You fhall at least, go fee my lord aboard:
For this time, leave me.

SCENE III.

Enter Cloten, and two Lords.

[Exeunt.

1 Lord. Sir, I would advise you to fhift a fhirt; the violence of action hath made you reek as a facrifice: Where air comes out, air comes in: there's none abroad fo wholefome as that you vent.

Clot. If my fhirt were bloody, then to fhift itHave I hurt him?

2 Lord. No, faith; not fo much as his patience. [Afide. 1 Lord. Hurt him? his body's a paffable carcafs, if he be not hurt: it is a thorough-fare for fteel, if it be not hurt.

2 Lord. His fteel was in debt; it went o' the backfide the town.

Clot. The villain would not stand me.

[Afide.

2 Lord. No; but he fled forward ftill, toward your face.

[Afide. 1 Lord. Stand you! You have land enough of your own but he added to your having; gave you fome ground.

2 Lord. As many inches as you have oceans: Puppies! [Afide. Clot. I would they had not come between us. 2 Lord. So would I, 'till you had measur'd how long a fool you were upon the ground. [Afide. Clot. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me!

2 Lord. If it be a fin to make a true election, fhe is damn'd.

0 3

[Afide.

1 Lord.

1 Lord. Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and her brain go not together: ? She's a good fign, but I have seen small reflection of her wit.

2 Lord. She shines not upon fools, left the reflection fhould hurt her..

[Afide.

Clot. Come, I'll to my chamber: 'Would there had been fome hurt done!

2 Lord. I wish not fo; unless it had been the fall of an afs, which is no great hurt. Clot. You'll go with us?

8

1 Lord. I'll attend your lordship.
Clot. Nay, come, let's
2 Lord. Well, my lord.

go together.

[Afide.

[Exeunt.

her beauty and her brain, &c.] I believe the lord means to fpeak a sentence, "Sir, as I told you always, beauty and brain go not together. JOHNSON.

9

She's a good fign,-] If fign be the true reading, the poet means by it conftellation, and by reflection is meant influence. But I rather think, from the answer, that he wrote fhine. So, in his Venus and Adonis :

"As if, from thence, they borrowed all their fine."

WARBURTON.

There is acutenefs enough in this note, yet I believe the poet meant nothing by fign, but fair outward fhew. JOHNSON. The fame allufion is common to other writers. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn:

a common trull,

"A tempting fign, and curiously fet forth
"To draw in riotous guests."

Again, in the Elder Brother, by the fame authors:

"Stand ftill, thou fign of man.

To understand the whole force of Shakspeare's idea, it should be remembered, that anciently almoft every fign had a motto, or fome attempt at a witticism, underneath it. STEEVENS.

SCENE

SCENE IV.

Imogen's apartments.

Enter Imogen, and Pifanio.

Imo. I would thou grew'ft unto the fhores o' the haven,

And question'd every fail: if he should write,
And I not have it, 'twere a paper loft

1

As offer'd mercy is. What was the last

That he fpake to thee?

Pif. 'Twas, His queen, bis queen!

Imo. Then wav'd his handkerchief?

Pif. And kifs'd it, madam.

Imo. Senfelefs linen; happier therein than I !— And that was all?

Pif. No, madam; for fo long

twere a paper loft

As

As offer'd mercy is.] i. e. Should one of his letters mifcarry, the lofs would be as great as that of offer'd mercy. But the Oxford Editor amends it thus:

-'twere a paper loft,

With offer'd mercy in it.

WARBURTON.

I believe the poet's meaning is, that the lofs of that paper would prove as fatal to her, as the lofs of a pardon to a condemn'd criminal.

A thought resembling this occurs in All's well that ends well: "Like a remorseful pardon flowly carried."

Dr. Warburton's opinion may, however, be fupported from Milton's Paradife Loft, b. iii. 1. 185:

"The reft fhall hear me call, and oft be warn'd

"Their finful ftate, and to appeafe betimes

"Th' incenfed deity, while offer'd grace

"Invites.

STEEVENS,

for fo long

As he could make me with his eye, or ear,

Diftinguish him from others.

But how could Pofthumus

make himself diftinguished by his ear to Pifanio? By his tongue

As he could make me with this eye, or ear,
Diftinguish him from others, he did keep
The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief,
Still waving, as the fits and stirs of his mind
Could beft exprefs how flow his foul fail'd on,
How fwift his fhip.

Imo. Thou fhouldft have made him

As little as a crow, or less, ere left

To after-eye him.

Pif. Madam, fo I did.

Imo. I would have broke mine eye-flrings; crack'd them, but

3

To look upon him; 'till the diminution
Of space had pointed him fharp as my needle:
Nay, follow'd him, 'till he had melted from
The fmallness of a gnat to air; and then

Have turn'd mine eye, and wept.-But, good Pifanio,
When fhall we hear from him?

Pif. Be affur'd, madam,

With his next vantage.

Imo. I did not take my leave of him, but had Moft pretty things to fay: ere I could tell him,

he might to the other's ear: and this was certainly Shakspeare's intention. We must therefore read:

As he could make me with this eye or ear,

Diftinguish him from others.

The expreffion is dexTxas, as the Greeks term it: the party fpeaking points to that part fpoken of.

Sir T. Hanmer alters it thus:

-for fo long

WARBURTON.

As he could mark me with his eye, or I
Diftinguifh-

The reafon of Hanmer's reading was, that Pifanio describes no addrefs made to the ear. JOHNSON.

3

'till the diminution

Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle:] The diminution of Space, is the diminution of which space is the cause. Trees are killed by a blaft of lightning, that is, by blafting, not blafted lightning. JOHNSON.

next vantage.] Next opportunity. JOHNSON.

How

;:༈ཉ་ན、

How I would think on him, at certain hours, Such thoughts, and fuch; or I could make him fwear,

The fhe's of Italy fhould not betray

Mine intereft, and his honour; or have charg'd him,
At the fixth hour of morn, at.noon, at midnight,
To encounter me with orifons, for then

I am in heaven for him; or ere I could
Give him that parting kifs, which I had fet
Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father
And, like the tyrannous breathing of the north,
Shakes all our buds from growing.

Enter

-or ere I could

Give him that parting kifs, which I had fet

Betwixt two charming words;-] Dr. Warburton pronounces as abfolutely as if he had been prefent at their parting, that these two charming words were adieu Pofthumus; but as Mr. Edwards has obferved," fhe muft have understood the language of love very little, if he could find no tenderer expreffion of it, than the name by which every one called her husband."

STEEVENS.

Shakes all our buds from growing.] A bud, without any dif tinet idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural reprefentation of any thing incipient or immature; and the buds of flowers, if flowers are meant, grow to flowers, as the buds of fruits grow to fruits. JOHNSON.

-the tyrannous breathing of the north,

Shakes all our buds from growing.

A great critic propofes to read:

Shuts all our buds from blowing:

and his emendation may in fome measure be confirmed by those
beautiful lines in the Two Noble Kinfmen, which I have no doubt
were written by Shakspeare. Emilia is fpeaking of a rose:
"It is the very emblem of a maid.

"For when the weft wind courts her gentily,
"How modeftly fhe blows, and paints the fun

"With her chafte blushes ?-when the north comes near

her

"Rude and impatient, then like chastity,

"She locks her beauties in her bud again,

"And leaves him to bafe briars.". FARMER.

I think