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ARV.

If you'll go fetch him,

We'll say our song the whilst.-Brother, begin.

[Exit BELARIUS.

GUI. Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to the

east;

My father hath a reason for't.

ARV.

'Tis true.

GUI. Come on then, and remove him.

ARV.

So,-Begin.

SONG.

GUI. Fear no more the heat o'the sun,1
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,

Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

ARV. Fear no more the frown o'the great,
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke;

Care no more to clothe, and eat;

To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physick, must
All follow this, and come to dust.?

› Fear no more &c.] This is the topick of consolation that nature dictates to all men on these occasions. The same fare. well we have over the dead body in Lucian. Τέκνον άθλιον *εκετι ιψδήσεις, εκετι πεινήσεις, &c. WARBURTON.

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.

GUI. Fear no more the lightning-flash,
ARV. Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;3
GUI. Fear not slander, censure rash ;*
ARV. Thou hast finish'd joy and moan:
BOTH. All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee,5 and come to dust.

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GUI. No exorciser harm thee!"
ARV. Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
GUI. Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
ARV. Nothing ill come near thee!
BOTH. Quiet consummation have;"
And renowned be thy grave!®

3 the all-dreaded thunder-stone;] So, in Chapman's translation of the fifteenth Iliad:

4

66

though I sinke beneath

"The fate of being shot to hell by Jove's fell thunderstone." STEEVENS.

Fear not slander, &c.] Perhaps :

Fear not slander's censure rash. JOHNSON.

5 Consign to thee,] Perhaps :

Consign to this,

And in the former stanza, for-All follow this, we might read -All follow thee. JOHNSON.

Consign to thee is right. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

66

seal

"A dateless bargain to engrossing death."

To consign to thee, is to seal the same contract with thee, i. e. add their names to thine upon the register of death. STEEVENS.

No exorciser harm thee!] I have already remarked that Shakspeare invariably uses the word exorciser to express a person who can raise spirits, not one who lays them. M. MASON. See Vol. VIII. p. 407, n. 3. MAlone.

7 Quiet consummation have ;] Consummation is used in the same sense in King Edward III. 1596:

66

My soul will yield this castle of my flesh,
"This mangled tribute, with all willingness,
"To darkness, consummation, dust and worms."

Re-enter BELARIUS, with the Body of CLOTEN.

GUI. We have done our obsequies: Come lay him down.

BEL. Here's a few flowers; but about midnight, more:

The herbs, that have on them cold dew o'the night, Are strewings fitt'st for graves. Upon their

faces:

You were as flowers, now wither'd: even so These herb❜lets shall, which we upon you strow.― Come on, away: apart upon our knees.

The ground, that gave them first, has them again: Their pleasures here are past, so is their pain. [Exeunt BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and AR

VIRAGUS.

IMO. [Awaking.] Yes, sir, to Milford-Haven; Which is the way?—

I thank you.-By yon bush?-Pray, how far thi ther?

Milton, in his Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, is indebted to the passage before us:

"Gentle lady, may thy grave

"Peace and quiet ever have!" STEEVENS.

So Hamlet says:

66

'tis a consummation

66 Devoutly to be wish'd." M. MASON.

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. I shall give it a place at the end, in honour of his memory. JOHNSON.

9 Upon their faces:] Shakspeare did not recollect when he wrote these words, that there was but one face on which the flowers could be strewed. This passage might have taught Dr. Warburton not to have disturbed the text in a former scene. See p. 556, n. 2. MALONE.

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