(Once, Arvirágus,) in as like a figure, Strikes life into my speech, and shows much more His own conceiving. Hark! the game is rous'd!O Cymbeline! heaven, and my conscience, knows, Thou didst unjustly banish me: whereon, At three, and two years old, I stole these babes *; Thinking to bar thee of succession, as Thou reft'st me of my lands. Euriphile, Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for their mother, And every day do honour to her grave3: In this collection one of our author's own poems was originally printed. See the end of The Passionate Pilgrim. MALONE. 4 I stole these babes ;] Shakspeare seems to intend Belarius for a good character, yet he makes him forget the injury which he has done to the young princes, whom he has robbed of a kingdom only to rob their father of heirs.-The latter part of this soliloquy is very inartificial, there being no particular reason why Belarius should now tell to himself what he could not know better by telling it. JOHNSON. 5 to HER grave:] i. e. to the grave of Euriphile; or, to the grave of "their mother, as they suppose it to be." The poet ought rather to have written-to thy grave. MALone. Perhaps he did write so, and the present reading is only a corruption introduced by his printers or publishers. STEEVENS. This change of persons frequently occurs in our author. Thus, in Julius Cæsar: 66 Casca, thou art the first that rears his hand.” Again, in Timon of Athens: "Hail to thee, worthy Timon, and to ail Again, in The Winter's Tale : 66 Away with him; and let her sport herself "With that she's big with; for 'tis Polixenes "Has made thee swell thus." 66 But this mode of construction is not peculiar to Shakspeare; we meet with it in Scripture, Acts xvii. v. 2, 3: And Paul-reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening, and alledging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ." MALONE. SCENE IV. Near Milford-Haven. Enter PISANIO and IMOGEN. IMO. Thou told'st me, when we came from horse, the place Was near at hand:-Ne'er long'd my mother so To see me first, as I have now :-Pisanio! Man! Where is Posthúmus? What is in thy mind, 6 Where is Posthúmus ?] Shakspeare's apparent ignorance of quantity is not the least among many proofs of his want of learning. Álmost throughout this play he calls Posthumus, Posthumus, and Arviragus, always Arviragus. It may be said that quantity. in the age of our author did not appear to have been much regarded. In the tragedy of Darius, by William Alexander of Menstrie, (lord Sterline) 1603, Darīus is always called Darius, and Euphrates, Euphrates: "The diadem that Darius erst had borne "The famous Euphrates to be your border-." Again, in the 21st Song of Drayton's Polyolbion : "That gliding go in state like swelling Euphrates." Throughout Sir Arthur Gorges' translation of Lucan, Euphrates is likewise given instead of Euphrates. STEEVENS. Shakspeare's ignorance of the quantity of Posthumus is the rather remarkable, as he gives it rightly both when the name first occurs, and in another place: "To his protection; calls him Posthumus. "Struck the main-top!-O, Posthumus! alas." RITSON. In A Meeting Dialogue-wise between Nature, the Phoenix, and the Turtle-dove, by R. Chester, 1601, Arviragus is introduced with the same neglect of quantity as in this play: 66 Windsor, a castle of exceeding strength, "First built by Arvirágus, Britaine's king." Again, by Heywood, in his Britayne's Troy : "Now Arvirágus reigns, and takes to wife It seems to have been the general rule, adopted by scholars as well as others, to pronounce Latin names like English words : Shakspeare's neglect of quantity therefore proves nothing. MALONE. The propriety of the foregoing remark, is not altogether con That makes thee stare thus? Wherefore breaks that sigh From the inward of thee? One, but painted thus, Into a haviour' of less fear, ere wildness That drug-damn'd' Italy hath out-craftied him' And he's at some hard point.-Speak, man; thy tongue firmed by the practice of our ancient translators from classick authors. STEEVENS. The propriety of my remark is not shaken by this observation. Translators would have the true quantity of a classical name forced upon their attention; but the writers of Shakspeare's age, when they were not translating, were accustomed to disregard the true pronunciation of Greek and Latin names. See vol. vii. p. 203, and p. 238. MALONE. 7-haviour -] This word, as often as it occurs in Shakspeare, should not be printed as an abbreviation of behaviour. Haviour was a word commonly used in his time. See Spenser, Æglogue, IX.: "Their ill haviour garres men missay." STEEVENS. 8 If it be SUMMER NEWS, Smile to't before:] So, in our author's 98th Sonnet: "Could make me any summer's story tell." MALONE. 9-drug-dam'd-] This is another allusion to Italian poisons. JOHNSON. -out-CRAFTIED him,] Thus the old copy, and so Shakspeare certainly wrote. So, in Coriolanus: 66 chaste as the icicle, "That's curdied by the frost from purest snow." Mr. Pope and all the subsequent editors read-out-crafted here, and curdled in Coriolanus. MALONE. May take off some extremity, which to read PIS. IMO. [Reads.] Thy mistress, Pisanio, hath played the strumpet in my bed; the testimonies whereof lie bleeding in me. I speak not out of weak surmises; but from proof as strong as my grief, and as certain as I expect my revenge. That part, thou, Pisanio, must act for me, if thy faith be not tainted with the breach of hers. Let thine own hands take away her life: I shall give thee opportunities at MilfordHaven: she hath my letter for the purpose: Where, if thou fear to strike, and to make me certain it is done, thou art the pandar to her dishonour, and equally to me disloyal. PIs. What shall I need to draw my sword? the paper Hath cut her throat already 2.-No, 'tis slander; Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile3; whose breath Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie 2 What shall I need to draw my sword? the paper Hath cut her throat already.] So, in Venus and Adonis: "Struck dead at first, what needs a second striking ?" MALONE. 3 Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, &c.] So, in Churchyard's Discourse of Rebellion, &c. 1570: "Hit venom castes as far as Nilus flood, [brood] Serpents and dragons by the old writers were called worms. Of this, several instances are given in the last Act of Antony and Cleopatra. STEEVENS. 4 Rides on the POSTING WINDS,] So, in King Henry V. : 66 making the wind my post-horse." MALONE. All corners of the world: kings, queens, and states", 6 IMO. False to his bed! What is it, to be false? To lie in watch there, and to think on him o ? To weep 'twixt clock and clock? if sleep charge nature, To break it with a fearful dream of him, And cry myself awake? that's false to his bed? PIs. Alas, good lady! IMO. I false? Thy conscience witness :-Iachimo, Thou didst accuse him of incontinency; Thou then look'dst like a villain; now, methinks, Thy favour's good enough 7.—Some jay of Italy, Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him: -states,] Persons of highest rank. JOHNSON. See vol. viii. p. 305, n. 6. MALONE. So, in Chapman's version of the second Iliad: "The other scepter-bearing states arose too and obey'd "The people's rector." STEEVENS. What is it, to be false? To lie in watch there, and to think on him?] This passage should be pointed thus: "What is it to be false, "To lie in watch there, and to think on him?" M. MASON. 7 Thou then look'dst like a villain; now, methinks, 8 Some JAY of Italy,] There is a prettiness in this expression; putta, in Italian, signifying both a jay and a whore: Isupfrom the WARBURTON. feathers of that bird. gay So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Teach him to know turtles from jays." STEEVENS. pose 9 Whose MOTHER was her PAINTING,] Some jay of Italy, made by art; the creature, not of nature, but of painting. In this sense painting may be not improperly termed her mother. JOHNSON. |