Luc. I am sorry, Cymbeline, That I am to pronounce Augustus Cæsar (Cæsar, that hath more kings his servants, than Thyself domestick officers,) thine enemy: Receive it from me, then :-War, and confusion, In Cæsar's name pronounce I 'gainst thee: look For fury not to be resisted :-Thus defied, I thank thee for myself. CYM. Thou art welcome, Caius. Thy Cæsar knighted me; my youth I spent Much under him'; of him I gather'd honour; 6 Mulmutius made our laws, Who was the first of Britain, which did put His brows within a golden crown, and call'd Himself a king.] The title of the first chapter of Holinshed's third book of the history of England is-" Of Mulmucius, the first king of Britaine who was crowned with a golden crown, his lawes, his foundations, &c. 66 Mulmucius, the sonne of Cloten, got the upper hand of the other dukes or rulers; and after his father's decease began his reigne over the whole monarchie of Britaine in the yeare of the world-3529.-He made manie good lawes, which were long after used, called Mulmucius lawes, turned out of the British speech into Latin by Gildas Priscus, and long time after translated out of Latin into English, by Alfred king of England, and mingled in his statutes. After he had established his land,-he ordeined him, by the advice of his lords, a crowne of golde, and caused himself with great solemnity to be crowned ;—and because he was the first that bare a crowne here in Britaine, after the opinion of some writers, he is named the first king of Britaine, and all the other before-rehearsed are named rulers, dukes, or governours. "Among other of his ordinances, he appointed weights and measures, with the which men should buy and sell. And further he caused sore and streight orders for the punishment of theft." Holinshed, ubi supra. MALONE. 7 Thou art welcome, Caius. Thy Cæsar knighted me; my youth I spent Much under him;] Some few hints for this part of the play are taken from Holinshed: 66 Kymbeline, says he, (as some write,) was brought up at Rome, and there was made knight by Augustus Cæsar, under Which he, to seek of me again, perforce, Behoves me keep at utterance; I am perfect 9, That the Pannonians and Dalmatians, for Their liberties, are now in arms': a precedent Which, not to read, would show the Britons cold: So Cæsar shall not find them. Luc. Let proof speak. CLO. His majesty bids you welcome. Make whom he served in the wars, and was in such favour with him, that he was at liberty to pay his tribute or not." "Yet we find in the Roman writers, that after Julius Cæsar's death, when Augustus had taken upon him the rule of the empire, the Britons refused to pay that tribute." "But whether the controversy, which appeared to fall forth betwixt the Britons and Augustus, was occasioned by Kymbeline, I have not a vouch." 66 Kymbeline reigned thirty-five years, leaving behind him two sons, Guiderius and Arviragus." STEEVENS. 8-keep AT UTTERANCE;] Means to keep at the extremity of defiance. Combat à outrance is a desperate fight, that must conclude with the life of one of the combatants. So, in The History of Helyas Knight of the Swanne, bl. 1. no date: "Here is my gage to sustaine it to the utteraunce, and befight it to the death." STEEVENS. So, in Macbeth : "Rather than so, come, fate, into the list, "And champion me to the utterance." Again, in Troilus and Cressida : 66 will you, the knights "Shall to the edge of all the extremity Again, ibidem: 66 So be it, either to the uttermost, "Or else a breath." See vol. xi. p. 143, n. 8. MALONE. 9 -I am perfect,] I am well informed. So, in Macbeth : 66 See vol. xi. p. 214, n. 7. STEEVens. the Pannonians and Dalmatians, for Their liberties, are Now in arms :] The insurrection of the Pannonians and Dalmatians for the purpose of throwing off the Roman yoke, happened not in the reign of Cymbeline, but in that of his father, Tenantius. MALONE. pastime with us a day, or two, longer: If you seek us afterwards in other terms, you shall find us in our salt-water girdle: if you beat us out of it, it is yours; if you fall in the adventure, our crows shall fare the better for you; and there's an end. Luc. So, sir. CYM. I know your master's pleasure, and he mine : All the remain is, welcome. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Another Room in the Same. Enter PISANIO. PIs. How! of adultery? Wherefore write you not What monster's her accuser1?