Addition of his envy!! Say, good Cæsar, ledg'd, Put we i' the roll of conquest: still be it For we intend so to dispose you, as ; Not so: Adieu. O, the good gods! Cleo. Why, that's the way Show me, my women, like a queen ;-Go fetch [Exeunt CESAR, and his Train. To play till doomsday.-Bring our crown and all : me, Cleo. He words me, girls, he words should not Be noble to myself: but hark thee, Charmian. [Whispers CHARMIAN. Iras. Finish, good lady; the bright day is done, And we are.for the dark. Cleo. I have spoke already, and it is provided; Go, put it to the haste. Hie thee again: Madam, I will. 2 i. e. common, ordinary. 8 With is here used with the power of by. 4 i. e. fortune. Begone, or I shall exert that royal spirit which I had in my prosperity, in spite of the imbecility of my present weak condition. Chaucer has a similar image in his Canterbury Tales, v. 3180:-"Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken.' 5 i. e. we answer for that which others have merited by their transgressions. 6 Be not a prisoner in imagination, when in reality you are free.' 7 i. e. the lively or quick-witted comedians. 8 It has been already observed that the parts of females were played by boys on our ancient stage. Nash, in his Pierce Pennilesse, makes it a subject of exultation that our players are not as the players beyond sea, that have whores and common courtesans to play women's parts. To obviate the impropriety of men representing women, T. Goff, in his Tragedy of the Raging Turk, 1631, has no female character. 9 Absurd here means unmeet, unfitting, unreason. able. 10 Sirrah was not anciently an appellation either [Exit IRAS. A Noise within. Enter one of the Guard. Guard. Cleo. Let him come in. How11 poor an instrument May do a noble deed! he brings me liberty. Re-enter Guard, with a Clown, bringing a Basket. Clown. Truly I have him; but I would not be the party that should desire you to touch him, for his biting is immortal; those, that do die of it, do seldom or never recover. reproachful or injurious; being applied, with a sort of I am now (says Cleopatra) whole as the marble, 13 Worm is used by our old writers to signify a serpent. Cleo. Remember'st thou any that have died on't? | Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, Char. Cleo. Ay, ay; farewell. Clown. Look you, the worm is not to be trusted, but in the keeping of wise people; for, indeed, there is no goodness in the worm. Cleo. Take thou no care; it shall be heeded. Clown. Very good: give it nothing, I pray you, for it is not worth the feeding. Cleo. Will it eat me? Re-enter IRAs, with a Robe, Crown, &c. [Applying another Asp to her Arm. 1 Guard. Cæsar hath sent- Speak softly, wake her not. O, come; apace, despatch; I partly feel thee. 2 Guard. There's Dolabella sent from Cæsar:- 1 Guard. What work is here?--Charmian, is this Char. It is well done, and fitting for a princess Enter DOLABELLA. All dead. [Dies. Caesar, thy thoughts Cæs. Bravest at the last : Who was last with them? Cas. 1 Guard. Poison'd, then. O, Cæsar, This Charmian lived but now; she stood, and spake: I found her trimming up the diadem Char. Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain; that I may On her dead mistress; tremblingly she stood, say, The gods themselves do weep! Cleo. This proves me base: [To the Asp, which she applies to her Breast. Char. Cleo. O, eastern star! Peace, peace! 1 Warburton observes that Shakspeare's clowns are always jokers, and deal in sly satire but he would have all and half change places. I think with Steevens that the confusion was designed to heighten the humour of the clown's speech. 2 i. e. act according to his nature. 3 From hence probably Addison in Cato:'This longing after immortality.' 4 i. e. be nimble, be ready. See Act iii. Sc. 5. 5 Thus in King Henry V. :- He is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him.' 6 Iras must be supposed to have applied an asp to her ་ 8 Charmian may be supposed to close Cleopatra's eyes, the first melancholy office performed after death. 9 Charmian remembers the words uttered to her by her beloved mistress just before : when thou hast done this chare, I'll give thes leave To play till doomsday.' 10 i. e. swelled, puffed. 308 She hath pursu'd conclusions1 infinite [Exeunt. 1 To pursue conclusions is to try experiments. So in Hamlet : like the famous ape To try conclusions ' THIS play keeps curiosity always busy, and the passions always interested. The continual hurry of the action, the variety of incidents, and the quick succession of one personage to another, call the mind forward without intermission from the first act to the last. But the power of delighting is derived principally from the fre quent changes of the scene; for, except the feminine arts, some of which are too low, which distinguish Cleopatra, no character is very strongly discriminated. Upton, who did not easily miss what he desired to find, has discovered that the language of Antony is, with great skill and learning, made pompous and superb, according to his real practice. But I think his diction not distinguishable from that of others: The most tomid speech in the play is that which Caesar makes to Octavia, The events, of which the principal are described according to history, are produced without any art of conJOHNSON nection or care of disposition. CYMBELINE. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. The two princes, Guiderius and Arviragus, both THE general scheme of the plot of Cymbeline is by whom she is unjustly persecuted; her adventures formed on the ninth novel of the second day in the in disguise, her apparent death, and her recovery, Decamerone of Boccaccio. It appears from the pre- form altogether a picture equally tender and affecting. face of the old translation of the Decamerone, printed in folio in 1620, that many of the novels had before re-educated in the wilds, form a noble contrast to Miranda ceived an English dress, and had been printed sepa- and Perdita. In these two young men, to whom the rately. A deformed and interpolated imitation of the chase has given vigour and hardihood, but who are unnovel in question was printed at Antwerp, by John acquainted with their high destination, and have always Dusborowghe, as early as 1518, under the following been kept far from human society, we are enchanted by title: This matter treateth of a merchauntes wife that a naive heroism which leads them to anticipate and to afterwarde wente lyke a man and becam a greate lord, dream of deeds of valour, till an occasion is offered and was called Frederyke of Jennen afterwarde.' It which they are irresistibly impelled to embrace. When exhibits the material features of its original, though Imogen comes in disguise to their cave; when Guithe names of the characters are changed, their senti- derius and Arviragus form an impassioned friendship, ments debased, and their conduct rendered still more with all the innocence of childhood, for the tender boy, improbable than in the scenes of Cymbeline. A book (in whom they neither suspect a female nor their own was published in London in 1603, called Westward sister;) when on returning from the chase they find her for Smelts, or the Waterman's Fare of mad merry dead, sing her to the ground, and cover the grave with western Wenches, whose Tongues albeit like Bell-flowers-these scenes might give a new life for poetry clappers they never leave ringing, yet their Tales are to the most deadened imagination.' sweet, and will much content you: Written by Kitt of Kingstone. It was again printed in 1620. To the second tale in this work Shakspeare seems to have been indebted for the circumstances in his plot of Imogen's wandering about after Pisanio has left her in the forest; her being almost famished; and being taken at a subsequent period into the service of the Roman general as a page. But time may yet bring to light some other modification of the story, which will prove more exactly conformable to the plot of the play. Malone supposes Cymbeline to have been written in the year 1609. The king, from whom the play takes its title, began his reign, according to Holinshed, in the nineteenth year of the reign of Augustus Cæsar; and the play commences in or about the twenty-fourth year of Cymbeline's reign, which was the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus, and the sixteenth of the Christian era: notwithstanding which, Shakspeare has peopled Rome with modern Italians; Philario, Iachimo, &c. Cymbeline is said to have reigned thirty-five years, leaving at his death two sons, Guiderius and Arviragus. Tenantius (who is mentioned in the first scene) was the father of Cymbeline, and nephew of Cassibelan, being the younger son of his elder brother Lud, king of the southern part of Britain, he agreed to pay an annual tribute to Rome. After his death, Tenantius, Lud's younger son, was established on the throne, of which he and his elder brother Androgeus, who fled to Rome, had been unjustly deprived by their uncle. According to some authorities, Tenantius quietly paid the tribute stipulated by Cassibelan; according to others, he refused to pay it, and warred with the Romans. Shakspeare supposes the latter to be the truth. Holinshed, who furnished our poet with these facts, furnished him also with the name of Sicilius, who was admitted king of Britain, A. M. 3659. Schlegel pronounces Cymbeline to be one of Shakspeare's most wonderful compositions,' in which the poet has contrived to blend together into one harmonious whole, the social manners of the latest times with heroic deeds, and even with appearances of the gods. In the character of Imogen not a feature of female excellence is forgotten; her chaste tenderness, her softness, and her virgin pride, her boundless resignation, and her magnanimity towards her mistaken husband, 'The wise and virtuous Belarius, who after living long as a hermit, again becomes a hero, is a venerable figure; the dexterous dissimulation and quick presence of mind of the Italian Jachimo is quite suitable to the bold treachery he plays; Cymbeline, the father of Imogen, and even her husband Posthumus, during the first half of the piece, are somewhat sacrificed, but this could not be otherwise; the false and wicked queen is merely an instrument of the plot; she and her stupid son Cloten, whose rude arrogance is portrayed with much humour, are got rid of by merited punishment before the conclusion.' Steevens objects to the character of Cloten in a note on the fourth act of the play, observing that he is represented at once as brave and dastardly, civil and brutish, sagacious and foolish, without that subtilty of distinction, and those shades of gradation between sense and folly, virtue and vice, which constitute the excellence of such mixed characters as Polonius in Hamlet, and the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet. It should, how. ever, be observed, that Imogen has justly defined him that irregulous devil Cloten ;' and Miss Seward, in one of her Letters, assures us that singular as the character The unmeaning frown of the coun of Cloten may appear, it is the exact prototype of a being she once knew. tenance; the shuffling gait; the burst of voice; the bus. tling insignificance; the fever and ague fits of valour; the froward tetchiness; the unprincipled