Imatges de pàgina
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SCENE I.-Britain. A Room of State in Cymbeline's Palace.

Enter CYMBELINE, QUEEN, CLOTEN, and Lords, at one door; and at another, CAIUS LUCIUS and Attendants.

CYм. Now say, what would Augustus Cæsar with us?
Luc. When Julius Caesar (whose remembrance yet
Lives in men's eyes; and will to ears and tongues
Be theme and hearing ever) was in this Britain,
And conquer'd it, Cassibelan, thine uncle,
(Famous in Cæsar's praises, no whit less

Than in his feats deserving it,) for him,

And his succession, granted Rome a tribute,

Yearly three thousand pounds; which by thee lately
Is left untender'd.

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QUEEN.

That opportunity,

Which then they had to take from us, to resume
We have again.-Remember, sir, my liege,
The kings your ancestors; together with
The natural bravery of your isle, which stands
As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in

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With rocks unscaleable, and roaring waters;

With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats,
But suck them up to the top-mast. A kind of conquest
Cæsar made here; but made not here his brag
Of came, and saw, and overcame with shame
(The first that ever touch'd him) he was carried
From off our coast, twice beaten; and his shipping
(Poor ignorant baubles!) on our terrible seas,
Like egg-shells mov'd upon their surges, crack'd
As easily 'gainst our rocks: For joy whereof,
The fam'd Cassibelan, who was once at point
(O, giglot fortune!) to master Cæsar's sword,
Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright,
And Britons strut with courage.

CLO. Come, there 's no more tribute to be paid: Our kingdom is stronger than it was at that time; and, as I said, there is no more such Cæsars: other of them may have crooked noses; but to owe such straight arms, none. CYM. Son, let your mother end.

CLO. We have yet many among us can gripe as hard as Cassibelan: I do not say I am one; but I have a hand.-Why tribute? why should we pay tribute? If Cæsar can hide the sun from us with a blanket, or put the moon in his pocket, we will pay him tribute for light; else, sir, no more tribute, pray you now.

CYM. You must know,

Till the injurious Romans did extort

This tribute from us, we were free: Cæsar's ambition,

(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

Rocks. The original reads oaks. We have no doubt of the propriety of the correction, which is Hanmer's.

Giglot. The term may be explained by its application to Joan of Arc, in the First Part of Henry VI.'

"Young Talbot was not born

To be the pillage of a giglot wench."

• Steevens would leave out from us in this line, as unnecessary words, which only derange the metre. We must again, and again, beg the reader to bear in mind that this mode of corrupting the text is totally at variance with the practice of all the great dramatists of Shakspere's age; it sacrifices force and variety, to produce feebleness and monotony.

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 franchise

Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed,

Though Rome be therefore angry ;) Mulmutius made our laws,
Who was the first of Britain which did put
His brows within a golden crown, and call'd
Himself a king 10.

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a We have another example of a similar corruption, adopted from Hanmer by Steevens, who walks amidst the luxurious growth of Shakspere's versification like a gardener who has predetermined to have no shoot above ten inches long in his whole parterre. This line, in all the modern editions (except Malone's of 1821), stands thus

"Though Rome be therefore angry;) Mulmutius."

His reasons for this merciless lopping are as follows:

"The old copy, in contempt of metre, and regardless of the preceding words

most absurdly adds,

Mulmutius, which

Ordain'd our laws;

made our laws."

Is it not evident that the oratorical construction of the sentence requires this repetition, after the long parenthesis which occurs after the first mention of Mulmutius? The skill of Shakspere is shown in repeating the idea, without repeating precisely the same words; of which skill there are two other signal examples in 'Love's Labour's Lost,' and in 'Troilus and Cressida.' (See Illustrations of Love's Labour 's Lost,' Act IV.)

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Utterance. To fight at utterance is to fight without quarter-to the death; the FrenchCombat à outrance.

• Perfect-assured. So in 'The Winter's Tale'

"Thou art perfect then, our ship hath touch'd upon

The deserts of Bohemia."

CLO. 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 crows shall fare the better for you; and there's an end. Luc. So, sir.

CYм. I know your master's pleasure, and he mine:

All the remain is, welcome.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Another Room in the Palace.

Enter PISANIO, reading a Letter.

