Sidebilder
PDF
ePub
[graphic]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Osh: You are keen, my lord, you are keen
Man woland date gute a growning to take
edge.'

by Hanmer.
10 Blind, which is not in the old copy, was supplied
11 To have thy bow unbent, alluding to a hunter. So

[graphic][subsumed]
[blocks in formation]

Pis. Well, then, here's the point:
You must forget to be a woman; change
Command into obedience; fear and niceness,
(The handmaids of all women, or, more truly,
Woman its pretty self,) into a waggish courage;
Ready in gibes, quick-answer'd, saucy, and
As quarrellous as the weasel: nay, you must
Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek,
Exposing it, (but, O, the harder heart!
Alack no remedy!) to the greedy touch
Of common-kissing Titan! and forget
Your laboursome and dainty trims, wherein
You made great Juno angry.

Imo.

Nay, be brief:

I see into thy end, and am almost

A man already.

Pis.

First, make yourself but like one,

Fore-thinking this, I have already fit

('Tis in my cloak-bag) doublet, hat, hose, all

No, on my life That answer to them: Would you, in their serving,

I'll give 'but notice you are dead, and send him
Some bloody sign of it; for 'tis commanded
I should do so: You shall be miss'd at court,

And that will well confirm it.

[blocks in formation]

Pis.

I am most glad You think of other place. The embassador Lucius the Roman, comes to Milford Haven To-morrow: Now, if you could wear a mind Dark as your fortune is; and but disguise That, which, to appear itself, must not yet be, But by self-danger; you should tread a course Pretty, and full of view: yea, haply, near The residence of Posthumus: so nigh, at least, That though his actions were not visible, yet Report should render him hourly to your ear, As truly as he moves.

Imo.

O, for such means! Though peril to my modesty, not death on't, I would adventure.

And with what imitation you can borrow

From youth of such a season, 'fore noble Lucius
Present yourself, desire his service, tell him
Wherein you are happy," (which you'll make him

know,

If that his head have ear in music,) doubtless,
With joy he will embrace you; for he's honourable,
And, doubting that, most holy. Your means abroad
You have me, rich; and I will never fail
Beginning, nor supplyment.
Imo.

• Thou art all the comfort

The gods will diet me with. Pr'ythee, away:
There's more to be consider'd; but we'll event
All that good time will give us: This attempt
I am soldier to,11 and will abide it with
prince's courage. Away, I pr'ythee.

Pis. Well, madam, we must take a short farewell.
Lest, being miss'd, I be suspected of

Your carriage from the court. My noble mistress,
Here is a box; I had it from the queen
What's in't is precious; it you are sick at sea,
Or stomach-qualm'd at land, a dram of this
Will drive away distemper. To some suade,
And fit you to your manhood:-May the gods
Direct you to the best!

Ima.

Amen: I thank thee.

[blocks in formation]

in one of Shakspeare's poems in The Passionate Pil- Phædrus notices this their feline office in the first and grim, 1599:

When as thine eye hath chose the dame

And stall'd the deer that thou shouldst strike.

1 This line requires some word of two syllables to complete the measure. Steevens proposed to read ;With that harsh, noble, simple, nothing, Cloten; That Cloten,' &c.

houses instead of cats, for the purpose of killing vermin.

fourth fables of his fourth book. The poet, no doubt, speaks from observation; while a youth he would have frequent opportunities to ascertain their disposition. Perhaps this note requires the apology which Steevens has affixed to it: Rrivola hæc fortassis cuipiam et nimis levia esse videantur sed curiositas nihil recusat.'Vopiscus in Vita Aureliani, c. x.

2 The poet may have had in his mind a passage in 6 Thus in Othello :

Lyly's Euphues, which he has imitated in King Richard

To wear a dark mind is to carry a mind impene trab'e to the search of others. Darkness, applied to the mind, is secrecy; applied to the fortune, is obscurity. The next lines are obscure. 'You must (says Pisanio) disguise chat greatness which, to appear hereafter in its proper form, cannot yet appear without great danger to itself.

• 4 Full of view appears to mean of ample prospect, affording a complete view of circumstances which it is your interest to know. Thus in Pericles, 'Full of face' appears to signity amply beautiful: and Duncan assures Banque that he will labour to make him full of growing, i. e. of 'ample growth.'