malice; and what is most curious, those occasional gleams of good sense, amidst the floating clouds of folly which generally darkened and confused tho man's brain; and which, in the character of Cloten, we are apt to impute -n I saw the portrait of Cloten was to a violation of unity in character, but in the some time Captain C not out of nature.' In the development of the plot of this play the poet has displayed such consummate skill, and such minute attention to the satisfaction of the most anxious and scrupulous spectator, as to afford a complete refutation of Johnson's assertion, that Shakspeare usually hurries over the conclusion of his pieces. There is little conclusive evidence to ascertain the date of the composition of this play; but Malone places it in the year 1609. Dr. Drake, after Chalmers, has ascribed it to the year 1605. CYMBELINE, King of Britain. PERSONS REPRESENTED. CLOTEN, Son to the Queen by a former Husband. Sons to Cymbeline, disguised under GUIDERIUS, the names of Polydore and CadARVIRAGUS, wal, supposed Sons to Belarius. PHILARIO, Friend to Posthumus, Italians. IACHIMO, Friend to Philario, A French Gentleman, Friend to Philario. You do not meet a man but frowns: our bloods But what's the matter? 1 Gent. His daughter, and the heir of his kingdom, whom He purpos'd to his wife's sole son, (a widow 2. Gent. None but the king? 1 Gent. He that hath lost her, too: so is the 2 Gent. And why so? And had, besides this gentleman in question, (Then old and fond of issue,) took such sorrow, 2 Gent. I honour him Even out of your report. But, 'pray you, tell me, Is she sole child to the king? 1 Gent. His only child. 1 Gent. He that hath miss'd the princess, is a He had two sons (if this be worth your hearing, thing Too bad for bad report: and he that hath her, 2 Gent. You speak him far.2 1 Gent. I do extend him, sir, within himself; Crush him together, rather than unfold His measure duly." 2 Gent. What's his name, and birth? 1 Gent. I cannot delve him to the root: His father Was call'd Sicilius, who did join his honour4 1 Our bloods [i.e. our dispositions or temperaments] are not more regulated by the heavens, by every skyey influence, than our courtiers are by the disposition of the king when he frowns, every man frowns. Blood is used in old phraseology for disposition or temperament. So in King Lear : Were it my fitness To let these hands obey my blood.' 2 i. e. you praise him extensively. 3 My eulogium, however extended it may seem, is short of his real excellence; it is rather abbreviated than expanded. Perhaps this passage will be best illustrated by the following lines in Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3: -no man is the lord of any thing, Till he communicate his parts to others: Nor doth he of himself know them for aught, Till he beheld them form'd in the applause Where they are extended.' [i. e. displayed at length.]| THUMUS, and IMOGEN. Queen. No, be assur'd, you shall not find me, daughter, After the slander of most step-mothers, 4 I do not (says Steevens) understand what can be meant by joining his honour against, &c. with, &c.' Perhaps Shakspeare wrote:- did join his banner.' In the last scene of the play Cymbeline proposes that 'a Roman and a British ensign should wave together.' 5 The father of Cymbeline. 6 This encomium (says Johnson) is highly artful. To be at once in any great degree loved and praised is truly rare.' 7 Feate is well-fashioned, proper, trim, handsome, well compact. Concinnus. Thus in Horman's Vulgaria, 1519:- He would see himself in a glasse, that all thinge were feet. Feature was also used for fashion or proportion. The verb to feat was probably formed by Shakspeare himself. sTo his mistress,' means as to his mistress. I will from hence to-day. Please your highness, You know the peril :- [Exit Queen. I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing Post. My queen! my mistress! [Exit. Were you but riding forth to air yourself, Such parting were too petty. Look here, love; Post. To your so infinite loss; so, in our trifles How! how! another? I say I do not fear my father, so far as I may say it without breach of duty.' 2 He gives me a valuable consideration in new kind. ness, (purchasing, as it were, the wrong I have done bim), in order to renew our amity, and make us friends again.' 3 Shakspeare poetically calls the cere-cloths, in which the dead are wrapped, the bonds of death. There was no distinction in ancient orthography between seare, to dry, to wither; and seare, to dress or cover with wax. Cere-cloth is most frequently spelled seare-cloth. In Hamlet we have : Why, thy canonized bones hearsed in death Have burst their cerements.' Imo. [Putting a Bracelet on her Arm. O, the gods! When shall we see again? Imo. O, bless'd, that I might not! I chose an eagle, And did avoid a puttock." Cym. Thou took'st a beggar; would'st have made my throne A seat for baseness. Imo. A lustre to it. Cym. No; I rather added O, thou vile one! Sir, Cym. I were 4 i. e. while I have sensation to retain it. There can be no doubt that it refers to the ring, and it is equally A passage in King Lear will illustrate Imogen's meanobvious that thee would have been more proper. Whe-ing:ther this error is to be laid to the poet's charge or to that of careless printing, it would not be easy to decide. Malone, however, has shown that there are many passages in these plays of equally loose construction. ši. e. renovate my youth, make me young again. where the greater malady is fix'd, The lesser is scarce felt.' 8'A puttock is a mean degenerate species of hawk, too worthless to deserve training. 9 'My worth is not half equal to his.' |