. 74. Posthumus. Accented by S. on the second syllable. V. remarks : " Well-educated men in England have an accuracy as to Latin quantity, and lay a stress upon it, such as are elsewhere found only amo^ig pro- fessed scholars. On this account Steevens and other critics have con- sidered the erroneous quantity or accentuation of Posthumus and Ar- viragus as decisive of Shakespeare's want of learning. But the truth is, that in his day, great latitude, in this respect, prevailed among authors ; and it is probable that Latin was taught in the schools, as it still is in Scotland and rhany parts of the United States, without any minute at- tention to prosody. Steevens himself has shown that the older poets were careless in this matter. Thus the poetical Earl of Stirling has Darius and Euphrates with the penultimate short. Warner, who was, I believe, a scholar, in his 'Albion's England,' has the same error with Shakespeare, as to both names." 78. Lean''d unto. Bowed to, submitted to. 86. Something . . . nothing. Both often used adverbially. Cf. i. 4. 66, loi, i. 6. 190, iv. 4. 15, etc., below. Gr, 55, 68. 87, Always reserved my holy duty. " So far as I may say it without breach of duty" (Johnson). 96. LoyaVst. For the contracted superlative, cf. iii, 5. 44, iv. 2. 175, 191, etc., below, Gr, 473. loi. Gall. Johnson says: " Shakespeare, even in this poor conceit, has confounded the vegetable galls used in ink with the animal ^a//, sup- ACT I. SCENE I. 167 posed to be bitter ;" but Steevens reminds him that the vegetable gall IS also bitter. Cf. T. N. iii. 2. 52 : " Let there be gall enough m thy 105 He does buy my injuries to befriends. " He gives me a valuable consideration in new kindness (purchasing, as it were, the wrong I have done him), in order to renew our amity and make us friends again (Malone). , . j 1 ^ 113 Till you woo ajtother wife. Mrs. Jameson says on this and what follovv^s : " Imogen, in whose tenderness there is nothing jealous or fan- tastic, does not seriously apprehend that her husband will woo another wife when she is dead. It is one of those fond fancies whi(ili women are apt to express in moments of feeling, merely for the pleasure of hearing a protestation to the contrary. When Posthumus leaves her, she does not burst forth in eloquent lamentation ; but that silent, stunmng, over- whelming sorrow, which renders the mind insensible to all things else, is represented with equal force and simplicity." , . , ., 1 16 Sear. " Cere " and " seal " have been suggested, but we think it probable, with Clarke, that " sear is here used to express the dry wither- ing of death, as well as the closing with wax by those bonds ^^of death, cerecloths [cf. M. ofV. ii. 7- ^^\ sometimes written seare-cloths. ^ 118. While sense can keep it on. Steevens took this to be- While sense can maintain its operations, or continues to have its usual power ; but it probably refers to the ring, as others have explained it. f or the change of person, Malone compares iii. 3. 103 below : " Euriphile, Thou wast their nurse ; they took thee for their mother, And every day do honour to her grave." Pope reads " thee " for it, and W. conjectures •' it own " (cf. W. T. p. 172) 124. When shall we see again ? Cf. Hen. VIII. i. i. 2 : " Since last we saw in France." See also T. ««^ C. iv. 4. 59. Gr. 382. 125. Avoid! Begone ! Cf. C. of E. iv. 3. 48 : " Satan, avoid ! See also Temp. p. 13 7- r^, r ^ ^- ^ 126. Fraught. Burden. Cf. Temp. i. 2. 13 : " The fraughting souls within her " (that is, the ship). See also M. of V. p. 145. Freight is not used by S. or Milton, either as verb or noun. _ 129. The good remainders, etc. "That is, the court which now gets rid of my unworthiness " (Schmidt). . , • 1 130. A pinch. A pang. Cf. Temp. v. I. 77 : "Whose inward pinches [the pangs of remorse] therefore are most strong." 133. A year's age. As the passage stands this seems an impotent con- clusion, and the defective measure of the preceding line suggests that something may have been lost. Hanmer gave " heapest many, and Capell " heap'st instead." Theo. changed year's to " yare " ( = speedy), and Johnson conjectured " Years, ages." Schmidt would read " a years age "--"an age advanced in years, old age." V. accepts the old read- ing, and says : " The aged king, to whom every added year is a serious burden, tells his daughter that in her present act of fond sorrow she takes away a year of his life." 1 68 NOTES. 135. Senseless of. Insensible to. Cf. A. Y. L. ii. 7. 55 : '* to seem senseless of the bob" (that is, seem not to feel the blow), etc. A touch more rare. A more exquisite sensibility. Malone quotes Lear, iii. 4. 8 : " But where the greater malady is fix'd, The lesser is scarce felt." 140. A puttock. A kite, or a worthless species of hawk. Cf. 2 Hen. VI. iii. 2. 191 : "Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest But may imagine how the bird was dead, Although the kite soar with unbloodied beak?" and T. and C. v. i. 68 : " a toad, a lizard, an owl, a puttock," etc. 146. Overbuys me, etc. Pays a price that exceeds by almost the full amount what he gets in return ; that is, he gives himself, worth any woma7i, even the best of her sex, and gets only my almost worthless self in return. - 153. Beseech your patience. That is, /beseech it ; a common ellipsis. Cf. prithee~\ pray thee. See Gr. 401. 156. Your best advice. Your most careful consideration. Cf. Rich. II. i. 3. 233 : " Thy son is banish'd upon good advice " (that is, after due deliberation) ; M.of V. iv. 2. 6 : " upon more advice " (upon reflection), etc. 157. A drop of blood a day. Steevens compares 0th. v. 2. 155 : " may his pernicious soul Rot half a grain a day!" 164. On V. Of it. Cf. V. 5. 311 below: "two on 's," etc. Gr. 182. 167. Iti Afric. That is, where no one would be at hand to part them. Cf. Cor. iv. 2. 23 : " I would my son Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him, His good sword in his hand!" Macb. iii. 4. 104 : " And dare me to the desert with thy sword ;" and Rich. II. iv. 1.74: "I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness" (see our ed. p. 202). On Afric, cf. Cor. p. 211. 171. Bring. Accompany. Cf. W. T. iv. 3. 122 : " Shall I bring thee on the way ?" See also Gen. xviii, 16, Acts, xxi. 5, 2 Cor. i. 16, etc. 176. Walk. Retire, withdraw. See Lear, p. 222. Scene II. — 5. Then to shift it. Then I would shift it. Some follow Rowe in pointing " then to shift it — " 8. Passable. Affording free passage ; no more to be wounded than " the still-closing waters " in Tejnp. iii. 3. 64. 9. Throughfare. Thoroughfare ; as in M. of V. ii. 7. 42. Thorough- fare does not occur in the folio, though many of the modern eds. follow Pope in reading it here. Cf. Gr. 478. 14. He fled forward. Steevens compares T. and C. iv. i. 20 : "And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly • With his face backward." ACT I. SCENE in. 169 17. Having. Possession, property. Cf. T. N. iii. 4. 379 : " My having is not much." See also A. Y.L. p. 178. The quibble in gave you some ground is obvious. 19. Puppies. Referring to " his disgust at the swagger of Cloten and the sycophancy of the first lord, who plies the swaggerer with spaniel flattery and fawning " (Clarke). 25. A true election. A right choice. W. thinks there is an allusion to the Calvinistic doctrine of election. 27. Her beauty and her brain, etc. Johnson conjectured " beauty and brain;" but the meaning is simply that her beauty and wit are not equal. 28. She 's a good sign, etc. " She has a fair outside, a specious appear- ance, but no wit " (Edwards). Cf. Much Ado, iv. I. 34 : " She 's but the sign and semblance of her honour." Malone cites what lachimo says of Imogen in i. 6. 15 : "All of her that is out of door, most rich! If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare, She is alone the Arabian bird." Scene III.— 4. As offered mercy is. " As a pardon that has miscarried, or arrived too late to stay the execution of a prisoner " (J. H.). St. would read " deferr'd." 9. This. The folios have " his ;" corrected by Theo. (the conjecture of Warb.). Coleridge suggests "*ie," and W. "or." Hanmer reads *' mark me with his eye, or I," etc. 12. Of 'j. See on i. i. 4 above. 16. After-eye. Look after ; used by S. only here. 17. Crack' d. Not a weaker word than broke, as S. uses it. Cf. Cor. i. I. 72 : " Cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder than can ever Appear in your impediment;" and see our ed. p. 196. 18. The diminution of space. The diminution due to space, or dis- tance. 24. Vantage. Opportunity. Cf. ii. 3. 43 below. 29. Shes. Cf. i. 6. 39 below : " two such shes." See also A. V. L. p. 170. Gr. 224. 32. To encoimter. To meet, or join with. 33. I am in heaven. My prayers will be rising to heaven. 35. Two charming words. Imogen does not tell us these words, but Warb. informs us that they were " Adieu, Posthumus !" Charming^ that should be as a chart?t to preserve him from evil. 36. The north. Cf. 0th. v. 2. 220 : " No, I will speak as liberal as the north ;" that is, as freely as the north wind blows. 37. Our buds. " Our buds of love''' as Malone is kind enough to tell us. Warb. wanted to read "blowing" for growing; which drew forth this ponderous comment from j^ohnson : " A bud without any distinct idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural representation of any thing I70 NOTES. incipient or immature ; and the buds of flowers, if flowers are meant, grow to flowers, as the buds of fruits grow to fruits." Cf. R. and J. ii. " This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet." Scene IV. — " It has been observed that the behaviour of the Spaniard and the Dutchman, who are stated to be present during this animated scene, is in humorous accordance with the apathy and taciturnity usually attributed to their countrymen. Neither the Don nor Mynheer utters a syllable. ' What was Imogen to them, or they to Imogen,' that they should speak of her ?" (V.). W. remarks that " their mere presence has a dramatic value, as indicating the mixed company of travellers in which this scene takes place." 2. A crescent note. A growing reputation. For crescent^ cf. Ham. i. 3. II and A. and C. ii. I. lO; and for jtote (^distinction), i. 6. 22 below : " of the noblest note," etc. The 3d and 4th folios have *' none " for note; and Pope (ed. 2) reads : "then but crescent, none expected him," etc. 4. Admiration. Wonder, astonishment; as in i. 6. 37 below. 8. Makes him. " In the sense in which we say, This will make or mar you" (Johnson). 14. Words him . . . a great deal from the matter. "Makes the de- scription of him very distant from the truth" (Johnson). ¥ ox from = away from, see Rich. III. p. 233, or T. N. p. 130. Gr. 158. 18. Under her colours. " Under her banner ; by her influence " (John- son). Are wonderfully to extend him. Tend greatly to increase his reputa- tion. Cf. the use of extend in i. i. 25 above. Are is probably an in- stance of "confusion of proximity" (Gr. 412), as Malone explains it ; but Steevens includes the preceding matter (in 12) and banishment in the sub- ject. The Coll. MS. has " are wont." 20. Without less. Changed by Rowe to " without more." W. con- jectures " with less " or " without this," and Lloyd " without other." It is probably one of the peculiar " double negatives " of which so many examples are to be found in S. See Lear, p. 210 (note on You less knozo hozu, etc.), or A. Y. L. p. 156 (on No ?nore do yours). Cf. Schmidt, p. 1420. 26. Knowing. Knowledge, experience ; as in ii. 3. 95 below. 30. Story. Cf. V. and A. 1013 : "and stories His victories ;" and R. of L. 106: " He stories to her ears her husband's fame." S. uses the verb only three times. 32. Have ktiown together. Have been acquainted. Cf. A. and C. ii. 6. 86 : " You and I have known, sir." Pope thought it necessary to read "been known." 34. Which I will be ever to pay, etc. Malone misquotes A. W. iii. 7. 16 : " Which I will overpay [" ever pay," he gives it] and pay again." 36. Atone. Make at ojie, reconcile ; as in Rich. II. i. i. 202 : " Since we cannot atone you," etc. See our ed. p. 156. For other meanings oiatone^ see A. Y. L. p. 199. 37. Mortal. Deadly ; as in iii. 4. 18, v. 3. 51, v. 5. 50, 235 below. ACT I. SCENE IV. 171 38. Importance. Import, matter, subject. Malone and Steevens make it=importunity ; as in T. N. v, I. 371 and K. John, ii. i. 7. 41. Go even. Agree, act in accordance. It is used without with ( = agree, coincide) in T. N. v. 1.246: "Were you a woman as the rest goes even," etc. 43. Offend not. The not is omitted in the folios; inserted by Rowe. The Coll. MS. has " not offend " (cf. Gr. 305). 46. Such . . . that. Cf. W. T. i. 2. 263 : "these, my lord. Are such allow' d infirmities that honesty Is never free of." See also i. 6. 129, etc., below. Gr. 279. 47. Confounded. Destroyed ; as often. See Macb. p. 189. Cf. confu- sion in iii. i. 64 and iv. 2. 93 below. 51. Which may without contradiction, etc. " Which, undoubtedly, may be publicly told " (Johnson). 54. Upon warrant of bloody affirmation. That is, pledging himself to seal the truth of it with his blood. S. uses affirmation nowhere else. 55. Constant-qualified. Faithful. The folios have "Constant, Quali- fied." 56. Attemptable. Liable to be attempted, or seduced ; the only instance of the word in S. 63. Though I profess myself her adorer, not her friend. This may be == though I profess to be only her disinterested admirer, not her personal friend. Johnson explained it thus : " Though I have not the common ob- ligations of a lover to his mistress, and regard her not with the fondness of a friend, but with the reverence of an adorer." Mason suggested trans- posing adorer zx^di friend. Steevens took friend to be clover (as in A. and C. iii. 12. 22, etc.), and Schmidt gives the same explanation. W. reads "adorer and her friend;" making /;7//^. ii. 3. 330: "my fortunes against any lay worth naming," etc. 138. If I bring you, etc. " This is in accordance with lachimo's design- ing manner. He affects to state the terms of the wager on both sides ; but he, in fact, proposes them so that they shall suggest, either way, Post- humus's winning " (Clarke). 142. Jewel. Applied in the time of S. to any personal ornament of gold or precious stones ; as here, and in M. of V. v. I. 224, to a ring. In ii. 3. 139 below it means a bracelet. Cf. C of E. p. 117. 143. Provided I have, etc. That is, provided you will commend (or in- troduce) me to her so that I may be readily received or entertained. Cf. 119 above. J. H. explains it thus : "Provided I shall receive commen- dation from you, in the event of my obtaining a more free reception." 