1 CAP:

So 'tis reported:

But none of them can be found.-Stand'! who is

there ?

POST. A Roman;

Who had not now been drooping here, if seconds Had answer'd him.

2 CAP.

Lay hands on him; a dog!

A leg of Rome shall not return to tell

What crows have peck'd them here: He brags his service

As if he were of note: bring him to the king.

Enter CYMBELINE, attended; BELARIUS, GUIDErius, ArviraguS, PISANIO, and Roman Captives. The Captains present PoSTHUMUS to CYMBELINE, who delivers him over to a Gaoler: after which, all go out.

That gave the AFFRONT with them.] That is, that turned their faces to the enemy. JOHNSON.

So, in Ben Jonson's Alchymist :

"To day thou shalt have ingots, and to-morrow
"Give lords the affront." STEEvens.

To affront, Minsheu explains thus in his Dictionary, 1617: "To come face to face. v. Encounter." Affrontare, Ital.

7

MALONE.

Stand!] I would willingly, for the sake of metre, omit this useless word, and read the whole passage thus: "But none of them can be found.-Who's there?

"Post.

A Roman-."

STEEVENS.

8 Enter CYMBELINE, &c.] This is the only instance in these plays of the business of the scene being entirely performed in dumb show. The direction must have proceeded from the players, as it is perfectly unnecessary, and our author has elsewhere [in Hamlet] expressed his contempt of such mummery. RITSON.

VOL. XIII.

SCENE IV.

A Prison.

Enter POSTHUMUS, and Two Gaolers.

1 GAOL. You shall not now be stolen, you have

locks upon you;

So, graze, as you find pasture.

2 GAOL.

Ay, or a stomach. [Exeunt Gaolers.

POST. Most welcome, bondage! for thou art a

way,

I think, to liberty: Yet am I better

Than one that's sick o' the gout: since he had ra

ther

Groan so in perpetuity, than be cur'd

By the sure physician, death; who is the key To unbar these locks. My conscience! thou art fetter'd

More than my shanks, and wrists: You good gods, give me

The penitent instrument, to pick that bolt,
Then, free for ever! Is't enough, I am sorry?
So children temporal fathers do appease ;
Gods are more full of mercy. Must I repent?
I cannot do it better than in gyves,
Desir'd, more than constrain'd: to satisfy,
If of my freedom 'tis the main part, take
No stricter render of me, than my all'.

9 You shall not now be stolen,] The wit of the Gaoler alludes to the custom of putting a lock on a horse's leg, when he is turned to pasture.

to satisfy,

JOHNSON.

IF OF my freedom 'tis the main part, take

No stricter render of me, than my all.] Posthumus questions whether contrition be sufficient atonement for guilt. Then, to satisfy the offended gods, he desires them to take no more than

I know, you are more clement than vile men,
Who of their broken debtors take a third,
A sixth, a tenth, letting them thrive again
On their abatement; that's not my desire:
For Imogen's dear life, take mine; and though
'Tis not so dear, yet 'tis a life; you coin'd it :
'Tween man and man, they weigh not every stamp;
Though light, take pieces for the figure's sake:
You rather mine, being yours: And so, great
powers,

If you will take this audit, take this life,
And cancel these cold bonds 2. O Imogen!
I'll speak to thee in silence.

[He sleeps.

Solemn Musick3. Enter, as an Apparition, SICI

his present all, that is, his life, if it is the main part, the chief point, or principal condition of his freedom, i. e. of his freedom from future punishment. This interpretation appears to be warranted by the former part of the speech. Sir T. Hanmer reads: STEEVENS.

"I doff my freedom."

I believe Posthumus means to say, "Since for my crimes I have been deprived of my freedom, and since life itself is more valuable than freedom, let the gods take my life, and by this let heaven be appeased, how small soever the atonement may be." I suspect, however, that a line has been lost, after the word satisfy. If the text be right, to satisfy means, by way of satisfaction. MALONE.

