parts, Which now are midway stopp'd : She is all happy as the fairest of all, [Whispers a Lord, who goes off in the Hel. Sure, all's effectless; yet nothing we'll omit That bears recovery's name. But, since your kindness We have stretch'd thus far, let us beseech you That for our gold we may provision have, • Wherein we are not destitute for want, But weary for the staleness. Lys. O, sir, a courtesy Which if we should deny, the most just gods For every graff would send a caterpillar, 60 And so afflict our province. Yet once more 4 Come, let us leave her; And the gods make her prosperous! 80 [Marina sings. Lys. Mark'd he your music? Mar. No, nor look'd on us. Lys. See, she will speak to him. Mar. Hail, sir! my lord, lend ear. Per. Hum, ha ! Mar. I am a maid, My lord, that ne'er before invited eyes, But have been gazed on like a comet: she speaks, My lord, that, may be, hath endured a grief Might equal yours, if both were justly weigh'd. Though wayward fortune did malign my state, 90 Mv derivation was from ancestors speak.' Per. My fortunes-parentage-good parentTo equal mine!-was it not thus? what say you? Mar. I said, my lord, if you did know my parentage, 100 You would not do me violence. Per. I do think so. Pray you, turn your [woman? eyes upon me. You are like something that-What countryHere of these shores? Mar. No, nor of any shores: Yet I was mortally brought forth, and am Per. I am great with woe, and shall deliver weeping. Per. Rarest sounds! Do ye not hear? Lys. As Dian bade: whereto being bound, The interim, pray you, all confound. In feather'd briefness sails are fill'd, And wishes fall out as they're will'd. 280 My lord, I hear. [Music. At Ephesus, the temple see, 240 Per. Most heavenly music! It nips me unto listening, and thick slumber Hangs upon mine eyes: let me rest. [Slceps. Lys. A pillow for his head: So, leave him all. Well, my companion friends, If this but answer to my just belief, I'll well remember you. [Exeunt all but Pericles. DIANA appears to PERICLES as in a vision. Dia. My temple stands in Ephesus: hie thee thither, And do upon mine altar sacrifice. [gether, There, when my maiden priests are met toBefore the people all, Reveal how thou at sea didst lose thy wife : To mourn thy crosses, with thy daughter's, call And give them repetition to the life. Or perform my bidding, or thou livest in woe ; Do it, and happy; by my silver bow! Per. Hail, Dian! to perform thy just command, I here confess myself the king of Tyre; At sea in childbed died she, but brought forth Was nursed with Cleon: who at fourteen years Our king and all his company. That he can hither come so soon, Is by your fancy's thankful doom. [Exit. SCENE III. The temple of Diana at Ephesus; THAISA standing near the altar, as high priestess; a number of Virgins on each side; CERIMON and other Inhabitants of Ephesus attending. Enter PERICLES, with his train; LYSIMACHUS, HELICANUS, MARINA, and a Lady. : Reverend sir, 60 The gods can have no mortal officer I will, my lord, Beseech you, first go with me to my house, Where shall be shown you all was found with her; How she came placed here in the temple; No needful thing omitted. Per. Pure Dian, bless thee for thy vision! 1 Will offer night-oblations to thee. Thaisa, 70 This prince, the fair-betrothed of your daugh ter, Shall marry her at Pentapolis. And now, Makes me look dismal will I clip to form; Thai. Lord Cerimon hath letters of good credit, sir, My father's dead. CYMBELINE. (WRITTEN ABOUT 1609.) INTRODUCTION. Cymbeline interweaves with a fragment of British history taken from Holinshed, a story from Boccacio's Decameron (9th Novel of 2nd Day), the Genevra of the Italian novel corresponding to Shakespeare's Imogen. The story is told in a tract called Westward for Smelts, 1620 (stated by Steevens and Malone to have been published as early as 1603); but Shakespeare appears in some way, directly or indirectly, to have made acquaintance with it as given by Boccacio. The names of the two princes Shakespeare found, as well as the king's name, in Holinshed; but the incidents of their having been stolen, and their life, among the mountains of Wales, appear to have been invented by the dramatist. Dr. Forman records in his MS Booke of Plaies and Notes thereof that he saw Cymbeline acted; but he gives no date. His book, however, belongs to the years 1610-1611, and the metrical and other internal evidence point to that time as about the period when the drama must have been written. It is loosely constructed, and some passages possess little dramatic intensity. Several critics have questioned whether the vision of Posthumus (Act V. Sc. IV.) is of Shakespeare's authorship, and it is certainly poorly conceived and written. Nevertheless, the play is one of singular charm, and contains in Imogen one of the loveliest of Shakespeare's creations of female character. Except grandeur and majesty, which were reserved for Hermione and Queen Katherine, every thing that can make a woman lovely is given by the poet to Imogen: quick and exquisite feelings, brightness of intellect, delicate imagination, energy to hate evil and to right what was wrong, scorn for what is mean or rude, culture, dainty womanly accomplishments, the gift of song, a capacity for exquisite happiness and no less sensitiveness to the sharpness of sorrow, a power of quick recovery from disaster when the warmth of love breathes upon her once more, beauty of a type which is noble and refined. And her lost brothers are gallant youths, bred happily far from the court, in wilds where their generous instincts and love of freedom and activity find innocent if insufficient modes of gratification. As in all the works of this period, an open-air feeling pervades a great part of the drama; nature, itself joyous and free, ministers to what is beautiful, simple, or heroic in man, while yet by Shakespeare nature alone is never anywhere conceived as sufficient to satisfy the heart or the imagination of a human being. With reconciliation and reunion this, like the other Romances, closes. The faith of Posthumus in Imogen is of a half-romantic kind, unconfirmed by calm and deep acquaintance with her heart: that faith is not subtly poisoned, like the love of Othello, but suddenly, in one brief and desperate encounter, overthrown, His jealousy is not heroic, like Othello's; it shows something of grossness, unworthy of his true self. In due time penitential sorrow does its work, his nobler nature reasserts itself, and in the final reunion of parent and lost children, the erring husband is also restored to the quick-beating, joyous heart of his wife. Two British Captains. A Frenchman, friend to Philario. Queen, wife to Cymbeline. IMOGEN, daughter to Cymbeline by a former queen. HELEN, a lady attending on Imogen. Lords, Ladies, Roman Senators, Tribunes, a Soothsayer, a Dutchman, a Spaniard, Musicians, Officers, Captains, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants. Apparitions. SCENE: Britain; Rome. |