Of the king's looks, hath a heart that is not
Glad at the thing they fcowl at.

2. Gent.

And why fo?

1. Gent. He that hath mifs'd the princefs, is a thing
Too bad for bad report: and he that hath her,
(I mean, that married her,-alack, good man!-
And therefore banish'd,) is a creature fuch
As, to feek through the regions of the carth
For one his like, there would be fomething failing
In him that should compare. I do not think,
So fair an outward, and fuch stuff within,

Endows a man but he.

2. Gent.

You fpeak him far.2

1. Gent. I do extend him, fr, within himself;3 Crufh him together, rather than unfold

His measure duly.

2. Gent.

What's his name, and birth?

1. Gent. I cannot delve him to the root: His father

Was call'd Sicilius, who did join his honour,
Against the Romans, with Caffibelan;
But had his titles by Tenantius, whom
He ferv'd with glory and admir'd fuccefs;
So gain'd the fur-addition, Leonatus :
And had, befides this gentleman in question,
Two other fons; who, in the wars o'the time,

Died with their fwords in hand; for which, their father
(Then old and fond of issue,) took fuch sorrow,
That he quit being; and his gentle lady,

Big of this gentleman, our theme, deceas'd

2 i. e.

you praife bim extenfively. STEEVENS.

As

You are lavish in your encomiums on him: your elogium has a wide compafs. MALONE.

3 I extend him within himself: my praise, however extenfive, is within his merit. JOHNSON.

My elogium, however extended it may feem, is fhort of his real excellence; it is rather abbreviated than expanded.- We have again the fame expreffion in a fubfequent fcene: "The approbation of those that weep this lamentable divorce, are wonderfully to extend him." Again, in The Winter's Tale: «The report of her is extended more than can be thought." MALONE.

As he was born. The king, he takes the babe
To his protection; calls him Pofthumus;
Breeds him, and makes him of his bed-chamber:
Puts to him all the learnings that his time
Could make him the receiver of; which he took,
As we do air, fast as 'twas minister'd ; and

In his fpring became a harveft: Liv'd in court,
(Which rare it is to do,) most prais'd, most lov'd:4
A fample to the youngeft; to the more mature,
A glafs that feated them ; and to the
graver,
A child that guided dotards: to his mistress,
For whom he now is banish'd,-her own price
Proclaims how fhe esteem'd him and his virtue;
By her election may be truly read,
What kind of man he is.

I honour him

But, 'pray you, tell me,

2. Gent.
Even out of your report.
Is fhe fole child to the king?
1. Gent.
His only child.
He had two fons, (if this be worth your hearing,
Mark it,) the eldest of them at three years old,
I' the fwathing clothes the other, from their nursery
Were ftolen; and to this hour, no guefs in knowledge
Which way they went.

2. Gent.

I.

How long is this ago?

Gent. Some twenty years.

2. Gent. That a king's children fhould be fo convey'd! So flackly guarded! And the fearch fo flow,

That could not trace them!

1. Gent.

Howfoe'er 'tis strange,

Or that the negligence may well be laugh'd at,
Yet is it true, fir.

2. Gent.

1. Gent. We muft forbear: Here comes the gentleman, The queen, and princefs.

[Exeunt

4 This encomium is high and artful. To be at once in any great degree loved and praifed, is truly rare. JOHNSON.

5 A glass that formed them; a model, by the contemplation and infpection of which they formed their manners. JOHNSON.

SCENE

SCENE II.

The fame.

Enter the Queen, POSTHUMUS, and IMOGEN.

Queen. No, be affur'd, you fhall not find me, daughter, After the flander of most step-mothers,

Pofthumas,

Evil-ey'd unto you: you are my prisoner, but
Your gaoler fhall deliver you the keys
That lock up your reftraint. For
you,
So foon as I can win the offended king,
I will be known your advocate: marry, yet
The fire of rage is in him; and 'twere good,
You lean'd unto his sentence, with what patience
Your wisdom may inform you.

Please your highness,

You know the peril :

I'll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying

The pangs of barr'd affections; though the king

Hath charg'd you should not speak together. [Exit Queen,

Imo.

Diffembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant

Can tickle where the wounds!-My dearest husband,

I fomething fear my father's wrath; but nothing,
(Always referv'd my holy duty,) what

His rage can do on me: You must be gone;
And I fhall here abide the hourly fhot
Of angry eyes; not comforted to live,
But that there is this jewel in the world,
That I may fee again.

Poft.
My queen! my mistress!
O, lady, weep no more; left I give cause
To be fufpected of more tenderness

Than doth become a man! I will remain

The loyal'st husband that did e'er plight troth.

My

6 I fay I do not fear my father, so far as I may fay it without breach of

duty. JOHNSON.

My refidence in Rome, at one Philario's;

Who to my father was a friend, to me
Known but by letter: thither write, my queen,
And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you fend,
Though ink be made of gall.7

Queen.

Re-enter Queen.

Be brief, I pray you:

If the king come, I fhall incur I know not

How much of his displeasure :-Yet I'll move him [Afide.
To walk this way: I never do him wrong,

But he does buy my injuries, to be friends;
Pays dear for my offences.

Should we be taking leave

Poft.
As long a term as yet we have to live,
The loathness to depart would
Imo. Nay, ftay a little :

grow: Adieu!

Were you but riding forth to air yourself,

Such parting were too petty. Look here, love;
This diamond was my mother's: take it, heart;
But keep it till you woo another wife,

When Imogen is dead.

Peft.

How! how! another?

You gentle gods, give me but this I have,

And fear up my embracements from a next

With bonds of death!-Remain, remain thou here

[Exit.

[Putting on the ring. While

7 Shakspeare, even in this poor conceit, has confounded the vegetable galls ufed in ink, with the animal gall, fuppofed to be bitter.

JOHNSON The poet might mean either the vegetable or the animal galls with equal propriety, as the vegetable gall is bitter; and I have feen an ancient receipt for making ink, beginning, "Take of the black juice of the gall of oxen two ounces," &c. STEEVENS.

8 Shakspeare may poetically call the cere-cloths in which the dead are wrapp'd, the bonds of death. If fo, we should read cere instead of fear:

"Why thy canoniz'd bones hearsed in death,
"Have burft their cerements ?"

To

While fenfe can keep it on !9 And fweetest, fairest,
As I my poor felf did exchange for you,
To your fo infinite lofs; fo, in our trifles
I ftill win of you: For my fake, wear this;
It is a manacle 2. of love; I'll place it
Upon this faireft prifoner.

Imo.

When fhall we fee again?

Poft.

[Putting a bracelet

O, the gods!

Enter CYMBELINE, and Lords.

Alack, the king!

on her arm.

Cym. Thou bafeft thing, avoid hence, from my fight! If, after this command, thou fraught the court With thy unworthiness, thou dieit: Away! Thou art poifon to my blood.

Pf.

To fear up, is properly to chafe up by burning; but in this paffage the poet may have dropp'd that idea, and used the word fimply for to close up.

STEEVENS.

May not fear up, here mean folder up, and the reference be to a lead coffin? Perhaps cerements in Hamlet's addrefs to the Ghoft, was used for fearments in the fame fenfe. HENLEY.

I believe nothing more than close up was intended. In the fpelling of the laft age, however, no diftinction was made between care-cloth and fearcloth. Cole in his Latin dictionary, 1679, explains the word cerot by fearcloth. Shakspeare therefore certainly might have had that practice in his thoughts. MALONE.

9 This expreffion, I suppose, means, while fense can maintain its operations; while fenfe continues to bave its ufual power. STEEVENS. The poet [if it refers to the ring] ought to have written-can keep thee on, as Mr. Pope and the three fubfequent editors read. But Shakfpeare has many fimilar inaccuracies. MALONE.

As none of our author's productions were revifed by himself as they paffed from the theatre through the prefs; and as Julius Cæfar and Cymbeline are among the plays which originally appeared in the blundering first folio; it is hardly fair to charge those irregularities on the poet, of which his publishers alone might have been guilty. I must therefore take leave to fet down the prefent, and many fimilar offences against the established rules of language, under the article of Hemingifmus and Condelifms; and, as fuch, in my opinion, they ought, without ceremony, to be corrected.

STEEVENS.

2 A manacle properly means what we now call a band cuff.

STEEVENS.