Which your own coffers yield! with diseas'd ven

tures,

That play with all infirmities for gold

Which rottenness can lend nature! such boil'd stuff",
As well might poison poison! Be reveng'd;

Or she, that bore you, was no queen, and you
Recoil from your great stock.

IMO.

Reveng❜d!
How should I be reveng'd? If this be true,
(As I have such a heart, that both mine ears
Must not in haste abuse,) if it be true,
How should I be reveng'd?

"He gave them for their cognizance
"A purple bleeding heart,

"In which two silver arrows seem'd
"The same in twaine to part.
"Thus secret were his wanton sports,
"Thus private was his pleasure;
"Thus harlots in the shape of men

"Did waft away his treasure."

Verstegan, however, gives the following etymology of the word tomboy: "Tumbe. To dance. Tumbod, danced; hereof we yet call a wench that skippeth or leapeth lyke a boy, a tomboy: our name also of tumbling cometh from hence." STEEVENS.

7

hir'd with that self-exhibition, &c.] Gross strumpets, hired with the very pension which you allow your husband. JOHNSON. 8 such BOIL'D stuff,] The allusion is to the ancient process of sweating in venereal cases. See Timon of Athens, Act IV. Sc. III. So, in The Old Law, by Massinger:

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look parboil'd,

"As if they came from Cupid's scalding-house." Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "Sodden business! there's a stewed phrase indeed." Again, in Timon of Athens: "She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are." All this stuff about boiling, scalding, &c. is a mere play on stew, a word which is afterwards used for a brothel by Imogen.

STEEVENS. The words may mean,-such corrupted stuff; from the substantive boil. So, in Coriolanus:

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boils and plagues

"Plaster you o'er!

But, I believe, Mr. Steevens's interpretation is the true one.

MALONE.

Іасн.

Should he make me

Live like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets9 ;
Whiles he is vaulting variable ramps,

In your despite, upon your purse? Revenge it.
I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure;
More noble than that runagate to your bed;
And will continue fast to your affection,
Still close, as sure.

IMO.

What ho, Pisanio!

IACH. Let me my service tender on your lips 1.
IMO. Away!-I do condemn mine ears, that have
So long attended thee.—If thou wert honourable,
Thou would'st have told this tale for virtue, not
For such an end thou seek'st; as base, as strange.
Thou wrong'st a gentleman, who is as far
From thy report, as thou from honour; and
Solicit❜st here a lady, that disdains

Thee and the devil alike.--What ho, Pisanio!-
The king my father shall be made acquainted
Of thy assault: if he shall think it fit,
A saucy stranger, in his court, to mart
As in a Romish stew 2, and to expound

9 Live like Diana's PRIEST, betwixt cold sheets ;] Sir Thomas Hanmer, supposing this to be an inaccurate expression, reads:

"Live like Diana's priestess 'twixt cold sheets;

but the text is as the author wrote it. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Diana says:

My temple stands at Ephesus; hie thee thither;
There, when my maiden priests are met together," &c.

MALONE.

Let me my service tender on your lips.] Perhaps this is an allusion to the ancient custom of swearing servants into noble families. So, in Caltha Poetarum, &c. 1599:

she swears him to his good abearing, "Whilst her faire sweet lips were the books of swearing." STEEVENS.

2 As in a ROMISH Stew,] Romish was, in the time of Shakspeare, used instead of Roman. There were stews at Rome in the time of Augustus. The same phrase occurs in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607:

His beastly mind to us; he hath a court
He little cares for, and a daughter whom
He not respects at all.-What ho, Pisanio!-
LACH. O happy Leonatus! I may say ;
The credit, that thy lady hath of thee,
Deserves thy trust; and thy most perfect goodness
Her assur'd credit!-Blessed live you long!
A lady to the worthiest sir, that ever

Country call'd his! and you his mistress, only
For the most worthiest fit! Give me your pardon.
I have spoke this, to know if your affiance
Were deeply rooted; and shall make your lord,
That which he is, new o'er: And he is one
The truest manner'd; such a holy witch,

That he enchants societies unto him 4:

Half all men's hearts are his.

IMO.

You make amends.

IACH. He sits 'mongst men, like a descended god 5:

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my mother deem'd me chang'd,

"Poor woman! in the loathsome Romish stewes : and the author of this piece seems to have been a scholar. Again, in Wit In A Constable, by Glapthorne, 1640 : "A Romish cirque, or Grecian hippodrome."

Again, Thomas Drant's translation of the first epistle of the second book of Horace, 1567:

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• The Romishe people wise in this, in this point only just."

STEEVENS.

-] Old copy-who. Corrected

such a holy wITCH,

That he ENCHANTS SOCIETIES UNTO HIM:] So, in our author's Lover's Complaint:

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- he did in the general bosom reign

"Of young and old, and sexes both enchanted

"Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted."

a station like the herald Mercury,

New lighted on a heaven kissing-hill."

MALONE.

The old copy has-defended. The correction was made by the

He hath a kind of honour sets him off,
More than a mortal seeming. Be not angry,
Most mighty princess, that I have adventur'd
To try your taking of a false report; which hath
Honour'd with confirmation your great judgment
In the election of a sir so rare,

6

Which you know, cannot err: The love I bear him Made me to fan you thus; but the gods made

you,

Unlike all others, chaffless. Pray, your pardon. IMO. All's well, sir: Take my power i' the court

for yours.

LACH. My humble thanks. I had almost forgot
To entreat your grace but in a small request,
And yet of moment too, for it concerns

Your lord; myself, and other noble friends,
Are partners in the business.

IMO.

Pray, what is't?

LACH. Some dozen Romans of us, and your lord, (The best feather of our wing') have mingled sums, To buy a present for the emperor;

Which I, the factor for the rest, have done

In France: 'Tis plate, of rare device; and jewels, Of rich and exquisite form; their values great; And I am something curious, being strange,

editor of the second folio. Defend is again printed for descend, in the last scene of Timon of Athens. MALONE.

So, in Chapman's version of the twenty-third book of Homer's Odyssey:

"A god descended from the starry sphere." STEEVENS. taking a Old copy, vulgarly and unmetrically, taking of a-." STEEVENS.

66

-]

7 - best FEATHER OF OUR WING-] So, in Churchyard's Warning to Wanderers Abroad, 1593:

"You are so great you would faine march in fielde,
"That world should judge you feathers of one wing.”
STEEVENS.

8 being strange,] i. c. being a stranger. STEEvens.

To have them in safe stowage; May it please you To take them in protection?

IMO.

Willingly;

And pawn mine honour for their safety; since My lord hath interest in them, I will keep them In my bed-chamber.

IACH.

They are in a trunk,

Attended by my men: I will make bold

To send them to you, only for this night;

I must aboard to-morrow.

IMO.

O, no, no.

IACH. Yes, I beseech; or I shall short my word, By length'ning my return. From Gallia

I cross'd the seas on purpose, and on promise

To see your grace.

IMO.

I thank you for your pains;

But not away to-morrow?

O, I must, madam:

Ілсн.
Therefore, I shall beseech you, if you please
To greet your lord with writing, do't to-night;
I have outstood my time; which is material
To the tender of our present.

IMO.
I will write.
Send your trunk to me; it shall safe be kept,
And truly yielded you: You are very welcome.

[Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

Court before CYMBELINE's Palace.

Enter CLOTEN, and Two Lords.

CLO. Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the jack upon an up-cast, to be hit away!

9-kissed the jack upon an up-cast,] He is describing his fate at bowls. The jack is the small bowl at which the others