Murder in heaven?-How?-'Tis gone.-Pisanio,
All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks,
And mine to boot, be darted on thee! Thou,
Conspir'd with that irregulous devil, Cloten,
Hast here cut off my lord.-To write, and read,
Be henceforth treacherous!-Damn'd Pisanio
Hath with his forged letters,-damn'd Pisanio-
From this most bravest vessel of the world
Struck the main-top!1-O, Posthumus! alas,
Where is thy head? where's that? Ah me! where's that?
Pisanio might have kill'd thee at the heart,

And left this head on.2-How should this be? Pisanio?
'Tis he, and Cloten: malice and lucre in them
Have laid this woe here. O, 'tis pregnant, pregnant!3
The drug he gave me, which, he said, was precious
And cordial to me, have I not found it

Murd'rous to the senses? That confirms it home:
This is Pisanio's deed; and Cloten's: O!-
Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood,
That we the horrider may seem to those
Which chance to find us: O, my lord, my lord!

So, Heywood, in The Silver Age:

66 Alcides here will stand,

"To plague you all with his high Fovial hand." Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630:

"Thou Jovial hand hold up thy scepter high." Again, in his Golden Age, 1611, speaking of Jupiter :

66

All that stand,

-.

"Sink in the weight of his high Jovial hand." Steevens. 9 Conspir'd with that irregulous devil,] I suppose it should beConspir'd with th' irreligious devil, Johnson. Irregulous (if there be such a word) must mean lawless, licentious, out of rule, jura negans sibi nata. In Reinolds's God's Revenge against Adultery, edit. 1679, p. 121, I meet with “ irregulated lust."

Steevens.

1 the main-top!] i. e. the top of the mainmast. Steevens.

2 Pisanio might have kill'd thee at the heart,

And left this head on.-
-] I would willingly read:

And left thy head on.

Steevens.

This head means the head of Posthumus; the head that did belong to this body. See the preceding page, n. 5. Malone.

3

'tis pregnant, pregnant!] i. e. 'tis ready, apposite conclusion. So, in Hamlet:

"How pregnant sometimes his replies are?" Steevens.

Enter LUCIUS, a Captain, and other Officers, and a Soothsayer.

Cap. To them the legions garrison'd in Gallia. After your will, have cross'd the sea; attending You here at Milford-Haven, with your ships: They are here in readiness.

Luc.

But what from Rome?

Cap. The senate hath stirr'd up the confiners, And gentlemen of Italy; most willing spirits, That promise noble service: and they come Under the conduct of bold Iachimo,

Sienna's brother.4

Luc.

When expect you them? Cap. With the next benefit o' the wind. Luc.

This forwardness Makes our hopes fair. Command, our present numbers Be muster'd; bid the captain look to 't.-Now sir, What have you dream'd, of late, of this war's purpose?

Sooth. Last night the very gods show'd me a vision: 5 (I fast, and pray'd, for their intelligence,) Thus :I saw Jove's bird, the Roman eagle, wing'd

From the spongy south to this part of the west, There vanish'd in the sunbeams: which portends, (Unless my sins abuse my divination)

Success to the Roman host.

Dream often so,

Luc.
And never false.-Soft, ho! what trunk is here,
Without his top? The ruin speaks, that sometime
It was a worthy building.-How! a page!—
Or dead, or sleeping on him? But dead, rather:

4 Sienna's brother] i. e. (as I suppose Shakspeare to have meant) brother to the Prince of Sienna: but, unluckily, Sienna was a republick. See W. Thomas's Historye of Italye, 4to. bl. 1. 1561, p. 7, b. Steevens.

Last night the very gods show'd me a vision:] It was no com. mon dream, but sent from the very gods, or the gods themselves. Johnson.

I fast and pray'd,] Fast is here very licentiously used for fasted. So, in the novel subjoined to this play, we find-lift for lifted.

7

Malone.

the spongy south-] Milton has availed himself of this epithet, in his Masque at Ludlow Castle:

Thus I hurl

"My dazzling spells into the spangy air," Steevens.

For nature doth abhor to make his bed
With the defunct, or sleep upon the dead.
Let's see the boy's face.

Cap.

He is alive, my lord.

Luc. He'll then instruct us of this body.-Young one, nform us of thy fortunes; for, it seems,

They crave to be demanded: Who is this,

Thou mak'st thy bloody pillow? Or who was he,

That, otherwise than noble nature did,

Hath alter'd that good picture? What's thy interest
In this sad wreck? How came it? Who is it?
What art thou?

Imo.

I am nothing: or if not,
Nothing to be were better. This was my master,
A very valiant Briton, and a good,

That here by mountaineers lies slain :-Alas!
There are no more such masters: I may wander
From east to occident, cry out for service,

Try many, all good, serve truly, never

Find such another master.

Luc.

'Lack, good youth!

Thou mov'st no less with thy complaining, than
Thy master in bleeding: Say his name, good friend.
Imo. Richard du Champ.1 If I do lie, and do

who was he,

That, otherwise than noble nature did,

Hath alter'd that good picture?] To do a picture, and a picture is well done, are standing phrases; the question therefore is,— Who has altered this picture, so as to make it otherwise than na> ture did it? Johnson.

Olivia, speaking of her own beauty as of a picture, asks Viola if it is not well done?"

Again, in Chapman's version of the Iliad:

66 The golden scourge most elegantly done
"He tooke, and mounted to his seate―."

Steevens.

Fecit was, till lately, the technical term universally annexed to pictures and engravings. Henley.

9 Try many, all good, serve truly, never-] We may be certain that this line was originally complete. I would, therefore, for the sake of metre, read:

Try many, and all good; serve truly, never &c. Steevens.

1 Richard du Champ,] Shakspeare was indebted for his modern names (which sometimes are mixed with ancient ones) as well as his anachronisms, to the fashionable novels of his time. In a collection of stories, entitled A Petite Palace of Pettie his Pleasure,

No harm by it, though the gods hear, I hope
They 'll pardon it. Say you, sir?

Luc.

Imo.

[Aside.

Thy name?

Fidele.2

Luc. Thou dost approve thyself the very same: Thy name well fits thy faith;3 thy faith, thy name. Wilt take thy chance with me? I will not say, Thou shalt be so well master'd; but, be sure, No less belov'd. The Roman emperor's letters, Sent by a consul to me, should not sooner Than thine own worth prefer thee: Go with me. Imo. I'll follow, sir. But, first, an 't please the gods,

I'll hide my master from the flies, as deep

As these poor pickaxes can dig: and when

With wild wood-leaves and weeds I have strew'd his grave,

And on it said a century of prayers,

Such as I can, twice o'er, I'll weep, and sigh;

And, leaving so his service, follow you,

So please you entertain me.

Luc.

Ay, good youth;

1576, I find the following circumstances of ignorance and absurdity In the story of the Horatii and the Curiatii, the roaring of cannons is mentioned. Cephalus and Procris are said to be of the court of Venice; and "that her father wrought so with the duke, that this Cephalus was sent post in ambassage to the Turke-Eriphile, after the death of her husband Amphiaraus, (the Theban prophet) calling to mind the affection wherein Don Infortunio was drowned towards her," &c. &c Cannon-shot is found in Golding's version of Ovid's Metamorphoses, B. III. Steevens.

This absurdity was not confined to novels. In Lodge's Wounds of Ciuill War, 1594, one of the directions is, " Enter Lucius Fauo rinus, Pausanias, with Pedro a Frenchman," who speaks broken English; the earliest dramatick specimen of this sort of jargon now extant. Ritson.

2 Fidele.] Old copy-Fidele, sir; but for the sake of metre I have omitted this useless word of address, which has already occurred in the same line. Steevens.

3 Thy name well fits thy faith;] A similar thought has been already met with in King Henry V, where Pistol having announced his name, the King replies: "It sorts well with your fierceness." Steevens.

4

these poor pickaxes -] Meaning her fingers. Johnson.

5 So please you entertain me.] i. e. hire me; receive me unto your service. See Vol. III, p. 34, n. 6. Malone.

And rather father thee, than master thee.

My friends,

The boy hath taught us manly duties: Let us
Find out the prettiest daizied plot we can,

And make him with our pikes and partisans
A grave: Come, arm him.7-Boy, he is preferr'd
By thee to us; and he shall be interr'd,

As soldiers can. Be cheerful; wipe thine eyes:
Some falls are means the happier to arise.

SCENE III.

A Room in Cymbeline's Palace.3

[Exeunt.

Enter CYMBELINE, Lords, and PISANIO.

Cym. Again; and bring me word, how 'tis with her. A fever with the absence of her son;

A madness of which her life 's in danger:-Heavens,
How deeply you at once do touch me! Imogen,
The great part of my comfort, gone: my queen
Upon a desperate bed; and in a time

When fearful wars point at me; her son gone,
So needful for this present: It strikes me, past
The hope of comfort.-But for thee, fellow,

6 And make him with our pikes and partisans

A grave:] Surely the Roman troops had no pioneers among them; and how a grave could be made with such instruments as are here specified, our poet has not informed us. After all, a grave is not made; but Cloten is found lying on the surface of the earth, with the supposed remains of Imogen. Steevens.

7- arm him,] That is, Take him up in your arms. Hanmer. So, in Fletcher's Two Noble Kinsmen:

Arm your prize,

"I know you will not lose her." The prize was Emilia. Steevens.

8 Cymbeline's Palace.] This scene is omitted against all authority by Sir T. Hanmer. It is indeed of no great use in the progress of the fable, yet it makes a regular preparation for the next Act. Johnson.

The fact is, that Sir Thomas Hanmer has inserted this supposed omission as the eighth scene of Act III. The scene which in Dr. Johnson's first edition is the eighth of Act III, is printed in a small letter under it in Sir T. Hanmer's, on a supposition that it was spurious. In this impression it is the third scene of Act IV, and that which in Dr. Johnson is the eighth scene of Act IV, is in this the seventh scene. Steevens.