Iach. More particulars Muft juftify my knowledge. Or do your honour injury. Is fouth the chamber; and the chimney-piece, Which you might from relation likewise reap; Iach. The roof o' th' chamber With golden cherubims is fretted: the andirons, (I had forgot them) were two winking Cupids Of filver, each on one foot ftanding, nicely Depending on their brands. Poft. What's this t' her honour? (21) (20) This is a thi i.g Which you might from relation likewife read, To read from relation, i. e. from men's reports viva voce, is à figure, I am fure, never used by Shakespeare; whatever, reading in any one's eyes, might have been: but this again is the manufacture of our modern editors. The old editions read, as I have reformed the text. (21) -This is her honour: Let it be granted you have feen all this, &c.] Jachimo impudently pretends to have carried his point; and, in confirmation, is very minute in defcribing to the bufband all the furniture and adornments of his wife's bedchamber. But how is fine furniture anywife a princefs's honour? It is an apparatus fuitable to her dignity, but certainly makes no part of her character. It might have been called her father's honour, that her allotments were proportioned to her rank and quality. I am perfuaded the Poet intended Pofthumus fhould fay; "This particular defcription which you make, cannot convince me that Let it be granted you have seen all this, Lach. Then, if you can [Pulling out the Bracelet. Be pale, I beg but leave to air this jewel; fee !---And now 'tis up again; it must be married To that your diamond. I'll keep them. Poft. Jove! Once more let me behold it: is it that Iach. Sir, I thank her, that: She stripped it from her arm, I fee her yet, Peft. May be the plucked it off To fend it nie. Iach. She writes fo to you? doth fhe? Poft. O, no, no, no; 'tis true. Here, take this too; It is a bafilifk unto mine eye, Kills me to look on't; let there be no honour, Where there is beauty; truth, where femblance; love, Where there's another man. The vows of women Of no more bondage be, to where they're made, Than they are to their virtues, which is nothing; O, above measure falfe !---- I have loft my wager: your memory is good; and fome "of these things you may have learned from a third hand, "or feen yourfelf; yet I expect proofs more direct and au"thentic." I think there is little queftion but we ought to reftor: the place thus: -What's this t' her honour? I propofed this emendation in the Appendix to my Shakefpeare Reftored, and Mr Pope has thought fit to embrace it in his last edition. Phil. Have patience, Sir, And take your ring again: 'tis not yet won; Who knows, one of her women, being corrupted, Hath ftolen it from her. Poft. Very true, And fo, I hope, he came by't;---back my ring ;---- Poft. Hark you, he swears; by Jupiter he fwears. Is this: the hath bought the name of whore thus dearly; There, take thy hire, and all the fiends of hell Phil. Sir, be patient; This is not ftrong enough to be believed, Poft. Never talk on't. She hath been colted by him. For further fatisfying, under her breast, Poft. Ay, and it doth confirm Were there no more but it. Iach. Will you hear more? Poft. Spare your arithmetic. Count not the turns: once, and a million! Iach. I'll be fworn Poft. No fwearing; If you will fwear you have not done't, you lie. Iach. I'll deny nothing. 1 Poft. O, that I had her here, to tear her limb-meal! I will go there, and do't i' th' court before Her father-I'll do fomething Phil. Quite befides [Exit. The government of patience! you have won; Iach. With all my heart. Re-enter POSTHUMUS. [Exeunt. Poft. Is there no way for men to be, but women Must be half-workers? we are bastards all; And that most venerable man, which I Might well have warmed old Saturn-that I thought her As chafte as unfunned fnow. Oh, all the Devils! (21) Like a full-acorned boar, a churning on,] This is Mr Pope's reading, without any authority. A Cried oh! and mounted; found no oppofition The woman's part in me Could I find out -for there's no motion That tends to vice in man, but, I affirm, It is the woman's part; be't lying, note it, The woman's; flattering hers; deceiving hers; Luft, and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers; Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, difdain, Nice longings, flanders, mutability: All faults that may be named, nay, that hell knows, Why, hers in part, or all; but rather all.------For even to vice They are not conftant, but are changing ftill; Not half fo old as that. I'll write against them, A CT III. SCENE, Cymbeline's Palace. Enter in State, CYMBELINE, Queen, CLOTEN, and Lords at one Door; and at another CAIUS, LUCIUS and Attendants. CYMBELINE. NOW fay, what would Auguftus Cæfar with us? Jermen one, in the first editions; (says he) since altered to a German one.—— And why not, pray? Is not Weftphalia a part of Germany? And where are boars more delicately fed, or more likely to be rank and hot after the female, than German ones? |