Poft. If you can make it 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 fword, or mine; or masterless leaves both
To who fhall find them.

Iach. Sir, my circumstances,

Being fo near the truth, as I will make them, Must first induce you to believe: whofe ftrength I will confirm with oath; which, I doubt, not, You'll give me leave to fpare, when you shall find You need it not.

Poft. Proceed.

Iach. First, her bed-chamber,

(Where, I confefs, I flept not; but, profess, Had that was well worth watching) It was hang'd With tapestry of filk and filver; the ftory Proud Cleopatra, when fhe met her Roman, 'And Cydnus fwell'd above the banks, or for

And Cydnus fwell'd above the banks, or for

The

The prefs of boats, or pride.] This is an agreeable ridicule on poetical exaggeration, which gives human paffions to inanimate things: and particularly, upon what he himself writes in the foregoing play on this very subject:

"The water, which they beat, to follow fafter,

"As amorous of their ftrokes.'

But the fatire is not only agreeably turned, but yery artfully em ployed; as it is a plain indication, that the fpeaker is fecretly mocking the credulity of his hearer, while he is endeavouring to perfuade him of his wife's falfhood. The very fame kind of fatire we he again, on much the fame occafion, in The Tw Gentlemen of Verona, where the falfe Protheus fays to his friend, of his friend's mistress:

"and fhe hath offer'd to the doom,

Which unrevers'd ftands in effectual force,
"A fea of melting pearl, which fome call tears."

A certain gaiety of heart, which the speaker strives to conceal, breaking out under a fatire, by which he would infinuate to his friend the trifling worth of woman's tears. WARBURTON.

R 4

The prefs of boats, or pride: A piece of work
So bravely done, fo rich, that it did trive
In workmanship, and value; which, I wonder'd,
Could be fo rarely and exactly wrought,
Since the true life on't was

Poft. This is true;

And this you might have heard of here, by me,
Or by fome other.

Iach. More particulars
Muft juftify my knowledge.
Poft. So they muft,
Or do your honour injury.
Iach. The chimney

Is fouth the chamber; and the chimney-piece,
Chafte Dian, bathing: never faw I figures
8 So likely to report themselves: the cutter
"Was as another nature, dumb; out-went her,

Motion

It is eafy to fit down and give our author meanings which he never had. Shakspeare has no great right to cenfure poetical exaggeration, of which no poet is more frequently guilty. That he intended to ridicule his own lines is very uncertain, when there are no means of knowing which of the two plays was writ ten first. The commentator has contented himfelf to suppose, that the foregoing play in his book was the play of earlier compofition. Nor is the reafoning better than the affertion. If the language of Iachimo be fuch as fhews him to be mocking the credibility of his hearer, his language is very improper, when his bufinefs was to deceive. But the truth is, that his language is fuch as a skilful villain would naturally ufe, a mixture of airy triumph and ferious depofition. His gaiety fhews his ferioufnefs to be without anxiety, and his ferioufnefs proves his gaiety to be without art. JOHNSON.

So likely to report themselves: -] So near to fpeech. The Italians call a portrait, when the likeness is remarkable, a speaking figure. JOHNSON.

9 Was as another nature, dumb ;- -] This nonfenfe should without quefticn be read and pointed thus:

Has as another nature done; out-went her,

Motion and breath left out.

j. e. Has worked as exquifitely, nay, has exceeded her, if you will motion and breath out of the queftion. WARBURTON.

put

This

Motion and breath left out.

Poft. This is a thing,

Which you might from relation likewife reap;
Being, as it is, much spoke of.

Iach. The roof o' the chamber

With golden cherubims is fretted: Her andirons
(I had forgot them) were two winking Cupids
Of filver, each on one foot standing, nicely
Depending on their brands'.

Poft. This is her honour!-

Let

This emendation I think needlefs. The meaning is this: The fculptor was as nature, but as nature dumb; he gave every thing that nature gives, but breath and motion. Speech. JOHNSON.

-nicely

In breath is included

Depending on their brands.] I am not sure that I understand this paffage. Perhaps Shakspeare meant that the figures of the Cupids were nicely poized on their inverted torches, one of the legs of each being taken off the ground, which might render fuch a fupport neceffary. STEEVENS.