145. Articles. A written agreement. Cf 152 just below. ACT I. SCENE V. .173 147. Your voyage upon her. " Your venture upon her " (W.). Cf. M. W. ii. I. 189 : " If he should intend this voyage towards my wife," etc. See also T. N. iii. i. 86. 154. Starve, Perish with cold ; as in 2 Hen. VI. iii. i. 343 ; " I fear me you but warm the starved snake, Who, cherish'd in your breasts, will sting your hearts." See also Spenser, Shep. Kal. Feb. : " The rather Lambes bene starved with cold" (where riz//z,?r = ear]ier- born), etc. The 1st and 2d folios have " sterue," for which form see Cor. p. 233, or M. of V. p. 158. 158. Will not from it. Will not recede from it, will not "back out." Scene V. — i. Whiles. Used by S. interchangeably with while, which Rowe substituted here. Gr. 137. 2. Note. List ; or perhaps " prescription, receipt," as Schmidt explains it. It has this latter sense in A. W. i. 3. 232. 5. Pleaseth. If it please. See 2 Hen. IV. p. 184. Gr. 361. \2. Learn'd. Taught ; as often. See iVzV/^. //. p. 203, or Gr. 291. Cf. Fs.xxv. 4, 8, cxix. 66 (Prayer-Book version). 18. Conclusions. Experiments ; as in A. and C. v. 2. 358 : "her physician tells me She hath pursued conclusions infinite Of easy ways to die," etc. 22. Act. Action. Cf 0th. iii. 3. 328 : "Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons, Which at the first are scarce found to distaste, But with a little act upon the blood Bum like the mines of sulphur. ' ' 26. Content thee. Be at ease, do not trouble yourself. It is generally = compose yourself, keep your temper. See R. and J. p, 160. 32. Hark thee. Here thee is probably a corruption oi thou. Gr. 212. 33. I do not like her, etc. Johnson criticises this soliloquy as " very in- artificial," merely " a long speech to tell himself what himself knows ;" but, as Clarke remarks, it is characteristic in " a reflective man, a stu- dent, one accustomed to ponder upon his experiments, and to render him- self an account of the effects they will produce." It also serves the pur- pose of" informing the audience what is the nature of the drugs thus en- trusted to the queen's power, and prepares for the incident of Imogen's return to life after having swallowed them." 43. Truer. Truer to myself, more honest. 47. Quench. " That is, grow cool '' (Steevens). 54. Shift his being. " Change his abode " (Johnson). 56. Decay. Destroy. For the transitive use, cf. T N. i. 5. 82: "in- firmity, that decays the wise," etc. 58. That leans. " That inclines towards its fall " (Johnson). 64. Cordial. Reviving ; as in iv. 2. 327 below. 68. What a chance thou changest on. " With what a fair prospect of mending your fortunes you now change your present service " (Steevens). Rowe has "chancest" for changest, and Theo. "change thou chancest." W. adopts the latter, which is very plausible. 1^4 NOTES, 76. Shak'd. For the form cf. Hen. V. ii. i. 124, and T. and C. i. 3. loi. See also unshak'd in ii. i. 61 below. Shaken occurs five times, but the common form in S. is shook. Cf Gr. 343. 77. 73^^ remembrancer, etc. " One who admonishes her to maintain the matrimonial pledge towards her lord" (J. H). Hand-fast is used by S. only here and in W. T. iv. 4. 795, where it means confinement, custody. 80. Liegers. " A lieger ambassador is one that resides in a foreign court to promote his master's interest " (Johnson). Cf M.for M. iii. i. 59 ; ** Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven. Intends you for his swift ambassador, Where you shall be an everlasting lieger." 83. The violets, cowslips, etc. " The art with which the poet and dram- atist has placed these words in the mouth of this queen miscreant is worthy of remark. He makes her use these beauteous and innocent products of earth as mere cloaks to her wickedness ;- she concocts •perfumes' and 'confections' from them as a veil to the 'drugs' and 'poisonous" compounds' which she collects for the fellest purposes. It enhances the effect of her guilt, her thus forcing these sweet blossoms to become accomplices in her vile schemes ; and we loathe her the more for her surrounding her unhallowed self with their loveliness. Moreover, she is untouched by their grace; she has learned no lesson from their exquisite structure, colour, fragrance ; she looks upon them as mere means to an end — and that end a bad one. Observe, too, how skilfully S. has made this evil woman order her ladies to 'gather these flowers' — how she desires that they shall be borne to her closet — her laboratory ; not gathering or caring for them herself; not caring for the touch, and scent, and sight of these gentle things — that all good people instinctive- ly love, and cherish, and caress. How diffeient is the poet's treatment of the subject, where he makes the virtuous Friar Laurence rise with the dawn, hi?nselfto gather the 'precious-juiced flowers,' ' ere the sun advance his burning eye ;' and dilating with fond enthusiasm on their 'many vir- tues excellent,' and philosophizing on their varied qualities and purposes ! Supplementary to this higher ethical teaching of the great moralist, how truly we see the man of rural natural knowledge, in his being aware of the fact that morning-gathered flowers remain longest fresh and unwith- ered !" (Clarke). Scene VI.— 4. Supreme. Accented on the first syllable, as regularly before a noun. Cf Cor. p. 268. See also on divine, ii. i. 55 below ; and oi. profane in ii. 3. 122. 6. Most miserable, etc. " Most doomed to disappointment is the exalt- ed aspiration" (Clarke). The ist folio has "desires;" corrected in the 2d. Hanmer changed the word to " degree." 8. That have their honest wills, etc "Who gratify their innocent wishes with reasonable enjoyments" (Johnson). " Who have the power of gratifying their honest inclination, which circumstance bestows an ad- ditional relish on comfort itself" (Steevens). Seasons comfort is clearly ogives a zest to happiness. Cf T. and C. i. 2. 278 : " the spice and salt that season a man." ACT I. SCENE VI. 175 II. Change you, madam ? *' How by these three little words the dram- atist lets us behold the sudden pallor and as sudden flush of crimson that bespread the wife's face at this instant " (Clarke). 17. The Arabian bird. The phoenix. Cf. A. V. L. p. 189, note on As rare as phcenix. 22. JVote. See on i. 4. 2 above. 24. Truest. The folios have " trust," which some retain, pointing it as an unfinished sentence (" trust — ") ; l)ut on the whole Hanmer's emen- dation of truest seems preferable. As W. remarks, " what Imogen reads is certainly the end, not the beginning, of the letter ; the first word that she reads, /^ 76. And hear . . . blame. Pope's arrangement ; two lines in the folio, the first ending with Frenchman. 79. Accotmt his. The Coll. MS. omits his. Clarke points the line thus : "In you, — which I count his, — beyond all talents " (that is, heaven's bounty is in you " beyond all sums of wealth"). %T^. Wrack. The only spelling oi wreck vci the early eds. It rhymes to alack in Per. iv. prol. 12, and to back in V. and A. 558, R. ofL. 841, 965, Sonn. 126, 5, and Macb. v, 5. 51. 84. Deserves. For the omission of the relative, see Gr. 244. 85. Solace. Find solace or happiness, Cf y?z^yN\itx% forespettt means past, foregone {Hen, V. ii. 4. 36) and exhausted (2 Heti. IV. i. i. 37). " According to, before the honour, allows according to qx for the sake of io be elliptically understood before his goodness^' (Clarke). 65. Liite. Cf Per. iv. 6. 63 : " He will line your apron with gold." 67. Diana's rangers. Diana's nymphs ; literally, her forest rangers, 01 game-keepers. Y ox false as a verb, cf C. of E. ii. 2. 95 : "a thing falsing ;" and see our ed. p. 120. 68. Stand. "The station of huntsmen waiting for game" (Schmidt), Cf iii. 4. 108 below. See also M. W. v. 5. 248, L. L. L. iv. i. 10, etc. 69. True. Honest. For the antithesis to thief cf V. and A. 724; " Rich preys make true men thieves ;" M.for M. iv. 2. 46 : " Every truQ ACT II. SCENE III, • J 8^ man's apparel fits your thief;" Much Ado, iii. 3. 54 : " If you meet a thief, you may suspect him, by virtue of your office, to be no true man," etc. 73. Yet not understand. For the transposition oi yet, see Gr. 76. Cf. V. 5. 468 below. _ 79. Is she ready ? Is she dressed ? Ready was often used in this spe- cial sense (cf. Macb. p. 202, note on Put on manly readiness), but the lady chooses to take it in its more general signification. 85. You lay out too much pains, etc. Mrs. Jameson remarks : " Cloten is odious ;* but we must not overlook the peculiar fitness and propriety of his character, in connection with that of Imogen. He is precisely the kind of man who would be most intolerable to such a woman. He is a fool, — so is Slender, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek : but the folly of Cloten is not only ridiculous, but hateful ; it arises not so much from a want of understanding as a total want of heart ; it is the perversion of sentiment, rather than the deficiency of intellect ; he has occasional gleams of sense, but never a touch of feeling. Imogen describes herself not only as 'sprighted with a fool,' but as 'frighted and anger'd worse.' No other fool but Cloten — ^a compound of the booby and the villain — could excite in such a mind as Imogen's the same mixture of terror, contempt, and abhorrence. The stupid, obstinate malignity of Cloten, and the wicked machinations of the queen — * A father cruel, and a step-dame false, A foolish suitor to a wedded lady' — justify whatever might need excuse ii? the conduct of Imogen — as her concealed marriage and her flight from her father's court — and serve to call out several of the most beautiful and striking parts of her character: particularly that decision and vivacity of temper which in her harmonize so beautifully with exceeding delicacy, sweetness, and submission. " In the scene with her detested suitor, there is at first a careless majes- ty of disdain, which is admirable. . . . But when he dares to provoke her, by reviling the absent Posthumus, her indignation heightens her scorn, and her scorn sets a keener edge on her indignation." 89. ^Twere as deep with me. It would make as deep an impression upon me. Deep is elsewhere associated with swearing ; as in Sonn. 152. 9 : "I have sworn deep oaths ;" R. of L. 1847 • " that deep vow ;" and K. John, iii. I. 231 : " deep-sworn faith," 94. Equal discourtesy, etc. That is, discourtesy equal to your best kind- :ness. For the transposition, see Gr. i^i^a. 95. Knowing. See on i. 4. 26 above. _ *" The character of Cloten has been pronounced by some unnatural, by others incon- sistent, and by others obsolete. The following passage occurs in one of Miss Seward's letters, vol. iii. p. 246: " It is curious that Shakspeare should, in so singular a character as Cloten, have given the exact prototype of a being whom I once knew. The unmean- mg frown of countenance, the shuffling gait, the burst of voice, the bustling insignificance, the fever-and-ague fits of valor, the froward tetchiness. the unprincipled malice, and, what IS more curious, those occasional gleams of good sense amidst the floating clouds of folly which generally darkened and confused the man's brain, and which, in the character of Cloten, we are apt to impute to a violation of unity in character ; but in the sometime Captain C , I saw that the portrait of Cloten was not out of nature.* I84 NOTES, 96. Should learn, being taught, etc. " A man who is taught forbearance should learn it " (Johnson). 99. Fools are not mad folks. " This, as Cloten very well understands it, is a covert mode of calling him fool. The meaning implied is this: If I am mad, as you tell me, I am what you can never be, ' Fools are not mad folks ' " (Steevens). Theo. (at the suggestion of Warb.) changed are to " cure," which W. adopts. It certainly gives a simpler sense, and is favoured by the cures just below, but no change is imperatively de- manded. 104. Verbal. " Verbose, full of talk " (Johnson). Schmidt makes it = " plain-spoken, wording one's thoughts without reserve ;" and Clarke thinks it implies " so explicit, so expressing in speech that which I think of you." 105. Which. Changed by Pope to "who;" but which is oi\&Xi=who in Elizabethan English. Gr. 265. 117. Self - figured. Formed by themselves (Johnson). Warb. called it "nonsense," and adopted " self-fingered" (the conjecture of Theo.). 118. Curb' d from that enlargement. Restrained from that liberty. 119. Consequence. Succession. Schmidt thinks it may possibly mean " considerations affecting the crown." For soil the folios have " foyle ;" corrected by Hanmer. 120. Note. Distinction, eminence. Cf. i. 4. 2 and i. 6. 22 above. 121. Hilding. Hireling, menial. See R. and J. p. 172 ; and for the ad- jective use, Hen. V. p. 1 76. For ^only fit for. A sqtnre's cloth = a lackey's dress. 122. Pantler. The servant who had charge of the pantry. Cf. W. T. iv. 4. 56 : " pantler, butler, cook ;" and 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 258 : " a' would have made a good pantler, a' would have chipped bread well." Profane. Accented on the first syllable, because preceding the noun. Cf. 0th. i. I. 115 : " What profane wretch art thou.?" See on divine, ii. 1. 55 above. 127. Comparative for your virtues. That is, if the office were given you in comparison with, or with regard to, your merits. 129. Preferred. Promoted, advanced ; as in v. 5. 326 below. See also C)/>^. p. 175. The south fog rot him! Ci T. and C. v. i. 21 : "the rotten diseases of the south;" 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4, 392 : " the south borne with black vapour," etc. See also iv. 2. 350 below, and cf. Cor. p. 206. 132. Clipp'd. Embraced. Cf. v. 5. 450 below ; and see W. T. p. 210, or 0th. p. 192. 133. Above. Changed by Sr. (2d ed.) to "about." 134. How now, Pisanio. Hanmer transferred IIoiv now ? to Cloten. _^ 136. Presently. Immediately ; the most common sense in S. Cf. iii. 2. 74 and iv. 2. 167 below. So prese7it =\mmQd\?i\.Q ; as in ii. 4. 136 be- low. 137. Sprited with. Haunted by. For with=hy, see Gr. 193. 139. Jewel. See on 1.4, 142 above. 140. 'Shrew me. Beshrew me ; a mild form of imprecation, often used as a mere asseveration. See M.N.D, p. 152. ACT 11. SCENE IV, 1 85 141. Revenue. Accented by S. on the first or second syllable, as suits the measure. See M. N. D. p. 125, or Gr. 490. 142. King's. The folios have "kings," and Pope reads "king." King's is due to Rovve. 144. Kiss\{. Pope reads "kissed" (dissyllabic) for the measure, and Keightley "for I kiss'd it." 149. Ifyott, etc. tianmer reads " Call witness to 't, if you will make 't an action," 151. She 'j- my good lady. She 's my good friend; spoken ironically (Malone). Scene IV. — 2. Bo:d. Confident ; as in A. W. v. i. 5 : " Be bold you do so grow in my requital," etc. 6. ^Fear'd. Mingled with fear. K. and Clarke adopt Tyrwhitt's con- jecture of " sear'd." 12. Throughly. Thoroughly; as in iii. 6. 