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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
Was nothing but mutation; ay, and that
From one bad thing to worfe; not frenzy, not
Abfolute madnefs could fo far have rav'd,
To bring him here alone: Although, perhaps,
It may be heard at court, that fuch as we
Cave here, hunt here, are out-laws, and in time
May make some stronger head; the which he hearing,
(As it is like him) might break out, and fwear
He'd fetch us in; yet is't not probable

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
More perilous than the head.
Arv. Let ordinance

Come as the gods forefay it: howfoe'er,
My brother hath done well.

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
His head from him: I'll throw it into the creek
Behind our rock; and let it to the fea,

And tell the fishes, he's the queen's fon, Cloten:
That's all I reck.

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,
I love thee brotherly; but envy much,

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.

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-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
In these two princely boys! They are as gentle
As zephyrs, blowing below the violet,

Not wagging his fweet head; and yet as rough,
Their royal blood enchaf'd, as the rud'ft wind,
That by the top doth take the mountain pine,
And make him stoop to the vale. 'Tis wonderful,
That an invisible inftinct fhould frame them
To royalty unlearn'd; honour untaught;
Civility not feen from other; valour,

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,
What Cloten's being here to us portends;
Or what his death will bring us.

Re enter Guiderius.

Guid. Where's my brother?

I have fent Cloten's clot-pole down the stream,
In embaffy to his mother; his body's hoftage
For his return.

Bel. My ingenious inftrument!

[Solemn mufic.

Hark, Polydore, it founds! But what occafion
Hath Cadwal now to give it motion? Hark!
Guid. Is he at home?

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
Should answer folemn accidents. The matter?
Triumphs for nothing, and lamenting toys,
Is jollity for apes, and grief for boys.

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,
Of what we blame him for!

Arv. The bird is dead,

That we have made fo much on. I had rather
Have skipp'd from fixteen years of age to fixty,
And turn'd my leaping time into a crutch,
Than have seen this.

Guid. Oh fweeteft, faireft lilly!

My brother wears thee not the one half so well,
As when thou grew'st thyself.

VOL. IX.

X

Bel

I

Bel. O, melancholy!

Who ever yet could found thy bottom? find
The ooze, to fhew, what coaft thy fluggish crare
Might eafilieft harbour in ?-Thou bleffed thing!
Jove knows what man thou might'ft have made;
but I 2,

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,

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"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 :
"After a long chafe took this little cray,
"Which he fuppos'd him fafely fhould convey."
Again, in the 22d Song of Drayton's Polyolbion:
-fome thell, or little crea,

"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

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