your wills. apparent Profess myself the winner of her honour, IACH. IACH. Proceed. First, her bedchamber,(Where, I confess, I slept not; but profess, Had that was well worth watching,") it was hang'd With tapestry of silk and silver; the story, Proud Cleopatra, when she met her Roman, And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for The press of boats or pride: a piece of work So bravely done, so rich, that it did strive In workmanship and value; which I wonder'd Could be so rarely and exactly wrought, Since the true life on't was- b The chimney Or do your honour injury. Is south the chamber; and the chimney-piece, POST. IACH. (*) Old text, leave. a Watching,-] An allusion to the practice of taming hawks by depriving them of sleep. See note (d), p. 683, Vol, I. b Since the true life on 't was-] Capell has, "Since the true life was in it;" Mason would read, "Such the true life on't was;" and Mr. Collier's annotator, "Since the true life on 't 't was." To any of these we should prefer, She hath been colted by him. If you seek POST. IACH. Once, and a million! POST. Is there no way for men to be, but women As chaste as unsunn'd snow :-O, all the devils !- It is the woman's part: be it lying, note it All faults that may be nam'd,* nay, that hell knows, e'en to vice They are not constant, but are changing still Not half so old as that. I'll write against them, (*) First folio, All faults that name. There be many Cæsars, Ere such another Julius. Britain is A world by itself; and we will nothing pay For wearing our own noses. QUEEN. That opportunity, Cæsar made here; but made not here his brag shipping, Poor ignorant baubles !-on our terrible seas, 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 may have crooked noses; but to owe such straight arms, none. CYм. 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 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 Luc. I am sorry, Cymbeline, That I am to pronounce Augustus Cæsar,—— CYM. Thou art welcome, Caius. Thy Cæsar knighted me; my youth I spent 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. CLO. His majesty bids you welcome. Make pastime with us a day or two, or longer: if you seck us afterwards in other terms, you shall find us in our salt-water girdle: if you beat us out of it, it is yours; if you fall in the adventure, our crows shall fare the better for you; and there's an end. Luc. So, sir. Let proof speak. CYм. I know your master's pleasure, and he mine: All the remain is, welcome. [Exeunt. belong." It is pleasant, and generally safe, to agree with Mr. Dyce; but we cannot help thinking the words in question belong to the king's speech, but were transposed through the negligence of transcriber or compositor. e Mulmutius made our laws,-] This, with the next three lines, was perhaps either a portion of the old play upon which Shakespeare founded his "Cymbeline," or of his own first sketch, and were intended to be superseded by the previous clause : "Our ancestor was that Mulmutius," &c. d Behores me keep at utterance.] Requires me to guard at the extremest peril. To fight à l'outrance in the tourney was to combat to the death. We meet with the same expression in "Macbeth," Act III. Sc. 1: "Rather than so, come fate into the list, e I am perfect-] I am well assured. Enter PISANIO, with a letter. PIs. How! of adultery? Wherefore write you not What monster's her accuser?*-Leonatus! If it be so to do good service, never Let me be counted serviceable. How look I, So much as this fact comes to?-[Reading.] Do't: IMO. How now, Pisanio? PIs. Madam, here is a letter from my lord. O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer (*) Old text, accuse; altered by Capell. a Feodary-] Feodary here can hardly mean, as Hanmer surmised, a feudal vassal, i.e. one holding his estate by the tenure of suit and service. One signification of the word was, an officer appointed by the Court of Wards, in Henry VIII.'s reign, to be present with, and assistant to the Escheators in every county at the finding of offices, and to give in evidence for the king. He appears to have been the Escheator's witness; and it is not unlikely that Shakespeare, in reference to those unpopular officials, uses the word feodary here, and federary in "The Winter's Tale," Act II. Sc. 1: For it doth physic love ;)-of his content, All but in that!-Good wax, thy leave:—bless'd be You bees that make these locks of counsel! Lovers, O, for a horse with wings!-Hear'st thou, Pisanio? He is at Milford-Haven: read, and tell me How far 't is thither. If one of mean affairs May plod it in a week, why may not I Glide thither in a day?-Then, true Pisanio, (Who long'st, like me, to see thy lord; who long'st, O, let me 'bate,--but not like me:-yet long'st,— But in a fainter kind:-O, not like me; For mine's beyond beyond) say, and speak thick, Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing, "More, she's a traitor, and Camillo is in the sense of spy or intelligencer. Mason, however, contends that the meaning of the term, in both these instances, as well as in "Measure for Measure," Act. II. Sc. 4, is no other than confederate, or accomplice;-and he may be right. b Could not be so cruel to me, as you, O the dearest of creatures, would even renew me with your eyes.] Not being very intelligible, this has been diversely modified by the critics; but was it not intended to be enigmatical? e Say, and speak thick,-] See note (c), Vol. I. p. 558. |