36 below. Cf. through/are in i. 2. 9 above. 14. Or look upon. Before he will face. For ^r= before, cf. Ham. i. 2. 183: ^ " Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio !' ' It is often combined with ere, as in iii. 2. 64 and v. 3. 50 below. See Temp. p. 112, note on Or ere, and cf Gr. 131. 16. Statist. Statesman. Cf. Ham. v. 2. 33 : "as our statists do ;" and see our ed. p^ 268. 18. Legions. The folios have "legion ;" corrected by Theo. 21. More ordered. Better disciplined. 24. Courages. For the plural, see on i, I. I above. D. reads "courage." For mingled the 1st folio has " wing-led ;" corrected in the 2d. 25. Their approvers. Those who make trial of their valour. Cf. ap- prove— Xx^ ; as in M. N. D. ii. 2. 68, W. T. iv. 2. 31, etc. The noun is used by S. only here. 26. That. For its use with stick, see on i. 4. 46 above. Cf. 44 below. 28. IVinds of all the corners. Cf. Much Ado, ii. 3. 103 : " Sits the wind in that corner ?" 37. Was Caius, etc. The folios give this speech to '■^ Post. ;" corrected by Capell. 39. But not approach'' d. To fill out the Mne Hanmer reads "But was not yet approach'd." 49. Must not co7ttinue friends. See i. 4. 149 fol. above. 56. Apparent. Evident. See Rich. IT. p. 150. 58. Is. Changed in the Coll. MS. to " are ;" but the singular verb is often found with two singular subjects (Gr. 336). Cf. iii. 3. 99 and v. 2. 2 below. 61. My circumstances. That is, the particulars I shall give. 68. Watching. Keeping awake y^r. Gr. 394. Yox zvatching.ci. T. of S. iv. I. 208: " She shall watch all night," etc. See also the noun in iii 4. 40 below. 70. When she met her Roman, etc Cf. A. and C. ii. 2. 191 fol. i86 * NOTES. Johnson remarks: "Tachimo's language is such as a skilful villain would naturally use— a mixture of airy triumph and serious deposition. His gayety shows his seriousness to be without anxiety ; and his seri- ousness proves his gayety to be without art." 73. Bravely. See on ii. 2. 15 above. That it did strive, etc. That is, it was doubtful whether the workman- ship or the value was the greater. 76. Since the true life on V was—. This is the folio pointing, and re- moves all difficulty from the passage. Capell reads " Since the true life was in it;" and the Coll. MS. has "on 't 't was." Other attempts at emendation are unworthy of notice. 83. So likely to report themselves. That is, they were so ^ifelike that one might expect them to speak. 84. Was as another nature, etc. " The sculptor was as nature, but as nature dumb ; he gave every thing that nature gives but breath and mo- tion. In breath is included speech " (Johnson). 88. Che'rubins. The folio reading, changed by Rowe to " cherubims." For the sirigular cherubin, see Temp. p. 1 15. i^r^//^^= embossed. See Ham. p. 205. 89. Winking. With eyes shut or blind. See on ii. 3. 21 above. 91. Depejtding on their brands. Leaning on their inverted torches. Cf. Somi. 153. I : " Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep ;" and Id. 154. 2 : " Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand." Some have taken brands to mean the part of the andirons on which the wood for the fire is put. This is her honour! The expression is ironical: "And the attain- ment of this knowledge is to pass for the corruption of her honour !" (Johnson). 95. Then, if you can, etc. K., followed by V., points the passage thus : "Then, if you can Be pale, I beg but leave to air this jewel;" that is, seeing that he has produced no effect upon Posthumus as yet, he now says, " If you can be pale, I will see what this jewel will do to make you change countenance." ^T.'Tisup. That is, put up. 102. Outsell. The verb occurs again (the only other instance in S.) in iii. 5. 74 below. 107. Basilisk. The fabulous serpent that was supposed to kill by its look. Cf W. T. i. 2. 388 : " Make me not sighted like the basilisk." See also He7i. V. p. 183 (note on The fatal balls), or R. and J. p. 186 (on Death- darting eye). III. Bondage. Binding force, fidelity. 116. One of her. The reading of 2d folio ; the 1st omits of. 117. Hath stoPn. Hanmer reads "Might not have stol'n." 127. Cognizance. " The badge, the token, the visible proof" (Johnson). Cf I Hen. VI. ii. 4. 108: " As cognizance of my blood-drinking hate." 146. livibmeal. Limb from limb ; a compound like dropmeal, inch meal (see Temp. ii. 2. 3), and piecemeal, which is still in use. 150. Pervert. Avert, turn aside. ACT III. SCENE L 187 Scene V. — i. Is there no way, etc. Steevens compares Milton, P. L. ^. 888 fol. 8. Nonpareil. Paragon ; as in Temp. iii. 2. 108, T. N. i. 5. 273, etc. II. Pudency. Modesty ; the only instance of the word in S. 14. Motion. Impulse. Cf. K. John, p. 137. 19. Change. Caprice ; as in Lear, i. I. 291, etc. Perhaps change^ of prides =vdLx\QtY of prides, as W. explains it. Cf. " change of honours " in Cor. ii, I. 214, and see our ed. p. 222. 20. Nice. Squeamish, affected. Cf. A. Y. L. p. 185. 21. That may be nam'd. The reading of the 2d folio ; the 1st has " that name." D. conjectures " that have a name," and Walker " that man can (or "may") name." 26. Write against them. "Denounce them, protest against them" rClarke). ACT III. Scene L— ii. There be. Cf. Temp. iii. i. i : "There be some sports ^reat pomp. Caesar's sword was placed in his tomb. 32. Lud's town. London. Cf. iv. 2. 100, 124, and v. 5. 480 below. 36. Moe. More ; used only with a plural or a collective noun. See A. Y. L. p. 176. 37. Owe. Own ; as often. Gr. 290. 46. Injurious. Often used as a personal term of reproach --unjust, in- solent, malicious, etc. Cf- iv. 2. 87 below, and see Cor. p. 247. r88 NOTES. 49. Against all colour. Contrary to all show of right. Cf. I Hen. IV. lii. 2. 100: "of no right, nor colour like to right," etc. 52. We do. The folios make this a part of Cymbeline's speech : *' Our selues to be, we do. Say then to CcBsar,^'' etc. The reading of the text is that of the Coll. MS., and is adopted by D. and others. It is very like Cloten to break in thus ; but W. prefers to follow Malone in reading '■' Ourselves to be. We do say then to Caesar," etc. 55. Franchise. Free exercise. Whose refers of course to laws. 58. The first of Britaijt, etc. The title of the first chapter of the third book of Holinshed's England is, " Of Mulmucius, the first king of Britain who was crowned with a golden crown, his laws, his foundations, etc." 62. Moe. See on 36 above. The form was going out of use in the time of S., as is evident from' the frequent substitution of more in the 2d folio, printed in 1632. 70. He to seek 0/ ?ne, etc. His seeking of me, etc. Perforce— h^^ force ; as in A. V. L. i. 2. 21 (see our ed. p. 141 ), etc. 71. Keep at utterance. Keep at the extremity of defiance (the Fr. d, outrauce), or defend to the uttermost. See Mach. p. 208, note on Champion me to the utterance. Dr. Ingleby makes at uttera7tce=^'' x&zdy to be put out, or staked, like money at interest." I ayn perfect. I am assured, I know well. Cf. W. T. iii. 3. I : "•Thou art perfect, then, our ship hath touch' d upon The deserts of Bohemia?" See also iv. 2. 119 below. 75. Let proof speak. Let the trial show. 84. Remain. For the noun, cf. Cor. i. 4. 62 : "make remain" (=stay). Scene II. — 1. Monster's her accuser. The folios have "monsters her accuse ;" corrected by Capell. Pope reads " monsters have accused her," 6. Hea7'ing. Changed by Pope to "ear." 9. Take in. Subdue. Cf. C^r. i. 2. 24: " To take in many towns " (see also iii. 2. 59); A. and C. i. I. 23 : "Take in that kingdom and enfranchise that " (see also iii. 7. 24 and iii. 13. 83), etc. The phrase occurs again in iv. 2. 122 below. 10. Thy mind to her, etc. "Thy mind, compared to her fine nature, is as low as were thy fortunes in comparison with her rank" (Clarke). 21. Fedary. Accomplice, confederate (" foedary " in the folios). Cf. M.for M. ii. 4. 122: "If not a fedary," etc. We ^wdi federary in the same sense in W. T. ii. i. 90 : "A federary with her." 23. I am Ignorant in what I am, commanded. "I will appear not to know of this deed which I am commanded to perform " (Clarke). We have no doubt that this is the meaning ; but Steevens explains it, " I am unpractised in the arts of murder." 27. Learn' d. The usual form in S. is learned (dissyllabic), as now. Cf. Cor. p. 238. 2Z. Characters. Handwriting. Cf. ^ 7". v. 2. 38: " the letters of An* tigonus, which they know to be his character," etc. 33. Med'cinable. Spelt " medcinable " in the first three folios, indi^ eating the pronunciation. See 0th. "p. 210. ACT III. SCENE 11. .189 34. For it doth physic love. " That is, grief for absence keeps love ir health and vigour " (Johnson). 35. Good wax, thy leave. Cf. T. N. ii. 5. 103 : " By your leave, wax ;" and Lear, iv. 6. 264 : " Leave, gentle wax." 38. Forfeiters. That is, those who forfeit the bonds to which they have set their seal. As V. remarks, the allusion shows technical familiarity with the laws of that day. The seal was essential to the bond, though a signature was not ; and forfeiters was the technical term for those who had broken a contract and become liable to the legal penalty. 39. Tables. Tablets, letters. Cf. T G. of V. ii. 7. 3 : " Who art the table wherein all my thoughts Are visibly character'd and engrav'd;" and 71 and C. iv. 5. 60 : " And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts To every ticklish reader." 41. Could not be so cruel to me, as you . . . woidd even renew me with your eyes. If this is what S. wrote, the meaning seems to be : could not be so cruel to me but that the sight of you would revive me. Pope changes as to " but," and K. to " an ;" and Capell reads " would not even." W. has " could not be cruel to me, so as you," etc. Clarke may be right in assuming that " the phraseology is purposely obscure and enig- matical, and conveys a double idea " — the one given above, and " a sec- ondary one (perceptible to the reader of the play), 'could not be so cruel to me as you ' (in the supposed wrong she has done him who writes to her)." St. also thinks that the passage may have been "intended to be enigmatical." 47. 0,for a horse, etc. Mrs. Jameson remarks : " In the eagerness of Imogen to meet her husband there is all a wife's fondness, mixed up with the breathless hurry arising from a sudden and joyful surprise , but nothing of the picturesque eloquence, the ardent, exuberant, Italian imagination of Juliet, who, to gratify her impatience, would have her her- alds thoughts ; press into her service the nimble-pinioned doves, and wind-swift Cupids ; change the course of nature, and lash the steeds of Phoebus to the west. Imogen only thinks ' one score of miles, 'twixt sun and sun,' slow travelling for a lover, and wishes for a horse with wings."^ 49. Mean affairs. Ordinary business. 53. Bate. Abate (but not that word contracted), qualify what I say. Cf. Temp. i. 2. 250 : " bate me a full year," etc. 55. Beyond beyond. " Further than beyond ; beyond anythmg that desire can be said to be beyond" (Reed). It is not a mere repetition q{ beyond, as pointed in the folios and some modern eds. Speak thick. Speak fast. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. ii. 3. 24 : " And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish," etc. See our ed. p. 165. 63. And our return. Changed by Pope to " Till our return," and by Capell to "To our return." Cf. Cor. ii. i. 240 : " He cannot temperately transport his honours From where he should begin and end;" 190. NOTES. and see our ed. p. 225. In the present passage the irregular construction is in keeping with the rest of the speech. "The elliptical style, the par- enthetical breaks, the fluttering from point to point in the varied clauses, all serve admirably to express the happy hurry of spirits and joyous impatience of the excited speaker " (Clarke). 64. Or ere. Before. See on ii. 4. 14 above. The meaning is : " Why should I contrive an excuse before the act is done for which excuse will be necessary .'"' (Malone). 72. That run i' the clock's behalf. That is, the sands of the hour-glass, which serve instead ot a clock. Warb. calls it a " fantastical expression." The Coll. MS. has "clocks by half." 76. Franklin's. ^. franklin is literally 2. freeholder, vfxih. a small es- tate, neither villain nor vassal'' (Johnson). Cf. W. T.w. 2. 173: "Not swear it, now I am a gentleman } Let boors and franklins say it, I '11 swear it." You ''re'best consider. You were best (it were best for you) to consider. Cf. W. T. V. 2. 143 : " you were best say these robes are not gentlemen born," etc. See also J. C. p. 166, or Gr. 230, 352 (cf. 190). 77. I see before me, etc. 1 see the course that lies before me ; no oth- er, whether here or there, nor what may follow, but is doubtful or ob- scure. Mason would explaui it thus : " When Imogen speaks these words she is supposed to have her face turned towards Milford, and when she pronounces the words nor here, nor here, she points to the right and to the left. This being premised, the sense is evidently this ; I see clearly the way before me ; but that to the right, that to the left, and that behind me, are all covered with a fog that I cannot penetrate. There is no more therefore to be said, since there is no way accessible but that to Milford." This is ingenious, but prosaic withal ; and it is hardly possible that what ensues can mean " that behind me," though Johnson explained it in the same way. Scene III.— i. Keep house. Stay in the house. Elsewhere we find keep the house [Hi. for M. iii. 2. 75), keep his house [T. of A. iii. 3. 42), etc. Cf. the use of housekeeper ( = one who stays at home) in Cor. i. 3. 55: "You are manifest housekeepers." 2. Whose. For the relative after such, see on 1.4. 46 above. Y ox Stoop, the folios have " Sleepe " or " Sleep ;" corrected bv Hanmer. 5. Jet. Strut,_stalk. Cf. T. N. ii. 5. 36 : " Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him ! how he jets under his advanced plumes !" See our ed. p. 142. 6. Turbans. As Johnson notes, _^/a«/j in the time of S. were generally represented as Saracens. The word is "Turbonds" or "Turbands" in the folios, and Johnson spells it " turbants." 10. Yond. Not a contraction oi yonder, as often printed. See Temp. p. 121. 12. Like a crow. That is, "as little as a crow" (i. 3. 15 above). 16. This service, etc. " In war it is not sufficient to do duty well ; the advantaoje rises not from the act, but the acceptance of the act " (John- son). Pope changed This to " That." ACT in. SCENE III. 191 20. The sharded beetle. Cf. Macb. iii. 2. 42 : " The shard-borne beetle ;" and A. and C iii. 2. 20 : " They are his shards, and he their beetle." The reference is to the horny wing-cases of the insect. 