2 Guard. There's Dolabella fent from Cæfar. Call him.

1 Guard. What work is here, Charmian? Is this well done?

Char. It is well done, and fitting for a princess Defcended of fo many royal kings.

Ah, foldiers?

[Charmian dies

Enter Dolabella.

Dol. How goes it here?

2 Guard. All dead!

Dol. Cæfar, thy thoughts

Touch their effects in this; thyself art coming.
To fee perform'd the dreadful act, which thou
So fought'ft to hinder.

Enter Cæfar and Attendants.

All. Make way there, make way for Cæfar. Dol. Oh, Sir, you are too fure an augurer; That, you did fear, is done.

Caf. Braveft at last:

She levell'd at our purpose, and, being royal, Took her own way. The manner of their deaths?I do not fee them bleed.

.

. Dok Who was laft with them?

1 Guard. A fimple countryman, that brought her This was his basket.

Caf. Poifon'd then!

1 Guard. Oh Cæfar!

[figs:

This Charmian liv'd but now, fhe ftood and fpake:

I found her trimming up the diadem

On her dead miftrefs; tremblingly she ftood,
And on the fudden dropt.

Caf. Oh noble weakness!

If they had fwallow'd poifon, 'twould appear
By external fwelling: but the looks like fleep;
As he would catch another Antony

In her ftrong toil of grace.

Dol. Here, on her breast,

There is a vent of blood, and fomething blown

• The flesh is somewhat puffed or swoln. Johnfon

The like is on her arın.

1 Guard. This is an afpic's trail; and these fig-
leaves

Have flime upon them, fuch as th' afpic leaves
Upon the caves of Nile.

Caf. Moft probable

That fo the dy'd; for her phyfician tells me,
She has purfu'd conclufions infinite

Of eafy ways to die. Take up her bed,
And bear her women from the monument.
She thall be buried by her Antony.
No grave upon the earth fhall clip in it
A pair fo famous. High events as these
Strike thofe that make them; and their story is
No lefs in pity, than his glory which

Brought them to be lamented. Our army fhall,
In folemn fhew, attend this funeral;
And then to Rome. Come, Dolabella, fee
High order in this great folemnity. [Exeunt omnes **

This play keeps curiofity always bufy, and the paffions always interefted. The continual hurry of the action, the variety of incidents, and the quick fucceffion of one perfonage to another, call the mind forward without intermiffion from the first act to the laft. But the power of delighting is derived principally from the frequent changes of the fcene; for, except the feminine arts, fome of which are too low, which diftinguish Cleopatra, no character is very strongly difcriminated. The events, of which the principal are defcribed ac cording to history, are produced without any art of Connection or care of difpofition. Johnson.

Dramatis Perfonæ.

CYMBELINE, king of Britain.

CLOTEN, fon to the queen by a former husband.

LEONATUS POSTHUMUS, a gentleman married to the princefs.

BELARIUS, a banished lord, disguised under the name of Morgan.

GUIDERIUS, Difguifed under the names of Paladour
ARVIRAGUS, Sand Cadwal, fuppofed fons to Belarius.
PHILARIO, an Italian, friend to Pofthumus.
IACHIMO, friend to Philario.

CAIUS LUCIUS, ambassador from Rome.
PISANIO, fervant to Posthumus.

A French gentleman.

CORNELIUs, a doctor.

Two Gentlemen.

Queen, wife to Cymbeline.

IMOGEN, daughter to Cymbeline by a former queen. HELEN, woman to Imogen.

Lords, Ladies, Roman Senators, Tribunes, Ghofts, a Soothfayer, Captains, Soldiers, Meffengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, fometimes in Britain; fometimes in Italy.

Story taken from Boccace's Decameron, day 2d. novel 9.

little befides the names being historical. Pope.j