2

cold bonds.] This equivocal use of bonds is another instance of our author's infelicity in pathetick speeches. JOHNSON. An allusion to the same legal instrument has more than once debased the imagery of Shakspeare. So, in Macbeth:

"Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond

"That keeps me pale." STEEVENS.

3 Solemn musick, &c.] Here follow a vision, a masque, and a prophesy, which interrupt the fable without the least necessity, and unmeasurably lengthen this act. I think it plainly foisted in afterwards for mere show, and apparently not of Shakspeare.

РОРЕ.

Every reader must be of the same opinion. The subsequent narratives of Posthumus, which render this masque, &c. unnecessary, (or perhaps the scenical directions supplied by the poet himself) seem to have excited some manager of a theatre to disgrace the play by the present metrical interpolation. Shakspeare,

LIUS LEONATUS, Father to POSTHUMUS, an old Man, attired like a Warrior; leading in his Hand an ancient Matron, his Wife, and Mother to POSTHUMUS, with Musick before them. Then, after other Musick, follow the Two young Leonati, Brothers to POSTHUMUS, with Wounds as they died in the Wars. They circle POSTHUMUS round, as he lies sleeping.

SICI. No more, thou thunder-master, show
Thy spite on mortal flies:

With Mars fall out, with Juno chide,

That thy adulteries

Rates and revenges.

Hath my poor boy done aught but well,
Whose face I never saw ?

I died, whilst in the womb he stay'd
Attending Nature's law.

Whose father then (as men report,
Thou orphans' father art,)

who has conducted his fifth Act with such matchless skill, could never have designed the vision to be twice described by Posthumus, had this contemptible nonsense been previously delivered on the stage. The following passage from Dr. Farmer's Essay will show that it was no unusual thing for the players to indulge themselves in making additions equally unjustifiable :-"We have a sufficient instance of the liberties taken by the actors, in an old pamphlet by Nash, called Lenten Stuffe, with the Prayse of the Red Herring, 4to. 1599, where he assures us, that in a play of his called The Isle of Dogs, foure Acts, without his consent, or the least guess of his drift or scope, were supplied by the players." STEEVENS.

In a note on vol. ii. (Article-Shakspeare, Ford, and Jonson,) may be found a strong confirmation of what has been here suggested. MALONE.

One would think that, Shakspeare's style being too refined for his audiences, the managers had employed some playwright of the old school to regale them with a touch of "King Cambyses' vein." The margin would be too honourable a place for so impertinent an interpolation. RITSON.

Thou should'st have been, and shielded him
From this earth-vexing smart.

MOTH. Lucina lent not me her aid,
But took me in my throes;
That from me was Posthúmus ript',
Came crying 'mongst his foes,
A thing of pity!

SICI. Great nature, like his ancestry,
Moulded the stuff so fair,

That he deserv'd the praise o' the world,
As great Sicilius' heir.

1 BRO. When once he was mature for man,
In Britain where was he
That could stand up his parallel;

Or fruitful object be

In eye of Imogen, that best

Could deem his dignity?

MOTH. With marriage wherefore was he mock'd3,
To be exil'd, and thrown

From Leonati' seat, and cast
From her his dearest one,
Sweet Imogen ?

SICI. Why did you suffer Iachimo,
Slight thing of Italy,

4 That from me was Posthúmus ript,] Perhaps we should read: "That from my womb Posthumus ript,

"Came crying 'mongst his foes." JOHNSON.

This circumstance is met with in The Devil's Charter, 1607. The play of Cymbeline did not appear in print till 1623:

"What would'st thou run again into my womb?

"If thou wert there, thou should'st be Posthumus,
"And ript out of my sides," &c. STEEVENS.

5 With MARRIAGE wherefore was he мOCK'D,] The same phrase occurs in Measure for Measure:

66

I hope you will not mock me with a husband."

STEEVENS.