Luc. Consider, sir, the chance of war: the day
Was yours by accident; had it gone with us,

We should not, when the blood was cool, have threaten'd
Our prisoners with the sword. But since the gods
Will have it thus, that nothing but our lives
May be call'd ransome, let it come: sufficeth,
A Roman with a Roman's heart can suffer:
Augustus lives to think on 't: And so much
For my peculiar care. This one thing only
I will entreat; My boy, a Briton born,
Let him be ransom'd: never master had
A page so kind, so duteous, diligent,
So tender over his occasions, true,

So feat,1 so nurse-like: let his virtue join

With my request, which I'll make bold, your highness Cannot deny; he hath done no Briton harm,

Though he have serv'd a Roman: save him, sir,

And spare no blood beside.

Сут.

I have surely seen him :

His favour is familiar to me.—

Boy, thou hast look'd thyself into my grace,

And art mine own.-I know not why, nor wherefore,
To say, live, boy:3 ne'er thank thy master; live:

And ask of Cymbeline what boon thou wilt,

Fitting my bounty, and thy state, I'll give it;
Yea, though thou do demand a prisoner,

The noblest 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.

No, no; alack,

Imo.
There's other work in hand; I see a thing
Bitter to me as death: your life, good master,
Must shuffle for itself.

1 So feat,] So ready; so dexterous in waiting. Johnson. See p. 9, n. 1. Malone.

2 His favour is familiar -] I am acquainted with his countenance. Johnson.

3- · I know not why, nor wherefore,

To say, live, boy:] I know not what should induce me to say, live, boy. The word nor was inserted by Mr. Rowe. The late editions have-I say, &c. Malone.

Luc.

The boy disdains me,
He leaves me, scorns me: Briefly die their joys,
That place them on the truth of girls and boys.-
Why stands he so perplex'd?

Cym.

What would'st thou, boy?

I love thee more and more; think more and more What's best to ask. Know'st him thou look'st on? speak, Wilt have him live? Is he thy kin? thy friend?

Imo. He is a Roman; no more kin to me,

Than I to your highness; who, being born your vassal, Am something nearer.

Cym.

Wherefore ey'st him so? Imo. I'll tell you, sir, 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, sir.

Cym.

Thou art my good youth, my page;

I'll be thy master: Walk with me; speak freely.

[CYM. and IMO. converse apart.

Bel. Is not this boy reviv'd from death?4

One sand another

Arv.
Not more resembles: That sweet rosy lad,
Who died, and was Fidele :-What think you?
Gui. The same dead thing alive.

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

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

He would have spoke to us.

Gui.

But we saw him dead.

Bel. Be silent; let's see further.
Pis.

It is my mistress: [Aside.

Since she is living, let the time run on,
To good, or bad.
Cym.

[CYM. and IMO. come forward. Come, stand thou by our side;

Make thy demand aloud.—Sir, [to IACH.] step you

forth;

Give answer to this boy, and do it freely;
Or, by our greatness, and the grace of it,

reviv'd from death?] The words-from death, which spoil the measure, are an undoubted interpolation. From what else but death could Imogen, in the opinion of Belarius, have reviv'd?

Steevens.

Which is our honour, bitter torture shall

Winnow the truth from falsehood.-On, speak to him.
Imo. My boon is, that this gentleman may render
Of whom he had this ring.

Post.

What's that to him? [Aside. Cym. That diamond upon your finger, say,

How came it yours?

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

Сут.

How! me?

Iach. I am glad to be constrain'd to utter that which5 Torments me to conceal. By villainy

I got this ring; 'twas Leonatus' jewel:

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

As it doth me,) a nobler sir ne'er liv'd

'Twixt sky and ground. Wilt thou hear more, my lord?
Cym. All that belongs to this.
Iach.
That paragon, thy daughter,—
For whom my heart drops blood, and my false spirits
Quail to remember,7-Give me leave; I faint.

Cym. My daughter! what of her? Renew thy strength:
I had rather thou should'st live while nature will,
Than die ere I hear more: strive man, and speak.
Iach. Upon a time, (unhappy was the clock

5

which] Mr. Ritson (and I perfectly agree with him) is of opinion that this pronoun should be omitted, as in elliptical language, on similar occasions, is often known to have been the case. How injurious this syllable is to the present measure, I think no reader of judgment can fail to perceive. Steevens.

