Which you might from relation likewise reap;
Being, as it is, much spoke of.

Iach. The roof o' the chamber

She could not lose it: her attendants are

All sworn, and honourable:-They induc'd to
steal it!

And by a stranger?—No; he hath enjoy'd her:
The cognizance 'of her incontinency

Is this-she hath bought the name of whore thus
dearly.-

20 There, take thy hire; and all the fiends of hell Divide themselves between you!

With golden cherubim is fretted: Her andirons 25
(I had forgot them) were two winking Cupids
Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely
Depending on their brands.

Post. This is her honour!—

Let it be granted, you have seen all this, (and praise 30
Be given to your remembrance) the description
Of what is in her chamber, nothing saves
The wager you have laid.

Iach. Then, if you can, [Pulling out the bracelet.
Be pale; I beg but leave to air this jewel: See!
And now 'tis up again: It must be married
To that your diamond; I'll keep them.
Post. Jove!

Once more let me behold it: Is it that
Which I left with her?

Jach. Sir, (I thank her) that:

She stripp'd it from her arm; I see her yet;
Her pretty action did out-sell her gift,
And yet enrich'd it too: she gave it me,
And said, she priz'd it once.

Post. May be, she pluck'd it off,

To send it me.

Iach. She writes so to you? doth she?

Post. O, no, no, no; 'tis true. Here, take this

too;

Phil. Sir, be patient:

This is not strong enough to be believ'd
Of one persuaded well of

Post. Never talk on 't:
She hath been colted by him.
Iach. If you seek

For further satisfying, under her breast,
(Worthy the pressing !) lies a mole, right proud`
Of that most delicate lodging: By my life,
I kiss'd it; and it gave me present hunger

To feed again, though full. You do remember
This stain upon her?

Post. Ay, and it doth confirm

35 Another stain, as big as hell can hold,
Were there no more but it.

Iach. Will you hear more?

[turns;

Post. Spare your arithmetick: never count the Once, and a million!

40 Iach. I'll be sworn,

45

[Gives the ring.

50

It is a basilisk unto mine eye,
Kills me to look on't:-Let there be no honour,
Where there is beauty; truth, where resemblance;

love,

Where there's another man: The vows of women 55
Of no more bondage be, to where they are made,
Than they are to their virtues; which is nothing:-
O, above measure false !

Phil. Have patience, sir,

Post. No swearing:

If you will swear you have not done't, you lye;
And I will kill thee, if thou dost deny

Thou hast made me cuckold.

1i. e. so near to speech.-The Italians call a portrait, when the likeness is remarkable, a speaking picture. The meaning is this: The sculptor was as nature, but as nature dumb; he gave every thing that nature gives, but breath and motion.—In breath is included speech. i. e. the token; the visible proof.

125 As easily 'gainst our rocks; For joy whereof The fam'd Cassibelan, who was once at point (0, giglet fortune !) to master Cæsar's sword, Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright, And Britons strut with courage.

45 This tribute from us, we were free; Cæsar's am-
(Which swell'd so much, that it did almost stretch
The sides o' the world,) against all colour, here
Did put the yoke upon us; which to shake off,
Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon
50 Ourselves to be; we do. Say then to Cæsar,
Our ancestor was that Mulmutius, which
Ordain'd our laws; whose use the sword of Cæsar
Hath too much mangled; whose repair, and fran
chise,

! i. e, unacquainted with the nature of our boisterous seas.

Clot. His majesty bids you welcome. Make pastime with us a day, or two, or longer: If you seek us afterwards in other terms, you shall find us in our salt-water girdle: if you beat us out of it, it is yours; if you fall in the adventure, our 20 crows shall fare the better for you; and there's an end.

Pisan. How! of adultery? Wherefore write 30

[Reading.
50

1At utterance means to keep at the extremity of defiance. 'i. e. I am well informed. 3 To take in a town is to conquer it. *A feodary is one who holds his estate under the tenure of suit and service to a superior lord. i.e. I am unpractised in the arts of murder. "That is, grief for absence keeps love in health and vigour. "The meaning is, that the bees are not blest by the man who, forfeiting a bond, is sent to prison, as they are by the lover, for whom they perform the more pleasing office of sealing letters.

