So far I read aloud:

But even the very middle of my heart

Is warm'd by the rest, and takes it thankfully.
You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I

Have words to bid you, and shall find it so
In all that I can do.

30

Iach.

Thanks, fairest lady.—

What! are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes
To see this vaulted arch and the rich crop
Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt
The fiery orbs above and the twinn'd stones
Upon the number'd beach, and can we not
Partition make with spectacles so precious

35

28. takes] Pope, take F. 32. mad?] mad. F. 37. spectacles] F 3, Spectales F.

28. takes] Pope's emendation of "take" F. Vaughan regards "But rest" as parenthetic, and defends take"; "I read aloud . . . and take it thankfully," take thankfully the intelligence of Iachimo's kindness to her husband-which may be right.

33. crop] This is ingeniously explained by Vaughan as the harvest of the eye, consisting of sea and land. It may, I think, mean 'surface"; "crop was commonly used for the top or head of a tree or flower, and of many other things; Douglas in his Eneis, I. iii. 91, speaks of the "croppis" of the waves. Jamieson's Dict. gives "The crop of the earth, the surface of the ground." Warburton proposed cope"; Collier (MS.), cope O'er"; Crosby conjectured and Hudson reads "scope." Steevens explains "crop of sea and land" as "the productions of either element.”

34. distinguish] distinguish not, I think, orbs from stones, but orb from orb, and stone from stone.

35. twinn'd] Various needless con

jectures may be disregarded; "twinn'd stones," stones like as twins; so in Beaumont and Fletcher, The Maid on the Mill, 11. ii., two faces indistinguishably alike are called "twinned."

36. number'd] numerous, i.e. with stones. Theobald's proposal "th' unnumber'd" is happy, and is supported by King Lear, IV. vi. 21: "the murmuring surge That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes." Farmer conjectured "umber'd" (shaded), Staunton "cumber'd," Vaughan "encumber'd," and other inferior suggestions are made. Is the fancy too far-fetched that the beach is "number'd," because sung to in "numbers" (numerous verse) by the waves? Mr. Craig thinks "hungred" possible, comparing "the hungry beach" of Coriolanus, v. iii. 58.

37. spectacles] Does this mean "with organs of vision" (as perhaps in 2 Henry VI. III. ii. 112), or having shows (of earth and sky) which instruct the eyes in making distinctions? The meaning "shows" is common in Shakespeare.

Imo.

'Twixt fair and foul?

What makes your admiration?

Iach. It cannot be i' the eye; for apes and monkeys,

'Twixt two such shes, would chatter this way and 40
Contemn with mows the other: nor i' the judge-
ment;

For idiots, in this case of favour, would
Be wisely definite: nor i̇' the appetite;
Sluttery, to such neat excellence opposed,
Should make desire vomit emptiness,
Not so allured to feed.

Imo. What is the matter, trow?

Iach.

Imo.

Iach.

The cloyed will

That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub

Both fill'd and running-ravening first the lamb,
Longs after for the garbage.

45

What, dear sir,

50

Thus raps you? Are you well?

The

51. raps] catches you away. participle "rapt" is familiar to us; it was confused with the Latin raptus, and the English "rap," originally meaning to snatch, seize hastily, was forgotten. We probably have it in Fletcher, The Island Princess, III. i.: "Sure he would rap me into something now suddenly "("wrap" Folios). Grant White here reads "wrap"; but see S. Walker for examples of "rap.”

51, 52.] Lines so divided by Camb. edd.; "Thanks . . . sir," one line F.

Pis.

[To Pisanio] Beseech you, sir,

Desire my man's abode where I did leave him:

He's strange and peevish.

To give him welcome.

I was going, sir,

[Exit. 55

Imo. Continues well my lord?

His health, beseech you?

I hope he is.

Iach. Well, madam.

Imo. Is he disposed to mirth?
Iach. Exceeding pleasant; none a stranger there
So merry and so gamesome: he is call'd
The Briton reveller.

Imo.

When he was here

He did incline to sadness, and oft-times
Not knowing why.

60

Iach.

I never saw him sad.

There is a Frenchman his companion, one

An eminent monsieur, that, it seems, much loves
A Gallian girl at home: he furnaces

65

The thick sighs from him, whiles the jolly Briton,
Your lord, I I mean, laughs from's free

cries "O,

free lungs,

Can my sides hold, to think that man, who knows

61. Briton] Steevens, Britaine F.

53. abode] desire my man to settle himself where I left him. Hanmer makes "Beseech. . . abode" one line and "where peevish" another (reading for "He's," "he is").

54. strange and peevish] a stranger here and foolish; for "strange compare line 191; for "peevish," Merry Wives, 1. iv. 14. Steevens explains "strange" as shy." "Peevish" sometimes wayward.

=

56. lord? His] Staunton : "lord

his."

59. none] Compare 1. iv. 103: "none so accomplished a courtier.” Wyatt suggests none, a stranger there, so merry."

62. sadness] seriousness, as often.

66. furnaces] Compare As You Like It, II. vii. 148: "the lover, Sighing like furnace. Steevens quotes from Chapman, "furnaceth the universall sighes." Thiselton adds Greene's Menaphon, ed. Arber, p. 34.

67. thick] crowding, as in Lucrece, line 1784.

Imo.

By history, report, or his own proof,

What woman is, yea, what she cannot choose
But must be, will his free hours languish for
Assured bondage?"

Will my lord say so?

Iach. Ay, madam; with his eyes in flood with laughter:
It is a recreation to be by

Imo.

70

75

And hear him mock the Frenchman. But, heavens know,

Some men are much to blame.

Not he, I hope.

Iach. Not he: but yet heaven's bounty towards him

might

Be used more thankfully: in himself 'tis much;
In you, which I account his, beyond all talents.
Whilst I am bound to wonder, I am bound

80

72. will his] Rowe, will's F. 72, 73. languish for Assured] Steevens, languish: For assured F, languish, For assured Ff 2-4.

ference to himself alone; his fault in regard to you causes both wonder and pity." The meaning I believe to be: In his own peculiar gifts heaven's bounty is much; in you-who are his

heaven's bounty to him is beyond all gifts (or endowments). "Talent" is used for "gift" by Shakespeare. Mr. Craig, however, noticing, what is certainly the fact, that "talents" was used by Elizabethan and earlier writers for "inclination," "desire," would let the sense run on to line 81, and explain: "With respect to you, whom I account his beyond all reach of loose desires, Whilst, etc.' See for this sense of "talent" Trench's Select Glossary and Skeat's Etym. Dict. Palsgrave, Lesclarcissement, has "Talent or lust'talent""; the meaning "inclination" comes from the inclination of the balance (τάλαντον).

"

Iach.

You look on me: what wreck discern you in me
Deserves your pity?

To hide me from the radiant sun, and solace
I' the dungeon by a snuff?

Deliver with more openness your answers

85

Imo.

I pray you, sir,

To my demands.

Why do you pity me?

Iach. That others do,

90

Imo.

I was about to say, enjoy your—But
It is an office of the gods to venge it,

Not mine to speak on 't.

You do seem to know

Something of me, or what concerns me: pray you,
Since doubting things go ill often hurts more

Than to be sure they do-for certainties
Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing,
The remedy then born-discover to me
What both you spur and stop.

91. your But] F 2, your: but F.

98. born-1 borne. F.

95