21. Full-whig' d. "This epithet sufficiently marks the contrast of the poet's imagery ; for whilst the bird can soar towards the sun beyond the reach of the human eye, the insect can but just rise above the surface of the earth, and that at the close of the day " (Henley). 22. Attending for a check. Doing service only to get a rebuke for it. Cf. 0th. iii. 3. 67 : "To incur a private check," etc. So the verb = re- buke ; as in J. C. iv. 3, 97 : " Check'd like a bondman," etc. V. explains it : " attending his prince only to suffer rejection or delay of his suit." 23. Doitig nothing for a bribe. The folios have " for a Babe." Bribe is Hanmer's emendation, and is adopted by K., D., V., W., Clarke, and others. Rowe gave " bauble," which the Camb. editors prefer. Sr. reads "brabe," a conjecture of Johnson's, and — reward {Latin, brabium). The Coil. MS. has " bob " (a rap, or blow), for which see A. Y. L. p. 164. Chal- mers suggests "baubee." V. defends bribe thus : " It corresponds better than any other word with the preceding word richer ; and the mistake might easily have been made even in copying or printing from clearer manuscript than most authors make. The sense is good : * Such a life of activity is richer than that of the bribed courtier, even though he pock- et his bribe without rendering any return.' Such a thought is natural in Belarius, who had seen the vices of the great, and was perfectly intelligi- ble .to Shakespeare's audience, who lived in those 'good old times ' \yhen the greatest, and sometimes the wisest, were not only accessible to bribes, but expected them ; while every concern of life was dependent upon the caprice or the favour of those in power. A note in Knight's edition de- duces the whole passage from some well-known lines of Spenser, in his Mother Htibberds Tale, much resembling this train of thought. Our Poet had seen enough of this sort of life not to be obliged to describe it at second-hand ; yet he may have had Spenser's verses in his mind, and they certainly throw light on his meaning and corroborate the proposed correction of the text. The ' doing nothing for a bribe ' corresponds with Spenser's satirical glance at court life ; 'Or otherwise false Reynold would abuse The simple suter, and wish him to chuse His Master, being one of great regard In Court, to compas anie sute not hard. In case his paines were recompenst with reason. So would he w9rke the silly man by treason To buv.his Master's frivolous good will, That hid not power to doo him good or ill. ' The passage in Spenser referred to by K. is the following: " Full little knowest thou, that hast not tride, What hell it is in suing lon^ to bide: To loose good dayes that might be better spent; To wast long nights in pensive discontent ; To speed to" day, to be put back to morrow- To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow", 192 NOTES. To have thy Princes grace, yet want her Peeres ; To have thy asking, yet waite mania yeeres ; To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares; ^ To eate thy heart througli comfortlesse despaires; To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne, To spend, to give, to want, to Jae undonne. Unhappie wight, borne to desastrous end, That doth his Ufe in so long tendance spend!" 24. Prouder than rustling in tmpaid-for silk. K. remarks : " As we have had the nobler and richer life, we have now the prouder. The moun- tain life is compared with that of rustling in unpaid-for silk. The illus- trative lines which are added mean that such a one as does rustle in un- paid-for silk receives the courtesy {gains the cap) of him that makes him fine, yet he, the wearer of silk, keeps his, the creditor's, book uncrossed. To cross the book is, even now, a common expression for obliterating the entry of a debt. It belongs to the rude age of credit." 25. Cap. Cf. Cor. ii. i. 'j'] : " You are ambitious for poor, knaves' caps and legs " (that is, for their obeisance) ; i Hen. IV. iv. 3, 168 : " The more and less came in with cap and knee," etc. The folios have "makes him;" corrected by Capell. K. retains "makes him," changing gai7i to "gains." HifJi refers of course to the merchant who has sold the silk w\-\\c]\makes thef?i fi7ie. Cf. T. of S. ii. I. 319 : "my Katherine shall be fine ;" and Id. iv. i. 139 : "There were none fine but Adam, Ralph, and Gregory; The rest were ragged, old, and beggarly." 26. No life to ours. That is, that can be compared with ours. For to in this sense, see Gr. 187. _ 27. Proof. Experience ; as in i. 6. 69 above. 29. What air 's from home. What the air is away from home. For from^ see on i. 4. 14 above. 34. Prison for. The folios have " prison, or ;" corrected by Pope. 35. To stride a limit. "To overpass his bound" (Johnson). What should we speak of etc. Johnson remarks : " This dread of an old age unsupplied with matter for discourse and meditation is a senti- ment natural and noble. No state can be more destitute than that of him who, when the delights of sense forsake him, has no pleasures of the mind." 40. Beastly. Like mere beasts. 41. Like warlike. Cf. Temp. iii. 3. 66 : "like invulnerable," etc. 58. Note. See on i. 4. 2 above. 63. Hangings. That is, the fruit hanging on the tree. 73. Fore-eiid. Earlier part ; used bv S. only here. 83. /' the cave zvherein they 1-ow. That is, which is so low that they must bow or stoop in entering it. Cf. 2 above. The folios have " I' th' Caue, whereon the Bowe" (or "Bow") ; corrected by Warb. 85. Prince it. Play the prince, bear themselves like princes. Gr. 226. 87. Who. Changed to "whom" in the 2d folio. See on i. 6. 153 above. ^o. Spirits. Monosyllabic (=j/r?V^) ; as often. Gr, 463. 99. Kitows. Changed by Pope to " know ;" but see on ii. 4. 58 above. ACT III. SCENE IV. 1 93 100. Whereon. We should now use tvhereupon. 103. Reffst. The folios have "refts." For similar euphonic forms, see Gr. 340. 105. Her grave. Changed by Hanmer to " thy grave ;" but see on i. 6. 131 above. Malone compares Acts, xvii. 2, 3. Scene IV. — i. When we came from horse. "Serving to show that they have performed the previous portion of their long journey by riding, and have now alighted on account of the more rugged and mountainous district through which their way lies" (Clarke). 3. Have now. That is, have now longed. 6. Inward. For the noun, cf Sonn. 128. 6 : "To kiss the tender in- ward of thy hand." So outward in i. I. 23 above. 9. Haviour. As Steevens notes, this should not be printed as a con- traction oi behaviour. Cf. R. and J. p. 166. II. Tender st . . . untender. This kind of jingle or play upon words of the same or similar sound is common in S. See Dr. Ingleby's Shake- speare Hermeneutics, p. 26 fol. Pope changed teiider'st to " offer'st." \2. Summer news. Cf. .Scw^. 98. 4 : " Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell Of different flowers in odour and in hue, Could make me any summer's story tell." 15. Drtig-damiCd. Alluding to the notoriousness of Italian poisoning (Johnson). Cf. iii. 2. 5 above. Out-craftied. The folio form; changed by some to "out-crafted." S. uses the word only here. 17. Take off some extremity. That is, may break the bad news more gently than the letter. 22. Lie bleeding in me. That is, " my heart bleeds inwardly " (2 Hen. IV. ii. 2. 51) on account of them. 25. With. By. Gr. 193. 32. What shall I need, etc. Why need I, etc. This use of what (=why) is especially common with need. Cf. C. of E. iii. 2. 15, Hen. VIII.W. 4. 128, J. C. ii. I. 123, etc. Gr. 253. 34. Worms. Serpents. Cf A. and C. v. 3. 243, 256, 261, 268, 282, etc. See also Mach. p. 215. Nilea Like Nilus, always without the article in S. except in A. and C. ii. 7. 20. Cf. Tiber in Cor. iii. i. 262, J. C. i. I. 50, 63, i. 2. 114, iii. 2. 254, etc. 35. Posting winds. Cf 2 Hen. IV. ind. \ : " making the wind my post- horse." 36. States. Explained by Johnson and Steevens as = " persons of high- est rank." Cf I^. John, ii. i. 395, etc. 39. Fjlse to his bed! Mrs. Jameson remarks here: "In her first ex- clamations we trace, besides astonishment and anguish, and the acute sense of the injustice inflicted on her, a flash of indignant spirit, which we do not find in Desdemona or Hermione. This is followed by that affecting lamentation over the falsehood and injustice of her husband, 194 NOTES. in which she betrays no atom of jealousy or wounded self-love, but ob^ serves in the extremity of her anguish, that after his lapse from truth, •all good seeming v/ould be discredited,' and she then resigns herself to his will with the most entire submission." 40. In watch. Awake; Cf. Ham. ii. 2. 148 : " Thence to a watch," etc. See our ed. p. 204. Cf. also the verb in ii. 4. 68 above. 41. If sleep charge nature, etc, "And if sleep take hold of nature, then to break," etc. (J. H.). 42. Fearful. Full of fear, anxious. Cf. Rich. II. p. 190. 43. Favour 'j. See on i. 6. 41 above. Jay. Used as a term of reproach ( = harlot) ; as in M. W. iii. 3. 44: "we '11 teach him to know turtles from jays." Warb. notes that the Italian /«//iz (=jay) is used in the same figurative sense. 49. Whose mother was her painting. Who owed her beauty to her painted face ; a figure not unlike that in iv. 2. 82 below : " No, nor thy tailor, rascal, Who is thy grandfather; he made those clothes, Which, as it seems, make thee." Cf. Lear, ii. 2. 60 : "a tailor made thee." Theo. conjectuj-ed " planting " for painting, and Hanmer changed mother to "feathers " (Capell, "feath- er,"). Coll. adopts the reading of the Coll. MS. : " Who smothers her with painting." The Camb. editors remark : " If the text be right, the meaning probably is, whose mother aided and abetted her daughter in her trade of seduction." K. suggests " muffler " for mother. 51. For I am richer, etc. Because (Gr. 151) I am too valuable to be hung up like an old-fashioned garment. Malone saw an allusion to tapestry hangings which " being sometimes wrought with gold and sil- ver, were, it should seem, occasionally ripped and taken to pieces for the sake of the materials]'' hut the preceding line shows plainly enough that the reference is to ripping up an old garment. The play on ripp'd is obvious. Cf. iii. 5. 86 below. 58. Sinon's weeping. It was Sinon who persuaded the Trojans to ad- mit the wooden horse into their city. On weeping, cf. Virgil, ^n. ii. 195 : " Talibus insidiis perjurique arte Sinonis Credita res, captique dolis lacrimisque coactis, Quos neque Tydides, nee Larissaeus Achilles, Non anni domuere decem, non mille carinae." «, For other allusions to Sinon, see R. of L. 1521, 1529, 3 Hen. VI. iii. 2. 190, and T. A. v. 3. 85. 61. Wilt lay the leaven on all proper men. That is, "wilt infect and corrupt their good name (like sour dough that leaveneth the whole mass), and wilt render them suspected " (Upton). Cf. Hen. V. ii. 2. 126 ; " O, how hast thou with jealousy infected The sweetness of affiance ! . . . ' And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot To mark the full-fraught man and best indued With some suspicion." ACT III. SCENE IV. ig^ Proper is explained by the goodly and gallant in the next line. Cf. M. of V. p. 132, note on A proper man^ s picture. 63. Fail. Upton conjectured "fall ;" but S. \izs, fail several times as a noun. Cf. W. T. ii. 3. 170, v. 1. 107, Hen. VIII. i. 2. 145, ii. 4. 198, etc 65. A little witness, etc. Bear some little testimony to, etc. 76. There is a prohibition so divine, ^Ic. CL Ham. 1.2.12,2: " Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter." See our ed. p. 182. S. uses self slaughter only in these two passages. For the relative after so, see Gr. 279. 78. Afore V. The folios have " a-foot ;" corrected by Rowe. The Coll. MS. has "in front." 80. Scriptures. Imogen uses the word for the antithesis to heresy. Rowe inserts here the stage-direction, " Pulling his letter [Pope, " let- ters "] out of her bosom." Z"]. Setup. Instigate. .SV/ ^« is more common in this sense. Cf. i. 5. 73 above. 90. Princely fellows. Those who were fellows or equals with myself in princely rank. The Coll. MS. has " followers." 91. Common passage. Common occurrence. Cf. A. lV.i.1.20: "how sad a passage 't is !" 93. Disedg'd. Surfeited (having the edge of one's appetite taken off). Cf. Temp. iv. i. 28 and Ham. iii. 2. 260. 94. Tir''st on. To tire was to feed on ravenously, like a bird of prey. Cf. V. and A. 56 : " Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast, Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh, and bone, Shaking her wings, devouring all in haste, Till either gorge be stuff' d or prey be gone;" and 3 Hen. VI. i. i. 269 : " like an empty eagle Tire on the flesh of me and of my son." 95. Pan^d. Cf. Hen. VIH. ii. 3. 15 : " 't is a sufferance panging As soul and body's severing." loi. / 7/ wake mine eye-balls blind first. The folios read " He wake mine eye-balles first." Hanmer inserted blind. Johnson conjectured " out fii St." The Coll. MS. has " crack mine eye-balls first." 105. The perturbed cojirt, etc. That is, the court perturbed on account of my absence. See on ii. 3. 94 above. 108. To be unbent. To have ihy bow unbent. Stand is used in the same technical sense as in ii. 3. 68 above. 109. The elected deer. The chosen deer. Cf. P. P. 300 : " Wheiias thine eye hath chose the dame And stall'd the deer that thou shouldst strike," etc. III. Consider'' d of. Cf. Hen. V. ii. 4. 113, iii. 6. 133, y. C. iii. 2. 114, Macb. iii. I. 75, etc. 196 ^ NOTES. 115. Tent. Probe; as in Ham. ii. 2. 626: "I '11 tent him to the quick," etc. See also the noun in T. and C. ii. 2. 16: " the tent that searches To the bottom of the worst." 120. Abus'd. Deceived, deluded. See on i. 6. 130 above. 125. For V is commanded, etc. Some of the critics say that this is not in the letter ; but it is implied in the injunction, "to make me certain it is done," which Pisanio is left to interpret in his own way. \:i(i. Shall. Will. Cf. Gr. 315. 132. With that harsh, noble, etc. This line is evidently defective, though the sense is clear. The Coll.'MS. inserts "empty" after simple. Theo. has " simple nothing, Cloten." Nicholson conjectures " ignoble " for noble. 136. Hath Britain, etc. K. remarks: "It seems probable that here, as also ori a similar occasion in Rich. II. [see i. 4. 275 fol.], S. had in his thoughts a' passage in Lyly's Enphues : 'Nature hath given to no man a country, no more than she hath house, or lands, or living. Plato would never account him banished that had the sun, air, water, and earth, that he had before : where he felt the winter's blast, and the summer's blaze ; where the same sun and the same moon shined : whereby he noted that every place was a country to a wise man, and all parts a palace to a quiet mind.' " 140. There 'j. Cf. iv. 2.372 below: "There is no more such masters," etc. See also iv. 2. 