5

A cell of ignorance; travelling abed;
A prison for a debtor, that not dares
To stride a limit ".

Art. What should we speak of,
When we are as 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;
10 Like warlike as the wolf, for what we eat:
Our valour is, to chase what flies; our cage
We make a quire, as doth the prison'd bird,
And sing our bondage freely.

Changes to a Forest in Wales, with a Cave.
Enter Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus.
Bel. A goodly day not to keep house, with such
Whose roof's as low as ours! Stoop, boys: This gate
Instructs you how to adore the heavens; and bows 20

you

To morning's holy office: The gates of monarchs
Are arch'd so high, that giants may jet through
And keep their impious turbands' on, without
Good morrow to the sun.--Hail thou, fair heaven!
We house i' the rock, yet use thee not so hardly
As prouder livers do.

Guid. Hail, Heaven!
Art. Hail, Heaven!

Bel. How you speak!

15 Did you but know the city's usuries,
And felt them knowingly the art o' the court,
As hard to leave, as keep; whose top to clumb
Is certain falling, or so slippery, that
The fear's as bad as falling: the toil of the war,
A pain that only seems to seek out danger
l'the name of fame, and honour; which dies i' the
search;

25

And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph,
As record of fair act; nay, many times,
Doth ill deserve by doing well: what's worse,
Must curt'sy at the censure:-O, boys, this story
The world may read in me: My body's mark'd
With Roman swords; and my report was once
First with the best of note: Cymbeline lov'd me;
And when a soldier was the theme, my name
Was not far off: Then was I as a tree, [night,
Whose boughs did bend with fruit: but, in one
A storm, or robbery, call it what you will,
Shook down my mellow hangings, nay,my leaves,
35 And left me bare to weather.

Guid. Uncertain favour!

[of)

Bel. My fault being nothing (as I have told you But that two villains, whose false oaths prevail'd Before my perfect honour, swore to Cymbeline, 40I was confederate with the Romans: So,

Bel. Now for our mountain sport: up to yon hill, 30
Your legs are young; I'lltreadthese flats. Consider,
When you above perceive me like a crow,
That it is place, which lessens, and sets off.
And you may then revolvewhat tales I havetoldyou,
Of courts, of princes, of the tricks in war:
This service is not service, so being done,
But being so allow'd: To apprehend thus,
Draws us a profit from all things we see:
And often, to our comfort, shall we find
The sharded' beetle in a safer hold
Than is the full-wing'd eagle. O, this life
Is nobler, than attending for a check";
Richer, than doing nothing for a babe
Prouder, than rustling in unpaid-for silk:
Such gain the cap of him, that makes them fine,
Yet keeps his book uncross'd: no life to ours.
Guid. Out of your proof you speak: we, poor
[know not
Have never wing'd from view o' the nest; nor
What air's from home. Haply, this life is best, 50
If quiet life be best; sweeter to you,
That have a sharper known; well corresponding
With your stiff age: but, unto us, it is

unfledg'd,

Follow'd my banishment; and these twenty years, This rock, and these demesnes, have been my world:

Where I have liv'd at honest freedom; pay'd 45 More pious debts to heaven, than in all [tains; The fore-end of my time.--But, up to the moun This is not hunters' language: He, that strikes The venison first, shall be the lord o' the feast; To him the other two shall minister;

And we will fear no poison, which attends
In place of greater state. I'llmeet you in thevalleys.
[Exeunt Guid, and Arv.
How hard it is, to hide the sparks of nature!

