Some villain, ay, and singular in his art, Pis. No, on my life. I'll give but notice you are dead, and send him Some bloody sign of it; for 'tis commanded I should do so: You shall be miss'd at court, And that will well confirm it. IMO. Why, good fellow, What shall I do the while? Where bide? How live? Or in my life what comfort, when I am Dead to my husband? 5 PIS. If you'll back to the court,IMO. No court, no father; nor no more ado With that harsh, noble, simple, nothing": That Cloten, whose love-suit hath been to me As fearful as a siege. PIS. If not at court, Where then " ? 6 Then not in Britain must you bide. IMO. Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day, night, 5 With that harsh, noble, &c.] Some epithet of two syllables has here been omitted by the compositor; for which, having but one copy, it is now vain to seek. MALONE. Perhaps the poet wrote: "With that harsh, noble, simple, nothing, Cloten; 6 Where then?] Hanmer has added these two words to Pisanio's speech. MALONE. 7 WHERE then? Hath Britain all the sun that shines ?] The rest of Imogen's speech induces me to think that we ought to read "What then?" instead of " Where then?" The reason of the change is evident. M. MASON. Perhaps Imogen silently answers her own question: "any where. Hath Britain," &c. Shakspeare seems here to have had in his thoughts a passage in Lyly's Euphues, 1580, which he has imitated in King Richard II.: Nature hath given to man a country no more than she hatlı Are they not but in Britain? I' the world's volume In a great pool, a swan's nest; Pr'ythee, think PIS. house, or lands, or living. Plato would never account him banished, that had the sunne, ayre, water, and earth, that he had before; where he felt the winter's blast, and the summer's blaze; where the same sunne and the same moone shined; whereby he noted, that every place was a country to a wise man, and all parts a palace to a quiet mind. But thou art driven out of Naples : that is nothing. All the Athenians dwell not in Colliton, nor every Corinthian in Greece, nor all the Lacedemonians in Pitania. How can any part of the world be distant far from the other, when as the mathematicians set downe that the earth is but a point compared to the heavens ?" MALONE. 8 There's livers out of Britain.] So, in Coriolanus: 9 66 There is a world elsewhere." STEEVENS. Dark as your fortune is ;] To wear a dark mind is to carry a mind impenetrable to the search of others. Darkness, applied to the mind, is secrecy; applied to the fortune, is obscurity. The next lines are obscure. "You must, (says Pisanio,) disguise that greatness, which, to appear hereafter in its proper form, cannot yet appear without great danger to itself." JOHNSON. I -full of view:] With opportunities of examining your affairs with your own eyes. JOHNSON. Full of view may mean-affording an ample prospect, a complete opportunity of discerning circumstances which it is your interest to know. Thus, in Pericles, "Full of face" appears to signifyamply beautiful;' and Duncan assures Banquo that he will labour to make him "full of growing," i. e. of 'ample growth.' 6 STEEVENS. Report should render him hourly to your ear, IMO. . O, for such means! Though peril to my modesty 2, not death on't, PIS. 3 Well then, here's the point: You must forget to be a woman; change Command into obedience; fear, and niceness, (The handmaids of all women, or, more truly, Woman its pretty self,) into a waggish courage; Ready in gibes, quick-answer'd, saucy, and As quarrellous as the weasel : nay, you must Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek, Exposing it (but, O, the harder heart! Alack no remedy 5!) to the greedy touch 2 THOUGH peril to my modesty,] I read-Through peril. "I would for such means adventure through peril of modesty; I would risque every thing but real dishonour. JOHNSON. 3-to-] Old copies, unmetrically, into. STEEVENS. 