CLO. I am near to the place where they should meet, if Pisanio have mapped it truly. How fit his garments serve me! Why should his mistress, who was made by him that made the tailor, not be fit too? the rather (saving reverence of the word) for 't is said, a woman's fitness comes by fits. Therein I must play the workman. I dare speak it to myself, (for it is not vain-glory for a man and his glass to confer in his own chamber,) I mean, the lines of my body are as well drawn as his; no less young, more strong, not beneath him in fortunes, beyond him in the advantage of the time, above him in birth, alike conversant in general services, and more remarkable in single oppositions: yet this imperseverant thing loves him in my despite. What mortality is! Posthumus, thy head, which now is growing upon thy shoulders, shall within this hour be off; thy mistress enforced; thy garments cut to pieces before thy faceb: and all this done, spurn her home to Imperseverant. Mr. Dyce reads imperceiverant-without the power of perceiving. Some would read, before her face,-Imogen's face; but Cloten, in his brutal way, thinks it a satisfaction that, after he has cut off his rival's head, the face will still be present at the destruction of the garments. tions. her father who may, haply, be a little angry for my so rough usage: but my mother, having power of his testiness, shall turn all into my commendaMy horse is tied up safe: Out, sword, and to a sore purpose! Fortune, put them into my hand! This is the very description of their meeting-place; and the fellow dares not deceive me. SCENE II. Before the Cave. Enter, from the Cave, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS, and IMOGEN. BEL. You are not well [To IMOGEN]: remain here in the cave; We'll come to you after hunting. ARV. IMO. Are we not brothers? Brother, stay here: So man and man should be; But clay and clay differs in dignity, Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick. GUI. Go you to hunting: I'll abide with him. IMO. So sick I am not;-yet I am not well: GUI. But not so citizen a wanton, as To seem to die, ere sick: So please you, leave me ; Since I can reason of it. Pray you, trust me here: I love thee; I have spoke it : BEL. In my good brother's fault: I know not why [Exit. [To IMOGEN. [Aside. ARV. Imo. I wish ye sport. ARV. Brother, farewell. You health. So please you, sir. IMO. [Aside.] These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies I have heard! GUI. Our courtiers say all 's savage, but at court: Experience, O, thou disprov'st report! The imperious seas breed monsters; for the dish, I am sick still; heart-sick :-Pisanio, I could not stir him: He said he was gentle, but unfortunate; ARV. Thus did he answer me: yet said, hereafter GUI. But his neat cookery 15! He cut our roots in characters; And sauc'd our broths, as Juno had been sick This passage stands thus in the original "This youth, howe'er distrest, appears he hath had In all the modern editions we find the following punctuation, without any comment "This youth, howe'er distrest, appears, he hath had To us this is unintelligible; and we therefore venture upon the transposition in our text; assuming that the printer, having left out the he in his first proof, inserted it as a correction in the wrong place. This is one of the commonest of typographical errors, and the folio edition of 'Cymbeline,' being printed from a manuscript after the author's death, was open to such mistakes. The wonder is that they are not more frequent. And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine His perishing root with the increasing vine! BEL. It is great morning. Come; away.-Who's there? Enter CLOTEN. CLO. I cannot find those runagates: that villain Hath mock'd me : -I am faint. BEL. Those runagates! I know 't is he :-We are held as outlaws:-Hence. CLO. GUI. CLO. [Exeunt BELARIUS and ARVIRAgus. Soft! What are you That fly me thus? some villain mountaineers? I have heard of such.-What slave art thou? More slavish did I ne'er, than answering "A slave," without a knock. Thou art a robber, A law-breaker, a villain: Yield thee, thief. A thing GUI. To who? to thee? What art thou? Have not I An arm as big as thine? a heart as big? Thy words, I grant, are bigger: for I wear not a Spurs. Pope calls this an old word for the fibres of a tree. We cannot find any authority for his assertion. The support of a post placed in the ground is still technically called a spur. The large leading roots of a tree may, in the same way, have been called spurs, from their lateral projections, which hold the plant firm and upright. Shakspere uses the word in this sense in 'The Tempest ' "The strong-based promontory Have I made shake, and by the spurs Instead of untwine, it has been proposed to read entwine. Monck Mason says, "Though Shakspere is frequently inaccurate in the use of his prepositions, to untwine with would rather exceed his usual licentiousness." This "licentiousness" is a favourite word with the commentators; they having agreed that the only correct standard of the English language was to be found in the formal construction of the eighteenth century. In this case, however, they appear to have mistaken the poet's meaning. The root of the elder is short-lived and perishes, while that of the vine continues to flourish and increase:-let the stinking elder, grief, untwine his root which is perishing with (in company with) the vine which is increasing. GUI. CLO. GUI. CLO. GUI. My dagger in my mouth. Say, what thou art, Thou villain base, Know'st me not by my clothes? No, nor thy tailor, rascal, Who is thy grandfather; he made those clothes, Which, as it seems, make thee. My tailor made them not. The man that gave them thee. Thou precious varlet, Hence, then, and thank Thou art some fool; Thou injurious thief, What's thy name? Hear but my name, and tremble. CLO. Cloten, thou villain. GUI. Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name, CLO. GUI. CLO. I cannot tremble at it; were 't toad, or adder, spider, "T would move me sooner. To thy further fear, Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know I'm son to the queen. So worthy as thy birth. I'm sorry for 't; not seeming Art not afeard? GUI. Those that I reverence, those I fear; the wise: CLO. Die the death: heads: Enter BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS. BEL. No company 's abroad. ARV. None in the world: You did mistake him, sure. But time hath nothing blurr'd those lines of favour [Exeunt, fighting. |