Phi.

Quite besides
The government of patience!-You have won :
Let's follow him, and pervert the present wrath
He hath against himself.
Iach.

With all my heart.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

The Same. Another Room in the Same.

Enter POSTHUMUS.

Post. 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 stamped; 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.-Oh vengeance, vengeance!
Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain'd,
And pray'd me oft forbearance; did it with

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:-Oh, all the devils!—

This yellow Iachimo, in an hour, was't not,

Or less?-at first: perchance he spoke not, but,

Like a full-acorn'd boar, a foaming one',.

• Must be half-workers?] Steevens, very appositely, refers to the celebrated passage in Milton's "Paradise Lost," B. x., where Adam exclaims,

"See also," adds Steevens, "Rodomont's invective against women in the 'Orlando Furioso;' and, above all, a speech which Euripides has put into the mouth of Hippolytus in the Tragedy that bears his name."

7 Like a full-acorn'd boar, a FOAMING one,] The old spelling is “a larmen on," which afterwards became "a Jarmen on," and has usually in modern times been printed "a German one;" as if no boar but "a German one" would answer the purpose. The "full-acorn'd boar" was "foaming" in the eagerness of his animal desire; and the corr. fo. 1632 has "a foaming one" for "a Iarmen on," which we adopt, instead of the unintelligible nonsense of the old copies.

Cry'd "oh!" and mounted; found no opposition
But what he look'd for should oppose, and she
Should from encounter guard. 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, her's; deceiving, her's;
Lust and rank thoughts, her's, her's; revenges, her's';
Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,
Nice longings, slanders, mutability,

All faults that may be nam'd'; nay, that hell knows,
Why, her's, 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'll write against them,
Detest them, curse them.-Yet 'tis greater skill,
In a true hate, to pray they have their will:
The very devils cannot plague them better.

[Exit.

ACT III. SCENE I.

Britain. A Room of State in CYMBELINE'S Palace.

Enter CYMBELINE, Queen, CLOTEN, and Lords, at one door; and at another, CAIUS LUCIUS and Attendants.

Cym. Now say, what would Augustus Cæsar with us?
Luc. When Julius Cæsar (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 Cæsar's praises, no whit less

8 Lust and rank thoughts, her's, her's; revenges, her's ;] This is one of the lines altogether omitted in the edition of Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, Vol. xiii. p. 91: it is in every old copy, and in every other modern one. The occasion of the error was the ordinary one, that, two following lines ending with "her's," the compositor thought that he had printed both, when he had only printed one.

All faults that MAY BE NAM'D;] This is the reading of the folio, 1632: that of 1623 has "All faults that name."

Than in his feats deserving it) for him,

And his succession, granted Rome a tribute,

Yearly three thousand pounds; which by thee lately
Is left untender'd.

A world by itself; and we will nothing pay

For wearing our own noses.

Queen.

That opportunity,
Which then they had to take from us, 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, ribb'd and paled in

With rocks unscaleable', and roaring waters;

With sands, that will not bear your enemies' boats,
But suck them up to the top-mast. A kind of conquest
Cæsar 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 fam'd Cassibelan, who was once at point
(Oh, giglot Fortune!) to master Cæsar's sword,
Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright,
And Britons strut with courage.

Clo. 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 more such Cæsars: other of them have crooked noses; but, to owe such straight arms, none3.

may

1 With ROCKS unscaleable,] The epithet shows that the old reading of oaks for "rocks" was a misprint in the folios. Sir Thomas Hanmer made the change, and we find it in MS. in the corr. fo. 1632.

2 (Oh, GIGLOT Fortune!)] "Giglot" is to be taken in the sense of wanton, light, or easy to be turned, and has the same etymology as gig, being its diminutive. Thus " giglot Fortune" is "strumpet Fortune," an epithet applied to the goddess in " King John," A. iii. sc. 1, Vol. iii. p. 155, and in "Hamlet," A. ii. sc. 2, Vol. v. p. 525.

3

– but, to owe such straight arms, none.] i. e. As often before, "to own such straight arms" see Vol. ii. pp. 210. 551. 575. 661, &c.

Cym. Son, let your mother end.

Clo. We have yet many among us can gripe as hard as Cassibelan: I do not say, I am one; but I have a hand.Why tribute? why should we pay tribute? If Cæsar 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.

Cym. You must know,

Till the injurious Romans did extort

This tribute from us, we were free: Cæsar'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 us; which to shake off,
Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon
Ourselves to be.

Clo.
Cym.

We do '.

Say, then, to Cæsar,

Our ancestor was that Mulmutius, which

Ordain'd our laws; whose use the sword of Cæsar

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.

Luc.

I am sorry, Cymbeline,
That I am to pronounce Augustus Cæsar
(Cæsar, that hath more kings his servants, than
Thyself domestic officers) thine enemy.

Receive it from me, then.-War, and confusion,
In Cæsar's name pronounce I 'gainst thee: look
For fury not to be resisted.

I thank thee for myself.

Cym.

Thus defied,

Thou art welcome, Caius. Thy Cæsar knighted me; my youth I spent

Clo. We do.] This is one of Cloten's impertinent and braggart interruptions, according to the corr. fo. 1632; after which Cymbeline continues, naturally enough, “Say, then, to Cæsar," &c. It is a decided improvement upon the usual mode of printing the line, with the awkward and weakening insertion of "We do" in the middle of the energetic speech of the King,

"Ourselves to be. We do say then to Cæsar." It is quite in character for Cloten to interpose his " We do," just after Cymbeline has declared that the Britons reckon themselves to be a warlike people.

Much under him; of him I gather'd honour;
Which he, to seek of me again, perforce,
Behoves me keep at utterance'. I am perfect,
That the Pannonians and Dalmatians, for
Their liberties, are now in arms; a precedent
Which not to read would show the Britons cold:
So Cæsar shall not find them.

Luc.

Let proof speak.

Clo. 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 your's. If you fall in the adventure, our crows shall fare the better for you; and there's an end.

Luc. So, sir.

Cym. I know your master's pleasure, and he mine: All the remain is, welcome.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another Room in the Same.

Enter PISANIO, with a letter.

Pis. How! of adultery? Wherefore write you not What monster's her accuser?-Leonatus!

Oh, 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'.-Oh, my master!

S keep AT UTTERANCE.] i. e. To keep at the extremity of defiance. Combat à outrance (says Steevens) is a fight, that must conclude with the life of one of the combatants. In "Macbeth," A. iii. sc. 1, Vol. v. p. 418, we read,

"Rather than so, come, fate, into the list,

And champion me to the utterance."

So also in "Troilus and Cressida," A. iv. sc. 5, Vol. iv. p. 563, "either to the utterance," which has always been misprinted "either to the uttermost."

• What monster's her ACCUSER?] We think, with the Rev. Mr. Dyce, that the letter r had dropped out at the end of accuse as it stands in the old copies. The measure, indeed, detects the error.

7 As would TAKE IN some virtue.] The phrase "to take in," which is equivalent to overcome or conquer, we have already had in "Antony and Cleopatra," this Vol. p. 194.