To unbar these locks. My conscience! thou art fetter'd

More than my shauks, and wrists: You good gods,

give me

The penitent instrument, to pick that bolt,
Then, free for ever! Is't enough, I am sorry?
So children temporal fathers do appease;
Gods are more full of mercy. Must I repent?
I cannot do it better than in gyves,
Desir'd, more than constrain'd: to satisfy,
If of my freedom 'tis the main part, take
No stricter render of me, than my all. 1

I know, you are more clement than vile men,
Who of their broken debtors take a third,
A sixth, a tenth, letting them thrive again
On their abatement; that's not my desire:
For Imogen's dear life, take mine; and though
'Tis not so dear, yet 'tis a life; you coin'd it:
'Tween man and man, they weigh not every stamp;
Though light, take pieces for the figure's sake:
You rather mine, being yours: and so, great powers,
If you will take this audit, take this life,
And cancel these cold bonds.2 O, Imogen!
I'll speak to thee in silence.

From her his dearest one,
Sweet Imogen?

Sici. Why did you suffer Jachimo,
Slight thing of Italy,

To taint his nobler heart and brain
With needless jealousy:

And to become the geck and scorn
O' the other's villany?

2 Bro. For this, from stiller seats we came,
Our parents, and us twain,

That, striking in our country's cause,

Fell bravely, and were slain;

Our fealty, and Tenantius' right,

With honour to maintain.

1 Bro. Like hardiment Posthumus hath
To Cymbeline perform'd:
Then Jupiter, thou king of gods,

Why has thou thus adjourn'd
The graces for his merits due;

Being all to dolours turn'd?

Sici. Thy crystal window ope; look out;
No longer exercise,

Upon a valiant race, thy harsh

[He sleeps. Solemn Music. Enter, as an Apparition, SICILIUS LEONATUS, Father to POSTHUMUS, an old Man, attired like a Warrior; leading in his hand an ancient Matron, his Wife, and Mother to POSTHU-To MUS, with Music before them. Then, after other Music, follow the Two young Leonati, Brothers to POSTHUMUS, with wounds, as they died in the Wars. They circle POSTHUMUS round, as he lies sleeping. Sici. No more, thou thunder master, show, Thy spite on mortal flies:

With Mars fall out, with Juno chide,

That thy adulteries

Rates and revenges.

Hath my poor boy done aught but well,
Whose face I never saw?

I died, whilst in the womb he stay'd
Attending Nature's law.

Whose father then, (as men report,

Thou orphans' father art,)

Thou should'st have been, and shielded him
From this earth-vexing smart.
Moth. Lucina lent not me her aid,
But took me in my throes;

That from me was Posthumus rip'd,
Came crying 'mongst his foes,
A thing of pity!

Siei. Great nature, like his ancestry
Moulded the stuff so fair,

That he deserv'd the praise o' the world,

As great Sicilius' heir.

1 Bro. When once he was mature for man,

In Britain where was he

That could stand up his parallel;

Or fruitful object be

In eye of Imogen, that best

Could deem his dignity?

And potent injuries:

Moth. Since, Jupiter, our son is good,
Take off his miseries.

Sici. Peep through thy marble mansion; help!
the shining synod of the rest,
Or we poor ghosts will cry
Against thy deity.

2 Bro. Help, Jupiter; or we appeal,
And from thy justice fly.

JUPITER descends in Thunder and Lightning, sitting
upon an Eagle: he throws a Thunder-bolt. The
Ghosts fall on their knees.

Jup. No more, you petty spirits of region low,
Offend our hearing; hush! How dare you, ghosts,
Accuse the thunderer, whose bolt, you know,

Sky-planted, batters all rebelling coasts?
Poor shadows of Elysium, hence; and rest
Upon your never withering banks of Blowers:
Be not with mortal accidents opprest;

No care of yours it is, you know, 'tis ours.
Whom best I love, I cross; to make my gift,

The more delay'd, delighted. Be content;
Your low-laid son our god-head will uplift:
His comforts thrive, his trials well are spent.
Our Jovial star reign'd at his birth, and in
Our temple was he married.-Rise, and fade!-
He shall be lord of lady Imogen,

And happier much by his affliction made.
This tablet lay upon his breast; wherein
Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine;
And so, away: no further with your din

Express impatience, lest you stir up mine.-
Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline. [Ascendis.
Sici. He came in thunder; his celestial breath
Was sulphurous to smell: the holy eagle
Stoop'd, as to foot us : his ascension is
More sweet than our bless'd fields; his roval bird

Moth. With marriage wherefore was he mock'd, Prunes the immortal wing, and cloys his beak,

To be exil'd and thrown

From Leonati' seat, and cast

As when his god is pleas'd.

All.

