Page images
PDF
EPUB

Prouder, than rustling in unpaid-for silk:
Such gain the cap of him, that makes him fine,

bauble was anciently spelt bable; so that Dr. Warburton in reality has added but one letter. A bauble was part of the insignia of a fool. So, in All's Well That Ends Well, Act IV. Sc. V. the Clown says:

"I would give his wife my bauble, sir."

It was a kind of truncheon (says Sir John Hawkins,) with a head carved on it. To this Belarius may allude, and mean that honourable poverty is more precious than " a sinecure at court, of which the badge is a truncheon or a wand." So, in Middleton's Game at Chess, 1623 :

"Art thou so cruel for an honour's bable?"

As, however, it was once the custom in England for favourites at court to beg the wardship of infants who were born to great riches, our author may allude to it on this occasion. Frequent complaints were made that nothing was done towards the education of these neglected orphans. STEEVENS.

I have always suspected that the right reading of this passage is what I had not in a former edition the confidence to propose :

"Richer than doing nothing for a brabe

[ocr errors]

Brabium is a badge of honour, or the ensign of an honour, or any thing worn as a mark of dignity. The word was strange to the editors, as it will be to the reader; they therefore changed it to babe; and I am forced to propose it without the support of any authority. Brabium is a word found in Holyoak's Dictionary, who terms it a reward. Cooper, in his Thesaurus, defines it to be a prize, or reward for any game. JOHNSON.

A babe and baby are synonymous. A baby being a puppet or play-thing for children. I suppose a babe here means a puppet. So, in Spenser's Pastorals, May, 239:

"But all as a poore pedlar he did wend,

66

Bearing a trusse of trifles at his backe,

"As bells and babes and glasses in his packe."

For babe Mr. Rowe substituted bauble.

[ocr errors]

"Doing nothing" in this passage means, I think, being busy in petty and unimportant employments:' in the same sense as when we say, melius est otiosum esse quam nihil agere.

The following lines in Drayton's Owle, 4to. 1604, may add, however, some support to Rowe's emendation, bable or bauble: "Which with much sorrow brought into my mind "Their wretched soules, so ignorantly blinde,

"When even the greatest things, in the world unstable,

66

Clyme but to fall, and damned for a bable." MALONE. Mr. Malone's first explanation of the old text will probably be deemed satisfactory; but I may as well remark that there was such

Yet keeps his book uncross'd3: no life to ours *. GUI. Out of your proof you speak: we, poor unfledg'd,

Have never wing'd from view o' the nest; nor know not

What air's from home. Haply, this life is best,
If quiet life be best; sweeter to you,

That have a sharper known; well corresponding
With your stiff age: but, unto us, it is
A cell of ignorance; travelling abed;
A prison for a debtor, that not dares
To stride a limit 5.

ARV.
What should we speak ofo,
When we are old as you? when we shall hear
The rain and wind beat dark December, how,
In this our pinching cave, shall we discourse
The freezing hours away? We have seen nothing:
We are beastly; subtle as the fox, for prey;
Like warlike as the wolf, for what we eat:
Our valour is, to chace what flies; our cage
We make a quire, as doth the prison bird,
And sing our bondage freely.

a word as brabe in English, though apparently bearing a very different meaning from that which Dr. Johnson has ascribed to it. Heth is thus explained by Speght in his Glossary to Chaucer: "Brabes and such like." Hething, for so Mr. Tyrwhitt gives the word, he interprets-contempt. BOSWELL.

3 Yet keeps his book UNCROSS'D:] So, in Skialetheia, a collection of Epigrams, &c. 1598:

"Yet stands he in the debet book uncrost." 4- no life To ours.] i. e. compared with ours.

66

Thy mind to her is now as low," &c.

STEEVENS. p.

So,

STEEVENS.

99:

5 To stride a limit.] To overpass his bound. JOHNSON. In the preceding line the old copy reads-" A prison, or a debtor," &c. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE. "What should we speak of,] This dread of an old age, unsupplied with matter for discourse and meditation, is a sentiment natural and noble. No state can be more destitute than that of him, who, when the delights of sense forsake him, has no pleasures of the mind. JOHNSON.

BEL.

How you speak 7!

