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Luc. When Julius. Cæfar, (whofe remembrance yet

Lives in mens' eyes, and will to ears and tongues
Be theme, and hearing ever) was in this Britain,
And conquered it, Caffibelan, thine uncle, (23)
(Famous in Cæfar's praises, no whit less

Than in his feats deferving it) for him,
And his fucceffion, granted Rome a tribute
Yearly three thoufand pounds; which by thee
Is left untendered.

Queen. And, to kill the marvel,

Shall be fo ever.

Clot. There be many Cæfars,

(23)

-Caffibelan, thine uncle,

for bin,

And his fucceffion, granted Rome a tribute,

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Yearly three thousand pounds; which by thee lately Is left untendered.] The Poet muft mean, thy great uncle, or uncle once removed for Cymbeline was the fon of Tenantius, who was the fon of Lud: and Lud and Caflibelan were brothers. But, I have hinted in the first note to this play, that our Author frequently has made bold with his hiftory. The paffage before us furnishes more than one iuftance. It was in the 20th year of Tenantius's reign, that Augustus Cæfar had a defign, for the second time, of invading us; and ambaffadors came to him at Ariminum from Britain to folicit a peace. So that it was Tenantius more probably, who had with-held the payment of the tribute granted by Caffibelan. Cymbeline, on the other hand, 'tis faid, was fent over in his youth to Rome, received his education there, was careffed by Auguftus, and called the Friend of the Roman people. Befides, that Cymbeline acquiefced to this tribute, (as we have no vouchers to the contrary in hiftory) may be gathered from the old coin with his head on one fide, and CU NOBELIN inferibed round it; and TASCHIA, on the reverfe, i. e. an impoft or tribute. For tafcu, in the old British, means to lay any burden. So tefka, among the Sarmatians and old Celts, figaified an impofition

Ere fach another Julius: (24) 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 refume
We have again. Remember, Sir, my Liege,
The kings your ancestors; together with
The natʼral bravery of your ifle, which stands,
As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in

With oaks unfcaleable, and roaring waters;

With fands that will not bear your enemies boats, But fuck them up to th' top-mast. A kind of conqueft

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Cæfar made here, but made not here his brag

Of, came, and faw, and overcame. With fhame (The firft that ever touched him) he was carried From off our coaft, 'twice beaten; and his fhipping (Poor ignorant baubles) on our terrible feas,

Like egg-fhells moved upon their furges, cracked As eafily 'gainst our rocks. For joy whereof,

or grievance; and from the old Tafhia we derive our words ufed at this day, tax and tak.But I shall have occafion in the fequel of this fcene to inquire into the precife time when our Poet fuppofes this war on Britain: and from thence we shall easily glean his trespass on chronology. Britain is

(24)

A world by 'tfelf.]·

In like manner, almoft, has Virgil fpoken of our Britain; Et penitus toto divifos orbe Britannos.

And Lucius Florus, I obferve, where he is mentioning what conquefts are referved for Julius Cæfar, feems purposely to have copied this defcription of the above-quoted Poet; Et quamvis toto orbe divifa, qui vinceret, habuit Britannia Lib. 3. Claudian likewife fpeaks of us as divided from

cap. 10.

the Roman world;

-Germanoque tethys

Paruit et noftro diducta Britannia mundo.

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In Paneg. Theod

The famed Caffibelan, who was once at point (25)
(Oh giglet Fortune!) to mafter Cæfar's fword,
Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright,
And Britons ftrut with courage.

Clot. Come, there's no more tribute to be paid. Our kingdom is ftronger than it was at that time; and, as I faid, there is no more fuch Cæfars: other of them may have crooked nofes, but to own fuch ftrait arms, none.

Cym. Son, let your mother end.

Glot. We have yet many among us can gripe as hard as Caffibelan; I do not say I am one; but I have a hand.- Why tribute? why thould we pay tribute? if Cæfar can hide the fun from us with a

And Horace calls us a people fituated in the extremity of the creation:

Serves iturum Cafarem in ultimos

Orbis Britannos.

Lib. I. Ode 35.

And Servius, upon the paffage in Virgil, has remarked, that Britain was called by the poets alter orbis terrarum. But our Poet, perhaps, might have none of these claffical paffages in view, but be alluding to what is recorded of Caffibelan in the chronicles. When Comius of Arras came to him with a meffage from Julius Cæfar, in which homage and fubjection and a tribute were demanded, Caffibelan replied, "That the ambition of the Romans was infatia"ble, who would not fuffer Britain, a new world, placed by Nature in the ocean, and beyond the bounds of their empire, to ly unmolefted."

