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Revengingly enfeebles me; Or could this carle,
A very drudge of nature's, have fubdu'd me,
In my profeffion? Knighthoods and honours, borne.
As I wear mine, are titles but of fcorn.

If that thy gentry, Britain, go before

This lout, as he exceeds our lords, the odds
Is, that we scarce are men, and you are gods. [Exit,

The battle continues; the Britons fly; Cymbeline is taken: then enter to his refcue, Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus.

Bel. Stand, stand! We have the advantage of the ground;

The lane is guarded: nothing routs us, but
The villainy of our fears.

Guid. Arv. Stand, ftand, and fight!

Enter Pofthumus, and feconds the Britons. They refcue Cymbeline, and Exeunt.

Then, enter Lucius, Iachimo, and Imogen.

Luc. Away, boy, from the troops, and fave thyfelf:

For friends kill friends, and the disorder's fuch
As war were hood-wink'd.

Iach. 'Tis their fresh fupplies.

Luc. It is a day turn'd ftrangely: Or betimes

Let's re-inforce, or fly.

[Exeunt.

6 this carle,] Carl or churl (ceonl, Sax.) is a clown or hufbandman. REMARKS.

Verftigan fays ceorle, now written churle, was anciently underftood for a sturdy fellow. EDITOR.

Carlot is a word of the fame fignification, and occurs in our author's As you like it. Again, in an ancient interlude or morality, printed by Raftell, without title or date.

"A carlys fonne, brought up of nought."

The thought feems to have been imitated in Philafter:

"The gods take part against me; could this boor
"Have held me thus elfe ?" STEEVENS.

Y 4

SCENE

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Another part of the field.

Enter Pofthumus, and a British Lord.

Lord. Cam'st thou from where they made the ftand?
Poft. I did:

Though you, it seems, come from the fliers.
Lard. I did.

Poft. No blame be to you, fir; for all was loft,
But that the heavens fought: The king himself
Of his wings deftitute, the army broken,
And but the backs of Britons feen, all flying
Through a ftrait lane; the enemy full-hearted,
Lolling the tongue with flaughtering, having work,
More plentiful than tools to do't, ftruck down
Some mortally, fome flightly touch'd, fome falling
Merely through fear; that the ftrait pass was damm'd
With dead men, hurt behind, and cowards living
To die with lengthen'd fhame.

Lord. Where was this lane?

Poft. Clofe by the battle, ditch'd, and wall'd with turf';

Clofe by the battle, &c.] The ftopping of the Roman army by three perfons, is an allufion to the ftory of the Hays, as related by Holinfhed in his Hiftory of Scotland, p. 155: "There was neere to the place of the battell, a long lane fenfed on the fides with ditches and walles made of turfe, through the which the Scots which fled were beaten downe by the enemies on heapes."

Here Haie with his fonnes fuppofing they might best staie the fight, placed themfelves overthwart the lane, beat them backe whom they met fleeing, and fpared neither friend nor fo; but downe they went all fuch as came within their reach, wherewith divers hardie perfonages cried unto their fllowes to returne backe unto the battell, &c."

It appears from Peck's Nerv Memoirs, &c. article 88, that Milton intended to have written a play on this fubject.

MUSGRAVE.

Which gave advantage to an ancient foldier,-
An honeft one, I warrant, who deferv'd
So long a breeding, as his white beard came to,
In doing this for his country;-athwart the lane,
He, with two striplings, (lads more like to run
The country base, than to commit such slaughter;
With faces fit for masks, or rather fairer

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Than thofe for prefervation cas'd, or fhame)
Made good the paffage; cry'd to those that fled,
Our Britain's harts die flying, not our men:
To darkness fleet, fouls that fly backwards! Stand;
Or we are Romans, and will give you that
Like beafts, which you fhun beastly; and may fave,
But to look back in frown: ftand, ftand.-Thefe three,
Three thousand confident, in act as many,
(For three performers are the file, when all
The reft do nothing) with this word, ftand, ftand,
Accommodated by the place, more charming
With their own nobleness, (which could have turn'd
A distaff to a lançe) gilded pale looks,

Part, shame, part, fpirit renew'd; that fome, turn'd coward

The country bafe,-] i. e, A ruftic game called prison-bars, vulgarly prifon-bafe. So, in the Tragedy of Hoffman, 1632. 66 -I'll run a little courfe

"At bafe or barley-bråke

Again, in the Antipodes, 1638:

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my men can run at base."

