Chapter 12

[i.e. that appetite, which is not allured to feed on such excellence, can have no stomach at all; but, though empty, must nauseate every thing. WARB.] I explain this passage in a sense almost contrary. Iachimo, in this counterfeited rapture, has shewn how the _eyes_ and the _judgment_ would determine in favour of Imogen, comparing her with the present mistress of Posthumus, and proceeds to say, that appetite too would give the same suffrage. _Desire_, says he, when it approached _sluttery_, and considered it in comparison with _such neat excellence_, would not only be _not so allured to feed_, but, seized with a fit of loathing, _would vomit emptiness_, would feel the convulsions of disgust, though, being unfed, it had nothing to eject. [Tyrwhitt: vomit, emptiness ... allure] This is not ill conceived; but I think my own explanation right. _To vomit emptiness_ is, in the language of poetry, to feel the convulsions of eructation without plenitude. (1773)

I.vi.54 (182,4) He's strange, and peevish] He is a foreigner, easily fretted.

I.vi.97 (184,5) timely knowing] Rather timely _known_.

I.vi.99 (184,6) What both you spur and stop] What it is that at once incites you to speak, and restrains you from it. [I think Imogen means to enquire what is that news, that intelligence, or information, you profess to bring, and yet with-hold: at least, I think Dr. JOHNSON's explanation a mistaken one, for Imogen's request supposes Iachimo an agent, not a patient. HAWKINS.] I think my explanation true. (see 1765, VII, 286, 7)

I.vi.106 (184,7)

join gripes with hands Made hard with hourly falshood (falshood as With labour) then lye peeping in an eye]

The old edition reads,

--join gripes with hands Made hard with hourly falshood (_falshood _ as With labour) then by peeping in an eye, &c.

I read,

--then _lye_ peeping--

The author of the present regulation of the text I do not know, but have suffered it to stand, though not right. _Hard with falshood_ is, hard by being often griped with frequent change of hands.

I.vi.122 (185,8) With tomboys, hir'd with that self-exhibition/Which your own coffers yield!] _Gross strumpets_, hired with the _very pension_ which you allow your husband.

I.vi.152 (186,9) As in a Romish stew] The stews of Rome are deservedly censured by the reformed. This is one of many instances in which Shakespeare has mingled in the manners of distant ages in this play.

II.i.2 (188,1) kiss'd the jack upon an up-cast] He is describing his fate at bowls. The _jack_ is the small bowl at which the others are aimed. He who is nearest to it wins. _To kiss the jack_ is a state of great advantage. (1773)

II.i.15 (189,2) 2 _Lord_. No, my lord; nor crop the ears of them. [_Aside_.] This, I believe, should stand thus:

1 _Lord_. No, my lord. 2 _Lord_. Nor crop the ears of them, [_Aside_.

II.i.26 (189,3) you crow, cock, with your comb on] The allusion is to a fool's cap, which hath a _comb_ like a cock's.

II.i.29 (189,4) every companion] The use of _companion_ was the same as of _fellow_ now. It was a word of contempt.

II.ii.12 (191,1) our Tarquin] The speaker is an Italian.

II.ii.13 (191,2) Did softly press the rushes] It was the custom in the time of our author to strew chambers with rushes, as we now cover them with carpets. The practice is mentioned in _Caius de Ephemera Britannica_.

II.iii.24 (194,2) _His steeds to water at those springs On chalic'd flowers that lies_]

Hanmer reads,

Each _chalic'd_ flower supplies;

to escape a false concord: but correctness must not be obtained by such licentious alterations. It may be noted, that the _cup_ of a flower is called _calix_, whence _chalice_.

II.iii.28 (195,3) _With, every thing that pretty bin_] is very properly restored by Hanmer, for _pretty is_; but he too grammatically reads,

With _all the things_ that pretty _bin_.

II.iii.102 (197,5) one of your great knowing/Should learn, being taught, forbearance] i.e. A man _who is taught forbearance should learn it_.

II.iii.111 (198,7) so verbal] Is, so _verbose_, so full of talk.

II.iii.118-129 (199,8) The contract you pretend with that base wretch] Here Shakespeare has not preserved, with his common nicety, the uniformity of character. The speech of Cloten is rough and harsh, but certainly not the talk of one,

Who can't take two from twenty, for his heart, And leave eighteen.--

His argument is just and well enforced, and its prevalence is allowed throughout all civil nations: as for rudeness, he seems not to be mach undermatched.

