As I my poor self did exchange for you, 8 CYM. Thou basest thing, avoid! hence, from my sight! If, after this command, thou fraught the court POST. The gods protect you! [Exit. And bless the good remainders of the court! I am gone. IMO. There cannot be a pinch in death "Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for their mother, "And every day do honour to her grave." MALONE. As none of our author's productions were revised by himself as they passed from the theatre through the press; and as Julius Cæsar and Cymbeline are among the plays which originally appeared in the blundering first folio; it is hardly fair to charge irregularities on the poet, of which his publishers alone might have been guilty. I must therefore take leave to set down the present, and many similar offences against the established rules of language, under the article of Hemingisms and Condelisms; and, as such, in my opinion, they ought, without ceremony, to be corrected. The instance brought from The Rape of Lucrece might only have been a compositorial inaccuracy, like those which have occasionally happened in the course of our present republication. STEEVENS. 8 a MANACLE] A manacle properly means what we now call a hand-cuff. STEEVENS. 9 There cannot be a pinch in death, More sharp than this is.] So, in King Henry VIII. : CYM. O disloyal thing, That should'st repair my youth'; thou heapest A year's age on me 2! IMO. I beseech you, sir, Harm not yourself with your vexation; I am senseless of your wrath; a touch more rare Subdues all pangs, all fears3. it is a sufferance, panging "As soul and body's parting." MALONE. That should'st REPAIR my youth;] i. e. renovate my youth; make me young again. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609: as for him, he brought his disease hither: here he doth but repair it." Again, in All's Well That End's Well : 66 66 it much repairs me, "To talk of your good father." MALONE. Again, in Pericles: 2 "Thou giv'st me somewhat to repair myself.", STEEVENS. thou heapest A YEAR'S AGE on me!] The obvious sense of this passage, on which several experiments have been made, is in some degree countenanced by what follows in another scene : "And every day that comes, comes to decay "A day's work in him." Dr. Warburton would read " A yare (i. e. a speedy) age; Sir T. Hanmer would restore the metre by a supplemental epi thet: 66 thou heapest many "A year's age," &c. and Dr. Johnson would give us : 66 Years, ages, on me! 66 I prefer the additional word introduced by Sir Thomas Hanmer, to all the other attempts at emendation. Many a year's age,' is an idea of some weight: but if Cymbeline meant to say that his daughter's conduct made him precisely one year older, his conceit is unworthy both of himself and Shakspeare.-I would read with Sir Thomas Hanmer. STEEVENS. Subdues all pangs, all fears.] A touch more rare, may mean a nobler passion. JOHNSON. 66 6 A touch more rare is undoubtedly a more exquisite feeling; a superior sensation. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act I. Sc. II. : "The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Сум. Past grace? obedience ? IMO. Past hope, and in despair; that way, past grace. CYм. That might'st have had the sole son of my queen! IMO. O bless'd, that I might not! I chose an eagle, And did avoid a puttock *. CYM. Thou took'st a beggar; would'st have made my throne A seat for baseness. It is your fault that I have lov'd Posthumus: "Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling A touch is not unfrequently used, by other ancient writers, in this sense. So, in Daniel's Hymen's Triumph, a masque, 1623 : "You must not, Philis, be so sensible "Of these small touches which your passion makes. 66 Again: Small touches, Lydia! do you count them small?" "When pleasure leaves a touch at last "To show that it was ill." Again, in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1599: "So deep we feel impressed in our blood "That touch which nature with our breath did give." Lastly, as Dr. Farmer observes to me, in Fraunce's Ivychurch. He is speaking of Mars and Venus: "When sweet tickling joyes of tutching came to the highest poynt, when two were one," &c. STEEVENS. A passage in King Lear will fully illustrate Imogen's meaning: where the greater malady is fix'd, 66 "The lesser is scarce felt." MALONE. -a PUTTOCK.] A kite. JOHNSON. A puttock is a mean degenerate species of hawk, too worthless to deserve training. STEEVENS. A man, worth any woman; overbuys me CYM. What-art thou mad! IMO. Almost, sir: Heaven restore me!-'Would I were A neat-herd's daughter! and my Leonatus CYM. Re-enter Queen. Thou foolish thing!— [To the Queen. They were again together: you have done Not after our command. Away with her, QUEEN. 'Beseech your patience:-Peace, Dear lady daughter, peace ;-Sweet sovereign, Leave us to ourselves; and make yourself some comfort Out of your best advice ". Сум. Nay, let her languish A drop of blood a day'; and, being aged, Die of this folly! 5 - overbuys me [Exit. Almost the sum he pays.] So small is my value, and so great is his, that in the purchase he has made (for which he paid himself,) for much the greater part, and nearly the whole, of what he has given, he has nothing in return. The most minute portion of his worth would be too high a price for the wife he has acquired. MALONE. - 6 your best ADVICE.] i. e. consideration, reflection. So, in Measure for Measure: "But did repent me after more advice." STEEVENS. - let her languish A drop of blood a day ;] We meet with a congenial form of malediction in Othello : may his pernicious soul "Rot half a grain a day!" STEEVENS. QUEEN. Enter PISANIO. Fye!-you must give way: Here is your servant.-How now, sir? What news? Prs. My lord your son drew on my master. QUEEN. No harm, I trust, is done? PIS. Ha! There might have been, But that my master rather play'd than fought, And had no help of anger: they were parted By gentlemen at hand. QUEEN. I am very glad on't. IMO. Your son's my father's friend; he takes his part. To draw upon an exile!-O brave sir! I would they were in Africk both together; QUEEN. This hath been Your faithful servant: I dare lay mine honour, He will remain so. PIS. I humbly thank your highness. About some half hour hence, QUEEN. Pray, walk a while. [Exeunt. |