2 Lord. You are a fool granted, therefore your iffues being foolish do not derogate.

[Afide. Clot. Come, I'll go fee this Italian: what I have loft to-day at bowls, 'll win to-night of him. Come;

go.

[Exit Clot.

2 Lord. I'll attend your Lordship.
That fuch a crafty devil as his mother,
Should yield the world this afs! -a woman that
Bears all down with her brain; and this her fon
Cannot take two from twenty for his heart,
And leave eighteen. Alas, poor Princefs,
Thon divine Imogen, what thou endureft!
Betwixt a father by thy ftep-dame governed,
A mother hourly coining plots; a wooer,
(12) More hateful than the foul expulfion is.
Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act
Of the divorce he'd make.-The heavens hold firm
The walls of thy dear honour; keep unshaked.

(12) More bateful than the foul expulfion is

Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act

Of the divor e- ---he'll make the heav'ns bold firm

The wal's of thy dear honour, &c.] What perpetual proofs occur of these editors' ftupid indolence! They cannot afford even to add or transpose a stop, though the sense be never fo much concerned in it. How would Cloten's folicitations, if I might ask thefe wife gentlemen, make the heavens keep firm Imogen's honour? Would the speaker imply, that this wooer was fo hateful worthless a creature, the heavens would purpofely keep her honeft in contempt of him? The Author meant no fuch abfurd ftuff. I dare be pofitive I have reformed his pointing, and by that retrie red his true fenfe. "This wooer, (fays the f caker).is. more hateful to her than the banifliment of her Lord; or the horrid attempt of making that banishment perpe"tual, by his marrying her in her Lord's abfence." ving made this reflection, he fubjoins a virtuous with, that' Heaven may preferve her honour unblemished, and her to enjoy her husband back, and her rights in the kingdom. v

Ha

That temple, thy fair mind; that thou mayeft ftand T'enjoy thy banifhed Lord, and this great land! [Exeunt.

SCENE changes to a magnificent Bed-chamber; in one part of it, a large Trunk.

IMOGEN is difcovered reading in her bed, a Lady attending.

Imo. Who's there? my woman Helen?
Lady. Pleafe you, Madam---

Imo. What hour is it?

Lady. Almoft midnight, Madam.

Imo. I have read three hours then, mine eyes
are weak,

Fold down the leaf where I have left; to bed-----
Take not away the taper, leave it burning:
"And if thou can't awake by four o' th' clock,
I pr'ythee call me--fleep hath feized me wholly

[Exit Lady
To your protection I commend me, Gods;
From fairies, and the tempters of the night,.
Guard me, 'befeech ye.

[Sleeps.

[lachimo rifes from the Trunk. Iach. The crickets fing, and man's o'er laboured

[fenfe

Repairs itfelf by reft: our Tarquin thus
Did foftly prefs the rushes, ere he wakened
The chaltity he wounded. Cytherea,
How bravely thou becomet thy bed! fresh lily,
And whiter than the fheets! that I might touch,
But kifs, one kifs----rubies unparagoned,

How dearly they do't 'tis her breathing that
Perfumes the chamber thus: the flame o' th' taper
Bows toward her, and would under-peep her lids,
To fee the inclofed lights, now canopied
Under thefe windows: white and azure, laced:

With blue of heaven's own tinct---But my defign's

To note the chamber----I will write all down, Such and fuch pictures-there the window,----fuch

Th' adornment of her bed--the arras, figures---. Why, fuch and fuch-----and the contents of the ftory--

Ah, but fome natural notes about her body,
Above ten thousand meaner moveables,
Would teftify, t'enrich my inventory.

O Sleep, thou ape of death, ly dull upon her!
And be her fenfe but as a monument,
Thus in a chapel lying !-----Come off, come off,--
[Taking of her Bracelet.
As flippery as the Gordian knot was hard.----
Tis mine: and this will witnefs outwardly,
As Atrongly as the confcience does within,
To th' madding of her Lord. On her left breaft
A mole cinque-spotted, like the criin on drops
I' th' bottom of a cowflip. Here's a voucher,
Stronger than ever law could make this fecret
Will force him think I've picked the lock, and ta'en
The treasure of her honour. No more----to what

end?