4 As quarrellous as the WEASEL: So, in King Henry IV. Part I.: "A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen "As you are toss'd with." This character of the weasel is not warranted by naturalists. Weasels, however, were formerly kept in houses instead of cats, for the purpose of killing vermin. So, Phædrus, iv. i. 10: Mustela, quum annis et senecta debilis, Mures veloces non valeret adsequi. Again, lib. iv. 5. 3. Quum victi mures mustelarum exercitu- Our poet, therefore, while a boy, might have had frequent opportunities to ascertain their disposition. In Congreve's Love for Love, (the scene of which is in London,) old Foresight talks of having" met a weasel." It would now be difficult to find one at liberty throughout the whole county of Middlesex. "Frivola hæc fortassis cuipiam et nimis levia esse videantur, sed curiositas nihil recusat." Vopiscus in Vita Aureliani, c. x. STEEVENS. 5 Exposing it (but, O, the harder HEART! Alack, no remedy !)] I think it very natural to reflect in this distress on the cruelty of Posthumus. Dr. Warburton proposes to read: 6 Of common-kissing Titan ; and forget IMO. I see into thy end, and am almost A man already. PIS. Nay, be brief: First, make yourself but like one. Fore-thinking this, I have already fit, ('Tis in my cloak-bag,) doublet, hat, hose, all That answer to them: Would you, in their serving, And with what imitation you can borrow From youth of such a season, 'fore noble Lucius If that his head have ear in musick,) doubtless, Thou art all the comfort Thus, in Othello : 6 - COMMON-KISSING Titan ;] Again, in Sidney's Arcadia, lib. iii.: "—and beautifull might have been, if they had not suffered greedy Phoebus, over-often and hard, to kisse them." STEEvens. 7 Wherein you are HAPPY,] i. e. wherein you are accomplished. 8 STEEVENS. which YOU'LL make him KNOW,] This is Sir T. Hanmer's reading. The common books have it : 66 which will make him know Mr. Theobald, in one of his long notes, endeavours to prove that it should be: He is followed by Dr. Warburton. JOHNSON. The words were probably written at length in the manuscript, you will, and you omitted at the press or will was printed for we'll. MALONE. want my means for thy relief, nor my voice for thy preferment." MALONE. The gods will diet me with1. Pr'ythee, away: There's more to be consider'd; but we'll even All that good time will give us 2: This attempt I'm soldier to 3, and will abide it with A prince's courage. Away, I pr'ythee. PIS. Well, madam, we must take a short farewell: Lest, being miss'd, I be suspected of Your carriage from the court. My noble mistress, Here is a box: I had it from the queen *; What's in't is precious; if you are sick at sea, Or stomach-qualm'd at land, a dram of this Will drive away distemper.-To some shade, And fit you to your manhood:-May the gods Direct you to the best! IMO. 11 Amen I thank thee. DIET me with.] Mr. Steevens has a note on this passage, which is, if possible, more disgustingly absurd than that of Mr. Whalley's, mentioned p. 90. He says Imogen is alluding to the spare regimen prescribed in some diseases. This interpretation is at once gross and nonsensical. If any doubt could be entertained as to so common a metaphor, it might be easily supported. One instance shall suffice. When lago (vol. ix. p. 315,) talks of dieting his revenge, he certainly does not mean putting it on a spare regimen. BosWELL. 2 We'll EVEN All that good time will give us :] We'll make our work even with our time; we'll do what time will allow. JOHNSON. I'm soldier to,] i. e. I have inlisted and bound myself to it. WARBURTON. Rather, I think, I am equal to this attempt; I have enough or ardour to undertake it. MALONE. Mr. Malone's explanation is undoubtedly just. "I'm soldier to, is equivalent to the modern cant phrase- I am up to it,' i. e. I have ability for it. STEEVENS. 4 Here is a BOX; I had it from the queen ;] Instead of this box, the modern editors have in a former scene made the Queen give Pisanio a vial, which is dropped on the stage, without being broken. See Act I. Sc. VI. In Pericles, Cerimon, in order to recover Thaisa, calls for all the boxes in his closet. So, in the description of the Apothecary, in Romeo and Juliet: "A beggarly account of empty boxes." MALOne. |