Thanks, Jupiter! Sici. The marble pavement closes, he is enter'd

1 This passage is very ob-cure, and I must say with Malone, that I think it is so rendered either by the omis-skill, could never have designed the vision to be twice sion of a line, or some other corruption of the text. described by Posthumus, had this contemptible nonsense I have no faith in Malone's explanation: that whichbeen previously delivered on the stage. It appears that Steevens offers is not much more satisfactory; bit I have the players indulged themselves sometimes in unwar nothing better to offer. Posthumus questions whether rantable liberties of the same kind. Nashe, in his Lencontrition be sufficient atonement for guilt. Then to sa-ten Stuffe, 159), assures us, that in a play of his, called tisfy the offended gods, he desires them to take no more the Isle of Dogs four arts, without his consent, or the than his present all, that is, his life, if it is the main ent guess of his drift or scope, were supplied by the part, the chief point, or principal condition of his players. See the Prolegomena to Malone's Shakspeare, freedom, i. e. of his freedom from future punishment.' vol. ii.; article Shakspeare, Ford, and Jonson. 2 So in Macbeth :4 The fool.

Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond

That keeps me pale.

There is an equivoque between the legal instrument and bonds of steel; a little out of its place in a passage of pathetic exclamation.

3 This Scene is supposed not to be Shakspeare's, but foisted in by the players for mere show. The great poet, who has conducted his fifth Act with such matchless

5 Delighted for delightful, or causing delight. 6 i. e. to grasp us in his pounces.

And ill they foot and clutch their prey.'

Herbert.

beast are the same with claws in modern speech. Te 7 In ancient language, the cleys or clees of a bird or claw their beaks is an accustomed action with hawks and eagles.

His radiant roof:-Away! and, to be blest,
Let us with care perform his great behest.

directed by some that take upon them to know; or take upon yourself that, which I am sure you do [Ghosts vanish. not know; or jump3 the after-inquiry on your own Post. [Waking.] Sleep, thou hast been a grand-peril: and how you shall speed in your journey's sire, and begot end, I think you'll never return to tell one.

A father to me: and thou hast created
A mother and two brothers: But (0, scorn!)
Gone! they went hence so soon as they were born.
And so I am awake.-Poor wretches that depend
On greatness' favour, dream as I have done;
Wake, and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve:
Many dream not to find, neither deserve,
And yet are steep'd in favours; so am I,

That have this golden chance, and know not why.
What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O, rare

one!

Be not, as is our fangled' world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers: let thy effects
So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers,
As a good promise.

[Reads.] When as a lion's whelp shall, to himself
unknown, without seeking find, and be embraced by
a piece of tender air; and when from a stately cedar
shall be lopped branches, which, being dead many
years, shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock,
and freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his
miseries, Britain be fortunate, and flourish in peace
and plenty.

'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. Be what it is,
The action of my life is like it, which
I'll keep, if but for sympathy.

Re-enter Gaolers.

Gaol. Come, sir, are you ready for death?
Post. Over-roasted rather: ready long ago.
Gaol. Hanging is the word, sir; if you be ready
for that, you are well cooked.

Post. So, if I prove a good repast to the spectators, the dish pays the shot.

Gaol. A heavy reckoning for you, sir: But the comfort is, you shall be called to no more payments, fear no more tavern bills; which are often the sadness of parting, as the procuring of mirth: you come in faint for the want of meat, depart reeling with too much drink; sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you are paid too much; purse and brain both empty: the brain the heavier for being too light, the purse too light, being drawn of heavi ness: O! of this contradiction you shall now be quit.-0, the charity of a penny cord! it sums up thousands in a trice: you have no true debitor and creditor but it; of what's past, is, and to come, the discharge:-Your neck, sir, is pen, book, and counters; so the acquittance follows.

Post. I am merrier to die, than thou art to live. Gaol. Indeed, sir, he that sleeps feels not the tooth-ache: But a man that were to sleep your sleep, and a hangman to help him to bed, I think he would change places with his officer; for, look you, sir, you know not which way you shall go.

Post. Yes, indeed, do I, fellow.

Gaol. Your death has eyes in's head, then; I have not seen him so pictured: you must either be

1 i. e. trifling. Hence new-fangled, still in use for

new toys or trifles.

2 Paid, here means subdued or overcome by the liquor.

3 i. e. hazard.

Post. I tell thee, fellow, there are none want eyes to direct them the way I am going, but such as wink, and will not use them.

Gaol. What an infinite mock is this, that a man should have the best use of eyes, to see the way of blindness! I am sure, hanging's the way of winking. Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Knock off his manacles; bring your prisoner to the king.

Post. Thou bringest good news;-I am called to be made free.

Gaol. I'll be hanged then.

Post. Thou shalt be then freer than a gaoler; no bolts for the dead.

