Cym. Now for the counsel of my son and queen!— I am amaz'd with matter.

1 Lord.

Good my liege,

Your preparation can affront no less

Than what you hear of come more, for more you're ready. The want is, but to put those powers in motion,

I thank you.

That long to move.
Cym.
Let's withdraw,
And meet the time, as it seeks us: we fear not
What can from Italy annoy us, but
We grieve at chances here.-Away

Pis. I had no letter from my master, since
I wrote him Imogen was slain. 'Tis strange:
Nor hear I from my mistress, who did promise
To yield me often tidings; neither know I
What is betid to Cloten, but remain

Perplex'd in all: the heavens still must work.

[Exeunt.

Wherein I am false, I am honest; not true, to be true:
These present wars shall find I love my country,
Even to the note o' the king, or I'll fall in them.
All other doubts by time let them be clear'd;
Fortune brings in some boats that are not steer'd.

[Exit.

Arv. What pleasure, sir, find we in life', to lock it From action and adventure ?

Gui.

Nay, what hope

4 I HAD no letter from my master,] So the corr. fo. 1632, instead of "heard no letter" of the folio, 1623. Sir Thomas Hanmer read I've had, but Pisanio speaks elliptically, and there can be little doubt that "I had," for "I have had," was the language of Shakespeare.

51

FIND WE in life,] This is clearly a question, and so it is printed in the folio, 1632: the folio, 1623, puts it merely as an assertion, "we find in life," &c. The next speech seems to correct the error.

Have we in hiding us? this way the Romans
Must or for Britons slay us, or receive us
For barbarous and unnatural revolts

During their use, and slay us after.

Sons,

Bel.
We'll higher to the mountains; there secure us.
To the king's party there's no going: newness
Of Cloten's death (we being not known, not muster'd
Among the bands) may drive us to a render

Where we have liv'd; and so extort from 's that

Which we have done, whose answer would be death
Drawn on with torture.

That when they hear the Roman horses neigh',
Behold their quarter'd fires, have both their eyes
And ears so cloy'd importantly as now,

That they will waste their time upon our note,
To know from whence we are.

Of

Bel.

Oh! I am known

many in the army: many years,

Though Cloten then but young, you see, not wore him
From my remembrance: and, besides, the king
Hath not deserv'd my service, nor your loves,
Who find in my exile the want of breeding,
The certainty of this hard life; aye, hopeless
To have the courtesy your cradle promis'd,
But to be still hot summer's tanlings, and
The shrinking slaves of winter.

Gui.

Than be so,

Better to cease to be. Pray, sir, to the army:
I and my brother are not known; yourself,

So out of thought, and thereto so o'ergrown',

6 THE Roman horses neigh,] The old folios have their for "the;" probably, but not necessarily, an error of the press: "their" runs through all the folios, but Rowe altered it to "the."

7- and thereto so O'ERGROWN,] The Rev. Mr. Dyce would poorly limit the meaning of "o'ergrown to the beard of Belarius; and he laughs at Steevens for quoting Spenser in some lines where "o'ergrown with old decay occurs. Such unquestionably was the meaning of "o'ergrown" in this passage in "Cymbeline," the "white beard" of Belarius being only a small part of the change produced in him by age. No reference could well be more apposite than that of Steevens; and

Cannot be question'd.

Arv.

By this sun that shines,

I'll thither what thing is't, that I never

Did see man die? scarce ever look'd on blood,
But that of coward hares, hot goats, and venison?

Never bestrid a horse, save one that had

A rider like myself, who ne'er wore rowel,
Nor iron, on his heel? I am asham'd

To look upon the holy sun, to have
The benefit of his bless'd beams, remaining
So long a poor unknown.

Gui.
By heavens, I'll go.
If you will bless 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 say I: Amen.

Bel. No reason I, since of your lives you set So slight a valuation, should reserve

My crack'd one to more care.

Have with you, boys. If in your country wars you chance to die,

That is my bed too, lads, and there I'll lie :

Lead, lead.-[Aside.] The time seems long; their blood

thinks scorn,

Till it fly out, and show them princes born.

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

A Field between the British and Roman Camps.

Enter POSTHUMUS, with a bloody handkerchief.

