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Line 322. the ruddock would,

With charitable bill,bring thee all this; Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, To winter-ground thy corse.] The ruddock is the red-breast, and is so called by Chaucer and Spenser: "The tame ruddock, and the coward kite."

Line 349. He was paid for that:] i. e. punished,

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STEEVENS.

(That angel of the world,)-] Reverence, or due regard to subordination, is the power that keeps peace and order in the world. JOHNSON.

Line 368. Fear no more &c.] This is the topick of consolation that nature dictates to all men on these occasions. The same farewell we have over the dead body in Lucian. Τέκνον 'αθλίον "εκετι κψδήσεις, ἔκετι πεινήσεις, &c. WARBURTON.

Line 378. The sceptre, learning, &c.] The poet's sentiment seems to have been this :-All human excellence is equally subject to the stroke of death :-neither the power of kings, nor the science of scholars, nor the art of those whose immediate study is the prolongation of life, can protect them from the final destiny of man. JOHNSON.

Line 391. thy grave! For the obsequies of Fidele, a song was written by my unhappy friend, Mr. William Collins of Chichester, a man of uncommon learning and abilities.

JOHNSON.

Line 443. -'tis pregnant, pregnant!] i. e. 'tis a ready, apposite conclusion. STEEVENS. Line 470. Last night the very gods show'd me a vision :] It was no common dream, but sent from the very gods, or the gods themselves.

JOHNSON.

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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 nature did it?

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JOHNSON.

Line 523.

-these poor pickaxes-] Meaning her fingers.

JOHNSON.

·529. So please you entertain me.] i. e. hire me; receive

me unto your service.

Line 536.

Line 568.

MALONE.

-arm him.] That is, Take him up.n your arms.

ACT IV. SCENE III.

-our jealousy

HANMER.

Does yet depend.] My suspicion is yet undeter

mined; if I do not condemn you, I likewise have not acquitted you. We now say, the cause is depending.

JOHNSON.

Line 595. to the note o' the king,] I will so distinguish myself, the king shall remark my valour.

JOHNSON.

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Where we have liv'd;] An account of our place of abode. This dialogue is a just representation of the superfluous caution of an old man.

Line 614.

JOHNSON.

whose answer-] The retaliation of the death

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-bloody handkerchief.]. The bloody token of Imogen's death, which Pisanio in the foregoing act determined to send.

JOHNSON.

Line 1. Yea, bloody cloth, &c.] This is a soliloquy of nature, yttered when the effervescence of a mind agitated and perturbed spontaneously and inadvertently discharges itself in words. The speech throughout all its tenor, if the last conceit be excepted, seems to issue warm from the heart. He first condemns his own violence; then tries to disburden himself by imputing part of the crime to Pisanio; he next soothes his mind to an artificial and momentary tranquillity, by trying to think that he has been only an

instrument of the gods for the happiness of Imogen. He is now grown reasonable enough to determine, that having done so much evil, he will do no more; that he will not fight against the country which he has already injured; but as life is not longer supportable, he will die in a just cause, and die with the obscurity of a man who does not think himself worthy to be remembered. JOHNSON.

Line 10.

-to put on-] Is to incite, to instigate. JOHNS.

ACT V. SCENE III.

Line 82. The country base,] i. e. a rustick game called prisonbars, vulgarly prison-base. STEEVENS.

Line 84.

modesty. Line 116.

119.

for preservation cas'd, or shame,)] Shame for

-bugs-] Terrors.

WARBURTON.
JOHNSON.

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.

Line 150.

JOHNSON.

-great the answer be-] Answer, as once in this

play before, is retaliation.

JOHNSON.

Line 158. That gave the affront with them.] That is, that turned their faces to the enemy.

JOHNSON.

ACT V. SCENE IV.

Line 170. You shall not now be stolen,] the wit of the Gaoler alludes to the custom of putting a lock on a horse's leg, when he is turned to pasture.

Line 190.

-to satisfy,

If of my freedom 'tis the main part, take

JOHNSON.

No stricter render of me, than my all.] "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." MALONE.

Line 204. cold bonds.] This equivocal use of bonds is another instance of our author's infelicity in pathetic speeches.

JOHNSON.

Line 243. And to become the geck-] And permit Posthumus

to become the geck, &c.

MALONE.

Line 317. 'Tis still a dream; or else such stuff as madmen
Tongue, and brain not: either both, or nothing:

Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such

As sense cannot untie.] The meaning, which is too thin to be easily caught, I take to be this: This is a dream or madness, or both-or nothing,-but whether it be a speech without consciousness, as in a dream, or a speech unintelligible, as in madness, be it as it is, it is like my course of life. JOHNSON.

Line 334. -sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you are paid too much ;] i. e. sorry that you have paid too much out of your pocket, and sorry that you are paid, or subdued, too much by the liquor.

Line 340.

STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

-debitor and creditor-] For an accounting book.

ACT V. SCENE V.

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But beggary and poor looks.] To promise nothing but poor looks, may be, to give no promise of courageous behaviour.

JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

Line 487. So feat,] So ready; so dexterous in waiting.

574. Quail to remember,] To quail is to sink into dejection. STEEVENS.

612. — as Dian-] i. e. as if Dian. MALONE. averring notes-] Such marks of the chamber

·635. and pictures, as averred or confirmed my report. JOHNSON. and she herself.] That is, She was not only

Line 654.

the temple of virtue, but virtue herself.

JOHNSON.

Line 670. - ―these staggers—] This wild and delirious perturbation. Staggers is the horse's apoplexy. JOHNSON.

Line 708. Think, that you are upon a rock ;] In this speech, or in the answer, there is little meaning. I suppose, she would say,-Consider such another act as equally fatal to me with precipitation from a rock, and now let me see whether you will repeat it.

JOHNSON.

Line 771. By tasting of our wrath ?] The consequence is taken for the whole action: by tasting is by forcing us to make thee JOHNSON.

to taste.

Line 809. Your pleasure was my mere offence, &c.] My crime, my punishment, and all the treason that I committed, originated in, and were founded on, your caprice only.

MALONE.

Line 828. Thou weep'st, and speak'st.] " Thy tears give testimony to the sincerity of thy relation; and I have the less reason to be incredulous, because the actions which you have done within my knowledge are more incredible than the story which you relate." The king reasons very justly.

JOHNSON.

END OF THE ANNOTATIONS ON CYMBELINE.

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