Again, in the 30th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion :

"At hood-wink, barley-brake, at tick, or prifon-base." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. 5. c. 8.

"So ran they all as they had been at bace." STEEVENS. for prefervation cas'd, or fhame)] Shame for modesty.

Sir T. Hanmer reads the paffage thus:

Than fome for prefervation cas'd.

For fhame,

WARBURTON.

Make good the paffage, cry'd to thofe that fled,
Our Britain's harts die flying, &c.

Theobald's reading is right. JoHNSON.

But by example (O, a fin in war,

Damn'd in the first beginners!) 'gan to look
The way that they did, and to grin like lions
Upon the pikes o' the hunters. Then began
A ftop i' the chafer, a retire; anon,

A rout, confufion thick: Forthwith, they fly Chickens, the way which they stoop'd eagles; flaves, The strides they victors made: And now our cowards, (Like fragments in hard voyages, became

The life o' the need) having found the back-door

open

Of the unguarded hearts, Heavens, how they wound!
Some, flain before; fome, dying; fome, their friends
O'er-borne i' the former wave: ten, chac'd by one,
Are now each one the flaughter-man of twenty:
Thofe, that would die or ere refift, are grown
The mortal bugs o' the field.

2

Lord. This was ftrange chance:

A narrow lane! an old man, and two boys!

3

Poft. Nay, do not wonder at it: You are made

Rather

A rout, confufion thick: -] This is read as if it was a thick confufion, and only another term for rout: whereas confufion-thick fhould be read thus, with an hyphen, and is a very beautiful compound epithet to rout. But Shakspeare's fine diétion is not a little obfcured throughout by thus disfiguring his compound adjectives. WARBURTON.

I do not fee what great addition is made to fine diétion by this compound. Is it not as natural to enforce the principal event in a story by repetition, as to enlarge the principal figure in a picture? JOHNSON.

bugs Terrors. JOHNSON.

So in The Spanish Tragedy, 1605:

"Where nought but furies, bugs, and tortures dwell."

So in the Battle of Alcazar, 1594:

"Is Amurath Baffa fuch a bug,

"That he is mark'd to do this doughty deed ?”

STEEVENS.

3 Nay, do not wonder at it :- -] Sure, this is mock reafoning with a vengeance. What! because he was made fitter to wonder at great actions, than to perform any, he is therefore forbid to

wonder?

Rather to wonder at the things you hear,
Than to work any. Will you rhime upon't,
And vent it for a mockery? Here is one :
Two boys, an old man twice a boy, a lane,
Preferv'd the Britons, was the Romans' bane.
Lord. Nay, be not angry, fir.

Poft. 'Lack, to what end?

Who dares not stand his foe, I'll be his friend:
For if he'll do, as he is made to do,

I know, he'll quickly fly my friendship too.
You have put me into rhime.

Lord. Farewel; you are angry.

1

[Exit.

Poft. Still going?-This is a lord! O noble
mifery!

To be i' the field, and afk, what news, of me!
To-day, how many would have given their honours
To have fav'd their carcaffes? took heel to do't,
And yet died too? I, in mine woe charm'd,

Could

wonder? Not and but are perpetually mistaken for one another in the old editions. THEOBALD.

There is no need of alteration. Pofthumus firft bids him not wonder, then tells him in another mode of reproach, that wonder is all that he was made for. JOHNSON.

4 —I, in mine own woe charm'd,] Alluding to the common fuperftition of charms being powerful enough to keep men unhurt in battle. It was derived from our Saxon ancestors, and fo is common to us with the Germans, who are above all other people given to this fuperftition; which made Erafmus, where, in his Moria Encomium, he gives to each nation its proper characteristic, fay, "Germani corporum proceritate & magiæ cognitione fibi placent." And Prior, in his Alma:

"North Britons hence have fecond fight;
"And Germans free from gun-fbot fight."

WARBURTON.

See a note on Macbeth, act V. fc. ult. So in Drayton's Nym

phidia:

Their feconds minifter an oath

Which was indifferent to them both,
That, on their knightly faith and troth,
No magic them fupplied ;

And

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