Why fhould I write this down, that's rivetted, Screwed to my memory? the hath been reading,.

late,

The tale of Tereus; here the leaf's turned down, Where Philomel gave up--I have enough.---To th' trunk again, and fhut the fpring of it. (13) Swift, fwift, you dragons of the night! that dawning

(13) Swift, fuift, ve dragons of the right that dawning

May ope the rave's eve.] Mr Pope has profeffed, that, in his editions, "the various readings are fairly put

VC

May bear the raven's eye: I lodge in fear,
Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here..

One, two, three: time, time!

[Clock firikes.

[Goes into the Trunk, the Scene closes.

"in the margin, fo that every one may compare them; "and thofe he has preferred into the text are conftantly ex "fide codicum, upon authority I muft.own I cannot help fufpecting a little the veracity of this affertion; and I challenge him to produce any authentic copy of Cymbeline, that gives us this reading;

-that dawning

May ope the raven's eye.

From the first Folios down to Mr Rowe's impreffion, we find it conftantly;

that dawning.

May bear the raven's eye.

If I agreed with Mr Pope in the meaning of this expreffion, could help him to an emendation, with change of the letters ::

that dawning

May bare the raven's eye.

very minute

i.e. make bare, raked and this would be a much more poetical word than ope Befides, moft birds, as well as mamy quadrupeds, have a membrane for nictation, called

proq da'amor, which they can at pleasure draw over their eyes, to defend them from too ftrong a light: and when this membrane is withdrawn, the eye may very properly be faid to be bared.- -But, notwithstanding all this, the old books give us the genuine reading; which, I'll be bold to fay, Mr Pope las rejected, because he did not understand. Why fhould the dawa be faid peculiarly to open the raven's eye? The lark has always been counted the earlieft ftiner among the feathered kind. For the dawn to bear the rawen's eye, is, as Mr Warburton ingenioufly obferved to me, a very grand and poetical expreffion. It is a metaphor borrowed from heraldry; as again, in Much Auo about Nothing:

So that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horfe. That the dawn thould bear the raven's eve. means, that it fhould rife, and fhew that colour. Now the raven's eye is remarkably grey and grey-eye'd, tis known, is the epithet

SCENE changes to another part of the Palace, facing Imogen's Apartment.

Enter CLOTEN, and Lords.

1 Lord. Your Lordship is the most patient man in lofs, the coldest that ever turned up ace.

Clot. It would make any man cold to lofe.

1 Lord. But not every man patient, after the noble temper of your Lordship; you are most hot and furious when you win.

Clot. Winning will put any man into courage: if I could get this foolish Imogen, I should have gold enough. It's almoft morning, is't not? 1 Lord. Day, my Lord.

Clot. I would this mufic would come. I am advifed to give her mufic o' mornings; they fay it will

penetrate.

Enter Muficians.

Come on, tune; if you can penetrate her with your fingering, fo; we'll try with tongue too; if none will do, let her remain: but I'll never give

univerfally joined to the morning. Nor has our Shakespeare forgot to allude to the morning being grey in other paffages. -And look, the gentle day,

Before the wheels of hobus, round about
Dapples the drowsy Eaft with fpots of grey.

Much Ado, &c.

The hunt is up; the morn is bright and grey.

Tit. Andron.

O, pardon, Sir, it doth ; and yön gr y lines, That fret the clouds, are meffengers of day. Jul. "Caf. And fee, the morn, in ruffet mantle clad. For ruffet is dark-brown, grey.

Hamlet.

The grey-ey'd moru fimiles on the frowning night, Check'ring the eastern clouds with ftreaks of light. &c. &c. &c.

Rom. and Jul.