Сум.

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I have surely seen him:

His favour is familiar to me.-Boy,

Thou hast look'd thyself into my grace,

And art mine own.-I know not why, nor wherefore,

To say, live, boy7: ne'er thank thy master; live :
And ask of Cymbeline what boon thou wilt,
Fitting my bounty, and thy state, I'll give it;
Yea, though thou do demand a prisoner,
The noblest ta'en.

IMO.
I humbly thank your highness.
Luc. I do not bid thee beg my life, good lad;
And yet, I know, thou wilt.

IMO.
No, no: alack,
There's other work in hand; I see a thing
Bitter to me as death: your life, good master,
Must shuffle for itself.

Luc.

The boy disdains me,

He leaves me, scorns me : Briefly die their joys, That place them on the truth of girls and boys.Why stands he so perplex'd?

CYM. What would'st thou, boy? I love thee more and more; think more and more What's best to ask. Know'st him thou look'st on?

speak,

Wilt have him live? Is he thy kin? thy friend? IMO. He is a Roman; no more kin to me,

Than I to your highness; who, being born your

vassal,

Am something nearer.

CYM.

Wherefore ey'st him so?

6 His FAVOUR is familiar-] I am acquainted with his countenance. JOHNSON.

7 I know not why, NOR wherefore,

To say, live, boy:] I know not what should induce me to say, live, boy. The word nor was inserted by Mr. Rowe. The late editions have-I say, &c. MALONE.

IMO. I'll tell you, sir, in private, if you please

To give me hearing.
Сум.
And lend my best attention..
best attention.
IMO. Fidele, sir.

Сум.

Ay, with all my heart,

What's thy name?

Thou art my good youth, my page;

I'll be thy master: Walk with me; speak freely. [CYMBELINE and IMOGEN Converse apart. BEL. Is not this boy reviv'd from deathR ?

One sand another

ARV.
Not more resembles: That sweet rosy lad,
Who died, and was Fidele :-What think you ?
GUI. The same dead thing alive.

BEL. Peace, peace! see further; he eyes us not; forbear;

Creatures may be alike: were't he, I am sure

He would have spoke to us.

GUI.

But we saw him dead.

It is my mistress:

BEL. Be silent; let's see further.
PIS.

Since she is living, let the time run on,

To good, or bad.

CYM.

[Aside.

[CYMBELINE and IMOGEN come forward. Come, stand thou by our side;

Make thy demand aloud.-Sir, [To LACH.] step

you forth;

Give answer to this boy, and do it freely;
Or, by our greatness, and the grace of it,
Which is our honour, bitter torture shall

Winnow the truth from falsehood. On, speak to him.
IMO. My boon is, that this gentleman may render
Of whom he had this ring.

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reviv'd FROM DEATH?] The words-from death, which spoil the measure, are an undoubted interpolation. From what else but death could Imogen, in the opinion of Belarius, have revived? STEEVENS.

FOST.

What's that to him?

[Aside:

CYM. That diamond upon your finger, say,

How came it yours?

IACH. Thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that Which, to be spoke, would torture thee.

CYM.

How! me?

IACH. I am glad to be constrain'd to utter that
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which

Torments me to conceal. By villainy

I got this ring; 'twas Leonatus' jewel: Whom thou didst banish; and (which more may grieve thee,

As it doth me,) a nobler sir ne'er liv'd

'Twixt sky and ground. Wilt thou hear more, my lord1?

CYм. All that belongs to this.

Іасн.

That paragon, thy daughter,For whom my heart drops blood, and my false

spirits

Quail to remember 2,-Give me leave; I faint.

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which Mr. Ritson (and I perfectly agree with him) is of opinion that this pronoun should be omitted, as in elliptical language, on similar occasions, is often known to have been the case. How injurious this syllable is to the present measure, I think no reader of judgment can fail to perceive. STEEVENS.

If we lay an emphasis on that, it will be an hypermetrical line of eleven syllables. There is scarcely a page in Fletcher's plays where this sort of versification is not to be found. Boswell. - Wilt thou HEAR more, my lord? &c.] The metre will become perfectly regular if we read:

I

""Twixt sky and ground. Wilt more, my lord?

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Cym.
Belongs to this.

Iach. That paragon, thy daughter-."

All that

In elliptical language, such words as-thou hear, are frequently omitted; but the players, or transcribers, as in former instances, were unsatisfied till the metre was destroyed by the insertion of whatever had been purposely left out. STEEVENS.

2 QUAIL to remember,]. To quail is to sink into dejection. The word is common to many authors. So, in The Three Ladies of

CYм. My daughter! what of her? Renew thy

strength:

I had rather thou should'st live while nature will, Than die ere I hear more: strive man, and speak. IACH. Upon a time, (unhappy was the clock That struck the hour!) it was in Rome, (accurs'd The mansion where!) 'twas at a feast, (O 'would Our viands had been poison'd! or, at least,

Those which I heav'd to head!) the good Posthú

mus,

(What should I say? he was too good to be
Where ill men were; and was the best of all
Among'st the rar'st of good ones,) sitting sadly,
Hearing us praise our loves of Italy

For beauty that made barren the swell'd boast
Of him that best could speak: for feature, laming
The shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva,
Postures beyond brief nature3; for condition,

London, 1584: "She cannot quail me if she come in likeness of the great Devil." See vol. vi. p. 385, n. 8. STEEVENS.

3

for FEATURE, laming

The shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva,

Postures beyond brief nature;] Feature for proportion of parts, which Mr. Theobald not understanding, would alter to

stature:

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for feature, laming

"The shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva,
"Postures beyond brief nature;-

i. e. the ancient statues of Venus and Minerva, which exceeded, in
beauty of exact proportion, any living bodies, the work of brief
nature; i. e. of hasty, unelaborate nature. He gives the same
character of the beauty of the antique in Antony and Cleopatra :
O'er picturing that Venus where we see
"The fancy outwork nature.”

66

It appears, from a number of such passages as these, that our author was not ignorant of the fine arts. WARBURTON.

I cannot help adding, that passages of this kind are but weak proofs that our poet was conversant with what we at present call the fine arts. The pantheons of his own age (several of which I have seen) afford a most minute and particular account of the different degrees of beauty imputed to the different deities; and as

Loves woman for; besides, that hook of wiving, Fairness which strikes the eye :-

(Most like a noble lord, in love, and one

That had a royal lover,) took his hint;

And, not dispraising whom we prais'd, (therein
He was as calm as virtue) he began

His mistress picture; which by his tongue being made,

And then a mind put in't, either our brags
Were crack'd of kitchen trulls, or his description
Prov'd us unspeaking sots.

Сум.

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Nay, nay, to the purpose.
IACH. Your daughter's chastity-there it begins.
He spake of her as Dian had hot dreams,
And she alone were cold: Whereat, I, wretch!
Made scruple of his praise; and wager'd with him
Pieces of gold, 'gainst this which then he wore
Upon his honour'd finger, to attain

In suit the place of his bed, and win this ring
By hers and mine adultery: he, true knight,
No lesser of her honour confident

Shakspeare had at least an opportunity of reading Chapman's translation of Homer, the first part of which was published in 1596, with additions in 1598, and entire in 1611, he might have taken these ideas from thence, without being at all indebted to his own particular observation, or acquaintance with statuary and painting. It is surely more for his honour to remark how well he has employed the little knowledge he appears to have had of sculpture or mythology, than from his frequent allusions to them to suppose he was intimately acquainted with either. STEEVENS. AS DIAN] i. e. as if Dian. So, in The Winter's Tale : 66 he utters them as he had eaten ballads." MALONE.

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