This fantastical expression means no more than sand in an hour-glass, used to measure time. A franklin is literally a freeholder, with a small estate, neither villan, nor vassal. That is, "I can see neither one way nor other, before me nor behind me; but all the ways are covered with an impenetra ble fog." The idea of a giant was, among the readers of romances, who were almost all the readers of those times, always confounded with that of a Saracen. 'i. e. the beetle, whose wings are enclosed within two dry husks or shards. Check may mean in this place a reproof; but it rather seems to signify command, controul. 'Dr. Johnson suspects, that the right reading of this passage is as follows: "Richer than doing nothing for a brabe."Brabium is a badge of honour, or the ensign of an honour, or any thing worn as a mark of dignity. The word is found (he adds) in Holyoak's Dictionary, who terms it a reward; and that Cooper, in his Thesaurus, defines it to be a prize, or reward for any game. To overpass his bound.

These

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

[hit

I'the cave, wherein they bow', their thoughts do 5
The roots of palaces; and nature prompts them,
In simple and low things, to prince it, much
Beyond the trick of others. This Polydore,-
The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, whom
The king his father call'd Guiderius,-Jove!
When on my three-foot stool I sit, and tell
The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out
Into my story: say,-Thus mine enemy fell';
And thus I set my foot on his neck; even then
The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats, 15
Strains his young nerves, and putshimself in posture
That acts my words. The younger brother Cad-
(Once, Arviragus) in as like a figure, [wal,

Strikes life into my speech, and shews much more
His own conceiving, Hark! the game is rouz'd!-- 20
OCymbeline! 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. Euriphilè,
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,

25

And you shall find me, wretched man, a thing
The most disdain'd of fortune.

Imogen reads.

Thy mistress, Pisanio, hath play'd the strumpet in my bed; the testimonies whereof lie bleeding in me. I speak not out of weak surmises; but from proof us strong as my grief, and as certain as I expect my recenge. 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 opportunity 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 pundar to her dishonour, and equally to me disloyal. Pisan. What, shall I need to draw my sword? the paper

Hath cut her throat already.No, 'tis slander;
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose
tongue

Out-venoms all the worms 'of Nile; whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belye
All corners of the world: kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
Thisviperous slander enters.-What cheer,madam?
Imo. False to his bed! What is it to be false ? ....
To lie in watch there, and to think on him?

To weep 'twixt clock and clock? if sleep charge
nature,

To break it with a fearful dream of him,

They take for natural father.-The game is up. 30 And cry myself awake? that's false to his bed?

SCENE IV.

Near Milford-Haven.
Enter Pisanio and Imogen.

[Exit.

Imo. Thou told'st me, when we came from

horse, the place

Was near at hand:-Ne'er long'd my mother so
To see me first, as I have now:-Pisanio! Man!
Where is Posthumus? What is in thy mind,
That makes thee stare thus? Wherefore breaks
that sigh

From the inward of thee? One, but painted thus,
Would be interpreted a thing perplex'd
Beyond self-explication: Put thyself
Into a 'haviour of less fear, ere wildness

Vanquish my staider senses. What's the matter?
Why tender'st thou that paper to me, with
A look untender? "If it be summer news,
Smile to't before; if winterly, thou need'st
But keep that countenance still.—My husband':

hand!

Is it?

Pisan. Alas, good lady!

Imo. I false? Thy conscience witness:-Iachimo,
Thou didst accuse him of incontinency;

35 Thou then look'dst like a villain; now, methinks,
Thy favour's good enough.-Some jay of Italy,
Whose mother was her painting', hath betray'd
Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion; [him:
And, for I am richer than to hang by the walls,
40I must be ript:-to pieces with me!-O,
Men's vows are women's traitors!—-All good seem-
By thy revolt, O husband, shall be thought
Put on for villainy; not born, where 't grows;
But worn, a bait for ladies.

45

Pisan. Good madam, hear me.

[ing,

2

1i. e. Thus meanly brought up :-Yet in this very cave, which is so low that they must bow or bend in entering it, yet are their thoughts so exalted, &c. This is another allusion to Italian poisons. Serpents and dragons by the old writers were called worms. Persons of highest rank. 'That is, Some jay of Italy, made by art the creature, not of nature, but of painting.-In his sense, painting may be not improperly termed her mother.

Thy