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 no-
body can match.

Sec. Lord. [Aside] You are cock and capon
too; and you crow, cock, with your comb on.

Clo. Sayest thou?

Sec. Lord. It is not fit your lordship should 30 undertake every companion that you give

offense to.

Clo. No, I know that: but it is fit I should com-
mit offense to my inferiors.

Sec. Lord. Aye, it is fit for your lordship only.
Clo. Why, so I say.

First Lord. Did you hear of a stranger that's
come to court to-night?

Clo. A stranger, and I not know on 't!

Sec. Lord. [Aside] He's a strange fellow 40 himself, and knows it not.

First Lord. There's an Italian come, and 'tis thought, one of Leonatus' friends.

Clo. Leonatus! a banished rascal; and he's an-
other, whatsoever he be. Who told you of
this stranger?

First Lord. One of your lordship's pages.
Clo. Is it fit I went to look upon him? is there
no derogation in 't?

Sec. Lord. You cannot derogate, my lord.
Clo. Not easily, I think.

Sec. Lord. [Aside] You are a fool granted;

50

therefore your issues, being foolish, do not
derogate.

Clo. Come, I'll go see this Italian: what I have

lost to-day at bowls I 'll win to-night of him.

Come, go.

Sec. Lord. I'll attend your lordship.

59

[Exeunt Cloten and First Lord.
That such a crafty devil as is 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. Alas, poor princess,
Thou divine Imogen, what thou endurest,
Betwixt a father 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 'ld make! The heavens hold

firm

69. "horrid act of the divorce"; the original is here allowed on all hands to be corrupt; being literally thus:

"A Mother hourely coyning plots: a Wooer,
More hatefull then the foule expulsion is

Of thy deere Husband. Then that horrid Act

Of the divorce, heel'd make the Heavens hold firme
The walls of thy deere Honour."

Modern editions, with the exception of Knight's, make the clause, "Then, that horrid act," &c., a continuation of the foregoing sentence, thus: "More hateful than the foul expulsion is of thy dear husband, than that horrid act," &c. Knight connects the same clause with what follows, changing then into from, thus: "From that horrid Act of the divorce he'd make, the heavens hold firm," &c. We see no cause for any variation from the old copy, except in the pointing and in the changing of heel'd into he'd. Of course, as we print the passage, the clause, "Then that horrid act," &c., is thrown in as a sort of indignant or abhorrent ex

The walls of thy dear honor; keep unshaked 70 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 in Cymbeline's palace: a trunk in one corner of it.

Imogen in bed, reading; a Lady attending.

Imo. Who's there? my woman Helen?

Lady.

Imo. What hour is it?

Lady.

Please you, madam.

Almost midnight, madam.

Imo. 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 seized me wholly.

[Exit Lady.

To your protection I commend me, gods!
From fairies and the tempters of the night
Guard me, beseech ye!

10

[Sleeps. Iachimo comes from the trunk. clamation; and the following sentence has a tacit reference to "that horrid act." Both the usual reading and Knight's have an awkwardness about them which we can hardly believe belongs to the text. Our arrangement, besides varying less from the original presents, we think, a reading perfectly free and natural.-H. N. H.

Iach. The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labor'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 becomest 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! 'Tis her breathing that
Perfumes the chamber thus: the flame o' the

taper

Bows toward her, and would under-peep her lids

To see the unclosed lights, now canopied

20

Under those windows, white and azure, laced
With blue of heaven's own tinct. But my de-
sign,

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

13. "press the rushes"; it was anciently the custom to strew chambers with rushes.-H. N. H.

18. "How dearly they do 't"; how exquisitely they (her lips) kiss.

-C. H. H.

22. "white and azure"; this is an exact description of the eyelid of a fair beauty, which is white tinged with blue, and laced with veins of darker blue. By azure our ancestors understood not a dark blue, but a tinct or effusion of a blue color. Drayton seems to have had this passage in his mind:

"And these sweet veins by nature rightly plac'd

Wherewith she seems the white skin to have lac'd."-H. N. H.