284, v. 5. 233, etc. Gr. 335. 144. Dark as your fortune is. As impenetrable to others, as your fortune is doubtful or obscure. 145. That which, etc. Her personal identity as woman and princess (Clarke). 147. Pretty and full of view* Fair and full of promise. Pretty has been suspected, and the Coll. MS. substitutes " Privy;" i)ut the emenda-: tion, though specious, has met with little favour among the editors. Full of view may mean " affording an ample prospect, a complete opportunity of discerning circumstances which it is your interest to know" (Steevens); or that meaning, as Clarke suggests, may be combined with the one given above. A Yankee might say " with a good look-out " in the same double sense. 152. Though. Rann reads " Through" (the conjecture of Johnson and Heath), but the ellipsis is not unlike many others in S. 153. Adventure. Venture, run the risk. See on i. 6. 171 above. 155. Nicenes's. Coyness ; the only instance of the word in S. Cf. the adjective in T. G. of V. iii. I. 82, A. W. v. i. 15, Hen. V. v. 2. 293, 299, etc.' 157. It pretty self. For this old possessive it, cf. W. T. iii. 2. loi : "in it most innocent mouth ;" and see our ed. p. 155. Gr. 228. 159. Quarrellous. The word is used by S. only here, and quarrelsome only in A. Y. L. v. 4. 85, 99, and T. of S. i. 2. 13. For the simile, cf. I Hen. IV. ii. 3. 81 : "A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen . ! As you are toss'd with." ACT III. SCENE V. i^y Steevens says that "this character of the weasel is not warranted by naturalists." The animal was formerly kept in houses instead of a cat for the purpose of killing rats and mice. i6i. The harder heart I "This too hard heart of mine !" (J. H.). Cf. the use of the comparative in Latin. Johnson makes it refer to Posthu- mus. 163. Common-kissing Titan. The sun that kisses any body and any thing. Cf. I Hen. IV. ii. 4. 133 : "Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter?" Steevens cites 0th. iv. 2. 78: "The bawdy wind that kisses all it meets." 164. Laboursome. Elaborate. Ci. Ham.'i. 2,. <^f): " laboursome peti- tion." Trims ( = apparel) is the only instance of the plural in S. 168. Fore-thinkitig. Anticipating ; as in i Hen. IV. iii. 2. 38: " Pro- phetically do fore-think thy fall." 170. Iti their sei-ving. With the help they may give you. 174. Happy. Fortunate, gifted. Cf T. G. of V. iv. i. 34 : " 2 Outlaw. Have you the tongues ? Valentitte. My youthful travel therein made me happy." You '// make him kjiow. The folios have " will make him know." Theo. reads " will make him so." The reading in the text is Hanmer's. St. conjectures " will make him bow." 177. Your means abroad. For your means, as to your means. 179. Supplyment. "Continuance of supply " (D.) ; used by S. only here. 181. We 7/ even, etc. " We '11 make our work even with our time; we '11 do what time will allow" (Johnson) ; or " we 'II profit by any ad- vantage offered " (Schmidt). Cf. A. W. i. 3. 3 : " to even your content ;" and see our ed. p. 140. 183. I am soldier to. " I have enlisted and bound myself to it " (Warb.), or " I am firmly and constantly devoted to it" (Schmidt). Steevens thinks it is simp]y = "I am up to it, I have ability for it j" and that ex- planation is perhaps to be preferred. 187. Your carriage. Carrying you off. 190. At land. This might seem suggested by the preceding at sea, but we find it in other connections ; as in A. and C iii. 7. 54, iv. 5. 3, etc. Cf. Or. 143, 144. Scene V. — 3. And am. For the ellipsis of the subject, see Gr. 400, 401. For ye, see Gr. 236. 7. So, sir. For the " acquiescent" use of so, cf iii. i. 82 above. The pointing is that of the folios. Some follow Capell in connecting the words wnth what follows : " So, sir, I desire," etc. 8. Conduct. Safe-conduct, escort. 9. And you ! The folios join this to the preceding speech. We fol- low the Camb. editors (Globe ed.) in giving it to the Queen. Rann reads "his grace and you." 14. The event. The issue ; as in T. of S. iii. 2. 129 : " I '11 after him, a-.id s'^e the event of this," etc. 21. Wrote. Cf 2 above. The common form in S. is writ or written, 22. F'its-. Beats, becomes j as in v, 5. 98 below. 198 NOTES. Ripely. Promptly (the time being ripe for it) ; the one instance of the adverb in S. 25. Drawn to head. Gathered in arms. Cf. K. John, v. 2. 1 13 : " Be- fore I drew this gallant head of war ;" and see our ed. p. 174. 32. Looks tis like. Seems to us like. The us is the dative, as in " do us the favour," etc. Cf Gr. 220. The ist folio reads "looke vs like," which the 2d changes to " lookes as like." 35. Slight in sufferance. The 2d folio changes slight to " light." The meaning is, We have been too easy or careless in allowing it. 36. Exile. Accented by S. on either syllable, according to the meas- ure. Cf ii. 3. 39 above and iv. 4, 26 below. See also A. Y. L. p. 149. 40. Tender of. Sensitive to. 44. Loud'' St. See on i. i. 96 above. The folios read " lowd^or "loud ") of noise ;" corrected by Capell. Rowe gives " loudest noise," and the Coll. MS. "loud'st noise." 50. Our great court, &X.C. Our important court business (with the Ro- man ambassador) made me forget it. 56. Stand' st so for. Dost stand up so for, as we say ; art so earnest a partisan of Cf M. W. iii. 2. 62 : "I stand wholly for you," etc. 69. Forestall him of. That is, prevent his living to see. 71. And that. And/(?r that, and because. Gr. 151, 285. 72. Than lady, ladies, woman. An elliptical climax= "than any lady, than all ladies, than all womankind " (Johnson). Hanmer reads " Than any lady, winning from each one ;" and Warb. " Than lady ladies ; win- ning from each one." 74. Outsells. Outvalues ; as in ii. 4. 102 above. Coll. conjectures "Excels." 80. Are you packing! Explained by some, and perhaps rightly, as = are you plotting.? Cf T. of S. v. i. 121 : "Here's packing, with a wit- ness, to deceive us all," etc. It may, however, mean (as Schmidt and others make it), Are you running off.? Cf i Hen. VI. iv. i. 46, Hani. iii. 4. 2 1 1, etc. 83. Good my lord. See Gr. 13. 85. Close. Sly, secret. Cf Macb. iii. 5. 7 : " The close contriver of all harms," etc. 86. Rip Thy heart. Cf Lear, iv. 6. 265 : " To know our enemies' minds, we 'd rip their hearts." 92. Home. Thoroughly, fully. Cf Temp. v. i. 71 : "I will pay thy graces home." See also Ham. p. 232, note on Tax him home. 99. This paper. The " feigned letter " of v. 5. 279 below. It seems to have been prepared by Pisanio to account for Imogen's absence in case he should be charged with aiding and abetting her flight. loi. Or this, or perish. I must resort to this trick, or fall a victim to his fury. Johnson conjectured that the words belong to Cloten. 109. Undergo. Undertake. Cf i. 4. 153 above. See also fV. T. p. 202. 137. Insultment. The only instance of the word in S. 140. Knock. Changed bv Hanmer to " kick." 153. My loss. The Coll.^MS. has "thy loss." 155. Most true. " It is characteristic of the faithful -hearted Pisanio that ACT III. SCENE VL 199 he never swerves from his conviction that Posthumus is good and true^ notwithstanding the cruel letter commanding Imogen's destruction. He believes what he has told her ; that Posthumus has been deceived by ' some villain,' who has worked this * injury ' to both " (Clarke). Hanmer changed him to " her." Scene VI. — 6. Within a ken. Within sight, as in 2 Hen. IV. iv, i. 151 : "within a ken our army lies." 7. Foundations. *' Quibbling between fixed places and charitable estab- lishments" (Schmidt). 13. Sorer. " A greater or heavier crime " (Johnson). 16. rEven before. Just before ; as in K. John^ iii. i. 233 : "And even before this truce, but new before," etc. 17. At point. See on iii. i. 30 above. For food ={ox want of food. Cf. A. Y.L. ii. 7. 104: " I almost die for food." See our ed. p. 159, note on Faints for succour. 19. I were best. See on iii. 2. 76 above. 20. Clean. Quite, entirely. See t^/V/^. //. p. 188. 21. Breeds. Changed by Hanmer to " breed ;" but see on ii. 4. 58 above. Hardness ■=\i.2iX^^\^v^ ; as in 0th. i. 3. 234: "A natural and a prompt alacrity I find in hardness," etc. 22. Hardiness. Bravery; as in j%«. F. i. 2. 220 : "hardiness and policy." For the jingle, cf iii. 4. ii above. 23. Civil. Civilized ; as the antithesis of savage shows. Cf 0th. p. 196. 24. Take or lend. Take pay for food, or lend it ; as Malone explains it, referring to 47 below. Johnson wanted to transpose civil and savage; and Schmidt conjectures " take or leave " (that is, " destroy me or let me live"). 25. Best draw my sword. Steevens quotes Milton, Comus,^ZT: "Best draw and stand upon our guard." 27. Suck a foe, good heavens I " Exquisitely feminine throughout is this speech. Its confession of limb-weary fatigue, of faintness from exhaus- tion, its moral strength amid physical weakness, its tender epithet for the husband whose cruel injustice is felt none the less deeply for the irremov- able love she still cherishes for him, its timid hesitation in calling for help, its vague thought of defence in best draw my sword, its avowal of greater dread at the very sight of the sword than the sword-drawer can hope to inspire by use of the weapon, tog^ether with the final softly smiling, half self-pitying exclamation, half aspiration for divine aid, are all intensely true to the mingled mental courage and bodily delicacy of such a wom- an as Imogen, who is the very embodiment of supreme womanhood " (Clarke). 28. Woodman. Hunter ; the common acceptation of the word in the time of S. (Steevens). Cf R. of L. 580 : "He is no woodman that doth bend his bow To strike a poor unseasonable doe ;" 200 NOTES. and M. W. v. 5. 30 : Am I a woodman, ha ? speak I like Heme the hunter ?" 30. Match. Agreement, compact; as in W. T. v. 3. 137, Cor. ii. 3. 86, etc. 34. Resty. Too fond of rest, lazy, torpid. Cf Sonn. 100. 9 : " Rise, resty muse." We find " resty-stiff " in Edw. III. iii. 3. 36. Throughly. See on ii. 4. 12 above. 44. An earthly paragon. Cf. T. G. of V. ii. 4. 146 : " No ; but she is an earthly paragon." 50. /' the floor. Changed by Hanmer to "o'th' floor;" but in was sometimes = on. Cf. Gr. 160. 52. Parted. Departed ; as in Cor. v. 6. 73 : " when I parted hence," etc. See M. of V. p. 145. 55. Of By. Gr. 170. 58. Made it. Cf W. T. iii. 2. 218 : " All faults I make," etc. See our ed. p. 178. 64. In.- Into ; as very often. Cf 0th. v. 2. 292 : *' Fallen in the prac- tice of a cursed slave," etc. Gr. 159. 66. Well encoicnter'' d ! Well met ! Cf i. 3. 32 above. 70. But be. For the use oi but, see Gr. 126. 71. / bid for you as I V buy. " I bid for you with a sincere desire to have you " (J. H.) ; or, in substance, I speak in all honesty, I mean what 1 say. Hanmer reads " I'd bid." 75. Sprightly. In good spirits. 77. Prize. Estimation, value. Clarke paraphrases the passage thus : " then would the prize which Leonatus gained in winning the heiress to the crown have been lessened by rny being but sister to the royal heirs." Heath explains it : " Then had the prize thou hast mastered in me been less, and not have sunk thee, as I have done, by over-lading thee ;" but this is pressing the metaphor too far. . 79. Writigs. Writhes, as in anguish. Cf Much Ado, v. I. 28: " those that wring under the load of sorrow ;" and Hen. V. iv. i. 253 : " whose sense no more can feel But his own wringing." 85. Layingby, etc. Setting aside that worthless tribute of obsequious adoration which the fickle crowd pay to rank. Johnson explains differing multiticdes as = "the many-headed rabble;" but it seems rather to be = " the still discordant, wavering multitude " of 2 Hen. IV. ind. 19. 87. Outpeer. Excel, surpass ; used by S. only here. 89. Leonatus\ The folios have simply " Leonatus," which V. and W. retain ; but we prefer to print Leonatus', as D., Sr., and Clarke do. Cf. Lear, p. 246, note on This ', or Gr. 461. 90. Hunt. That is, the game taken in the hunt, (^2. Mannerly. Adjectives in -ly are often used adverbially. Cf Much Ado, ii. I. 79: "mannerly modest;" and M. of V. ii. 9. 100: "Cupid's post that comes so mannerly." See also on ii. 3. 33 above. Scene VII. — 4. And that. And since that. See on iii. 5. 71 above. 6. FaWn off. Revolted. Cf i Hen. IV. i. 3. 94 : ACT IV. SCENES I. AND II, 20 1 "Revolted Mortimer! He never did fall off, my sovereign liege, But by the chance of war,'' etc. 9. Commands. Changed by Theo. to "commends ;" but the meaning, as Johnson remarks, may be " commands the cominission to be given to you." The expression is not more elliptical than many in the present play. K., v., W., Clarke, and others retain commands. 14. Stippliant. Supplementary, auxiliary ; the only instance of the adjective in S. Capell and some other editors spell it " supplyant." The accent is of course on the penult. ACT IV. Scene I. — ^4. Saving reverence of. Begging pardon of. Saving your reverence was a common apology for an offensive or unseemly word. Cf. M.for M. ii. i. 92, Much Ado, iii. 4. 32, M. of V. \\. 2. 27, 139, etc. 12. Single oppositio?is. Single encounters or combats. Cf. I Heit. IV. i. 3. 99 : " In single opposition, hand to hand," etc. Schmidt explains it as — "when compared as to particular accomplishments;" which per- haps suits the context quite as well. Imperseverant. " Giddy - headed, flighty, thoughtless" (Schmidt). Some explain it as "obstinately persevering, siubborn." The folios spell the word " imperseuerant," which 1). and others change to "im- perceiverant ;" but that is hardly an admissible derivative from per- ceive. What vio7'tality is ! What a thing mortality is ! Cf. AL of V. i. 3. 162: " O father Abram, what these Christians are !" Gr. 256. 15. Enforced. Cf. M. N. D. iii. i. 205 : " enforced chastity," etc. Hanmer changed thy face to " her face ;" but the confusion of pro- nouns, as Clarke remarks, is "in Cloten's usual blundering, headlong manner." 17. Sptcrn her home. Cf iii. 5. 141 above. Happily. The folio reading, changed by Johnson to " haply." Cf. T. of S. iv. 4. 54 : " And happily we might be interrupted," etc. See T. N. p. 158, or Gr. 42. 19. Power of Control over ; as in Ham. ii. 2. 27 : " the sovereign power you have of us." Scene II.— 8. Citizen. " Cockney-bred, eflfeminate " (Schmidt). For wanton (=one brought up in luxury), cf. K. John, v. I. 70 : "a beardless boy, A cocker'd silken wanton ;" and Rich. II. v. 3. 10 : " While he, young wanton and effeminate bov " (where watitoti is a noun, as here). See also Ham. p. 275, note on Make a wanton of ??ie. 10. Journal. Diurnal, daily ; as in M.for M. iv. 3. 92 : "Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting," etc. Johnson paraphrases the passage thus : " Keep your daily course uninterrupted ; if the stated plan of life is once broken, nothing follows but confusion." 