PIs. How! of adultery? Wherefore write you not
What monster 's her accuser a?—Leonatus !
O, master! what a strange infection

Is fallen into thy ear! What false Italian
(As poisonous tongued as handed) hath prevail'd
On thy too ready hearing?-Disloyal? No:
She 's punish'd for her truth; and undergoes,
More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults
As would take in some virtue.-O, my master!
Thy mind to her is now as low as were
Thy fortunes. -How! that I should murther her?
Upon the love, and truth, and vows, which I

Have made to thy command?-I, her ?—her blood?
If it be so to do good service, never

Let me be counted serviceable. How look I,

That I should seem to lack humanity

So much as this fact comes to ?-Do 't: The letter

That I have sent her, by her own command

Shall give thee opportunity b:-O damn'd paper!

a The original has, what monsters her accuse? The modern correction, which is Malone's, appears to be justified by the subsequent passage, what false Italian?

b The original stage-direction at the commencement of this scene is-" Enter Pisanio reading of a letter." The modern editors, when they come to the passage beginning do 't, insert another stage-direction-reading. Upon this Malone raises up the following curious theory:-" Our poet from negligence sometimes makes words change their form under the eye of the speaker, who in different parts of the same play recites them differently, though he has a paper or letter in his hand, and actually reads from it. The words here read by Pisanio from his master's

letter (which is afterwards given at length and in prose) are not found there, though the substance of them is contained in it. This is one of many proofs that Shakspere had no view to the publication of his pieces. There was little danger that such an inaccuracy should be detected by the ear of the spectator, though it could hardly escape an attentive reader." Now, we would ask, what can be more natural-what can be more truly in Shakspere's own manner, which is a reflection of nature-than that a person having been deeply moved by a letter which he has been reading, should comment upon the substance of it without repeating the exact words? The very commencement of Pisanio's soliloquy-" How! of adultery?"—is an example of this. The word

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I am ignorant in what I am commanded. IMO. How now, Pisanio?

PIS. Madam, here is a letter from my lord.

IMO. Who? thy lord? that is my lord? Leonatus?
O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer
That knew the stars as I his characters;
He'd lay the future open.-You good gods,
Let what is here contain'd relish of love,
Of my lord's health, of his content, yet not,
That we two are asunder, let that grieve him,—
(Some griefs are med'cinable;) that is one of them,
For it doth physic love;-of his content,

All but in that!-Good wax, thy leave:-Bless'd be
You bees that make these locks of counsel! Lovers,
And men in dangerous bonds, pray not alike;
Though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet

You clasp young Cupid's tables".-Good news, gods!

[Reads. Justice, and your father's wrath, should he take me in his dominion, could not be so cruel to me, an you, O the dearest of creatures, would even renew me with your eyes. Take notice that I am in Cambria, at Milford-Haven: What

adultery is not mentioned in the letter upon which he comments. Malone refers to a similar negligence in the last scene of 'All's Well that Ends Well,' where Helena thus addresses Bertram"There is your ring,

And, look you, here's your letter: This it says,

When from my finger you can get this ring," &c.

Malone adds, "she reads the words from Bertram's letter." He has no right to assume this, nor does he even give a stage-direction to that effect in his edition; but, because the letter which Helena reads in Act III. contains these words-" when thou canst get the ring upon my finger,”— Shakspere has been guilty of negligence, oversight, inattention, &c., &c., in not giving the exact words of the letter, when she offers it to Bertram. Really, a critic, putting on a pair of spectacles, to compare the recollections of deep feeling with the document which has stirred that feeling, as he would compare the copy of an affidavit with the original, is a ludicrous exhibition.

a Feodary-feudary. Hanmer says, "A feodary is one who holds his estate under the tenure of suit and service to a superior lord." Malone says, "The feodary was the escheator's associate, and hence Shakspere, with his usual licence, uses the word for a confederate or associate in general." We beg to refer our readers to the Illustrations of 'Henry IV., Part I.,' Act I., in which we endeavour to show that the feudal vassal and the companion were each meant by the same word-fere -feudary-feodary.

This address to the bees contains one of Shakspere's legal allusions. The forfeiters (in the first folio forfeytours) had sealed to dangerous bonds; and in that age the seal was as binding as the signature, and rather more so.

This sentence is very difficult; but it does not appear to us to be mended by the departure from the original reading, which we ordinarily find-" Justice, and your father's wrath, should he take me in his dominion, could not be so cruel to me, as you, O the dearest of creatures, would not

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