Post. Yea, bloody cloth, I'll keep thee; for I wish'd Thou shouldst be colour'd thus. You married ones,

8

we cannot but smile when we find Mr. Dyce, with surprising simplicity, complaining of commentators, who fancy that quotations are illustrative, merely because they contain a particular word in the text ("Remarks," p. 259). Examples of the sort might be shown in almost every page of every old play edited during the last quarter of a century; and we could go farther, and point out passages, selected as if only because they were inapplicable.

"For I am wish'd," in the editions before that of Pope.

If each of you should take this course, how many
Must murder wives much better than themselves,
For wrying but a little ?—Oh, Pisanio!
Every good servant does not all commands;
No bond, but to do just ones.-Gods! if you
Should have ta'en vengeance on my faults, I never
Had liv'd to put on this: so had you saved
The noble Imogen to repent, and struck

Me, wretch, more worth your vengeance. But, alack!
You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love,
To have them fall no more: you some permit
To second ills with ills, each later worse;
And make men dread it, to the doer's thrift 10.
But Imogen is your own: do your best wills,
And make me bless'd to obey !-I am brought hither
Among the Italian gentry, and to fight

Against my lady's kingdom: 'tis enough
That, Britain, I have kill'd thy mistress; peace!
I'll give no wound to thee. Therefore, good heavens,
Hear patiently my purpose. I'll disrobe me
Of these Italian weeds, and suit myself
As does a Briton peasant: so I'll fight
Against the part I come with; so I'll die
For thee, oh Imogen! even for whom my life
Is, every breath, a death: and thus unknown,
Pitied nor hated, to the face of peril

Myself I'll dedicate. Let me make men know

More valour in me, than my habits show.

Perhaps "I am wish'd" ought to be taken for "I have wish'd;" one auxiliary verb being used instead of another. Mr. Singer reads "For I e'en wish'd," to the ruin of the measure, and without the slightest necessity.

9 Had liv'd to PUT ON this:] To "put on" is to incite or instigate. See "Coriolanus," Vol. iv. p. 652; "Hamlet," Vol. v. p. 608, &c.

10 To second ills with ills, each LATER worse;

And make MEN dread it, to the doer's thrift.] The text in the folios is elder for "later," and them for "men:" the changes are from the corr. fo. 1632, and they, at least, make sense out of a passage which has hitherto baffled the ingenuity of the whole body of commentators. The first line is rendered intelligible by the natural substitution of "later" for elder, for we can well understand how later ills should be worse than those which went before them. In what way this misprint arose it is vain to speculate, but perhaps there was some confusion in the original MS. In the second line, them for "men," and "men" for them, have been not unusual corruptions; and the meaning seems to be, that men dreaded the commission of great crimes, to the thrift of the offender, who is able to take advantage of their fears. This, it may be added, is the last emendation in the corr. fo. 1632, for all the rest of Act v. of "Cymbeline" is wanting in that copy.

Gods, put the strength o' the Leonati in me!
To shame the guise o' the world, I will begin
The fashion, less without, and more within.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

The Same.

Enter at one side, LUCIUS, IACHIMO, and the Roman army: at the other side, the British army; LEONATUS POSTHUMUS following like a poor soldier. They march over and go out. Alarums. Then enter again in skirmish, IACHIMO and PosTHUMUS: he vanquisheth and disarmeth IACHIMO, and then leaves him.

Iach. The heaviness and guilt within my bosom1
Takes off my manhood: I have belied a lady,
The princess of this country, and the air on't
Revengingly enfeebles me; or could this carl',
A very drudge of nature's, have subdu'd me
In my profession? Knighthoods and honours, borne
As I wear mine, are titles but of scorn.

If that thy gentry, Britain, go before

This lout, as he exceeds our lords, the odds

Is, that we scarce are men; and you are gods.

[Exit.

The battle continues: the Britons fly; CYMBELINE is taken: then enter, to his rescue, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVI

RAGUS.

Bel. Stand, stand! We have the advantage of the ground. The lane is guarded: nothing routs us, but

The villainy of our fears.

Gui. Arv.

Stand, stand, and fight!

1 The heaviness AND guilt within my bosom] We may almost feel confident that Shakespeare wrote "The heaviness of guilt," &c. Of was not unfrequently mistaken for the contraction for and, and vice versa, by early printers.

2 or could this CARL,] "Carl" and churl seem to have been the same word, and both derived from the Saxon ceorl, or from the Gothic karl. It means a rustic or clown, and it is so used by Chaucer. We have had carlot in Vol. ii. p. 407, a word that does not elsewhere occur in any known author, and which Richardson mistakenly illustrates.