Of these thy compounds on such creatures as We count not worth the hanging, (but none human) Allayments to their act; and by them gather Their several virtues, and effects. Cor. Your highness Shall from this practice but make hard your heart: Both noisome and infectious. Queen. Oh! content thee. Enter PISANIO. [Aside.] Here comes a flattering rascal! upon him And enemy to my son.-How now, Pisanio!- Cor. [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 stupify and dull the sense awhile; Which first, perchance, she'll prove on cats, and dogs, 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: therefore to make experiments. In “Antony and Cleopatra " (this Vol. p. 252), the heroine, we are told, had "pursued conclusions" of "easy ways to die." When thou shalt bring me word she loves my son, [The Queen drops a box: PISANIO takes it up. Five times redeem'd from death: I do not know That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how As thou❜lt 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. [Exit PISA.]-A sly and constant knave, Not to be shak'd; the agent for his master, And the remembrancer of her, to hold The handfast to her lord.-I have given him that, Of liegers for her sweet; and which she after, We 7 Think what a chance thou CHANCEST on ;] "Chancest is changest in the folios, but amended, not unnaturally, to "chancest" in the corr. fo. 1632. are convinced that changest was merely a misprint for "chancest;" and such was Malone's opinion, though he printed changest. 8 Of LIEGERS for her SWEET;] "Liegers" are ambassadors, or others resident in foreign courts to transmit information to their own: such was Pisanio, in reference to his master Posthumus, whom the Queen designates as the "sweet" of Imogen. "Sweet" is suite in the corr. fo. 1632, but the old text may be received without any change. Sidney and Bacon use suite. Re-enter PISANIO, and Ladies. To taste of too.-So, so;-well done, well done. Pis. [Exeunt Queen and Ladies. And shall do; I'll choke myself: there's all I'll do for you. [Exit. But when to my good lord I prove untrue, SCENE VII. Another Room in the Same. Enter IMOGEN. Imo. A father cruel, and a step-dame false; A foolish suitor to a wedded lady, That hath her husband banish'd:-Oh, that husband! As my two brothers, happy! but most miserable Enter PISANIO and IACHIMO. Pis. Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome Comes from my lord with letters. Iach. The worthy Leonatus is in safety, And greets your highness dearly. You are kindly welcome. Change you, madam? [Presents a letter. Thanks, good sir: [Aside. Iach. 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 Arm me, audacity, from head to foot, Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight; Imo. [Reads.] "He is one of the noblest note, to whose kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon him accordingly, 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.- Have words to bid you; and shall find it so, In all that I can do. Iach. What! are men mad? Thanks, fairest lady.— Imo. eyes What makes your admiration? 9 as you value your TRUEST-LEONATUS."] It is "as you value your trust-Leonatus " in every old edition; but M. Mason suggested that trust ought to be "truest," and in the corr. fo. 1632 an e is inserted, so as to convert trust into "truest:" consequently, we adopt "truest as the authentic word. 1 To see this vaulted arch, and the rich cOPE O'ER sea and land,] Warburton proposed "cope" for crop of the early impressions; and the same very appropriate word, following as it does "this vaulted arch," is met with in the corr. fo. 1632: the same authority also tells us to read "O'er" for Of, which, though perhaps less necessary, is still recommended by extreme fitness, for "the rich cope" covered, or extended over both sea and land. It would not be improper to talk of "the rich crop" of the land; but "the rich crop" of the sea is certainly a greater novelty, upon which those who have criticised the passage, and who wished to preserve crop, have not remarked. 2 Upon TH' UNNUMBER'D beach ;] This was Theobald's emendation for "the number'd beach" of the folios, and ten years ago we expressed our preference for it over any other change. We meet with it also in the corr. fo. 1632, where the number'd is altered to "th' unnumber'd," and we are satisfied that it must be what Shakespeare wrote. 3 Should make desire vomit to emptiness,] The preposition is from the corr. fo. 1632, and as it completes the sense as well as the verse, we give it place in the Such as persevere in the old reading must tell us in what way desire could "vomit emptiness:" it might vomit to emptiness, i. e. until it was empty. text. Not so allur'd to feed. Imo. What is the matter, trow? Iach. (That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, The cloyed will, That tub both fill'd and running) ravening first Imo. Thus raps you? Are you well? What, dear sir, Iach. Thanks, madam, well.-Beseech you, sir, desire So Imo. Continues well my lord? His health, beseech you? Iach. Well, madam. Imo. Is he dispos'd to mirth? I hope, he is. Iach. Exceeding pleasant; none, a stranger there, and so gamesome: he is call'd merry The Briton reveller. Imo. He did incline to sadness; and oft-times Not knowing why. Iach. When he was here, 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, "Oh! 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 But must be,-will his free hours languish for Imo. Will my lord say so ? Iach. 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, 4 But must be,--will his free hours languish FOR] It seems right thus to regulate the passage: lines in Shakespeare's plays, of about the period when "Cymbeline was written, are often terminated by small words. See "Remarks on Shakespeare's Versification," &c. by C. B. Lond. 1857, p. 135. |