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(25) The famed Caffibelan, who was once at point

(Oh, giglet Fortune !) to mafter Cæfar's fword.] The Poet is here alluding to a private matter of fact, though he takes the liberty to put a change on the parties concerned in it. The British history (as Holingfhead lets us know) has recorded, that Nenius, the brother of Caffibelan, in one engagement fought hand to hand against Cæfar; who driving a furious blow at him, fixed the blade of his sword in Nenius's fhield: by which Cæfar was in very imminent danger but he happily difengaged his weapon, and acquitted himself fo manfully, that Nenius died within fifteen days of the wounds received in that encounter.

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blanket, or put the moon in his pocket, we will pay him tribute for light; elfe, Sir, no more tribute, pray you now.

Cym. You must know,

'Till the injurious Romans did extort

This tribute from us, we were free. Cæfar's ambition,

Which fwelled fo much that it did almost stretch
The fides o' th' world, against all colour, here
Did put the yoke upon's; which to thake off
Becomes a warlike people (which we reckon
Ourselves to be) to do. Say then to Cæfar,
Our anceftor was that Mulmutius, who (26)
Ordained our laws, whofe ufe the fword of Cæfar
Hath too much mangled; whofe repair and fran-
chife

Shall by the power we hold be our good deed,
Though Rome be therefore angry: that Mulmutius

(26) Our ancestor was that Mulmutius, who

Ordained our laws, &c.]

Mulmutius Dunwallo, (or Dunvallo Molmutius, as he is otherwife called) obtained the dominion of Britain about 436 years before the birth of Chrift, and 414 before the beginning of Cymbeline's reign. He is faid to have held his government, 40 years and built the temple of Peace, where he was afterwards buried, in London, (then Troynovant) fo often quoted by British chronologers. He compiled a fet of wholefome laws, that took their general name from him; which were faid to have been turned out of the British fpeech into Latin by Gildas; (who was born, A. D. 493) and, long. after out of Latin into the Saxon idiom by King Alfred. He made himself of fuch reverence and authority, that, by the confent of the grandees of the land, he obtained a crown of gold, and eaufed himself with great folemnity to be crowned, according to the cuftom of the Pagan laws then in ufe. And because he was the first who wore a regal crown here, he is by fome writers named the First King of Britain; all before him be ftiled only rulers, dukes, or governors, faith Holingfhead.

Who was the first of Britain which did put
His brows within a golden crown, and called
Himself a king.

Luc. I'm forry, Cymbeline,.

That I am to pronounce Auguftus Cæfar
(Cæfar, that hath more kings his fervants than
Thyfelf domeftic officers) thine enemy.

Receive it from me then. War and confufion
In Cæfar's name pronounce 1 against thee: look
For fury not to be refifted.

I thank thee for myself.

Thus defied,

Cym. Thou'rt welcome, Caius;

Thy Cæfar knighted me; my youth I fpent
Much under him: of him I gathered honour,
Which he to feek of me again perforce, (27)

(27)

-Of him I gathered honour,

Which he to feek of me again perforce,.
Behoves me keep at variance.]

This is fenfe, but it is one of those fophiftications of the text, which Mr Pope, notwithstanding his affertions to the contrary, has obtruded upon us, without any countenance or authority from the old books. And why, forfooth, but because he did not understand the genuine reading ? Ait the copies that I have feen, read ;

Behoves me keep at utterance.

i. e. at all hazards, at the utmoft extremity of peril. Utterance, extremity; fays the old gloffary to Chaucer : fo in a poem prefixed to that poet's works, and addreffed to the King and knights of the Garter;

Ye lordis eke, fhining in noble fame,
To which appropred is the maintenaunce
Of Chriftis caufe, in honour of his name,
Shove on, and put his foes to utterance.

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i. e. extremity, utter deftruction. So in the Three Sieges of Troy, printed by Winken de Werde;

His dolour and pain grew and enlarged to the utterances So Sir Robert Dimock, the champion at K. Richard H.'s coronation, made proclamation, as Holingfhead tells us ;. Whoever fhall fay, that King Richard is not lawful King, I will fight with him at the utterance.

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