II.iii.124 (199,9) in self-figur'd knot] [This is nonsense. We should read,

--SELF-FINGER'D _knot_;

WARBURTON.] But why nonsense? A _self-figured knot_ is a knot formed by yourself. (see 1765, VII, 301, 8)

II.iv.71 (204,4) And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for/The press of boats, or pride] [This is an agreeable ridicule on poetical exaggeration, which gives human passions to inanimate things: and particularly, upon what he himself writes in the foregoing play on this very subject:

"--And made The water, which they beat, to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes."

WARBURTON.] It is easy to sit down and give our author meanings which he never had. Shakespeare has no great right to censure poetical exaggeration, of which no poet is more frequently guilty. That he intended to ridicule his own lines is very uncertain, when there are no means of knowing which of the two plays was written first. The commentator has contented himself to suppose, that the foregoing play in his book was the play of earlier composition. Nor is the reasoning better than the assertion. If the language of Iachimo be such as shews him to be mocking the credibility of his hearer, his language is very improper, when his business was to deceive. But the truth is, that his language is such as a skilful villain would naturally use, a mixture of airy triumph and serious deposition. His gaiety shews his seriousness to be without anxiety, and his seriousness proves his gaiety to be without art.

II.iv.83 (205,5) never saw I figures/So likely to report themselves] So near to speech. The Italians call a portrait, when the likeness is remarkable, a _speaking picture_.

II.iv.84 (205,6) the cutter/Was as another nature, dumb, out-went her;/Motion and breath left out] [W: done; out-went her.] This emendation I think needless. The meaning is this, The _sculptor_ was as _nature_, but as _nature dumb_; he gave every thing that nature gives, but _breath_ and _motion_. In _breath_ is included _speech_.

II.iv.91 (205,7) _Post._ This is her honour!] [T: What's this t'her honour?] This emendation has been followed by both the succeeding editors, but I think it must be rejected. The expression is ironical. Iachimo relates many particulars, to which Posthumus answers with impatience, This is her honour! That is, And the attainment of this knowledge is to pass for the corruption of her honour.

II.iv.95 (206,8) if you can/Be pale] If you can forbear to flush your cheek with rage.

II.iv.110 (207,9)

The vows of women Of no more bondage be, to where they are made, Than they are to their virtues]

The love vowed by women no more abides with him to whom it is vowed, than women adhere to their virtue.

II.iv.127 (207,2) The cognizance] The badge; the token; the visible proof.

III.i.26 (211,2) and his shipping,/(Poor ignorant baubles!) on our terrible seas] [_Ignorant_, for _of no use_. WARB.] Rather, _unacquainted_ with the nature of our boisterous seas.

III.i.51 (212,3) against all colour] Without any pretence of right.

III.i.73 (213,5) keep at utterance] [i.e. At extreme distance. WARB.] More properly, in a state of hostile defiance, and deadly opposition.

III.i.73 (213,6) I am perfect] I am well informed. So, in Macbeth, "--in your state of honour _I am perfect_." (see 1765, VII, 314,7)

III.ii.4 (214,2) What false Italian (As poisonous tongu'd as handed)] About Shakespeare's time the practice of poisoning was very common in Italy, and the suspicion of Italian poisons yet more common.

III.ii.9 (214,3) take in some virtue] To _take in_ a town, is to _conquer_ it.

III.ii.34 (215,6) For it doth physic love] That is, grief for absence, keeps love in health and vigour.

III.ii.47 (215,8) _loyal to his vow, and your increasing in love_] I read, Loyal to his vow and _you_, increasing in love.

III.ii.79 (216,1) A franklin's housewife] A _franklin_ is literally a _freeholder_, with a small estate, neither _villain_ nor _vassal_.

III.ii.80 (217,2)

I see before me, man, nor here, nor here, Nor what ensues; but have a fog in them, That I cannot look thro']

This passage may, in my opinion, be very easily understood, without any emendation. The lady says, "I can see neither one way nor other, before me nor behind me, but all the ways are covered with an impenetrable fog." There are objections insuperable to all that I can propose, and since reason can give me no counsel, I will resolve at once to follow my inclination.

III.iii.5 (218,2) giants may jet through/And keep their impious turbans on] The idea of a _giant_ was, among the readers of romances, who were almost all the readers of those times, always confounded with that of a Saracen.

III.iii.16 (218,3) This service it not service, so being done,/But being so allow'd] In war it is not sufficient to do duty well; the advantage rises not from the act, but the acceptance of the act.

