your wills.

Profess myself the winner of her honour,
Together with your ring; and not the wronger
Of her or you, having proceeded but
By both
POST.
If you can make't apparent
That you have tasted her in bed, my hand
And ring is yours: if not, the foul opinion
You had of her pure honour gains or loses
Your sword or mine, or masterless leaves both
To who shall find them.

IACH.
Sir, my circumstances
Being so near the truth as I will make them,
Must first induce you to believe: whose strength
I will confirm with oath; which, I doubt not,
You'll give me leave to spare, when you shall find
You need it not.

POST.

IACH.

Proceed.

First, her bedchamber,---(Where, I confess, I slept not; but profess, Had that was well worth watching,a) it was hang'd With tapestry of silk and silver; the story, Proud Cleopatra, when she met her Roman, And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for The press of boats or pride: a piece of work So bravely done, so rich, that it did strive In workmanship and value; which I wonder'd Could be so rarely and exactly wrought, Since the true life on't was

Or do your honour injury. IACH.

So they must,

The chimney

Is south the chamber; and the chimney-piece,
Chaste Dian bathing: never saw I figures
So likely to report themselves: the cutter
Was as another Nature, dumb; outwent her,
Motion and breath left out.

POST.
This is a thing
Which you might from relation likewise reap,
Being, as it is, much spoke of.

IACH.
The roof o' the chamber
With golden cherubins is fretted: her andirons,-
I had forgot them,-were two winking Cupids
Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely
Depending on their brands.

(*) Old text, leave.

a Watching,-] An allusion to the practice of taming hawks by depriving them of sleep. See note (d), p. 683, Vol, I. b Since the true life on 't was-] Capell has,

"Since the true life was in it;"

Mason would read,

"Such the true life on't was;"

and Mr. Collier's annotator,

"Since the true life on 't 't was."

To any of these we should prefer,

Very true;

POST. And so I hope he came by 't.-Back my ring ;Render to me some corporal sign about her, More evident than this; for this was stol'n. IACH. By Jupiter, I had it from her arm. POST. Hark you, he swears! by Jupiter, he [sure 'Tis true;-nay, keep the ring-'tis true; I am She would not lose it: her attendants are All sworn, (3) and honourable:-they induc'd to

swears.

steal it!

"Since the true life on 't has."

But what necessity is there for change? The speech was evidently intended to be interrupted by Posthumus.

c Winking Cupids-] Blind Cupids-Cupids with closed cyes. d Who knows if one of her women,-] Of was supplied by the second folio: the first having,

"" one her women."

The expression is awkward without the preposition, unless we read,

'Who knows if one, her women being corrupted," &c.

POST. Is there no way for men to be, but women
Must be half-workers? We are all bastards;
And that most venerable man which I
Did call my father, was I know not where
When I was stamp'd; some coiner with his tools
Made me a counterfeit: yet my mother seem'd
The Dian of that time: so doth my wife
The nonpareil of this.-O, vengeance, vengeance!-
Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain'd,
And pray'd me oft forbearance; did it with
A pudency so rosy, the sweet view on't
Might well have warm'd old Saturn; that I thought
her

As chaste as unsunn'd snow :-O, all the devils!—
This yellow Iachimo, in an hour,-was 't not?-
Or less, at first? perchance he spoke not, but
Like a full-acorn'd boar, a German one,
Cried, O! and mounted: found no opposition
But what he look'd for should oppose, and she
Should from encounter guard.-Could I find out
The woman's part in me! for there's no motion
That tends to vice in man, but I affirm

It is the woman's part: be it lying, note it
The woman's; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers;
Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers;
Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,
Nice longing, slanders, mutability,

All faults that may be nam'd,* nay, that hell knows,
Why, hers, in part or all; but rather, all for

e'en to vice

They are not constant, but are changing still
One vice, but of a minute old, for one
Not half so old as that. I'll write against them,
Detest them, curse them :-yet 't is greater skill
In a true hate, to pray they have their will:
The very devils cannot plague them better. [Exit.

(*) First folio, All faults that name.

Enter, from one side, CYMBELINE, QUEEN,

CLOTEN, and Lords; from the other, CAIUS
LUCIUS and Attendants.

CYм. Now say, what would Augustus Cæsar with us?

Luc. When Julius Caesar,-whose remembrance yet

Lives in men's eyes, and will to ears and tongues
Be theme and hearing ever,-was in this Britain,
And conquer'd it, Cassibelan, thine uncle,-
Famous in Cæsar's praises, no whit less
Than in his feats deserving it,-for him
And his succession, granted Rome a tribute,
Yearly three thousand pounds; which by thee lately
Is left untender'd.

Poor ignorant baubles!-on our terrible seas,
Like egg-shells mov'd upon their surges, crack'd
As easily 'gainst our rocks: for joy whereof,
The fam'd Cassibelan, who was once at point,-
O, giglot Fortune!-to master Cæsar's sword,
Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright,
And Britons strut with courage.(1)

CLO. Come, there's no more tribute to be paid: our kingdom is stronger than it was at that time; and, as I said, there is no more such Cæsars: other of them may have crooked noses; but to owe such straight arms, none.

CYм. Son, let your mother end.