202 NOTES. 14. Reason of it. Talk about it. Cf. M. of V. ii. 8. 27 : "I reasoned with a Frenchman yesterday," etc. 17. ^q to twine." Hanmer changed with to " from." 62, Great morning. Late in the morning. The expression occurs again in T. and C. iv. 3. i. Steevens compares the Fr. grand jour. So de grand matin = very early. 67. Saw him not. Have not seen him. Cf 191 below. Gr. 347. 75. A slave. That word slave ; including perhaps the other meaning also : a slave who calls me a slave. 77. To who ? See on iii. 3. 87 above. Cf 0th. pp. 160, 200. 80. My dagger in my mouth. Cf for a different use of the figure Much Ado, ii. I. 255: "She speaks poniards;" and Ham. iii. 2. 414: "I will speak daggers to her." 84. Make thee. See on iii. 4. 49 above. 87. Injurious. Insolent. See on iii. i. 46 above. 91. Or adder, spider. Omitted by Capell. Hanmer ends the line at toad, and begins the next with " Adder, or spider, it would," etc. 93. Mere. Absolute. See J. C. p. 129, note on Merely upon myself. Cf v. 3. II below. 95. Afeard. Used by S. interchangeably with afraid. See Macb, p. 163, note on Nothing afeard. 97. Die the death. The form of a judicial sentence (cf M. for M. ii. 4. 165), and hence used of a violent death. See also M. N. D. p. 126. 98. Proper. Own ; as in Temp. iii. 3. 60 : " Their proper selves," etc. 100. Lud^s town. See on iii. i. 32 above. 105. Favour. Personal appearance. See on i. 6. 41 above, and cf, iii. 4. 48. 107. Absolute. Positive, certain; as in Ham, v. I. 148: "How abso- lute the knave is ?" Cf perfect in 1 19 below. 110. Fell. Fierce, cruel ; as in T. and C. iv. 5. 269 : "fell as death," etc. 111. . Apprehension. Conception, appreciation ; not = dread. Qi. Hen. V. iii. 7. 145: "If the English had any apprehension, they would run away ;" and see our ed. p. 171. 112. Defect. Changed by Theo. to "effect." Hanmer changed cause 204 NOTES. in the next line to " cure." Sundry other emendations have been pro- posed, none of which seem to us at all satisfactory. The passage, as it stands, appears to say the opposite of what is meant ; but we are in- clined to think it one of those inadvertencies in the use of negatives to which the poet appears to have been prone. He not unfrequently got in one too many (see on i. 4. 20 above), and sometimes one too few (cf. A. Y. L. iii. 2. 31, and see our ed. p. 156, note on No mare do yours). The present instance seems to us to belong to the latter list. Fear is elliptically=^^/^. ii. I. 306 : "like a poi- sonous mineral," etc. W. remarks : " There can be little doubt that the slow poisons of the i6th and 17th centuries were all preparations of white arsenic, the mortal mineral still most effectual for the poisoner's purposes." For took, cf. iii. 6. 48 above. 54. And in time. The 2d folio has " yes and in time." Walker con- jectures "and in due time," and Jervis "and so in time." 55. Fitted you. Prepared you, got you into a fit frame of mind. 58. Shameless - desperate. For compound adjectives in S., see Gr. 2. The hyphen was first inserted by Capell. 6)/^;^V= disclosed, revealed. dz. Mine eyes. Hanmer reads "Yet mine eyes." 64. Heard. The reading of the 3d folio ; the ist and 2d have "heare." 70. Raz'd. The folios have " rac'd ;" corrected by Theo. 74. Estate. State, condition. See M. of V.p. 151. 80. Suffceth. It suffices. For the ellipsis, cf T. of S. i. I. 252, iii. 2. 108, 2 Hen. VI. iv. 10. 24, etc. Gr. 404. 83. Peculiar. Personal ; as in Ham. iii. 3. 11 : " The single and pe- culiar life ;" 0th. i. i. 60 : "for my peculiar end," etc. 87. Over his occasions. H. thinks this is = " beyond what the occasions required ;" but it may mean /;? regard to what was required. Cf. W. T. ii. 3. 128 : " tender o'er his follies." Schmidt well explains it : "so nice- ly sensible of his wants " (that is, his master's wants). 88. Feat. " Ready, dexterous in waiting " (Johnson). Cf 7>w/. p. 120, note on Foot it featly. See also on the verb, in i. I. 49 above. Clarke remarks : " This gentle adaptation of herself and her womanly accomplishments to her assumed office of page crowns the perfection of Imogen's character. Her power, too, of attracting and attaching all who come near her — her father, who loves her in spite of the harshness he has shown her under the influence of his fiendish queen ; her husband who has been her 'play-fellow! when a boy, and her lover in manhood, even after her supposed death :, her faithful servant, Pisanio ; her broth- ACT V. SCENE V. 219 ers, who know her but as a poor, homeless boy ; Belarius, whose sym- pathy for the sick youth makes the way forth seem tedious ; and Lucius, who pleads for the' gentle lad's life with so earnest a warmth, while bear- ing so affectionate a testimony to his qualities as a page — this power of hers speaks indirectly, but indisputably, in testimony of her bewitching nature." 93. Favour. Face. See on i. 6. 41 above. 94. Look'd thyself into my grace. Won my favour by thy looks. ^ 95. Nor wherefore. The 7ior, omitted in the folios, was supplied by Rowe. 103. A thing, etc. " The ring on lachimo's finger " (J. H.). 119. Walk with me. Withdraw with me. See on i. I. 176 above. 120. One sand another, etc. This has been suspected of corruption, but it is probably only one of the many elliptical constructions in the play. Hanmer reads : . ^ , ^ ^ " One sand Another doth not more resemble than He the sweet rosy lad who died, and was Fidele ;» and Capell : " One sand Another not resembles more than he That sweet and rosy lad who died, and was Fidele." Johnson put a period after resembles. K., D., W., the Camb. ed., Clarke, and others retain the old text. 126. Saw. The folios have *' see ;" corrected by Rowe. \Tj^. Render. State, tell. Cf. ii. 4. I19 above. 143. Jewel. See on i. 4. 142 above. 145. Sir. See on i. 6. 159 above. 154. Struck. The folios have "strooke" or " strook," as in many other passages ; oftener than struck, which Rowe substituted here. 160. Rar''st. See on i. i. 96 above. Sitting sadly, etc. This does not exactly agree with the circumstances as they appear in i. 4 above ; but such variations are not uncommon in S. " In the present case," as Clarke remarks, " he may either have made it to give the effect of that inaccuracy of memory which often marks the narration of a past occurrence even in persons habitually truthful, or in order to denote lachimo's innate untruthfulness and un- scrupulousness, which lead him to falsify in minor matters as in those of greater moment." 163. Feature. Shape, figure ; as often. Cf. T. G. of V. ii. 4. 73 : " He is complete in feature and in mind," etc. Zawm^— making seem lame or deformed. 164. Shrine. Image, statue. Cf. M. of V. ii. 7. 40 : " To kiss this shrine, this mortal-breathing saint." See also R. of L. 194 and R. and J. \. 5. 96. Straight-pight. Straight-fixed, erect. Ci. pight ( = fixed, in a figura- tive sense) in Lear, ii. i. 67 ; and see our ed. p. 197. 165. Postures beyond brief nature. " Postures of beings that are im- mortal " (J. H.). 220 NOTES. CV7«^///<7;^= disposition, character. Cf. M. of V. i. 2. 143 : " the condi« tion of a saint, and the complexion of a devil," etc. 166. Shop, Storehouse. 172. Lover. For the feminine use, cf. T. G. of V. i. i. 116, A. Y. L. iii. 4. 46, A. and C. iv. 14. loi, etc. 177. Were crack'' d of kitchen-trulls. Were made in praise of mere kitchen -wenches. Crack was sometimes = bluster, swagger. Cf. the noun in K, John, ii. I. 147 : " What cracker is this same that deafs our ears," etc. ; and see our ed. p. 143. 1 78. Unspeaking sots. Fools incapable of speech. For sots^ cf. Temp, p. 132, or C. of E. p. 123. 180. As. As if. See on v. 4. 116 above. 182. Made scruple. Expressed doubt. Cf. the play on scruple in 2 Hen. IV. i. 2. 149 ; " the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or indeed a scruple itself." 190. Of Phosbus' wheel. Cf. A. and C. iv. S. 2S: " He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled Like holy Phoebus' car. ' 193. Taught of Cf. Isa. liv. 13, John, vi. 45, I Thess. iv. 9, etc 197. Gan. See on ii. 3. 18 and v. 3. 37 above. 198. Vantage. Advantage. See ^. y wild and delirious perturbation" (Johnson). 238. Tune. Voice, accent. Cf. Sonn, 141. 5: "thy tongue's tune;" Cor. ii. 3. 92 : " the tune of your voices," etc. ACT V. SCENE V. 22 1 245. Approve. Prove ; as in iv. 2. 381 above. 249. Importun'd. Accented on the second syllable, as regularly in S. Gr. 492. 250. Temper. Compound, mix ; used oi poisons in Much Ado, ii. 2. 21, R. and J. iii. 5. 98, and Ham. v. 2. 339. 259. Dead. Insensible, like one dead. Cf. Spenser, /; Q. iv. 7. 9 : *' For she, deare Ladie, all the way was dead Whilest he in armes her bore ; but when she felt Her selfe downe soust, she waked out of dread," etc 262. Think that you are upon a rock. This has perplexed some of the critics, and sundry changes have been proposed ; but if we suppose that Imogen here throws her arms about her husband's neck (according to the stage-direction first inserted by Hanmer), all is clear enough. Hav- ing done this, she says, "Now imagine yourself on some high rock, and throw me from you again — if you have the heart to do it." This action is necessary also to explain the reply of Posthumus, Hang there, etc. 265. Mak'st thou me a dullard, etc. " Do you give me in this scene the part only of a looker-on? S. was thinking of the stage" (St.). 271. Naught. Worthless, wicked. See A. Y. L. p. 142, or Rich. III. p. 182. Lofig of her. Because of her, owing to her. Cf. M. N. D. iii. 2. 339 : "You, mistress, all this coil is long of you," etc. Long is equivalent to along, but not a contraction of it. See Wb. 274. Troth. Truth ; as in M. N. D. ii. 2. 36 : " And to speak troth, I have forgot our way," etc. The 4th folio reads " truth." / 283. Enforc''d. Got by force. Cf. iv. 3. 11 above. 284. With unchaste purpose. Some critic has objected that Cloten does not tell his purpose while Pisanio is on the stage in iii. 5 above ; but in line 149 he intimates that he intends to make the latter a confidant of his design, and we may assume that he does so afterwards. 287. Forfend. Forbid. See 0th. p. 206. 292. Incivil. Changed by Capell to " uncivil ;" but S. uses incertain, ingrateful, infortunate, insociable, etc., as well as the forms in un-. Cf Gr. 442. 305. Scar. The word has been suspected, and " sense," " score," etc., have been proposed as emendations ; but, as Clarke notes, the expres- sion is " a very characteristic one for a veteran soldier to use, who can conceive no better claim to merit than having plenteous scars to show." W. prints "scarre" (as in the folio), which he takes to be the same ob- scure word that has perplexed the critics in A. W. iv. 2. 38. 308. Tastittg of. Testing, trying. Cf. T. N. iii. 4. 267 : " men that put quarrels purposely on others, to taste their valour," etc. See also the noun in 2 He7t. IV. ii. 3. 52, Lear, i. 2. 47, etc. 310. We will die all th^ee^ etc. We will all die if I do not prove, etc. We follow the pointing of the folio, as Clarke does. The editors gener- a ly put a colon after three. 313. For tnine oivn part, &\.c. That is, dangerous for myself. For the transposition, see Gr. 419^;. Cf. ii. 3. 94 above. .2 2 2 NOTES. 315. Have at it then. Here 's for it then, I '11 tell the story. Cf. W. T. iv. 4. 302 : " Have at it with you,'' etc. 319. Assumed this age. That is, assumed or acquired it with the lapse of time. He speaks thus, as Henley suggests, with reference to the change in his appearance since Cyrnbeline last saw him. Tyrwhitt wanted to read " this gage." 323. Confiscate. For the form, cf C. of E. i. I. 21, i. 2. 2, M. of V. iv. I. 311, 332, etc. S. accents the word on either the first or second syllable, as suits the measure. 326. Prefer. Promote, advance. See on ii. 3. 129 above. 334. Your pleasure., etc. " My crime, my punishment, and all the trea- son that I have committed, 'originated in and were founded on your caprice only" (Malone). For mere the folios have "neere" or "near;" corrected by Rann (the conjecture of Tyrwhitt). Johnson suggested " dear." 338. Those . . . as. See Gr. 280. 344. Beaten. My being beaten. 345. Dear loss. Loss so deeply felt. See Rich. II. p. 164, or Temp. p. 124. 346. Shap'd Unto my end. Shaped itself to, or suited, my purpose. 349. Sweet'' St. See on i. i. 96 above. 352, Thou weep'' St., and speak' st, etc. " Thy tears give testimony to the sincerity of thy relation ; and I have the less reason to be incredulous because the actions which you have done within my knowledge are more incredible than the story which you relate " (Johnson). 360. Za//V. Wrapped. Qi. Rich. III. '\\.\. \\^\ " he did lap me • Even in his garments," etc. 362. Probation. Proof, evidence ; as in Ham. i. i. 156 : " and of the truth herein The present object made probation." See also 0th. iii. 3. 365, Macb. iii. i. 80, etc. 364. A mole, etc. " Most poetically, as well as with most subtle philo- sophical knowledge of Nature's workings in the matter of kindred and inherited distinctive marks, has S. given to the prince brother an almost precisely similar personal badge-spot with the one which lies upon the snow of the princess sister's breast. Imogen's ' mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops i' the bottom of a cowslip,' and Guiderius's ' mole, a sanguine star,' are twinned in beauty with a poet's im.agination and a naturalist's truth" (Clarke). Cf p. 35 above. 369. Mother. The object of the verlD, deliverance being the subject. 370. Pray. Needlessly, not to say badly, changed by Rowe to " may." The elliptical construction is quite like many others already noted in the play. , 371. Orbs. Orbits, or, more properly, the " spheres " of the old Ptole- maic astronomy. See i Hen. IV. p. 194, or Ham. p. 254 (note on Sphere). 378. When ye. The folios have " When we ;" corrected by Rowe. 380. He died. As Clarke notes, the use of the pronouns in this line ACT V. SCENE V. 223 and the next is very natural, though Hanmer tried to spoil it by changing he to "she." Guiderius is so accustomed to think ot his sister as a boy that, in reverting to their experiences in the forest, he inadvertently speaks of her as he; wliile Cornelius, who has known her only m her true sex, of course calls her she. -x^Y. Instinct. For the accent, see on iv. 2. 178 above. 382. Fierce. Either =^" vehement, rapid " (Johnson), or = " disordered, irregular " (Schmidt). Perhaps it combines the ideas of hurried and wild or disordered. , i ■,• • u 384. Distinction should be rich in. " Ought to be rendered distinct by * a liberal amplitude of narrative " (Steevens) ; or, a more distinct and de- tailed statement ought to bring out fully. 