Did you but know the city's usuries,
And felt them knowingly: the art o' the court,
As hard to leave, as keep; whose top to climb
Is certain falling, or so slippery, that

The fear's as bad as falling: the toil of the war,
A pain that only seems to seek out danger

I' the name of fame, and honour; which dies i' the search;

And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph,

As record of fair act; nay, many times,

Doth ill deserve by doing well; what's worse,
Must court'sey at the censure:-O, boys, this story
The world may read in me: My body's mark'd
With Roman swords; and my report was once
First with the best of note: Cymbeline lov'd me;
And when a soldier was the theme, my name
Was not far off: Then was I as a tree,

Whose boughs did bend with fruit: but, in one night,

A storm, or robbery, call it what you will,

Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves, And left me bare to weather 8.

GUI.

Uncertain favour!

BEL. My fault being nothing (as I have told you

oft,)

But that two villains, whose false oaths prevail'd
Before my perfect honour, swore to Cymbeline,
I was confederate with the Romans: so,
Follow'd my banishment; and, this twenty years,

7 How you speak!] Otway seems to have taken many hints for the conversation that passes between Acasto and his sons, from the scene before us. STEEVENS.

8 And left me bare to weather.] So, in Timon of Athens:

66

That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves

"Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush,

"Fallen from their boughs, and left me, open, bare,

[ocr errors]

For every storm that blows." STEEVENS.

This rock, and these demesnes, have been my

world:

Where I have liv'd at honest freedom; paid

More pious debts to heaven, than in all

The fore-end of my time.-But, up to the mountains ;

This is not hunters' language:-He, that strikes The venison first, shall be the lord o' the feast; To him the other two shall minister;

And we will fear no poison, which attends

In place of greater state. I'll meet you in the

valleys.

[Exeunt Gui. and Arv. How hard it is, to hide the sparks of nature! These boys know little, they are sons to the king; Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive.

They think, they are mine: and, though train'd up thus meanly

I' the cave, wherein they bow', their thoughts do hit

9 And we will fear no poison, which attends In place of GREATER state.]

nulla aconita bibuntur

Fictilibus; tunc illa time, cum pocula sumes

Gemmata, et lato Setinum ardebit in auro. Juv.

MALONE.

The comparative-greater, which violates the measure, is surely an absurd interpolation; the low-brow'd cave in which the princes are meanly educated, being a place of no state at all.

STEEVENS.

This kind of phraseology is used every day without objection.

[blocks in formation]

MALONE.

I' the cave, WHEREIN THEY BOW,] The old editions read: "I' the cave, whereon the bowe;

which, though very corrupt, will direct us to the true reading, [as it stands in the text.]-In this very cave, which is so low that they must bow or bend in entering it, yet are their thoughts so exalted, &c. This is the antithesis. Belarius had spoken before of the lowness of this cave:

"A goodly day! not to keep house, with such

"Whose roof's as low as ours! Stoop, boys: This gate "Instructs you how to adore the heavens; and bows you "To morning's holy office." WARBURTON.

The roofs of palaces; and nature prompts them,
In simple and low things, to prince it, much
Beyond the trick of others. This Polydore 2,
The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, whom
The king his father call'd Guiderius,-Jove!
When on my three-foot stool I sit, and tell
The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out
Into my story: say,-Thus mine enemy fell;
And thus I set my foot on his neck; even then
The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats,
Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in pos-

ture

That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal3,

2 This POLYDORE,] [First folio, Paladour.] The old copy of the play (except here, where it may be only a blunder of the printer,) calls the eldest son of Cymbeline, Polidore, as often as the name occurs; and yet there are some who may ask whether it is not more likely that the printer should have blundered in the other places, than that he should have hit upon such an uncommon name as Paladour in this first instance. Paladour was the ancient name for Shaftsbury. So, in A Meeting Dialoguewise between Nature, the Phoenix, and the Turtle-Dove, by R. Chester, 1601 :

"This noble king builded fair Caerguent,

"Now cleped Winchester of worthie fame;
"And at mount Paladour he built his tent,

66

That after-ages Shaftsburie hath to name." STEEVENS. I believe, however, Polydore is the true reading. In the pages of Holinshed, which contain an account of Cymbeline, Polydore [i. e. Polydore Virgil] is often quoted in the margin; and this probably suggested the name to Shakspeare. MALONE.

Otway (see p. 110, n. 7,) was evidently of the same opinion, as he has so denominated one of the sons of Acasto in The Orphan.

The translations, however, of both Homer and Virgil, would have afforded Shakspeare the name of Polydore. STEEVENS.

3 The younger brother, CADWAL,] This name is found in an ancient poem, entitled King Arthur, which is printed in the same collection with the Meeting Dialogue-wise, &c. quoted in the preceding note:

66

Augisell, king of stout Albania, "And Caduall, king of Vinedocia

« PreviousContinue »