Auguftus lives to think on't: And fo much
This one thing only
For my peculiar care.
I will entreat; My boy, a Briton born,
Let him be ranfom'd: never mafter had
fo kind, fo duteous, diligent,

A page

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So tender over his occafions, true,

So feat, fo nurse-like: let his virtue join

With my request, which, I'll make bold, your high

nefs

Cannot deny; he hath done no Briton harm,
Though he have ferv'd a Roman: fave him, fir,
And spare no blood befide.

Cym. I have furely feen him;

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His favour is familiar to me :-Boy,

Thou haft look'd thyfelf into my grace, and art
Mine own. I know not why, wherefore, I fay,
Live, boy: ne'er thank thy mafter; live:
And afk of Cymbeline what boon thou wilt,
Fitting my bounty, and thy ftate, I'll give it;
Yea, though thou do demand a prifoner,
The nobleft ta'en.

Imo. I humbly thank your highness.

Luc. I do not bid thee beg my life, good lad; And yet, I know, thou wilt.

Imo. No, no; alack,

There's other work in hand; I fee a thing
Bitter to me as death: your life, good mafter,
Muft fhuffle for itself.

Luc. The boy difdains me,

He leaves me, fcorns me: Briefly die their joys, That place them on the truth of girls and boys.Why ftands he fo perplex'd?

Cym. What wouldst thou, boy?

I love thee more and more; think more and more

• So feat,-] So ready; fo dextrous in waiting. JOHNSON. 7favour is familiar-] I am acquainted with his countenance. JOHNSON.

What's

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What's beft to afk. Know'ft him thou look'ft on?

fpeak,

Wilt have him live? Is he thy kin? thy friend?
Imo. He is a Roman; no more kin to me,

Than I to your highnefs; who, being born your vaffal,

Am fomething nearer.

Cym. Wherefore ey'ft him fo?

Imo. I'll tell you, fir, in private, if you please To give me hearing.

Cym. Ay, with all my heart,

And lend my best attention. What's thy name? Imo. Fidele, fir.

Cym. Thou art my good youth, my page;

I'll be thy mafter: Walk with me; fpeak freely. [Cymbeline and Imogen walk afide.

Bel. Is not this boy reviv'd from death?

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Arv. One fand another

Not more resembles: That fweet rofy lad,
Who dy'd, and was Fidele-What think you?
Guid. The fame dead thing alive.

Bel. Peace, peace! fee further; he eyes us not; forbear;

Creatures may be alike: were't he, I am fure

He would have spoke to us.

Guid. But we faw him dead.

Bel. Be filent; let's fee further.

Pif. It is my mistress:

Since the is living, let the time run on,

[Afide.

To good, or bad. [Cymb. and Imogen come forward.

8 One fand another

Not more refembles that fweet rofy lad,] A flight corruption has made nonfenfe of this paffage. One grain might resemble another, but none a human form. We fhould read:

Not more resembles, than he th' sweet rofy lad.

WARBURTON.

There was no great difficulty in the line, which, when pro

perly pointed, needs no alteration. JOHNSON.

Cym.

Cym. Come, ftand thou by our fide; Make thy demand aloud.-Sir, ftep you forth; [To Iachimo.

Give answer to this boy, and do it freely;
Or, by our greatnefs, and the grace of it,
Which is our honour, bitter torture fhall
Winnow the truth from falfhood.-On, fpeak to
him.

Imo. My boon is, that this gentleman may render

Of whom he had this ring.

Poft. What's that to him?

Cym. That diamond upon your finger, fay,

How came it yours?

[Afide.

Iach. Thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that Which, to be spoke, would torture thee.

Cym. How! me?

Iach. I am glad to be conftrain'd to utter that

which

Torments me to conceal.

I

By villainy

got this ring; 'twas Leonatus' jewel,

Whom thou didst banish; and (which more may grieve thee,

As it doth me) a nobler fir ne'er ne'er liv'd 'Twixt fky and ground. Wilt thou hear more, my lord?

Cym. All that belongs to this.

Lach. That paragon, thy daughter,

For whom my heart drops blood, and my falfe fpirits 9 Quail to remember,-Give me leave; I faint. Cym. My daughter! what of her? Renew thy ftrength:

I had rather thou fhouldft live while nature will, Than die ere I hear more: ftrive, man, and speak. Iach. Upon a time, (unhappy was the clock

• Quail to remember,] To quail is to fink into dejection. The word is common to many authors. See Vol. III. p. 309. Vol. V. p. 408. STEEVENS.