388. Your three ?fiotives. The motives of you three. 39". Inter' gatories. The folios have " interrogatories ;" but the con- tracted form (for which see M. of V. p. 165, or A. W. p. 170) suits the measure better, and was introduced by Malone at Tyrwhitt's suggestion. 393. Anchors. For the figure, cf. M.for M. ii. 4. 3 : "Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue, Anchors on Isabel." 395. Her master. That is, Lucius. 396. The counter change, etc. This is reciprocated each by each. 405. Forlorn. Accented on the first syllable before the noun, as in Sonn. 33. 7 and T. G. of V. i. 2. 124; but on the last when in the predi- cate, as in R. of L. 1500, etc. Cf. ii. i. 55 above. 406. Becom'd. Changed by Warb. to " become ;" but the form oc- curs also in R. and J. iv. 2. 26 and A. and C. iii. 7. 26. Cf. misbecomed m L. L. L. V. 2. 778. 408. Company. The only instance of the verb in S. 409. Beseeming. Seeming, appearance. /^z/7;z£';/2'= equipment. The former is used by S. only here; the latter occurs in Per. iv. 6. 6 (not Shakespeare's part of the play), where it is = what is fit, or duty. 412. Made you finish. Put" an end to you. Cf. 36 above. 418. The power that I have on you. Cf. R. and J. v. 3. 93 : " Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty." See also T. G. of V. iii. I. 238, Macb. V. 3. 7, etc. Elsewhere have power is followed by z';/ {Much Ado,iv. i. 75, etci, by over {Rich. III. i. 2. 47, etc.), and by taito {A. and C ii. 2. 146, etc.). 419. Forgive you. The plays of Shakespeare's "fourth period" (see Mr. Furnivall's classification, A. Y. L. p. 26) are " all of reunion, of rec- onciliation and forgiveness." Even lachimo— " a kind of less absolutely evil lago," as Dowden calls him— repents in time to share in the general pardon. 422. Holp. Used as the past tense of help, except in Rich. III. v. 3. 167 and 0th. ii. i. 138 ; also the common form for the participle. 424. Jofd. For the transitive use, cf. Rich. III. i. 2. 220 and Per. \. 2- 9- 428. Spritely shows. Ghostly apparitions. 431. From. Away from, far from. Cf. i. 4. 14 above. 224 NOTES. ^yi. No collection of it. No inference from it. S. uses collection else- where only in Ham. iv. 5. 9 and v. 2. 199, where the sense is similar. 435. Whenas. When; as in v. 4. 138 above. W. considers that the scroll and the four following speeches are " plainly not from Shake- speare's pen." It is not improbable that this part of the scene was *' tinkered " to make it jibe with the interpolated masque in v. 4. Coll. suggests that both vision and scroll formed part of an older play. Such riddles were popular on the earlier stage. ^ 447. Mulier. It is hardly necessary to say that the word is not de- rived from mollis aer. 448. This. Changed by Capell to " thy," and by Keightley to " this thy." Delius conjectures " your." These emendations are intended to furnish an antecedent for who in the next line ; but it is better to assume that who refers to wife, and that there is a change in construction in were clipp'd, perhaps due to the you in the same line. Cf. Gr. 415. 450. Clipfd. Clasped, embraced. See on ii. 3. 132 above. 453. Point.. . . forth. Cf. W. T. iv. 4. 572 : " The which shall point you forth," etc. 463. Whom heavens, etc. Another example of confused construction in a relative clause. See Gr. 249, and cf. 394. i%rj- = her son Cloten. 468. Yet this. Changed by Theo. and the more recent editors (except W.) to "this yet," the reading of the 3d folio; but the transposition of yet is so common in S. (cf. Gr. 76) that we are not justified in altering the original text. See on ii. 3. 'jt^ above. 471. Herself For the feminine eagle, cf. Hen. V. i. 2. 169 : " For once the eagle England being in prey, To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot Comes sneaking," etc. 480. Friendly. For the adverbial use, cf. iii. 5. 13 above. 483. Set on. Like set forward in 478 above, = march on. Cf. Rich. II. p. 197, or Hen. VIII. p. 180. Did cease. For the ellipsis of the relative, see Gr. 244. Johnson (cf. p. 15 above) sums up his estimate of Cymbeline thus : " This play has many just sentiments, some natural dialogues, and some pleasing scenes, but they are obtained at the expense of much incongruity. To remark the folly of the fiction, the absurdity of the conduct, the con- fusion of the names and manners of different times, and the impossibility of the events in any system of life, were to waste criticism upon unresist- ing imbecility, upon faults too evident for detection, and too gross for aggravation." ADDENDA. The " Time-Analysis " of the PlAy. — We give below the summing- up of Mr. P. A. Daniel's "time-analysis " in his valuable paper " On the Times or Durations of the Action of Shakspere's Plays " ( Trans, of New Shaks. Soc. 1877-79, p. 247), with a few explanatory extracts from the preceding pages appended as foot-notes : ADDENDA, 225 "The time of the drama includes twelve days represented on the stage, with intervals. " Day I. Act I. sc. i.-iii. An Interval. Posthumus's journey to Rome. •• 2. Act I. sc. iv. An Interval. lachimo's journey to Britain. " 3. Act I. sc. v.* and vi., Act II. sc. i. and part of sc. ii. " 4. Act II. sc. ii., in part, and sc. iii. [Act III. sc. i. also belongs to this dayt]. An Interval. lachimo's return journey to Rome. " 5. Act II. sc. iv. and v. An Interval. Time for Posthumus's letters from Rome to arrive in Britain. [Act III. sc. i. See Day No. 4.] " 6. Act III. sc. ii. and iii. An Interval, including one clear day. Imogen and Pisanio journey to Wales. " 7. Act III. sc. iv. An Interval, including one clear day. Pisanio returns to Court. " 8. Act III. sc. V, and vi. [Act III. sc. vii. In Rome. Time, between Days 5 and 64] An Interval, including one clear day. Cloten journeys to Wales. " 9. Act IV. sc. i. and ii. An Interval — a few days perhaps. " 10. Act IV. sc. iii. " II. Act IV. sc. iv. " 12. Act V. sc. i.-v." Truest (p. 175). — Since the note on this passage was in type, it has oc-' curred to us that the interpretation there given is confirmed by the fact that Imogen has been reading the letter to herself during the preceding * " Another possible arrangement in time for this sc. v. would be to make it concur- rent with Day No. 2 ; or again, it might have a separate day assigned to it, to be placed in the interval marked for lachimo's journey to Britain. ... Its position as the early morning of Day 3, 'whiles yet the dew 's on ground,' is, however, quite consistent with my scheme of time." t " Act III. sc i. Britain. Cymbeline and his Court receive in state Caius Lucius, the arnbassador, who comes to demand the tribute till lately paid to Rome. The tribute is denied, and Lucius denounces in the Emperor's name war against Britain. His office discharged, he is welcomed to the court, and bid ' make pastime with us a day or two, or longer.' The time of this scene is so evidently that of Day No. 4, that I am com- pelled to place it here within brackets, as has been done in other cases where scenes are out of their due order as regards time." t "Act III. sc vii. Rome. Enter two Senators and Tribunes. V/e learn that Lucius is appointed general of the army to be employed in the war in Britain. This army is to consist of the forces 'remaining now in Gallia,' supplemented with a levy of the gentry of Rome. This scene is evidently out of place. In any time-scheme it must come much earlier in the drama. ... It may be supposed to occupy part of the interval I have marked as ' Time for Posthumus's letters frpjn Rome to arrive in Britain.' " 226 ADDENDA. speech, (aside) of lachimo. Having come to the end of it, she now turns to him and reads aloud the closing lines with their reference to himself. It was, moreover, natural that Pisanio should first write the loving mes- sages that would form the substance of an absent husband's letter to his wife, and then close with commending the bearer to her courtesy. We can imagine that what Imogen reads aloud was preceded by something like "I send you this by my friend lachimo, who is going to Britain." Doing nothing for a bribe (p. 191), — Since this note was written, we see that Dr. Ingleby {Shakespeare : the Man and the Book, Part II. p. 10) reads "badge" for bribe. He says : ''■Badge is one of those very slight and effective alterations of the text which deserve the name of emenda- tions. The badge was an Ornamental cognizance worn by the clients and hangers-on of a great nobleman or courtier, and was valued as peo- ple now value a blue or red ribbon. This felicitous emendation was due to the sagacity of Mr. A. E. Brae." It is certainly very plausible, and perhaps suits the context better than bribe. On sharded, just above. Dr. Ingleby remarks : " Observe that when Shakespeare speaks of the crawling beetle he calls him sharded, that is, covered by his shards ; but when he speaks of the flying beetle he calls him shard-borne, that is, supported in air by his outstretched shards." Command into obedience, etc. (iii. 4. 155).— Dr. Ingleby (p. 36) puts this among the instances in which S. seems to say the reverse of what he means. He says : "if she were bid to 'change fear and niceness into a waggish courage,' she must be bid to 'change obedience into com- mand.' " But is not Pisanio thinking of her forgetting to be a princess as well as a woman, and entering the service of Lucius, as he goes on to suggest? Defect of judgment, etc. (p. 203).— In writing the note on this passage, we overlooked Dr. Ingleby's explanation {Part I. of the work cited above, p. 151), which clears it up in a simpler and better way. He says : " 'Defect of judgment,' which all commentators have taken to mean the total absence of jiidgme^it, means the defective zise of judgment. They were betrayed into this mistake by another: interpreting the phrase 'scarce made up to man' as if it referred to Cloten's youth ('before he arrived to man's estate,' says Knight), whereas Cloten was a middle-aged man. . . . On the contrary, the phrase made up to man signified — in the full possession of a man's judgment ; and when it is said that^ a certain person is 'scarce made up,' it means that he had not a man's judgment. Cloten, being scarce made up, took no heed of terrors that roared loud enough for men with their wits about them, and thus he braved dan- ger ; for it is the defective use of judgment (when men have any) which is oft the cause of fear. Cf 'defect of judgment' in Cor. iv. 7. 39, and 'defects of judgment' in A. and C. ii. 2. 55." On scarce made up, cf. Rich. III. \. 1.21. ADDENDA. 227 List of Characters in the Play, with the Scen|:s in which THEY Appear. — The num-bers in parentheses indicate the lines the characters have in each scene. Cymbeline : i, 1(20) ; ii. 3(15) ; iii. 1(30), 5(29) ; iv. 3(21) ; v. 5(176). Whole no. 291. Cloten : i. 2(10) ; ii. 1(31), 3(72) ; iii. 1(24), 5(88) ; iv. 1(27), 2(23). Whole no. 275. Posthtivms : i. 1(29), 4(57) ; ii. 4(96), 5(35) ; v. 1(33), 3(85), 4(69), 5(44). Whole no. 448. Belaritis : iii. 3(90), 6(30) ; iv. 2(109), 4(26) ; v. 2(3), 5(78). Whole no. 336. Guiderius : iii. 3(11), 6(10).; iv. 2(113), 4(19) ; v. 2(1), 5(15). Whole no. 169. Arznragus : iii. 3(11), 6(13) ; iv. 2(90), 4(19); v. 2(1), 5(9). Whole no. 143. Philario: i. 4(20) ; ii. 4(24). Whole no. 44. lachim^: i. 4(83), 6(154); ii- 2(41), 4(73); v. 2(11), 5(74). Whole no. 436. Lucitis : iii. 1(19), 5(10) ; iv. 2(43) ; v. 2(5), 5(27). Whole no. 104. Pisanio: i. 1(10), 3(13), 5(3), 6(4) ; ii. 3(1); iii. 2(27), 4(86), 5(28); iv. 3(16) ; v. 5(29). Whole no. 217. Cornelitis : i. 5(25) ; v. 5(48). Whole no. 73. Captain: iv. 2(11) ; v. 3(4). Whole no. 14. 2d Captain: v. 3(6). Whole no. 6. \st Gentleman : i. 1(66). Whole no. 66. id Gentleman : i. 1(13). Whole no. 13. \st Lord : i. 2(15) ; ii. 1(7), 3(7) ; iii. 1(1) ; iv. 3(15) ; v. 3(7). Whole no. 52. 2d Lord : i. 2(18) ; ii. 1(32), 3(1) ; iii. 1(1). Whole no. 52. Frenchman : i. 4(25). Whole no. 25. Musician : ii. 3(9). Whole no. 9. Messenger : ii. 3(2) ; v. 4(2). Whole no. 4, Attendant: iii. 5(3). Whole no. 3. 1st Senator : iii. 7(15). Whole no. 15. 2d Senator : iii. 7(1). Whole no. i. \st lYibnne : iii. 7(3). Whole no. 3. Soothsayer : iv. 2(7) ; v. 5(36). Whole no. 43. \st Gaoler : v. 4(51). Whole no. 51. 2d Gaoler : v. 4(1;. Whole no. i. 1st Brother : v. 4(14). Whole no. 14. 2d Brother: v. 4(8). Whole no. 8. Sicilius : v. 4(40). Whole no. 40. Jupiter : v. 4(21). Whole no. 21. Queen: i. 1(33), 5(67); ii. 3(10) ; iii. 1(22), 5(34). Whole no. 166. Lmogen : i. 1(45), 3(33), 6(83) ; ii. 2(10), 3(54) ; iii. 2(59), 4(134). 6(57) ; iv. 2(85) ; v. 5(36). Whole no. 596. 228 ADDENDA. Lady: i. 3(2). 5(1) ; "• 2(2), 3(9) ; v. 5(1). Whole no. 15. Mother : v. 4(12). Whole no. 12. '' AlV: V. 4(1). Whole no. i. In the above enumeration parts of lines are counted as whole lines, making the total in the play greater than it is. The actual number of lines in each scene is as follows : i. 1(78), 2(43), 3(40), 4(185). 5(87), 6(210); ii. 1(70), 2(51), 3(160). 4(152), 5(35); iii- 1(87). 