BEL.

How you speak 7!

Did you but know the city's usuries,
And felt them knowingly: the art o' the court,
As hard to leave, as keep; whose top to climb
Is certain falling, or so slippery, that

The fear's as bad as falling: the toil of the war,
A pain that only seems to seek out danger

I' the name of fame, and honour; which dies i' the search;

And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph,

As record of fair act; nay, many times,

Doth ill deserve by doing well; what's worse,
Must court'sey at the censure:-O, boys, this story
The world may read in me: My body's mark'd
With Roman swords; and my report was once
First with the best of note: Cymbeline lov'd me;
And when a soldier was the theme, my name
Was not far off: Then was I as a tree,
Whose boughs did bend with fruit: but, in one
night,

A storm, or robbery, call it what you will,
Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves,
And left me bare to weather 8.

GUI.

Uncertain favour!

BEL. My fault being nothing (as I have told you

oft,)

But that two villains, whose false oaths prevail'd
Before my perfect honour, swore to Cymbeline,
I was confederate with the Romans: so,
Follow'd my banishment; and, this twenty years,

7 How you speak!] Otway seems to have taken many hints for the conversation that passes between Acasto and his sons, from the scene before us. STEEVENS.

8 And left me bare to weather.] So, in Timon of Athens:
"That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves

"Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush,
"Fallen from their boughs, and left me, open, bare,
"For every storm that blows," STEEVENS.

This rock, and these demesnes, have been my

world:

Where I have liv'd at honest freedom; paid

More pious debts to heaven, than in all

The fore-end of my time.-But, up to the mountains ;

This is not hunters' language:-He, that strikes The venison first, shall be the lord o' the feast; To him the other two shall minister;

And we will fear no poison, which attends

In place of greater state 9. I'll meet you in the

valleys.

[Exeunt GUI. and Arv. How hard it is, to hide the sparks of nature! These boys know little, they are sons to the king; Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive.

They think, they are mine: and, though train'd up thus meanly

I' the cave, wherein they bow', their thoughts do hit

9 And we will fear no poison, which attends In place of GREATER state.]

nulla aconita bibuntur

Fictilibus; tunc illa time, cum pocula sumes

Gemmata, et lato Setinum ardebit in auro. Juv.

MALONE.

The comparative-greater, which violates the measure, is surely an absurd interpolation; the low-brow'd cave in which the princes are meanly educated, being a place of no state at all.

STEEVENS.

This kind of phraseology is used every day without objection.

MALONE.

I' the cave, WHEREIN THEY BOW,] The old editions read: "I' the cave, whereon the bowe;

which, though very corrupt, will direct us to the true reading, [as it stands in the text.]-In this very cave, which is so low that they must bow or bend in entering it, yet are their thoughts so exalted, &c. This is the antithesis. Belarius had spoken before of

the lowness of this cave:

"A goodly day! not to keep house, with such

"Whose roof's as low as ours! Stoop, boys: This gate "Instructs you how to adore the heavens; and bows you "To morning's holy office." WARBURTON.

The roofs of palaces; and nature prompts them,
In simple and low things, to prince it, much
Beyond the trick of others. This Polydore 2,-
The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, whom
The king his father call'd Guiderius,—Jove!
When on my three-foot stool I sit, and tell
The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out
Into my story: say,―Thus mine enemy fell;
And thus I set my foot on his neck; even then
The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats,
Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in pos-

ture

That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal3,

2 This POLYDORE,] [First folio, Paladour.] The old copy of the play (except here, where it may be only a blunder of the printer,) calls the eldest son of Cymbeline, Polidore, as often as the name occurs; and yet there are some who may ask whether it is not more likely that the printer should have blundered in the other places, than that he should have hit upon such an uncommon name as Paladour in this first instance. Paladour was the ancient name for Shaftsbury. So, in A Meeting Dialoguewise between Nature, the Phoenix, and the Turtle-Dove, by R. Chester, 1601:

"This noble king builded fair Caerguent,

"Now cleped Winchester of worthie fame;
"And at mount Paladour he built his tent,

"That after-ages Shaftsburie hath to name." STEEvens. I believe, however, Polydore is the true reading. In the pages of Holinshed, which contain an account of Cymbeline, Polydore [i. e. Polydore Virgil] is often quoted in the margin; and this probably suggested the name to Shakspeare. MALONE.