That

That ftruck the hour!) it was in Rome, (accurs'd The mansion where !) 'twas at a feast, (O, 'would . Our viands had been poifon'd! or, at least,

Those which I heav'd to head!) the good Posthumus,

(What fhould I fay? he was too good, to be
Where ill men were; and was the best of all
Amongst the rar'ft of good ones) fitting fadly,
Hearing us praife our loves of Italy

For beauty that made barren the fwell'd boast
Of him that beft could fpeak; ' for feature, laming

The

-for feature, laming] Feature for proportion of parts, which Mr. Theobald not understanding, would alter to ftature. -for feature, laming

The fhrine of Venus, or ftraight-pight Minerva,
Poftures beyond brief nature ;-

i. e. The ancient statues of Venus and Minerva, which exceeded, in beauty of exact proportion, any living bodies, the work of brief nature; i. e. of hafty, unelaborate nature. He gives the fame character of the beauty of the antique in Antony and Cleopatra:

"O'er picturing that Venus where we fee
"The fancy out-work nature."

It appears, from a number of such paffages as thefe, that our author was not ignorant of the fine arts. A paffage in De Piles' Cours de Peinture par Principes will give great light to the beauty of the text." Peu de fentimens ont été partagez fur la beauté de l'antique. Les gens d'efprit qui aiment les beaux arts ont estimé dans tous les tems ces merveilleux ouvrages. Nous voyons dans les anciens auteurs quantité de passages ou pour louer les beautez vivantes on les comparoit aux ftatuës.". -Ne vous imaginez (dit Maxime de Tyr) de pouvoir jamais trouver une beauté naturelle, qui le difpute aux fiatuës. Ovid, où il fait la defcription de Cyllare, le plus beau de Centaures, dit, Qu'il avoit une fi grande vivacité dans le vifage, que le col, les épaules, les mains, & l'eftomac en etoient fi beaux qu'on pouvoit affurer qu'en tout ce qu'il avoit de l'homme c'etoit la meme beauté que l'on remarque dans les ftatues les plus parfaites."-Et Philoftrate, parlant de la beauté de Neoptoleme, & de la refemblance qu'il avoit avec fon pere Achille, dit: " Qu'en beauté fon pere avoit autant d'avantage fur lui que les ftatues en ont fur les beaux hommes. Les auteurs modernes ont fuivi ces mêmes fentimens fur la beauté de

l'Antique."

The shrine of Venus, or ftraight pight Minerva,
Poftures beyond brief nature; for condition,
A shop of all the qualities that man

Loves woman for; befides, that hook of wiving,
Fairness, which ftrikes the eye:-

Cym. I ftand on fire: Come to the matter.

Iach. All too foon I fhall,

Unless thou wouldst grieve quickly.-This Poft-
humus,

(Most like a noble lord in love, and one
That had a royal lover) took his hint;
And, not difpraifing whom we prais'd, (therein
He was as calm as virtue) he began

His mistress' picture; which by his tongue being
made,

And then a mind put in't, either our brags

"Le

l'Antique."-Je reporterai feulment celui de Scaliger.
moyen (dit il) qui nous puiflions rien voir qui approche de la per-
fection des belles ftatues, puifquil eft permis à l'art de choisir, de
retrancher, d'ajoûter, de diriger, & qu'au contraire, la nature
s'eft toujours alterée depuis la creation du premier homme en qui
Dieu joignit la beauté de la forme à celle de l'innocence." This
laft quotation from Scaliger well explains what Shakspeare meant
by-brief nature;-i. e. inelaborate, hafty, and careless as to the
elegance of form, in refpect of art, which ufes the peculiar ad-
drefs, above explained, to arrive at perfection. WARBURTON.

I cannot help adding, that paffages of this kind are but weak proofs that our poet was converfant with what we call at prefent the fine arts. The pantheons of his own age (feveral of which I have feen) afford a moft minute and particular account of the different degrees of beauty imputed to the different deities; and as Shakspeare had at least an opportunity of reading Chapman's tranflation of Homer, the firft part of which was published in 1596, with additions in 1598, and entire in 1611, he might have taken thefe ideas from thence, without being at all indebted to his own particular obfervation, or acquaintance with ftatuary and painting. It is furely more for his honour to remark how well he has employed the little knowledge he appears to have had of fculpture or mythology, than from his frequent allufions to them to fuppofe he was intimately acquainted with either. STEEVENS.

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