I have equal diffidence with Mr. Steevens in explaining this paffage. Here feems to be a kind of tautology. I take brands to be a part of the andirons, on which the wood for the fire was fupported; as the upper part, in which was a kind of rack to carry a fpit, is more properly named the andiron. These irons, on which the wood lies acrofs, generally called dogs, are here termed brands. WHALLEY.

2 This is her honour!

Let it be granted you have feen all this, &c.] Iachimo impudently pretends to have carried his point; and, in confirmation, is very minute in defcribing to the husband all the furniture and adornments of his wife's bed-chamber. But how is fine furniture any ways a princefs's honour? It is an apparatus fuitable to her dignity, but certainly makes no part of her character. It might have been called her father's honour, that her allotments were proportioned to her rank and quality. I am perfuaded the poet intended Pofthumus fhould fay," This particular defcription, which you make, cannot convince me that I have loft my wager: your memory is good; and fome of these things you may have learned from a third hand, or feen yourself; yet I expect proofs more direct and authentic." I think there is little queftion but we ought to restore the place as I have done;

What's this t' her honour? THEOBALD.

Let it be granted, you have seen all this, (and praife
Be given to your remembrance) the description
Of what is in her chamber, nothing faves
The wager you have laid.

Jack. Then, if you can, [Pulling out the bracelet.
Be pale; I beg but leave to air this jewel: See!-
And now 'tis up again: It must be married
To that your diamond; I'll keep them.
Poft. jove!-

Once more let me behold it: Is it that
Which I left with her?

Iach. Sir, (I thank her) that:

She ftripp'd it from her arm; I fee her yet;
Her pretty action did outfell her gift,
And yet enrich'd it too: fhe gave

And faid, the priz'd it once.

it me,

Poft. May be, fhe pluck'd it off,

To fend it me.

Iach. She writes fo to you? doth she?

Poft. O, no, no, no; 'tis true. Here, take this [Gives the ring.

too;

It is a bafilifk unto mine eye,

Kills me to look on't:-Let there be no honour, Where there is beauty; truth, where femblance;

love,

Where there's another man: The vows of women

This emendation has been followed by both the fucceeding editors, but I think it must be rejected. The expreffion is iro, nical. Iachimo relates many particulars, to which Pofthumus anfwers with impatience,

This is her honour!

That is, And the attainment of this knowledge is to pafs for the corruption of her honour. JOHNSON.

Be pale;

-}

If you can forbear to flush your cheek with rage. JOHNSON. 3-The vows of women, &c.] The love vowed by women na more abides with him to whom it is vowed, than women adhere to their virtue. JOHNSON.

Of

Of no more bondage be, to where they are made, Than they are to their virtues; which is nothingO, above measure falfe!

Phil. Have patience, fir,

And take your ring again; 'tis not yet won:
It may be probable, fhe loft it; or,

Who knows if one of her women, being corrupted,
Hath ftolen it from her.

Poft. Very true;

And fo, I hope, he came by't :-Back my ring ;-
Render to me fome corporal fign about her,
More evident than this; for this was ftolen.
Iach. By Jupiter, I had it from her arm.

Poft. Hark you, he fwears; by Jupiter he fwears. 'Tis true;-nay, keep the ring-'tis true: I am fure,

-I'm fure

She could not lose it: her attendants are

All fworn and honourable.-They induc'd to fteal it,
And by a franger!-no,-]

The abfurd conclufions of jealoufy are here admirably painted and expofed. Pofthumus, on the credit of a bracelet, and an oath of the party concerned, judges against all appearances from the intimate knowledge of his wife's honour, that the was falfe to his bed; and grounds that judgment, at laft, upon much lefs appearances of the honour of her attendants.

WARBURTON.

Her attendants are all fworn and bonourable.] It was anciently the custom for the attendants on our nobility and other great perfonages (as it is now for the fervants of the king) to take an oath of fidelity, on their entrance into office. In the houshold book of the 5th earl of Northumberland (compiled A. D. 1512.) it is expressly ordered [page 49] that" what perfon foever he be that comyth to my Lordes fervice, that incontynent after he be entered in the chequyrroull [check-roll] that he be worn in the countyng hous by a gentillman-ufher or yeman-ufher in the prefence of the hede officers; and on theire absence before the clerke of the kechynge either by fuch an oath as is in the Book of Othes, yff any fuch [oath] be, or ells by fuch an oth as fhall feyme befte to their difcrecion."

Even now every fervant of the king's, at his firft appointment, is fworn in, before a gentleman ufher, at the lord chamberlain's office.

PERCY.