Otway (see p. 110, n. 7,) was evidently of the same opinion, as he has so denominated one of the sons of Acasto in The Orphan.

The translations, however, of both Homer and Virgil, would have afforded Shakspeare the name of Polydore. STEEVENS.

3 The younger brother, CADWAL,] This name is found in an ancient poem, entitled King Arthur, which is printed in the same collection with the Meeting Dialogue-wise, &c. quoted in the preceding note:

66

Augisell, king of stout Albania, "And Caduall, king of Vinedocia

(Once, Arvirágus,) in as like a figure,

Strikes life into my speech, and shows much more His own conceiving. Hark! the game is rous'd!— O Cymbeline! heaven, and my conscience, knows, Thou didst unjustly banish me: whereon,

At three, and two years old, I stole these babes *; Thinking to bar thee of succession, as

Thou reft'st me of my lands. Euriphile,

Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for their mother,

And every day do honour to her grave':
Myself, Belarius, that am Morgan call'd,
They take for natural father. The game is up.
[Exit.

4

In this collection one of our author's own poems was originally printed. See the end of The Passionate Pilgrim. MALONE. I stole these babes ;] Shakspeare seems to intend Belarius for a good character, yet he makes him forget the injury which he has done to the young princes, whom he has robbed of a kingdom only to rob their father of heirs.-The latter part of this soliloquy is very inartificial, there being no particular reason why Belarius should now tell to himself what he could not know better by telling it. JOHNSON.

5

to HER grave:] i. e. to the grave of Euriphile; or, to the grave of "their mother, as they suppose it to be." The poet ought rather to have written-to thy grave. MALONE.

Perhaps he did write so, and the present reading is only a corruption introduced by his printers or publishers. STEEVENS. This change of persons frequently occurs in our author. Thus, in Julius Cæsar:

66

Casca, thou art the first that rears his hand."

Again, in Timon of Athens:

"Hail to thee, worthy Timon, and to all
"That of his bounty taste."

Again, in The Winter's Tale :

66

Away with him; and let her sport herself "With that she's big with; for 'tis Polixenes "Has made thee swell thus."

But this mode of construction is not peculiar to Shakspeare; we meet with it in Scripture, Acts xvii. v. 2, 3: And Paul-reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alledging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ."

MALONE.

SCENE IV.

Near Milford-Haven.

Enter PISANIO and IMOGEN.

IMO. Thou told'st me, when we came from horse, the place

Was near at hand:-Ne'er long'd my mother so To see me first, as I have now :-Pisanio! Man! Where is Posthúmus? What is in thy mind,

6 Where is Posthúmus ?] Shakspeare's apparent ignorance of quantity is not the least among many proofs of his want of learning. Almost throughout this play he calls Posthumus, Posthūmus, and Arvirăgus, always Arvirāgus. It may be said that quantity in the age of our author did not appear to have been much regarded. In the tragedy of Darius, by William Alexander of Menstrie, (lord Sterline) 1603, Darīus is always called Darius, and Euphrates, Euphrates:

"The diadem that Darius erst had borne—— "The famous Euphrates to be your border-." Again, in the 21st Song of Drayton's Polyolbion :

"That gliding go in state like swelling Euphrates." Throughout Sir Arthur Gorges' translation of Lucan, Euphrates is likewise given instead of Euphrates. STEEVENS.

Shakspeare's ignorance of the quantity of Posthumus is the rather remarkable, as he gives it rightly both when the name first occurs, and in another place:

"To his protection; calls him Posthumus.

"Struck the main-top!-O, Posthumus! alas." RITSON. In A Meeting Dialogue-wise between Nature, the Phoenix, and the Turtle-dove, by R. Chester, 1601, Arviragus is introduced with the same neglect of quantity as in this play:

"Windsor, a castle of exceeding strength, "First built by Arvirágus, Britaine's king." Again, by Heywood, in his Britayne's Troy : "Now Arvirágus reigns, and takes to wife "The emperor Claudius's daughter."

It seems to have been the general rule, adopted by scholars as well as others, to pronounce Latin names like English words: Shakspeare's neglect of quantity therefore proves nothing.

MALONE. The propriety of the foregoing remark, is not altogether con