Your legs are young; I'll tread these flats. Consider, Have never wing'd from view o'the nest; nor know not What air's from home. Haply, this life is best, • This service is not service, &c.] In war it is not sufficient to do duty well; the advantage rises not from the act, but the acceptance of the act. The sharded beetle-] i. e. the beetle whose wings are enclosed within two dry husks or shards. 8-attending for a check;] Check may mean, in this place, a reproof; but I rather think it signifies command, controul. Thus, in Troilus and Cressida, the restrictions of Aristotle are called Aristotle's checks. STEEVENS. 9 than doing nothing for a babe;] As it was once the custom in England for favourites at court to beg the wardship of infants who were born to great riches, our author may allude to it on this occasion. Frequent complaints were made that nothing was done towards the education of these neglected orphans. 1 no life to ours.] i. e. compared with ours. A cell of ignorance; travelling abed; Arv. What should we speak of,3 When we are old as you? when we shall hear The rain and wind beat dark December, how, In this our pinching cave, shall we discourse The freezing hours away? We have seen nothing: We are beastly; subtle as the fox, for prey; Like warlike as the wolf, for what we eat: Our valour is, to chace what flies; our cage We make a quire, as doth the prison bird, And sing our bondage freely. Bel. How you speak! The fear's as bad as falling: the toil of the war, A pain that only seems to seek out danger I'the name of fame, and honour; which dies i'the search; And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph, As record of fair act; nay, many times, 2 To stride a limit.] To overpass his bound. What should we speak of,] This dread of an old age, unsupplied with matter for discourse and meditation, is a sentiment natural and noble. No state can be more destitute than that of him, who, when the delights of sense forsake him, has no pleasures of the mind. JOHNSON. Whose boughs did bend with fruit: but, in one night, A storm, or robbery, call it what you will, Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves, And left me bare to weather. Gui. Uncertain favour! Bel. My fault being nothing (as I have told you oft.) But that two villains, whose false oaths prevail'd The fore-end of my time.-But, up to the mountains; This is not hunters' language:-He, that strikes And we will fear no poison, which attends In place of greater state. I'll meet you in the val leys. Exeunt GUI. and ARV. How hard it is, to hide the sparks of nature! These boys know little, they are sons to the king; Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive. They think, they are mine: and, though train'd up thus meanly I'the cave, wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats, Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in posture That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal, (Once Arvirágus,) in as like a figure, Strikes life into my speech, and shows much more His own conceiving. Hark! the game is rous'd!O Cymbeline! heaven, and my conscience, knows, Thou didst unjustly banish me: whereon, At three, and two years old, I stole these babes;* Thinking to bar thee of succession, as Thou reft'st me of my lands. Euriphile, Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for their mother, And every day do honour to her grave: Myself, Belarius, that am Morgan call'd, They take for natural father. The game is up. [Exit. SCENE IV. Near Milford-Haven. Enter PISANIO and IMOGEN. Imo. Thou told'st me, when we came from horse, the place Was near at hand:-Ne'er long'd my mother so I stole these babes;] Shakspeare seems to intend Belarius for a good character, yet he makes him forget the injury which he has done to the young princes, whom he has robbed of a kingdom only to rob their father of heirs.-The latter part of this soliloquy is very inartificial, there being no particular reason why Belarius should now tell to himself what he could not know better by telling it. JOHNSON. From the inward of thee? One, but painted thus, Into a haviour of less fear, ere wildness That drug-damn'd' Italy hath out-craftied him, tongue May take off some extremity, which to read Pis. Imo. [Reads.] Thy mistress, Pisanio, hath played the strumpet in my bed; the testimonies whereof lie bleeding in me. I speak not out of weak surmises; from proof as strong as my grief, and as certain as I expect my revenge. That part, thou, Pisanio, must act for me, if thy faith be not tainted with the breach of hers. Let thine own hands take away her life: I shall give thee opportunities at Milford-Haven: she hath my letter for the purpose: Where, if thou fear to strike, and to make me certain it is done, thou art the pandar to her dishonour, and equally to me disloyal. 5 Pis. What shall I need to draw my sword? the paper haviour-] This word, as often as it occurs in Shakspeare, should not be printed as an abbreviation of behaviour. Haviour was a word commonly used in his time. drug-dumn'd-] This is another allusion to Italian poisons. |