5. So in King Henry IV. Part I

A weasel hath pot such a deal of spleen
As you are tossed with.

This character of the weasel is not mentioned by natu
Talists Weast's were formerly, it appears, kept in

'The bawdy wind that kisses all it meets." So in Sidney's Arcadia, lib. iii. And beautiful might have been if they had not suffered greedy Phœbus over often and hard to kisse them."

7 ie. wherein you are accomplished.

S 'As for your subsistence abroad, you may rely on me."

9 Steevens has a note on this passage no less disgust ing than absurd, making the pure Imogen allude to the spare regimen prescribed in some diseases. The interpretation was at once gross and erroneous. When lago talks of dieting his revenge, he certainly does not mean putting it on a spare diet. This, and a note on a former passage of this play by Mr. Whalley, which could only have been the offspring of impure imaginations, were justly stigmatized and degraded by the late Mr. Boswell, at the suggestion of Mr. Douce.

10 We'll make our work even with our time; we'll do what time will allow.

11 i. e equal to, or have ability for it.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Go in, and cheer the king; he rages; none
Dare come about him.

Queen.

All the better; May
This night forestall him of the coming day !3
Exit QUEEN

Clo. I love and hate her; for she's fair and royal;
And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite
Than lady, ladies, woman; from every one
The best she hath, and she, of all compounded,
Outsells them all: I love her therefore; But,
Disdaining me, and throwing favours on
The low Posthumus, slanders so her judgment,
That what's else rare, is chok'd; and, in that point,
I will conclude to hate her, nay, indeed,
To be reveng'd upon her. For, when fools

[blocks in formation]

Cym.

Where is she, sir? How

Can her contempt be answer'd?
Atten.

Please you, sir,

Her chambers are all lock'd; and there's no answer
That will be given to loud'st of noise we make.

Queen. My lord, when last I went to visit her,

Even to Augustus' throne.

She pray'd me to excuse her keeping close;
Whereto constrain'd by her infirmity,

She should that duty leave unpaid to you,

Which daily she was bound to proffer: this

She wish'd me to make known; but our great court

Made me to blame in memory.

Сут.

Her doors lock'd?

Not seen of late? Grant, heavens, that which I
Fear prove false !
Queen.

[Exit.

Son, I say, follow the king.
Clo. That man of hers, Pisanio, her old servant,

I have not seen these two days.
Queen.

Go, look after.

[Exit CLOTEN.

Pisanio, thou that stand'st so for Posthumus!-
He hath a drug of mine: I pray, his absence
Proceed by swallowing that; for he believes
It is a thing most precious. But for her,

Where is she gone? Haply, despair hath seized her;

1 We should apparently read his grace and you," or 'your grace and yours."

2 Fear must be pronounced as a dissyllable to complete the measure.

3 i. e. may his grief this night prevent him from ever seeing another day, by anticipated and premature destruction. Thus in Milton's Comus :

Perhaps forestalling night prevented them."

Or this, or perish.5
by this,

She's far enough; and what he learns
May prove his travel, not her danger.
Clo.

}

Aside.

Humph!
O, Imogen,

Pis. I'll write to my lord she's dead. O, I

Safe may'st thou wander, safe return again!

Clo. Sirrah, is this letter true?
Pis.

[Aside.

Sir, as I think. Clo. It is Posthumus' hand; I know't,-Sirrah, if thou would'st not be a villain, buť do me true

service; undergo those employments, wherein I should have cause to use thee, with a serious industry, that is, what villany soe'er I bid thee do, to perform it directly and truly, I would think thee an honest man: thou shouldest neither want my means for thy relief, nor my voice for thy preferment. Pis. Well, my good lord.

Clo. Wilt thou serve me? For since patiently and constantly thou hast stuck to the bare fortune

4 Than any lady, than all ladies, than all womankind. There is a similar passage in All's Well that Ends Well, Act ii. Sc. 3:

To any count; to all counts; to what is man.' 5 By these words it is probable Pisanio means 'I must either practise this deceit upon Cloten or perish by his fury Dr. Johnson thought the words should be iven to Cloten.

« ForrigeFortsett »