6

Wilt thou hear more, my lord? &c.] The metre will become perfectly regular if we read:

'Twixt sky and ground. Wilt more, my lord?
Cym.
Belongs to this.

Iach.

That paragon, thy daughter,

All that

In elliptical language, such words as-thou hear, are frequently omitted; but the players, or transcribers, as in former instances, were unsatisfied till the metre was destroyed by the insertion of whatever had been purposely left out. Steevens.

7 Quail to remember,] To quail is to sink into dejection. The word is common to many authors. So, in The Three Ladies of London, 1584: "She cannot quail me if she come in likeness of the great devil." See Vol. V, p. 38, n. 8; and Vol. VIII, p. 293, Steevens.

n. 1.

That struck the hour!) it was in Rome, (accurs'd
The mansion where!) 'twas at a feast, (Ò 'would
Our viands had been poison'd! or, at least,
Those which I heav'd to head!) the good Posthúmus,
(What should I say? he was too good, to be
Where ill men were; and was the best of all
Amongst the rar'st of good ones,) sitting sadly,
Hearing us praise our loves of Italy

For beauty that made barren the swell'd boast
Of him that best could speak: for feature, laming
The shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva,
Postures beyond brief nature; for condition,
A shop of all the qualities that man

Loves woman for; besides, that hook of wiving,
Fairness, which strikes the eye:

Cym.

Come to the matter.

8

- for feature, laming

I stand on fire:

The shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva,

Postures beyond brief nature;] Feature for proportion of parts, which Mr. Theobald not understanding, would alter to stature: -for feature, laming

The shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva,
Postures 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 hasty, unelaborate nature. He gives the same
character of the beauty of the antique in Antony and Cleopatra:
"O'er picturing that Venus where we see
"The fancy outwork nature.”

It appears, from a number of such passages as these, that our author was not ignorant of the fine arts. Warburton.

I cannot help adding, that passages of this kind are but weak proofs that our poet was conversant with what we at present call the fine arts. The pantheons of his own age (several of which I have seen) afford a most 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 translation of Homer, the first part of which was published in 1596, with additions in 1598, and entire in 1611, he might have taken these ideas from thence, without being at all indebted to his own particular observation, or acquaintance with statuary and painting. It is surely more for his honour to remark how well he has employed the little knowledge he appears to have had of sculpture or mythology, than from his frequent allusions to them to suppose he was intimately acquainted with either. Steevens.

Q2

Iach.

All too soon I shall,

Unless thou would'st grieve quickly.-This Posthúmus, (Most like a noble lord in love, and one

That had a royal lover,) took his hint;
And, not dispraising whom we prais'd, (therem

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

Were crack'd of kitchen trulls, or his description
Prov'd us unspeaking sots.

Cym.

Nay, nay, to the purpose..

Iach. Your daughter's chastity-there it begins.
He spake of her, as Dian had hot dreams,
And she alone were cold: Whereat, I, wretch!
Made scruple of his praise; and wager'd with him
Pieces of gold, 'gainst this which then he wore
Upon his honour'd finger, to attain

In suit the place of his bed, and win this ring
By hers and mine adultery: he, true knight,
No lesser of her honour confident

Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring;
And would so, had it been a carbuncle

Of Phoebus' wheel;1 and might so safely, had it
Been all the worth of his car. Away to Britain
Post I in this design: Well may you, sir,
Remember me at court, where I was taught
Of your chaste daughter the wide difference
'Twixt amorous and villainous. Being thus quench'd
Of hope, not longing, mine Italian brain
'Gan in your duller Britain operate
Most vilely; for my vantage, excellent;
And, to be brief, my practice so prevail'd,
That I return'd with simular proof enough
To make the noble Leonatus mad,
By wounding his belief in her renown

With tokens thus, and thus; averring notes2

9 as Dian] i. e. as if Dian. So, in The Winter's Tale: he utters them as he had eaten ballads." See also, Vol. IX. p. 143, n. 2.

Malone.

1

a carbuncle &c.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled

"Like Phabus' car." Steevens.