duced, (you not making it appear otherwise) for your ill opinion, and the assault you have made to her chastity, you shall answer me with your sword.

Iach. Your hand; a covenant: We will have these things set down by lawful counsel, and straight away for Britain; lest the bargain should catch cold, and starve: I will fetch my gold, and have our two wagers recorded. Post. Agreed. [Exeunt PosT. and IACH. French. Will this hold, think you?

Phi. Signior Iachimo will not from it. Pray, let us fol

low 'em.

SCENE VI.

[Exeunt.

Britain. A Room in Cymbeline's Palace.

Enter Queen, Ladies, and CORNELIUS.

Queen. Whiles yet the dew's on ground, gather those

flowers;

Make haste: Who has the note of them?

-1 Lady.

Queen. Despatch.

I, madam. [Exeunt Ladies.

Now, master doctor; have you brought those drugs? Cor. Pleaseth your highness, ay: here they are, ma[Presenting a small Box. But I beseech your grace, (without offence;

dam:

My conscience bids me ask ;) wherefore you have
Commanded of me these most poisonous compounds,
Which are the movers of a languishing death;
But, though slow, deadly?

Queen.
I do wonder, doctor, 6
Thou ask'st me such a question: Have I not been
Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learn'd me how
To make perfumes? distil? preserve? yea, so,
That our great king himself doth woo me oft
For my confections? Having thus far proceeded,
(Unless thou think'st me devilish) is 't not meet
That I did amplify my judgment in

Other conclusions? I will try the forces

6 I do wonder, doctor,] I have supplied the verb do for the sake of measure, and in compliance with our author's practice when he designs any of his characters to speak emphatically: Thus, in Much Ado about Nothing: "I do much wonder, that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool" &c. Steevens.

Of these thy compounds on such creatures as
We count not worth the hanging, (but none human)
To try the vigour of them, and apply

Allayments to their act; and by them gather

Their several virtues, and effects.

Cor.

Your highness

Shall from this practice but make hard your heart:
Besides, the seeing these effects will be.

Both noisome and infectious.

[Aside.

Here comes a flattering rascal; upon him
Will I first work: he's for his master,
And enemy to my son.-How now, Pisanio?--
Doctor, your service for this time is ended;
Take your own way.

Cor.

I do suspect you, madam;

[Aside.

But you shall do no harm.
Queen.
Hark thee, a word. [To PIs.
Cor. [aside] I do not like her. She doth think, she has

▾ Other conclusions?] Other experiments. I commend, says Walton, an angler that trieth conclusions, and improves his art.

So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"She hath pursued conclusions infinite

"Of easy ways to die." Malone.

8 Your highness

Johnson

Shall from this practice but make hard your heart:] There is in this passage nothing that much requires a note, yet I cannot forbear to push it forward into observation. The thought would probably have been more amplified, had our author lived to be shocked with such experiments as have been published in later times, by a race of men who have practised tortures without pity, and related them without shame, and are yet suffered to erect their heads among human beings.

"Cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor." Johnson.

9 I do not like her.] This soliloquy is very inartificial. The speaker is under no strong pressure of thought; he is neither resolving, repenting, suspecting, nor deliberating, and yet makes a long speech to tell himself what himself knows. Johnson.

The soliloquy, however inartificial in respect of the speaker, is yet necessary to prevent that uneasiness which would naturally arise in the mind of an audience on recollection that the Queen had mischievous ingredients in her possession, unless they were undeceived as to the quality of them; and it is no less useful to prepare us for the return of Imogen to life. Steevens.

Strang e lingering poisons: I do know her spirit,
And will not trust one of her malice with

A drug of such damn'd nature: Those, she has,
Will stupify and dull the sense a while:

Which first, perchance, she 'll prove on cats, and dogs;
Then afterward up higher: but there is
No danger in what show of death it makes,
More than the locking up the spirits a time,
To be more fresh, reviving. She is fool'd
With a most false effect; and I the truer,
So to be false with her.'

Queen.

Until I send for thee.

Cor.

