To darkness fleet, souls that fly backwards! Stand;
Or we are Romans, and will give you that

Like beasts, which you shun beastly; and may save,
But to look back in frown: stand, stand.-These three,
Three thousand confident, in act as many,

(For three performers are the file, when all
The rest do nothing,) with this word, stand, stand,
Accommodated by the place, more charming,
With their own nobleness, (which could have turn'd
A distaff to a lance) gilded pale looks,

Part, shame, part, spirit renew'd; that some, turn'd coward

But by example (O, a sin 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 stop i' the chaser, a retire; anon,

A rout, confusion thick: Forthwith, they fly
Chickens, the way which they stoop'd eagles; slaves,
The strides they victors made:2 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, slain before; some, dying; some, their friends
O'er-borne i' the former wave: ten, chac'd by one,
Are now each one the slaughter-man of twenty:
Those, that would die or ere resist, are grown
The mortal bugs o' the field.

2

they victors made:] The old copy has-the victors &c. The emendation was made by Mr. Theobald. Malone.

The life o' the need;] i. e. that have become the life, &c. Shakspeare should have written become, but there is, I believe, no corruption. In his 134th Sonnet, he perhaps again uses came as a participle:

"The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,
"Thou usurer, that put'st forth all to use,

"And sue a friend, came debtor for thy sake."

Became, however, in the text may be a verb. If this was intended, the parenthesis should be removed. Malone.

4

bugs-] Terrors. Johnson.

So, in The First Part of Jeronimo, 1605:

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

Lord.

This was strange chance:

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

Post. Nay, do not wonder at it :5 You are made
Rather to wonder at the things you hear,
Than to work any. Will you rhyme upon 't,
And vent it for a mockery? Here is one:
Two boys, an old man twice a boy, a lane,
Preserv'd the Britons, was the Romans' bane.
Lord. Nay, be not angry, sir.

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.
You have put me into rhyme.

Lord.
Farewel; you are angry. [Exit.
Post. Still going?—This is a lord! O noble misery |
To be i' the field, and ask, what news, of me!
To-day, how many would have given their honours
To have saved their carcasses? took heel to do 't,
And yet died too? I, in mine own woe charm'd,"

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 Moria 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,
"That, on their nightly faith and troth,
"No magick them supplied;

“ And sought them that they had no charms

Could not find death, where I did hear him groan;
Nor feel him, where he struck: Being an ugly monster,
'Tis strange, he hides him in fresh cups, soft beds,
Sweet words; or hath more ministers than we

8

That draw his knives i' the war.—Well, I will find him:
For, being now a favourer to the Roman,
No more a Briton, I have resum❜d again
The part I came in: Fight I will no more,
But yield me to the veriest hind, that shall
Once touch my shoulder. Great the slaughter is
Here made by the Roman; great the answer be
Britons must take: For me, my ransome 's death;
On either side I come to spend my breath;
Which neither here I'll keep, nor bear again,
But end it by some means for Imogen.

Enter Two British Captains, and Soldiers.
1 Cap. Great Jupiter be prais'd! Lucius is taken:
'Tis thought, the old man and his sons were angels.
2 Cap. There was a fourth man, in a silly habit,1
That gave the affront with them.2

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:

8

"Enter her roof; for thou 'rt to all proof charm'd
"Against the ill day." Steevens.

-

-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.

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 service

As if he were of note: bring him to the king.

Enter CYMBELINE, attended; BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS, PISANIO, and Roman 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.
[Exeunt Gaolers.

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.

4 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 Hamlet] 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?
So children temporal fathers do appease;

Gods are more full of mercy. Must I repent?
I cannot do it better than in gyves,

Desir'd, more than constrain'd: to satisfy,
If of my freedom 'tis the main part, take
No stricter render of me, than my all.

I know, you are more clement than vile men,
Who of their broken debtors take a third,
A sixth, a tenth, letting them thrive again
On their abatement; that's not my desire:
For Imogen's dear life, take mine; and though
'Tis not so dear, yet 'tis a life; you coin'd it:
'Tween man and man, they weigh not every stamp;
Though light, take pieces for their figure's sake;
You rather mine, being yours: And so, great powers,
If you will take this audit, take this life,

And cancel these cold bonds. O Imogen!
I'll speak to thee in silence.

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 sus. pect, 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
"That keeps me pale." Steevens.