2(84), 3(107), 4(196), 5(168), 6(96), 7(16) ; iv. 1(27), 2(403), 3(46), 4(54) ; V. 1(33), 2(18), 3(94), 4(215), 5(485). Whole number in the play, 3340. Imogen speaks more lines than any other female character in Shake- speare except Rosalind, who has 749 lines, and Cleopatra, who has 670. The only other women with more than 500 lines are Portia {^M. of F.), who has 589, and Juliet, who has 541. INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED. absolute (=certain), 203. abuse {=corrupt), 210. abuse (=deceive), 172, 178, 196. acquainted of, 178. act (=action), 173. action (=iCourse), 217. adjourned (=delayed), 216. admiration (=wonder), 170, 176, 207. adorer, not friend, 171. adventured ( = ventured ), 179, 196. advice(=consideration), 168. afeard, 203. affected (=loved), 218. affiance, 179. affirmation, 171. affront (=confront), 211. affront (noun), 214. Afric (=Africa), 168. after (=afterwards),i8i,2ii. after-eye, 169. against all colour, 188. Ajax, 207. amazed (=in a maze), 211. amend (=surpass), 220. anchors (figurative), 223. ancient (=aged), 213. answer (=answer to), 205. answer (=penalty), 211. answer (^reprisal), 214. answered (=done like), 214. ape, 181. apparent, 185. appears he hath had, 202. apprehension, 203. approbation(=:proving), 172. approve (=prove), 210, 221. approvers, 185. Arabian bird, 175- arm (=take in arms), 210. arras-figures, 181. articles, 172. as ( =as if), 203, 213, 216, 220. as (=for), 178. as (omitted), 204. assumed this age, 222. at heaven's gate, 181. at land, 197. at point, 187, 199. atone, 170. atteniptable, 171. attending ( = awaiting), 216. attending for a check, 191. averring, 220. avoid (=begone), 167. base (=rprison-base), 213. basilisk, 186. j bate (=abatel, 189. bay (=bark at), 220. be what it is, 217. beastly, 192, 213. beconied, 223. benefit o' the wind, 210. bent, to the, 165. beseech your patience, 168. beseeming (noun), 223. best, you 're, 190, 199. bestrid, 212. betid, 211. beyond beyond, 189. bloods, 165. bold (that), 185. bondage (^fidelity), 186. bore in hand, 218. bound (play upon), 202. brain (verb), 217. brands (=torches), 186. bravely, 180, 186. bravery (=defiance), 187. brawns, 209. bring (=accompany), 168. brotherly (adverb), 204. bugs ( = bugbears), 214. by-peeping, 178. calves' -guts, 182. cap (= obeisance), 192. capon (play upon), 180. carl, 213. ) carriage (=carrying off), 197. I cased (=masked), 213. I Cassibelan, 165. cave (verb), 204. cave-keeper, 209. century ( = hundred), 210. chance thou changest on, 173 change (=caprice), 187. characters (=letters), 203. characters (=writing), 188. charmed, 214. charming, 169, 213. check (=rebuke), 191. cherubins, 186. cinque-spotted, 181. circumstances (= details), 185. citizen (=effeminate), 201. civil (=r civilized), 199. clean (adverb), 199. clip (= embrace), 184, 224. close (=secret), 198. clotpoll, 205. clouted brogues, 206. cloy (=claw), 217. cloyed importantly, 211. cognizance, 186. collection (=inference), 224. common-kissing Titan, 197. companion (--fellow), 180. company (verb), 223. comparative for, 184. conclusions (=experiments), condition ( = disposition ), 220. conduct (=escort), 197. confiners, 209. confiscate (accent), 222. confounded, 171. consequence, 184. consider, 218. consider (=requite), 182. considered of, 195. consign to thee, 208. constant-qualified, 171. consummation, 209. content thee, 173. conveyed (=stolen), 166. convince (^overcome), ijic cordial (^reviving), 173.' 230 INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED. counters, 217. courages, 185. court (=court affairs), 198. crack (=bluster), 220. cracked (=broken), 169, 220. crare, 205. crave to be demanded, 210. crescent note, 170. crop (verb), 175. cross the book, 192. curbed from enlargement, 184. curious (=careful), 179. Cytherea, 180. dagger in my mouth, 203. dead (=as if dead), 221. dear loss, 222. debitor and creditor, 217. decay (= destroy), 173. deep (of swearing), 183. defect, 203, 226. definite, 176. delicate, 218. delighted (=delightful), 216. depend (=impend), 210. depending on their brands, 186. desire my man's abode, 177. desperate bed, 210. Diana's rangers, 182. die the death, 203. dieter, 203. differing multitudes, 200. diminution of space, 169. disedged, 195. dishonestly afflicted, 202. _ distinction should be rich in, 223. divine (accent), 180, 204. doers' thrift, to the, 212. doing nothing for a bribe, 191, 226. doubting things go ill, 177. dragons of the night, 181. drawn (=emptied), 217. drawn to head, 198. drive us to a render, 211. drug-damned, 193. dullard, 221. during their use, 211. each elder worse, 212. eagle (feminine), 224. elected deer, 195. election, a true, 169. empery, 178. enchafed, 204. encounter, 169, 200. encounter revolt, 178. end (=.die), 218. enforce (=force), 210, 221. en^ *ain (=employ), 210. estate (=state), 218. even (verb), 197. even before, 199. event (=issue), 197. exhibition (=allowance), 178. exile (accent), 198. exorciser, 209. extend him, 170. extend him within himself, 165. fail (noun), 195. fairies (malignant), 180. fallen off (^revolted), 200. false (verb), 182. fan (metaphor), 179. fangled, 217. fast (= fasted), 210. fatherly (adverb), 182. favour (=beauty), 176. favour (=personal appear- ance), 194, 203, 219. feared, 185. fearful (=full of fear), 194. feat (adjective), 218. feated, 166. feature (=shape), 219. fedary, 188. fell (=cruel), 203. fetch us in, 194, 204. fierce, 223. fitment, 223. fits (=befits), 197. fitted (= prepared), 218. fled forward 168. fools are not mad folks, 184. foot us, 216. for (=because), 204. for food (=for want of food), •199. for his heart, 180. fore-end, 192. forespent, 182. forestall him of, 198. fore-thinking, 197. forfeiters, 189. forfend, 221. forlorn (accent), 223. foundations (play upon), 199. fragments, 213. franchise, 188. franklin, 190. fraught (noun), 167. fretted (=embossed), 186. friend (=lover), 171. friendly (adverb), 224. from (=away from), 170, 192, 223. full of view, 196. full-hearted, 213. full-winged, 19 1. fumes, 209. furnaces (verb), 177. gain his colour, 204. gall, 166. Gallian, 177. gallowses, 217. gan, 213,220. gave the affront, 214. gave you ground (play uponjl 169. geek, 216. gentle (=well-born), 202. giglot, 187. gins, 181. go back, 172. go even, 171. good wax, thy leave ! 189. Gordian knot, 181. groat morning, 203. great' St, 178. guise of the world, 213. habits (=dress), 212. hand-fast, 174. hangings, 192. . happily (=hapiy), 201. happy (=fortunate , 197. harder (=:too hard), 197. hardiment, 216. hardiness, 199. hardness (=hardship), 199. hark thee, 173. have at it, 222. have with you ! 212. having (noun), 169. haviour, 193. head (=armed force), 204. heard no letter, 211. Hecuba, 209. herblets, 209. hilding, 184. holp, 223. home (adverb), 198, 209. how (=however), 202. howsoe' er, 204. hunt (=game), 200. huswife, 202. I am in heaven, 169. I bid for you as I 'd buy, 200 ignorant, 187. imperious (—imperial), 202. imperseverant, 201. importance (=import), 171. importantly, 211. importuned (accent), 221. in (=into), 200. in (—on). 200. i' the clock's behalf, 190. in their serving, 197. in watch, 194. incivil. 221. ingenious, 205. injurious, 187, 203. WiEtiiict (.accent), 205, 223. INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED. ^Z instruct of, 210. insultment, 198. intergatories, 223. inward (noun), 193. irregulous, 209. issues (=acts), 180. it (possessive), 196. jack (in bowling), 179. Jack-slave, i So- jet (=strut), 190. ^ewel, 172, 184,219. join his honour, 165. journal (=diurnal), 201. Jovial, 209, 216. joyed (transitive), 223. jump (= risk), 217. justicer, 220. keep at utterance, 188. keep house, 190. ken, within a, 199. kissed the jack, 179, kitchen-trulls, 220. knowing (noun), 170, 183. known together, 170. laboursome, 197. lady, ladies, woman, 198. laming, 219. lapped, 222. lay (=wager), 172. leaned unto, 166. learn'd (=learned), 188. learned (=taught), 173. learnings, 166. leave (=leave off), 172, 180. Leonati seat, 216. Leonatus', 200. let blood, 204. let proof speak, 188. lie bleeding in me, 193. liegers, 174. like (=equally), 192. like (=please), 182. like a crow, 190. likely to report themselves, 186. limbmeal, 186. line, 182. long of, 221. look upon (=face), 185. looks us like, 198. loud'st, 198. lover (feminine), 220. loyal'st, 166. Lucina, 216. Lud's town, 187, 203. mad (verb), 181, 209. made fault, 200. made much on, 205. made scruple, 220. make them dread it, to the doers' thrift, 212. makes him, 170. makes your admiration, 176. mannerly (adverb), 200. Mary-buds, 182. match (=compact), 200. matter (=business), 211. mean affairs, 189. medicinable, 188. medicine (verb), 207. Mercurial, 209. mere (=absolute), 203. mile (plural), 209. mineral (=poison), 218. minioR (=darling), 182. miracle, 202. moe, 187, 188, 214. moiety, 172. monument, as a, 181. mortal {=;deadly), 170, 214, 218. most bravest, 209. most coldest, 181. most worthiest, 179. motion (^impulse), 187. mows (=grimaces), 176. mulier (derivation), 224. Mulmucius, 164, 188. mutest, 178. naught, 221. nice (=affected), 187. niceness, 196. Nile (without article), 193. noble misery, 214. none a, 177. nonpareil, 187. north (=wind), 169. not (transposed), 179,211. note (=distinction), 170, 175, 184, 192. notej=list), 173. nothing (adverb), 166, 171. now (=just now), 214. odds (number), 213. *ods pittikins, 209. of (=by), 200. of (=on), 212. of 's, 165. offered mercy, 169. on (=of), 168, 205. opened (=disclosed), 218. oppositions, 201. or (=before), 185. or ere (=before), 190, 214. orbs (Ptolemaic), 222. ordered (=disciplined), 185. ordinance, 204. other (plural), 205. out-craftied, 193. out-peer, 200. outsell, 186, 198. outstood, 179. outward (noun), 165. o'ergrown, 211. over his occasions, 218. owe (=own}, 187. packing, 198. paid (play upon), 217. paid (=punished), 207. paled in, 187. panged, 195. pantier, 184. parish, 204. parted (=departed), 200. partisans (=halberds), 210. passable, 168. passage (occurrence), 195. peculiar (=personal),2i8. peevish (=silly), 177. perfect {=assured), 188, 20^ perforce, 188. pervert (=avert), 186. Phcebus' wheel, 220. pickaxes (=fingers), 210. pinch (=pang), 167. pleaseth (=if it please), 173 point forth, 224. Posthumus (accent), 166. posting winds, 193. postures beyond brief nat ure, 219. power of, 201. power on you, 223. practice (=artifice), 220. prefer (=recommend), 182, 210. preferment, 217. preferred (=promoted), 184, 222. pregnant (=probable), 209. presently, 184. pretty and full of view, 196. priest (feminine), 178. prince it, 192. princely fellows, 195. prize (==value), 200. probation (=proof), 222. profane (accent), 184. prone, 217. proof (—-experience), 177, 192 proof (of armour), 218. proof (=trial), 188. proper (=goodly), 195. proper (=own), 203. prunes (verb), 217. pudency, 187. put on (=incite),2ia, puttock, 168. quarrellous, 196. quartered fires, 211. quench (intransitive), i/J* 232 INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED. ramps, 178. rangers, 182. rank (play upon), 180. raps, 176. rar'st. 219. ravening, 176. ready (=dressed), 183. reason (=talk), 202. reck (=care), 204. recoil (=fall off>, 178. refts _(=reft'st), 193. remain (noun), 188. render (noun), 211. render (=state), 219. resty, 200. retire (noun), 213. revenue (accent), 185. revolt (=faithlessness), 178. revolts (=deserters), 211. rip thy heart, 198. ripely, 198. - Romish, 179. - ruddock, 207. rud'st, 205. rushes (for floors), 180. safe (=sound), 204. saucy, 179. saving reverence of, 201. say you, sir? 210. sayest thou? 180. scar, 221. scorn (=mockery), 217. scriptures, 195. sear, 167. searched (=sought), 218. seasons comfort, 174. seconds (noun), 214. see (=see each other), 167. seek us through, 204. self (-—same), 178. self- figured, 184. senseless (double meaning), 182. senseless of, 168. set on (= march on), 224. set up (= instigate), 195. shaked, 174. shall (=will), 196. shall 's, 207, 220. shame (=modesty), 213. shameless-desperate, 218. sharded beetle, 191, 226. shes, 169, 176. shift his bemg, 173. shop (^storehouse), 220. short (verb), 179. shot (=reckoning), 217. 'shrew me, 184. shrine (:=image), 219. Sienna's brother, 210. sign (=outward show), 169. silly (=rustic), 214. simular, 220- single oppositions, 201. Sinon's weeping, 194. sir, 179, 219. slaughter-man, 214. slight in sufferance, 198. slip you, 2 10. snuff, 177. so (=be it so), 181, 197. so (omitted), 213, 216, 220. solace (intransitive), 177. soldier to, 197- solicits (noun), 182- something (adverb), 166, 172. sots (=foolsi,22o. south-fog rot him ! 184. speak him far, 165. speak thick, 189. spectacles (=eyes), 176. speed (==fare), 217. spirits (monosyllable), 192. spongy south, 210. sprightly, 200. sprited with, 184. spritely shows, 223. spur and stop, 177. spurs (of trees), 203. squire's cloth, 184. staggers (noun), 220. stand (in hunting), 182, 195. stand (=withstand), 214. stand for, 198. starve (with cold), 173. states (=persons), 193. statist, 185. stir him, 202. story (verb), 170. straight-pight, 219. strain (=race), 202. strange (=foreign), 177. stride a limit, 192. such . . . that, 171, 178, 185, 190. sufficeth (=it suffices), 218. summer news, 193. suppliant (=auxiliary), 201. supplyment, 197. supreme (accent), 174. sur-addition, 165. sweet' st, 222. swerve (=err), 217- synod, 216. tables (=letters), 189. take in (=subdue), 188, 204. take me up, 180. take off some extremity, 193. take or lend, 199. targes, 217. tasting of, 221. taught of, 220. temper (=mix), 221. Tenantius, 165. tender (=presentation), 179 tender of, 198. tent (=probe), 196. Tereus, 181. that (affix), 198. thee (=thou), 173. then to shift it, 168. there be, 187. thereto (=besides), 211. Thersites, 207. ' thinks scorn, 212. those ... as, 222. three thousand confident, 213. throughfare, 168. throughly, 185,200. thunder-stone, 208. tinct, 180. tir'st on, 195. to (=compared with), 192. to (=in additioii to), 209. to (omitted), 181. to friend, 172. to the note o' the king, 211. tomboys, 178. tongue (verb), 217. touch more rare, a, i68. touch my shoulder, 214. toys (=trifles), 205. trims, 197. troth (=truth), 221. true (=honest), 182. tune (^voice), 220. turbans, 190. twinned, 175. under her colours, 170. undergo (--undertake), 172, 198. undertake every companion, 180. unlustrous, 178. unnumbered (beach), 176. unshaked, 180. unspeaking, 220. untwine with, 203. up (=put up), 186. up-cast, 180. upon a desperate bed, 210. upon our note, 211. utterance, at, 188. vantage, 169, 182, 220. venge, 177. verbal (= verbose), 184. vomit emptiness, 176. voyage upon her, 173. wage (=wager), 172. wake mine eyeballs blind, '95- walk (^withdraw), 168,219. INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED 233 wanton (masculine), 201. warrant of bloody affirma- tion, 171. watching, 185. weeds ( — garments), 212. wench-like, 207. what (=^why), 193. what mortality is! 201. what thing is it! 212. whenas, 217,224. whereon, 193. which (=who), 184, 209. whiles, 173. whiter than the sheets, i8o. who (=whom), 179, 192, 203, 218. whom (=which), 207. whom (=who), 172. whose mother was her paint- ing, 194. will not from it, 173. windows (= eyelids', 180. winds of all the comers, .185. winking, 182, 186, 217. ■ftdnter-ground, 207. wisely definite, 176. witch (masculine), 179. with (=by), 184, 193. woe is my heart, 217. woodman (=hunter), 199. words him, 170. worms (=serpents), 193. wrack, 177, 210. wrings (—writhes), 200. write against, 187. wrote (—written), 197. wrying, 212. ye, 197. yearns age, 167. yet (transposed), 183, 224. yond, 190. you 're best consider, 190. AUGUSTUS. ^. ^ ;/i.il /vQ ROLFE'S ENGLISH CLASSICS Desi§fned for Use in High Schools and Other Secondary Schools Edited by WILLLAM J. ROLFE, Litt D. Formerly Head Master, High School, Cambridge, Mass. Uniform Flexible Cloth, J2mo. Illustrated. Each, 56 Cents Browning*s Select Poems Twenty Poems (including " Pippa Passes"), with Introduction, Life of Browning-, Chronological Table of His Works, List of Books useful in studying them, Critical Comments, and Notes. Browning^s Select Dramas Containing " A Blot in the 'Scutcheon," " Colombe's Birthday," and "A Soul's Tragedy" — with Introduction, Critical Comments, and Notes. Goldsmith's Select Poems "The Traveller," "The Deserted Village," and "Retaliation,'* with Life of Goldsmith, Recollections and Criticisms by Thackeray, Coleman the Younger, Campbell, Forster, and Irving, and Notes. 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