Imo. Past hope, and in despair; that way, past grace. Cym. That might'st have had the sole son of my queen! Imo. O bless'd, that I might not! I chose an eagle, And did avoid a puttock.4

Cym. Thou took'st a beggar; would'st have made my throne

Sir,

O thou vile one!

It is your fault that I have lov'd Posthumus:
You bred him as my play-fellow; and he is
A man, worth any woman; overbuys me
Almost the sum he pays.5

Cym.

What!-art thou mad?

Imo. Almost, sir: Heaven restore me!-'Would I

were

A neat-herd's daughter! and my Leonatus

Our neighbour shepherd's son!

Cym.

Re-enter Queen.

Thou foolish thing!

They were again together: you have done [To the Queen. Not after our command. Away with her,

And pen her up.

Queen.

'Beseech your patience:-Peace, Dear lady daughter, peace;-Sweet sovereign,

Leave us to ourselves; and make yourself some comfort Out of your best advice."

Cym.

Nay, let her languish

4 -a puttock.] A kite. Johnson.

A puttock is a mean degenerate species of hawk, too worthless to deserve training. Steevens.

Almost the sum he pays.] So small is my value, and so great is his, that in the purchase he has made (for which he paid him. self), for much the greater part, and nearly the whole, of what he has given, he has nothing in return. The most minute portion of his worth would be too high a price for the wife he has acquired, Malone.

6

your best advice.] i. e. consideration, reflection. So, in Measure for Measure:

"But did repent me after more advice." Steevens.

A drop of blood a day; and, being aged,

Die of this folly!

Queen.

Enter PISANIO.

Fy!-you must give way:

[Exit.

Here is your servant.-How now, sir? What news?
Pis. My lord your son drew on my master.
Queen.

No harm, I trust, is done?

Pis.

Ha!

There might have been,

But that my master rather play'd than fought,
And had no help of anger: they were parted
By gentlemen at hand.

Queen.

I am very glad on 't.

Imo. Your son's my father's friend; he takes his part.— To draw upon an exile!— brave sir!-

I would they were in Africk both together;
Myself by with a needle, that I might prick

The goer back.--Why came you from your master?
Pis. On his command: He would not suffer me
To bring him to the haven: left these notes
Of what commands I should be subject to,
When it pleas'd you to employ me.

Queen.
This hath been
Your faithful servant: I dare lay mine honour,
He will remain so.

Pis.

I humbly thank your highness.

Queen. Pray, walk a while.
Imo.

About some half hour hence,

I pray you, speak with me: you shall, at least,

Go see my

lord aboard: for this time, leave me. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

A publick Place.

Enter CLOTEN, and Two Lords.

1 Lord. Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt; the violence of action hath made you reek as a sacrifice:

7- let her languish

A drop of blood a day;] We meet with a congenial form of malediction in Othello:

Where air comes out, air comes in: there's none abroad so wholesome as that you vent.

Clo. If my shirt were bloody, then to shift it-Have I hurt him?

2 Lord. No, faith; not so much as his patience. [Aside. 1 Lord. Hurt him? his body's a passable carcass, if he be not hurt: it is a thoroughfare for steel, if it be not hurt.

2 Lord. His steel was in debt; it went o' the backside the town.

Clo. The villain would not stand me.

[Aside.

2 Lord. No; but he fled forward still, toward your face.8

[Aside.

1 Lord. Stand you! You have land enough of your own: but he added to your having; gave you some ground.

2 Lord. As many inches as you have oceans: Puppies! [Aside.

Clo. I would, they had not come between us. 2 Lord. So would I, till you had measured how long a fool you were upon the ground.

[Aside. Clo. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me!

2 Lord. If it be a sin to make a true election, she is damned.

[Aside.

1 Lord. Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and her brain go not together: She's a good sign, but I have seen small reflection of her wit.1

8 he fled forward still, toward your face.] So, in Troilus and

Cressida:

9

thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly

"With his face backward." Steevens.

her beauty and her brain go not together:] I believe the lord means to speak a sentence, "Sir, as I told you always, beauty and brain go not together." Johnson.

That is, are not equal, "ne vont pás de pair." A similar expression occurs in The Laws of Candy, where Gonzalo, speaking of Erota, says:

"Her tongue the same gait with her wit?" M. Mason.

1 She's a good sign, but I have seen small reflection of her wit.] She has a fair outside, a specious appearance, but no wit. O quanta species, cerebrum non habet! Phædrus. Edwards.

I believe the poet meant nothing by sign, but fair outward show.

Johnson.

2 Lord. She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection should hurt her.

[Aside. Clo. Come, I'll to my chamber: 'Would there had been some hurt done!

2 Lord. I wish not so; unless it had been the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt.

Clo. You'll go with us?

1 Lord. I'll attend your lordship. Clo. Nay, come, let 's go together. 2 Lord. Well, my lord.

SCENE IV.

A Room in Cymbeline's Palace.

Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO.

[Aside.

[Exeunt.

Imo. I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' the haven,

And question'dst every sail: if he should write,

And I not have it, 'twere a paper lost

As offer'd mercy is. What was the last

That he spake to thee?

Pis.

Imo. Then wav'd his handkerchief?

Pis.

'Twas, His queen, his queen!

And kiss'd it, madam.

Imo. Senseless linen! happier therein than I!And that was all?

Pis.

No, madam; for so long

The same allusion is common to other writers. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn:

"A tempting sign, and curiously set forth,
"To draw in riotous guests."

Again, in The Elder Brother, by the same authors:

"Stand still, thou sign of man

To understand the whole force of Shakspeare's idea, it should be remembered, that ancienth almost every sign had a motto, or some attempt at a witticism, underneath it. Steevens.

2

'twere a paper lost,

As offer'd mercy is I believe the poet's meaning is, that the loss of that paper would prove as fatal to her, as the loss of a pardon to a condemned criminal.

A thought resembling this, occurs in All's Well that Ends Well:

"Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried." Steevens.

As he could make me with this eye or ear3
Distinguish him from others, he did keep
The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief,
Still waving, as the fits and stirs of his mind
Could best express how slow his soul sail'd on,
How swift his ship.

Imo. I would have broke mine eye-strings; crack'd them, but

To look upon him; till the diminution

Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle:5
Nay, follow'd him, till he had melted from

The smallness of a gnat to air; and then

Have turn'd mine eye, and wept.-But, good Pisanio, When shall we hear from him?

Pis.

With his next vantage.

Be assur'd madam,

3 with this eye or ear-] [Old copv-his eye, &c.] But how could Posthumus make himself distinguished by his ear to Pisanio? By his tongue he might to the other's ear, and this was certainly Shakspeare's intention. We must therefore read:

As he could make me with this eye, or ear,
Distinguish him from others,-

--

The expression is derins, as the Greeks term it: the party speaking points to that part spoken of. Warburton. Sir T. Hanmer alters it thus:

-for so long

As he could mark me with his eye, or I
Distinguish.

The reason of Sir T Hanmer's reading was, that Pisanio describes no address made to the ear

Johnson.

4 As little as a crow, or less,] This comparison may be illustrated by the following in King Lear:

the crows that wing the midway air,

"Show scarce so gross as beetles." Steevens.

till the diminution

Of space had pointed him as sharp as my needle:] The diminu tion of space, is the diminution of which space is the cause. Trees are killed by a blast of lightning, that is, by blasting, not blasted lightning. Johnson.

6 next vantage.] Next opportunity. Johnson.

So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor:

"And when the doctor spies his vantage ripe," &c. Steevens.