[Exeunt POSTHUMUS and Messenger. Gaol. Unless a man would marry a gallows, and beget young gibbets, I never saw one so prone.* Yet, on my conscience, there are verier knaves desire to live, for all he be a Roman: and there be some of them too, that die against their wills; so should I, if I were one. I would we were all of one mind, and one mind good; O, there were desolation of gaolers and gallowses! I speak against my present profit; but my wish hath a preferment in't.

[Exeunt.

Preservers of my throne. Wo is my heart,
Whose rags sham'd gilded arms, whose naked breast
That the poor soldier, that so richly fought,
He shall be happy that can find him, if
Stepp'd before targe of proof, cannot be found:
Our grace can make him so.
Bel.

I never saw

Such noble fury in so poor a thing;
Such precious deeds in one that promis'd nought
But beggary and poor looks.

Cym.
No tidings of him?
Pis. He hath been search'd among the dead and
But no trace of him.
living,

The heir of his reward; which I will add
Cym.
To my grief, I am
To you, the liver, heart, and brain of Britain,

By whom, I grant, she lives; "Tis now the time
[To BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and Arv.
To ask of whence you are:-report it.

Bel

Sir,

In Cambria are we born, and gentlemen:
Further to boast, were neither true nor modest,
Unless I add, we are honest.

Cym.

Bow your knees:
Arise, my knights o' the battle: I create you
Companions to our person, and will fit you
With dignities becoming your estates.

Enter CORNELIUS and Ladies.
There's business in these faces.-Why so sadly
Greet you our victory? you look like Romans,
And not o' the court of Britain.
Cor.

Hail, great king!

5 In the scene before us, all the surviving characters are assembled; and at the expense of whatever incongruity the former events may have been produced, perhaps little can be discovered on this occasion to offend the most scrupulous advocate for regularity: and as

Thus also in Lucan's Pharsalia, translated by Sir Ar- little is found wanting to satisfy the spectator by a catas thur Gorges, b. vi. —

Thessalian fierie steeds,

For use of war so prone and fit.'

And in Wilfride Holme's poem, entitled The Fall and
Evil Success of Rebellion, &c. 1537:-

With bombard and basilisk, with men prone and
vigorous.'

trophe which is intricate without confusion, and not more rich in ornament than nature.'-Steevens.

6 Thus in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 164, edit. 1615:Philip of France made Arthur Plantagenet Knight of the Fielde.'

7 So in Macbeth :

'The business of this man looks out of him.'

Cym.
Whom worse than a physician
Would this report become? But I consider,
By medicine life may be prolong'd, yet death
Will seize the doctor too.'-How ended she?

Cor. With horror, madly dying, like her life;
Which, being cruel to the world, concluded
Most cruel to herself. What she confess'd,
I will report, so please you: These her women
Can trip me, if I err: who, with wet cheeks,
Were present when she finish'd.
Pr'ythee, say.

This observation has already occurred in the Fune- ances.' ral Song, p. 332:

The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.'

I got this ring; 'twas Leonatus' jewel
Whom thou didst banish; and (which more may I having ta'en the forfeit. Whereupon,

I left out one thing which the queen confess'd,
Which must approve thee honest: If Pisanio
Have, said she, given his mistress that confection
Which I gave him for a cordial, she is serv'd
As I would serve a rat.
Cym.
What's this, Cornelius?
Cor. The queen, sir, very oft importun'd me
To temper poisons for her; still pretending
The satisfaction of her knowledge, only
In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs
Of no esteem: I, dreading that her purpose
Was of more danger, did compound for her
A certain stuff, which, being ta'en, would cease
The present power of life: but, in short time,
| All offices of nature should again

Do their due functions.-Have you ta'en of it ?
Imo. Most like I did, for I was dead.
Bel.

10 Imogen comes up to Posthumus as soon as she 6 Justicer was anciently used instead of justice.-knows that the error is cleared up; and, hanging fondly

on him, says, not as upbraiding him, but with kindness and good humour, How could you treat your wife thus?" in that endearing tone which most readers, who are fathers and husbands, will understand, who will add poor to wife. She then adds, Now you know who I am, suppose we were on the edge of a precipice, and throw me from you; meaning, in the same endearing irony, to say, I am sure it is as impossible for you to be intentionally unkind to me, as it is for you to kill me. Perhaps some very wise persons may smile at part of this note; but however much black-letter books may be necessary to elucidate some parts of Shakspeare, there are others which require some acquaintance with those familiar pages of the book of Nature:

Which learning may not understand,
And wisdom may disdain to hear.'

1 The consequence is taken for the whole action; by tasting is by forcing us to make thee to taste.

2 As there is no reason to imagine that Belarius had assumed the appearance of being older than he really