No further service, doctor,

I humbly take my leave. [Exit. Queen. Weeps she still, say'st thou? Dost thou think,

in time

She will not quench;, and let instructions enter
Where folly now possesses? Do thou work:
When thou shalt bring me word, she loves my son,
I'll tell thee, on the instant, thou art then
As great as is thy master: greater; for
His fortunes all lie speechless, and his name
Is at last gasp: Return he cannot, nor
Continue where he is: to shift his being,3
Is to exchange one misery with another;
And every day, that comes, comes to decay
A day's work in him: What shalt thou expect,
To be depender on a thing that leans?4
Who cannot be new built; nor has no friends,

[The Queen drops a Box: Pis. takes it up.
So much as but to prop him?-Thou tak'st up
Thou know'st not what; but take it for thy labour:
It is a thing I made, which hath the king

Five times redeem'd from death: I do not know

1 So to be false with her.] The two last words may be fairly considered as an interpolation, for they hurt the metre, without enforcement of the sense.

For thee, in the next line but one, might on the same account be omitted. Steevens.

2

quench;] i. e. grow cool. Steevens.

3 -to shift his being,] To change his abode. Johnson.

4

that leans ?] That inclines towards its fall. Johnson.

What is more cordial:-Nay, I pr'ythee, take it;
It is an earnest of a further good

That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how
The case stands with her; do 't, as from thyself.
Think what a chance thou changest on;5 but think
Thou hast thy mistress still; to boot, my son,
Who shall take notice of thee: I'll move the king
To any shape of thy preferment, such

As thou 'It desire; and then myself, I chiefly,
That set thee on to this desert, am bound
To load thy merit richly. Call my women:

Think on my words. [Exit Pis.]-A sly and constant knave;

Not to be shak'd: the agent for his master;
And the remembrancer of her, to hold

The hand fast to her lord. I have given him that,
Which, if he take, shall quite unpeople her
Of liegers for her sweet; and which she, after,
Except she bend her humour, shall be assur'd

Re-enter PISANIO, and Ladies.
To taste of too. So, so;-well done, well done:
The violets, cowslips, and the primroses,

Bear to my closet:-Fare thee well, Pisanio;
Think on my words.

Pis.

[Exeunt Queen and Ladies.

And shall do:

5 Think what a chance thou changest on;] Such is the reading of the old copy, which by succeeding editors has been altered

into

And

Think what a chance thou chancest on;

Think what a change thou chancest on ;but unnecessarily. The meaning is: "Think with what a fair prospect of mending your fortunes you now change your present service." Steevens.

A line in our author's Rape of Lucrece adds some support to the reading-thou chancest on, which is much in Shakspeare's

manner:

"Let there bechance him pitiful mis-chances." Malone. 6 Of liegers for her sweet;] A lieger ambassador is one that resides in a foreign court to promote his master's interest. Johnson. So, in Measure for Measure:

"Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,

"Intends you for his swift embassador,

"Where you shall be an everlasting lieger." Steevens.

But when to my good lord I prove untrue,

I'll choke myself: there 's all I'll do for you. [Exit.

SCENE VII.

Another Room in the same.

Enter IMOGEN.

Imo. A father cruel, and a step-dame false;
A foolish suitor to a wedded lady,

That hath her husband banish'd;-O, that husband!
My supreme crown of grief!" and those repeated
Vexations of it! Had I been thief-stolen,

As my two brothers, happy! but most miserable
Is the desire that's glorious: Blessed be those,
How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills,
Which seasons comfort.9-Who may this be? Fy!

7 O, that husband!

My supreme crown of grief!] Imogen means to say, that her separation from her husband is the completion of her distress. So, in King Lear:

"This would have seem'd a period

"To such as love not sorrow; but another,

"To amplify too much, would make much more,
"And top extremity.”

Again, in Coriolanus:

the spire and top of praise."

Again, more appositely, in Troilus and Cressida:

"Make Cressid's name the very crown of falsehood." Again, in The Winter's Tale:

8

"The crown and comfort of my life, your favour,

"I do give lost."

·but most miserable

Malone.

Is the desire that 's glorious:] Her husband, she says, provés her supreme grief. She had been happy had she been stolen as her brothers were, but now she is miserable, as all those are who have a sense of worth and honour superior to the vulgar, which occasions them infinite vexations from the envious and worthless part of mankind. Had she not so refined a taste as to be content only with the superior merit of Posthumus, but could have taken up with Cloten, she might have escaped these persecutions. This elegance of taste, which always discovers an excellence and chooses it, she calls with great sublimity of expression, The desire that's glorious; which the Oxford editor not understanding, arters to- The degree that 's glorious. Warburton.

How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills,