Lord. This was strange chance: A narrow lane! an old man, and two boys! Post. '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. Lord. Again, in The Battle of Alcazar, 1594: "Is Amurath Bassa such a bug, "That he is mark'd to do this doughty deed?" Steevens. See Vol. II, p. 153, n. 9. Malone. 5 Nay, do not wonder at it:] Posthumus first bids him not wonder, then tells him in another mode of reproach, that wonder is all that he was made for. Johnson. 6 This is a lord!] Read:-This a lord! Ritson. - I, in mine own woe charm'd,] Alluding to the common superstition of charms being powerful enough to keep men unhurt in battle. It was derived from our Saxon ancestors, and so is common to us with the Germans, who are above all other people given to this superstition; which made Erasmus, where, in his Morie Encomium, he gives to each nation its proper characteristick, say, "Germani corporum proceritate & magiæ cogni. tione sibi placent." And Prior, in his Alma: "North Britons hence have second sight; "And Germans free from gun-shot fight." Warburton. See Vol. X, p 408, n. 3. So, in Drayton's Nymphidia: "Their seconds minister an oath "Which was indifferent to them both, "No magick them supplied; "And sought them that they had no charms 8 Could not find death, where I did hear him groan; Enter Two British Captains, and Soldiers. 1 Cap. So 'tis reported: But none of them can be found.-Stand!3 who is there? "Wherewith to work each other's harms, "But come with simple open arms "To have their causes tried." Again, in Chapman's version of the tenth Book of Homer's Odyssey: "Enter her roof; for thou 'rt to all proof charm'd "Against the ill day." Steevens. 8 -favourer to the Roman,] The editions before Sir Thomas Hanmer's, for Roman read Briton; and Dr. Warburton reads Briton still. Johnson. 9 great the answer be-] Answer, as once in this before, is retaliation. Johnson. 1- a silly habit,] Silly is simple or rustick. So, in King Lear: twenty silly ducking observants Steevens. 66 So, in the novel of Boccace, on which this play is formed: "The servant, who had no great good will to kill her, very easily grew pitifull, took off her upper garment, and gave her a poore ragged doublet, a silly chapperone," &c. The Decameron, 1620. Malone. 2 That gave the affront with them.] That is, that turned their faces to the enemy. Johnson. To affront, Minsheu explains thus in his Dictionary, 1617: "To come face to face. v. Encounter." Affrontare, Ital. Malone. Post. A Roman; Who had not now been dropping here, if seconds Had answer'd him. 2 Cap. Lay hands on him; a dog! A leg of Rome shall not return to tell What crows have peck'd them here: He brags his ser vice As if he were of note: bring him to the king. 4 Enter CYMBELINE, attended; BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS, PISANIO, and Koman Captives. The Captains present POSTHUMUS to CYMBELINE, who delivers him over to a Gaoler: after which, all go out. SCENE IV. A Prison. Enter POSTHUMUS, and Two Gaolers. 1 Gaol. You shall not now be stolen, you have locks upon you; So graze, as you find pasture. 2 Gaol. Ay, or a stomach. Post. Most welcome, bondage! for thou art a way, I think, to liberty: Yet am I better Than one that's sick o' the gout; since he had rather Groan so in perpetuity, than be cur'd By the sure physician, death; who is the key To unbar these locks. My conscience! thou art fetter'd More than my shanks, and wrists: You good gods, give me The penitent instrument, to pick that bolt, 3 Stand! I would willingly, for the sake of metre, omit this useless word, and read the whole passage thus: But none of them can be found.-Who's there? Post. Steevens. Enter Cymbeline, &c.] This is the only instance in these plays of the business of the scene being entirely performed in dumb show. The direction must have proceeded from the players, as it is perfectly unnecessary, and our author has elsewhere [in Hamle expressed his contempt of such mummery. Ritson. 5 You shall not now be stolen,] The wit of the Gaolor alludes to the custom of putting a lock on a horse's leg, when he is turned to pasture. Johnson. Then, free for ever! Is 't enough, I am sorry? Desir'd, more than constrain'd: to satisfy, I know, you are more clement than vile men, If you And cancel these cold bonds." () Imogen! to satisfy, If of my freedom 'tis the main part, take [He sleeps. No stricter render of me, than my all.] Posthumus questions whether contrition be sufficient atonement for guilt. Then, to satisfy the offended gods, he desires them to take no more than his present all, that is, his life, if it is the main part, the chief point, or principal condition of his freedom, i. e. of his freedom from future punishment. This interpretation appears to be warranted by the former part of the speech. Sir T. Hanmer reads: I doff my freedom, Steevens. I believe Posthumus means to say, "Since for my crimes I have been deprived of my freedom, and since life itself is more valuable than freedom, let the gods take my life, and by this let heaven be appeased, how small soever the atonement may be." I suspect, however, that a line has been lost, after the word satisfy. If the text be right, to satisfy means, by way of satisfaction. Malone. 7-cold bonds.] This equivocal use of bonds is another instance of our author's infelicity in pathetick speeches. Johnson. An allusion to the same legal instrument has more than once debased the imagery of Shakspeare. So, in Macbeth: "Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Solemn musick. Enter, as in an apparition, Sicilius Leonatus, father to Posthumus, an old man, attired like a warrior; leading in his hand an ancient matron, his wife, and mother to Posthumus, with musick before them. Then, after other musick, follow the two young Leonati, brothers to Posthumus, with wounds as they died in the wars. They circle Posthumus round, as he lies sleeping. Sici. No more, thou thunder-master, show Thy spite on mortal flies: With Mars fall out, with Juno chide, That thy adulteries Rates, and revenges. Hath my poor boy done aught but well, I died, whilst in the womb he stay'd 8 Solemn musick. &c.] Here follow a vision, a masque, and a prophesy, which interrupt the fable without the least necessity, and unmeasurably lengthen this Act. I think it plainly foisted in afterwards for mere show, and apparently not of Shakspeare. Pope. Every reader must be of the same opinion. The subsequent narratives of Posthumus, which render this masque, &c. unnecessary, (or perhaps the scenical directions supplied by the poet himself) seem to have excited some manager of a theatre to disgrace the play by the present metrical interpolation. Shakspeare, who has conducted his fifth Act with such matchless skill, could never have designed the vision to be twice described by Posthumus, had this contemptible nonsense been previously delivered on the stage. The following passage from Dr. Farmer's Essay will show that it was no unusual thing for the players to indulge themselves in making additions equally unjustifiable::-"We have a sufficient instance of the liberties taken by the actors, in an old pamphlet by Nash, called Lenten Stuffe, with the Prayse of the Red Herring, 4to. 1599, where he assures us, that in a play of his called The Isle of Dogs, foure Acts, without his consent, or the least guess of his drift or scope, were supplied by the players." Steevens. One would think that, Shakspeare's style being too refined for his audiences, the managers had employed some playwright of the old school to regale them with a touch of " King Cambyses' vein." The margin would be too honourable a place for so impertinent an interpolation. Ritson. |