If the king come, I fhall incur I know not Re-enter Queen. Queen. Be brief, I pray you: How much of his difpleasure :-Yet I'll move him [Afide. To walk this way: I never do him wrong, But he does buy my injuries, to be friends; [Exit. Poft. Should we be taking leave As long a term as yet we have to live, The lothnefs to depart would grow: Adieu! Were you but riding forth to air yourself, Such parting were too petty. Look here, love, Poft. How! how! another? You gentle gods, give me but this I have, 3 And fear up my embracements from a next With bonds of death!-Remain, remain thou here [Putting on the ring. conceit, has confounded the vegetable galls used in ink, with the animal gall, fuppofed to be bitter. JOHNSON. The poet might mean either the vegetable or the animal galls with equal propriety, as the vegetable gall is bitter; and I have feen an ancient receipt for making ink, beginning, "Take of the black juice of the gall of oxen two ounces," &c. STEEVENS. 3 And fear up my embracements from a next With bonds of death!] Shakspeare may poetically call the cere-cloths in which the dead are wrapp'd, the bonds of death. If fo, we should read cere instead of fear. Why thy canoniz'd bones hearfed in death Have burst their cerements? To fear up, is properly to close up by burning; but in this paffage the poet may have dropp'd that idea, and used the word fimply for to clofe up. STEEVERS. *While sense can keep it on! And sweeteft, fairest, [Putting a bracelet on her arm. Upon this faireft prisoner. When fhall we see again? Enter Cymbeline, and Lords. Poft. Alack, the king! Cym. Thou baseft thing, avoid! hence, from my fight! If, after this command, thou fraught the court Poft. The gods protect you! And blefs the good remainders of the court! I am gone. Imo. There cannot be à pinch in death More fharp than this is. Cym. O difloyal thing, [Exit. That should'st repair my youth; thou heapest A year's age on me! Imo. While fenfe can keep thee on!] The folio (the only ancient and authentic copy of this play) reads: While fenfe can keep it on! which I believe to be right. The expreffion means, while fenfe can maintain its operations; while fenfe continues to have power. 5 -thou beapeft A year's age on me!] Dr. Warburton reads: A yare age on me. STEEVENS. It seems to me, even from Skinner, whom he cites, that yare is ufed only as a perfonal quality. Nor is the authority of Skinner VOL. IX. fufficient, Imo. I beseech you, fir, Harm not yourself with your vexation; I 6 Am fenfelefs of your wrath; a touch more rare Subdues fufficient, without fome example, to juftify the alteration. Hanmer's reading is better, but rather too far from the original copy: -thou heapeft many I read: A year's age on me. -thou heap's Years, ages, on me. JOHNSON. I would receive Dr. Johnson's emendation: he is however mistaken when he says that yare is ufed only as a perfonal quality. See Antony and Cleopatra: Their fhips are yare, yours heavy. Yart, however, will by no means apply to Dr. Warburton's fense. STEEVENS. 6 - a touch more rare Subdues all pangs, all fears.] Rare is ufed often for eminently good; but I do not remember any passage in which it ftands for eminently bad. May we read: a touch more near. "Cura deam propior luctufque domefticus angit." Ovid. Shall we try again: a touch more rear. Crudum vulnus. But of this I know not any example. There is yet another interpretation, which perhaps will remove the difficulty. A touch more rare, may mean a nobler paffion. JOHNSON, So, in Antony and Cleopatra, A&t I. fc. ii. The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Do ftrongly speak to us. Again, in the Tempest: Haft thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling A touch is not unfrequently ufed, by other ancient writers, in this fenfe. So in Daniel's Hymen's Triumph, a masque, 1623: "You must not, Phillis, be fo fenfible Again: "Of thefe fmall touches which your paffion makes." "When pleasure leaves a touch at last "To fhew that it was ill." Again, in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1599: "So deep we feel impreffed in our blood "That touch which nature with our breath did give," A touch Subdues all pangs, all fears. Cym. Paft grace? obedience? Ino. Paft hope, and in defpair; that way, past grace. Cym. That might'ft have had the fole fon of my queen! Imo. O bleft, that I might not! I chofe an eagle, And did avoid a 7 puttock. Cym. Thou took'st a beggar; would't have made my throne A feat for bafenefs. Imo. No; I rather added A luftre to it. Cym. O thou vile one! Imo. Sir, It is your fault that I have lov'd Posthumus : Cym. What!-art thou mad? Imo. Almoft, fir: Heaven restore me!-'Would I were A neat-herd's daughter! and my Leonatus Our neighbour fhepherd's fon! Re-enter Queen. Cym. Thou foolish thing! They were again together: you have done [To the Not after our command. Away with her, queen. A touch more rare is undoubtedly a more exquifite feeling, a fuperior fenfation. So as Dr. Farmer obferves to me in Fraunce's Yvichurch. He is fpeaking of Mars and Venus, "When sweet tickling joyes of tutching came to the highest poynt, when two **were one," &c. STEEVENS. 2 a puttock. A kite. JOHNSON. Queen. Befeech your patience :-Peace, Dear lady daughter, peace;-Sweet fovereign, Leave us to ourfelves; and make yourself fome comfort Out of your best advice. Cym. Nay, let her languish A drop of blood a day; and, being aged, Die of this folly! Enter Pifanio. Queen. Fie!-you must give way: [Exit. Here is your fervant.-How now, fir? What news? Pif. My lord your fon drew on my master. Queen. Ha! No harm, I trust, is done? Pif. There might have been, But that my mafter rather play'd than fought, Queen. I am very glad on't. Imo. Your fon's my father's friend; he takes his part. To draw upon an exile!-O brave fir!- Queen. This hath been Your faithful fervant: I dare lay mine honour, Pif. I humbly thank your highness. Queen. Pray, walk a while. Imo. About fome half hour hence, pray you, fpeak with me: You |