And fet them on Lud's town. Bel. We are all undone. Guid. Why, worthy father, what have we to lofe, But, that he swore to take, our lives? The law Protects not us; Then why fhould we be tender, To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us? Play judge, and executioner, all himself? For we do fear the law? What company Discover you abroad? Bel. No fingle foul Can we fet eye on, but, in all fafe reafon, He muft have fome attendants. "Though his honour For we do fear the law?] For is here used in the fenfe of because. See Vol. I. p. 189. Vol. II. p. 53, and other places. MALONE. Though his honour Was nothing but mutation, &c.] What has his bonour to do here, in his being changeable in this fort in his acting as a madman, or not? I have ventured to fubstitute humour, against the authority of the printed copies; and the meaning feems plainly this: "Though he was always fickle to the last degree, and governed by bumour, not found fenfe; yet not madness itfelf could make him fo hardy to attempt an enterprize of this nature alone, and unfeconded." THEOBALD. -Though his honour Was nothing but mutation ;] Mr. Theobald, as ufual, not understanding this, turns bonour to humour. But the text is right, and means, that the only notion he had of honour, was the fafhion, which was perpetually changing. A fine ftroke of fatire, well expreffed; yet the Oxford editor follows Mr. Theobald. WARBURTON. To come alone, either he fo undertaking, Or they fo fuffering: then on good ground we fear, If we do fear this body hath a tail Come as the gods forefay it: howfoe'er, Bel. I had no mind To hunt this day: the boy Fidele's fickness 'Did make my way long forth. Guid. With his own fword, Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en And tell the fishes, he's the queen's fon, Cloten: Bel. I fear, 'twill be reveng'd: [Exit. 'Would, Polydore, thou had'it not done't! though valour Becomes thee well enough. Arv. 'Would I had done't, So the revenge alone purfu'd me !-Polydore, Thou haft robb'd me of this deed: I would, 'revenges, That poffible ftrength might meet, would feek us through, And put us to our anfwer. Bel. Well, 'tis done : We'll hunt no more to-day, nor feek for danger Where there's no profit. I pr'ythee, to our rock; You and Fidele play the cooks: I'll ftay • Did make my way long forth.] Fidele's fickness made my walk forth from the cave tedious. JOHNSON. -revenges, That poffible ftrength might meet, Such purfuit of vengeance as fell within any poffibility of oppofition. JOHNSON. 'Till 'Till hafty Polydore, return, and bring him To dinner presently. Arv. Poor fick Fidele ! I'll willingly to him: To gain his colour, 8 I'll let a parish of fuch Clotens blood, And praise myself for charity. Bel. O thou goddefs", [Exit. Thou divine Nature, thou thyself thou blazon'ft Not wagging his fweet head; and yet as rough, That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop I'd let a parish of fuch Clotens blood,] This nonfenfe should be corrected thus: I'd let a marifh of fuch Clotens blood: i. e. a marfh or lake. So Smith, in his account of Virginia, "Yea Venice, at this time the admiration of the earth, was at first but a marish, inhabited by poor fishermen." In the first book of Maccabees, chap. ix. ver. 24. the tranflators use the word in the fame fenfe. WARBURTON. The learned commentator has dealt the reproach of nonsense very liberally through this play. Why this is nonfenfe, I cannot discover. I would, fays the young prince, to recover Fidele, kill as many Clotens as would fill a parish. JOHNSON. "His vifage, fays Fenner of a catchpole, was almost eaten through with pock-holes, fo that half a parish of children might have played at cherry-pit in his face." FARMER. 90 thou goddess, Thou divine Nature, thou thyself thou blazon'ft In these two princely boys!] So the first folio. The fecond reads: "Thou divine Nature, thyself thou blazon'st." Some modern editors, "how thyself thou blazon'ft. EDITOR. As As if it had been fow'd! Yet ftill it's ftrange, Re enter Guiderius. Guid. Where's my brother? I have fent Cloten's clot-pole down the stream, Bel. My ingenious inftrument! [Solemn mufic. Hark, Polydore, it founds! But what occafion Bel. He went hence even now. Guid. What does he mean? fince death of my dearest mother It did not fpeak before. All folemn things Is Cadwal mad? Re-enter Arviragus, with Imogen as dead, bearing her in his arms. Bèl. Look, here he comes, And brings the dire occafion in his arms, Arv. The bird is dead, That we have made fo much on. I had rather Guid. Oh fweeteft, faireft lilly! My brother wears thee not the one half so well, VOL. IX. X Bel I Bel. O, melancholy! Who ever yet could found thy bottom? find O, melancholy! Who ever yet could found thy bottom? find The ooze, to fhew what coaft thy fluggish crare Might eafilieft harbour in ? thy fluggish care: -] The folio reads: Thou which Dr. Warburton allows to be a plaufible reading, but fubftitutes carrack in its room; and with this, Dr. Johnson tacitly acquiefces, and inferts it in the text. Mr. Sympfon, in his notes on Beaumont and Fletcher, has retrieved the true reading, which is, "In fome decay'd crare of his own." A crare, fays the author of The Revifal, is a fmall trading veffel, called in the Latin of the middle ages crayera. The fame word, though fomewhat differently fpelt, occurs in Harrington's tranflation of Ariofta, book 39, ftanza 28: "A miracle it was to fee them grown "To fhips, and barks, with gallies, bulks and crayes, "Each veffel having tackling of her own, "With fails and oars to help at all effays." Again, in Heywood's Golden Age, 1611: "Behold a form to make your craers and barks.” Again, in Drayton's Miferies of Queen Margaret : "Hard labouring for the land on the high working fea." Again, in Amintas for his Phillis, published in England's Helicon, 1614: Till thus my foule doth paffe in Charon's crare." Mr. Tollet obferves that the word often occurs in Holinshed, as twice, p. 906, vol. II. STEEVENS. The word is ufed in the ftat. 2 Jac. I. c. 32. every ship, veffel, or crayer," TYRWHITT. "the owner of but I,] This is the reading of the firft folio, which later editors not understanding, have changed into but ah! The meaning |