Cym. The time is troublesome, We'll flip you for a season, but our jealousy [To Pis. Does yet depend. Lord. So please your Majefty, The Roman Legions, all from Gallia drawn, Cym. Now for the counfel of my Son and Queen!I am amaz'd with matter. Lord. Good my Liege, 7 Your preparation can affront no lefs Than what you hear of. Come more, for more you're ready; The want is, but to put these Powers in motion, Cym. I thank you. Let's withdraw, And meet the time, as it feeks us. We fear not [Exeunt. Perplext in all. The heavens ftill muft work. Guid. Enter Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus, HE noife is round about us. TH Bel. Let us from it. Aro. What pleasure, Sir, find we in life, to lock it From action and adventure? Guid. Nay, what hope Have we in hiding us? this way the Romans During their ufe, and flay us after. Bel. Sons, We'll higher to the mountains, there fecure us. That which we've done, whofe anfwer would be death Drawn on with torture. Guid. This is, Sir, a doubt, In fuch a time, nothing becoming you, Nor fatisfying us. Arv. It is not likely, That when they hear the Roman horfes nigh, Behold their quarter'd fires, have both their eyes That they will wafte their time upon our note 9 -a Render Where we have liv'd;-] An account of our place of abode. This dialogue is a juft reprefentation of the fuperfluous caution of an old man. whofe anfwer-] The retaliation of the death of Cloten would be death, &c. 2their quarter'd fires,Their fires regularly disposed. Bel. Bel. Oh, I am known Of many in the army; many years, Though Cloten then but young, you fee, not wofe him From my remembrance. And, besides, the King. Guid. Than be fo, Better to cease to be. Pray, Sir, to th' army; Arv. By this Sun that fhines, I'll thither; what thing is it, that I never A rider like myself who ne'er wore rowel, To look upon the holy Sun, to have Guid. By heav'ns, I'll go; If you a will blefs me, Sir, and give me leave, I'll take the better care; but if you will not, The hazard therefore due fall on me, by The hands of Romans! Arv. So fay I, Amen. Bel. No reafon I, fince of your lives you fet So flight a valuation, fhould referve My crack'd one to more care. Have with you, boys; If in your country wars you chance to die, bed too, lads; and there I'll lie. 4 Lead, Lead, lead. The time feems long: their blood thinks fcorn [Afide. 'Till it fly out, and shew them Princes born. [Exeunt. YEA, bloody cloth, I'll keep thee; for I wisht, Thou fhouldft be colour'd thus. You married Ones, If each of you would take this courfe, how many Every good fervant does not all Commands; 3 bloody bandkerchief.] The bloody token of Imogen's death, which Pifanio in the foregoing act determined to fend. 4 Yea, bloody cloth, &c.] This is a foliloquy of nature, uttered when the effervefcence of a mind agitated and perturbed fpontaneously and inadvertently discharges itself in words. The fpeech throughout all its tenour, if the laft conceit be excepted, feems to iffue warm from the heart. He firft condemns his own violence; then tries to difburden himself, by imputing part of the crime to Pifanio; he next fooths his mind to an artificial and momentary tranquillity, by trying to think that he has been only an inftrument of the gods for the happinefs of Imogen. He is now grown reasonable enough to determine, that having done fo much evil he will do no more; that he will not fight against the country which he has already injured; but as life is not longer fupportable, he will die in a just cause, and die with the obfcurity of a man who does not think himself worthy to be remembered. Had Had liv'd to put on this; fo had you fav'd Me, wretch, more worth your vengeance. But alack, You fnatch fome hence for little faults; that's love, To have them fall no more; you fome permit 6 To fecond ills with ills, each elder worse, ? And make them dread it to the doers' thrift. to inftigate. -each elder worse,] For this reading all the later editors have contentedly taken, each worse than other, without enquiries whence they have received it. Yet they know, or might know, that it has no authority. The original copy reads, -each elder worse, The laft deed is certainly not the oldeft, but Shakespeare calls the deed of an elder man an elder deed. 7 And make them dread it, to the doers' thrift.] The Divinity-schools have not furnish'd jufter obfervations on the conduct of providence, than Pofthumus gives us here in his private reflections. You Gods, fays he, act in a different manner with your different creatures; i. e. others you permit to aggra vate one crime with more; which enormities not only make them revered and dreaded, but turn in other kinds to their advantage. Dignity, respect, and profit, accrue to them from crimes committed with impunity. THEOв. This emendation is followed by Hanmer. Dr. Warburton reads, I know not whether by the printer's negligence, And make them dread, to the doer's thrift. There feems to be no very fatisfactory fenfe yet offered. I read, but with hesitation, And make them deeded, to the doers' thrift. The word deeded I know not indeed where to find; but ShakeSpeare has, in another sense, undeeded, in Macbeth : -My Sword You fnatch fome bence for little I fheath again undeeded. I will try again, and read thus, And make them dread it, to the doers' thrift. Here's a relative without an antecedent fubftantive; which is a breach of grammar. We must certainly read, And make them dreaded, to the doers' thrift. VOL. VII. And make them trade it to the doer's thrift. Trade and thrift correfpond. Our authour plays with trade, as it fignifies a lucrative vocation, or a frequent practice. So Ifabella fays, B b Thy fins not accidental, but a trade. But |