Draws us a profit from all things we see: Gui. Out of your proof you speak: we, poor un fledg❜d, Have never wing'd from view o'the nest; nor know not That have a sharper known; well corresponding Arv. What should we speak of," When we are old as you? when we shall hear 7 The sharded beetle-] i. e. the beetle whose wings are enclosed within two dry husks or shards. 8 attending for a check;] Check may mean, in this place, a reproof; but I rather think it signifies command, controul. Thus, in Troilus and Cressida, the restrictions of Aristotle are called Aristotle's checks. STEEVENS. 9 than doing nothing for a babe;] As 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. 1 —— no life to ours.] i. e. compared with ours. 2 To stride a limit.] To overpass his bound. 3 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. In this our pinching cave, shall we discourse Bel. How you speak! 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 Whose boughs did bend with fruit: but, in one night, Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves, 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, 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 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 Strikes life into my speech, and shows much more At three, and two years old, I stole these babes; * 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. 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 grave: Myself, Belarius, that am Morgan call'd, They take for natural father. The game is up. [Exit. 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 What's the matter? That makes thee stare thus? Wherefore breaks that sigh tongue Speak, man; thy May take off some extremity, which to read Pis. Please you, read; 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. 6 drug-damn'd-] This is another allusion to Italian poisons. And you shall find me, wretched man, a thing 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 Milford-Haven: she hath my letter for the purpose: Where, if thou fear to strike, and to make me certain it is done, thou art the pander to her dishonour, and equally to me disloyal. Pis. What shall I need to draw my sword? the paper Hath cut her throat already. No, 'tis slander; All corners of the world: kings, queens, and states," To lie in watch there, and to think on him? To weep 'twixt clock and clock? if sleep charge nature, 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.-Some jay of Italy, Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him : 7 states,] Persons of highest rank. 8 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 not be improperly termed her mother. |