CLO. We have yet many among us can gripe as hard as Cassibelan: I do not say I am one, but I have a hand.-Why tribute? why should we pay tribute? If Cæsar can hide the sun from us with a blanket, or put the moon in his pocket, we will pay him tribute for light; else, sir, no more tribute, pray you now.

CYM. You must know,

Till the injurious Romans did extort

This tribute from us, we were free: Cæsar's

Which swell'd so much that it did almost stretch
The sides o' the world,-against all colour, here
Did put the yoke upon 's; which to shake off
Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon
Ourselves to be. Say then, we do, to Cæsar."
Our ancestor was that Mulmutius, which
Ordain'd our laws,-whose use the sword of Cæsar
Hath too much mangled; whose repair and fran-
chise

Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed, Though Rome be therefore angry ;-Mulmutius made our laws,

CYм. I know your master's pleasure, and he mine:

All the remain is, welcome.

[Exeunt.

belong." It is pleasant, and generally safe, to agree with Mr. Dyce; but we cannot help thinking the words in question belong to the king's speech, but were transposed through the negligence of transcriber or compositor.

c Mulmutius made our laws,-] This, with the next three lines, was perhaps either a portion of the old play upon which Shakespeare founded his Cymbeline," or of his own first sketch, and were intended to be superseded by the previous clause:

"Our ancestor was that Mulmutius," &c.

d Behoves me keep at utterance.] Requires me to guard at the extremest peril. To fight à l'outrance in the tourney was to combat to the death. We meet with the same expression in "Macbeth," Act III. Sc. 1:

"Rather than so, come fate into the list,
And champion me to the utterance."

I am perfect-] I am well assured.

For it doth physic love ;)—of his content,

SCENE II.-The same.

Another Room in the

Palace.

Enter PISANIO, with a letter.

you not

What monster's her accuser?*-Leonatus !
O, master! what a strange infection
Is fall'n into thy ear! What false Italian
(As poisonous tongu'd as handed) hath prevail'd
On thy too ready hearing?-Disloyal! No:
She's punish'd for her truth, and undergoes,
More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults
As would take in some virtue.-O, my master!
Thy mind to her is now as low as were
Thy fortunes. How! that I should murder her?
Upon the love, and truth, and vows, which I
Have made to thy command?—I, her?—her
blood?

If it be so to do good service, never

Let me be counted serviceable. How look I,
That I should seem to lack humanity

So much as this fact comes to?-[Reading.] Do't: the letter

That I have sent her, by her own command
Shall give thee opportunity :-O damn'd paper!
Black as the ink that's on thee! Senseless
bauble,

IMO. How now, Pisanio?

PIS. Madam, here is a letter from my lord.
IMO. Who? thy lord? that is my lord,-
Leonatus!

O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer
That knew the stars as I his characters;
He'd lay the future open.-You good gods,
Let what is here contain'd relish of love,
Of my lord's health, of his content,-yet not,
That we two are asunder,-let that grieve him,——
(Some griefs are med'cinable; that is one of them,

(*) Old text, accuse; altered by Capell.

a Feodary-] Feodary here can hardly mean, as Hanmer surmised, a feudal vassal, i.e. one holding his estate by the tenure of suit and service. One signification of the word was, an officer appointed by the Court of Wards, in Henry VIII.'s reign, to be present with, and assistant to the Escheators in every county at the finding of offices, and to give in evidence for the king. He appears to have been the Escheator's witness; and it is not unlikely that Shakespeare, in reference to those unpopular officials, uses the word feodary here, and federary in "The Winter's Tale,"

Act II. Sc. 1:

You clasp young Cupid's tables.-Good news,

O, for a horse with wings!-Hear'st thou, Pisanio?
He is at Milford-Haven: read, and tell me
How far 't is thither. If one of mean affairs
May plod it in a week, why may not I
Glide thither in a day?-Then, true Pisanio,
(Who long'st, like me, to see thy lord; who
long'st,-

O, let me 'bate,-but not like me:-yet long'st,—
But in a fainter kind:-O, not like me;
For mine's beyond beyond) say, and speak
thick,c.

Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing,
To the smothering of the sense,-how far it is
To this same blessed Milford: and, by the way,
Tell me how Wales was made so happy as
To inherit such a haven: but, first of all,
How we may steal from hence; and for the gap
That we shall make in time, from our hence-

going

And our return, to excuse :-but first, how get hence:

Why should excuse be born or e'er begot?
We'll talk of that hereafter. Pr'ythee, speak,
How many score of miles may we well ride
'Twixt hour and hour?

PIS.
One score 'twixt sun and sun,
Madam, 's enough for you; and too much too.
IMO. Why, one that rode to 's execution, man,

(*) First folio, store.

"More, she's a traitor, and Camillo is
A federary with her "-

in the sense of spy or intelligencer. Mason, however, contends that the meaning of the term, in both these instances, as well as in "Measure for Measure," Act. II. Sc. 4, is no other than confederate, or accomplice;-and he may be right.

b Could not be so cruel to me, as you, O the dearest of crea tures, would even renew me with your eyes.] Not being very intelligible, this has been diversely modified by the critics; but was it not intended to be enigmatical?

c Say, and speak thick,-] See note (c), Vol. I. p. 558.