-Leonatus! O, master! what a strange infection Is fallen into thy ear? What false Italian (As poisonous tongue'd, as handed 2,) hath pre vail'd On thy too ready hearing ?-Disloyal? No: vens. I What MONSTER'S her ACCUSER?] The old copy has-What monsters her accuse? The correction was suggested by Mr. SteeThe order of the words, as well as the single person named by Pisanio, fully support the emendation. "What monsters her accuse?" for "What monsters accuse her?" could never have been written by Shakspeare in a soliloquy like the present. Mr. Pope and the three subsequent editors read-What monsters have accus'd her?" MALONE. 2 . What false Italian (As poisonous tongue'd, as handed,)] About Shakspeare's time the practice of poisoning was very common in Italy, and the suspicion of Italian poisons yet more common. JOHNSON. More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults If it be so to do good service, never Let me be counted serviceable. How look I, So much as this fact comes too? Do't. The letter [Reading. That I have sent her, by her own command 3 TAKE IN Some virtue.] To take in a town, is to conquer it. JOHNSON. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: - cut the Ionian seas, "And take in Toryne-." STEEVENS. 4 Thy mind to HER is now as low.] That is, thy mind compared to hers is now as low, as thy condition was, compared to hers. Our author should rather have written-thy mind to hers; but the text, I believe, is as he gave it. MALOne. Do't:-The letter That I have sent her, by her own command, Shall give thee opportunity:] Here we have another proof of what I have observed in The Dissertation at the end of King Henry VI. that our poet from negligence sometimes make words change their form under the eye of the speaker; who in different parts of the same play recites them differently, though he has a paper or letter in his hand, and actually reads from it. A former instance of this kind has occurred in All's Well That Ends Well. See vol. xi. p. 421. The words here read by Pisanio from his master's letter, (which is afterwards given at length, and in prose,) are not found there, though the substance of them is contained in it. This is one of many proofs that Shakspeare had no view to the publication of his pieces. There was little danger that such an inaccuracy should be detected by the ear of the spectator, though it could hardly escape an attentive reader. MALONE. Art thou a feodary for this act, and look'st Enter IMOGEN. I am ignorant in what I am commanded". PIs. Madam, here is a letter from my lord. 6 Art thou a FEODARY for this act,] A feodary is one who holds his estate under the tenure of suit and service to a superior lord. HANMER. "Art thou a feodary for this act." Art thou too combined, art thou a confederate, in this act?-A feodary did not signify a feudal vassal, as Sir Thomas Hanmer and the subsequent editors have supposed, (though if the word had borne that signification, it certainly could not bear it here,) but was an officer appointed by the Court of Wards, by virtue of the statute 32 Henry VIII. c. 46, to be present with, and assistant to the Escheators in every county at the finding of offices, and to give in evidence for the king. His duty was to survey the lands of the ward after office found, [i. e. after an inquisition had been made to the king's use,] and to return the true value thereof to the court, &c. "In cognoscendis rimandisque feudis (says Spelman) ad regem pertinentibus, et ad tenuras pro rege manifestandas tuendasque, operam navat; Escaetori ideo adjunctus, omnibusque nervis regiam promovens utilitatem." He was therefore, we see, the Escheator's associate, and hence Shakspeare, with his usual licence, uses the word for a confederate or associate in general. The feudal vassal was not called a feodary, but a feodatary and feudatory. In Latin, however, feudatarius signified both. MALONE. How a letter could be considered as a feudal vassal, according to Hanmer's interpretation, I am at a loss to know. Feodary means, here, a confederate, or accomplice. So, Leontes says of Hermione, in The Winter's Tale : 66 More, she's a traitor, and Camillo is "A federary with her." I also think that the word feodary has the same signification in Measure for Measure, though the other commentators do not, and have there assigned my reasons for being of that opinion. 7 I am ignorant in what I am commanded.] practised in the arts of murder. STEEVENS. So, in King Henry IV. Part I.: M. MASON. i. e. I am un "O, I am ignorance itself in this." MALONE. |