III.iii.23 (219,5) Richer, than doing nothing for a babe] I have always suspected that the right reading of this passage is what I had not in my former edition the confidence to propose: Richer, than doing nothing for a _brabe_.

_Brabium_ is a badge of honour, or the ensign of an honour, or any thing worn as a mask of dignity. The word was strange to the editors as it will be to the reader: they therefore changed it to _babe_; and I am forced to propose it without the support of any authority. _Brabium_ is a word found in Holyoak's Dictionary, who terms it a _reward_. Cooper, in his _Thesaurus_, defines it to be a _prize, or reward for any game_. (1773) (rev. 1778, IX, 248, 8)

III.iii.35 (219,6) To stride a limit] To overpass his bound.

III.iii.35 (220,7) What should we speak of,/When we are as old as you?] This dread of an old age, unsupplied with matter for discourse and meditation, is a sentiment natural and noble. No state can be more destitute than that of him who, when the delights of sense forsake him, has no pleasures of the mind.

III.iii.82 (221,9)

tho' trained up thus meanly I' the cave, wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit The roof of palaces]

[W: wherein they bow] HANMER reads,

I' the cave, _here in this brow_.-- I think the reading is this: I' the cave, wherein the BOW, &c.

That is, they are trained up in the _cave, where their thoughts_ in hitting the _bow_, or arch of their habitation, _hit the roofs of palaces_. In other words, though their condition is low, their thoughts are high. The sentence is at last, as THEOBALD remarks, abrupt, but perhaps no less suitable to Shakespeare. I know not whether Dr. WARBURTON's conjecture be not better than mine.

III.iii.101 (223,2) I stole these babes] Shakespeare seems to intend Belarius for a good character, yet he makes him forget the injury which he has done to the young princes, whom he has robbed of a kingdom only to rob their father of heirs.--The latter part of this soliloquy is very inartificial, there being no particular reason why Belarius should now tell to himself what he could not know better by telling it.

III.iv.15 (224,2) drug-damn'd Italy] This is another allusion to Italian poisons.

III.iv.39 (225,4) Kings, queens, and states] Persons of highest rank.

III.iv.52 (225,6) Some jay of Italy,/Whose mother was her painting] _Some jay of Italy_, made by art the creature, not of nature, but of painting. In this sense _painting_ may be not improperly termed her _mother_. (see 1765, VII, 325, 9)

III.iv.63 (226,7) So thou, Posthumus,/Wilt lay the leaven on all proper men] HANMER reads,

--lay the _level_--

without any necessity.

III.iv.97 (228,1) That now thou tir'st on] A hawk is said to _tire_ upon that which he pecks; from _tirer_, French.

III.iv.104 (228,2)

I'll wake mine eye-balls blind first. _Imo._ Wherefore then]

This is the old reading. The modern editions for _wake_ read _break_, and supply the deficient syllable by _ah_, wherefore. I read, I'll wake mine eye-balls _out_ first, or, _blind_, first.

III.iv.111 (228,3) To be unbent] To have thy bow unbent, alluding to a hunter.

III.iv.146 (229,4)

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]

To wear a dark mind, is to carry a mind impenetrable 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 that_ greatness, _which, to appear_ hereafter _in its proper form_, cannot yet appear without great _danger to itself_. (see 1765, VII, 329, 6)

III.iv.149 (230,5) full of view] With opportunities of examining your affairs with your own eyes.

III.iv.155 (230,6) Though peril to my modesty, not death on't,/I would adventure] I read,

_Through_ peril--

_I would for such means adventure_ through _peril of my modesty_; I would risque every thing but real dishonour.

III.iv.162 (230,7)

nay, you must Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek; Exposing it (but, oh, the harder heart! Alack, no remedy)]

I think it very natural to reflect in this distress on the cruelty of Posthumus. Dr. WARBURTON proposes to read,

--the harder _hap_!--

III.iv.177 (231,8) which you'll make him know] This is HANMER's reading. The common books have it,

--which _will_ make him know.

Mr. THEOBALD, in one of bit long notes, endeavours to prove, that it should be,

--which will make him _so_.

He is followed by Dr. WARBURTON.

III.iv.184 (231,9) we'll even/All that good time will give us] We'll make our work _even_ with our _time_; we'll do what time will allow.

III.v.71 (235,2)

And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite Than lady, ladies, woman; from every one The best she hath]

[The second line is intolerable nonsense. It should be read and pointed thus,

Than lady ladies; _winning_ from each one.

WARBURTON.]

I cannot perceive the second line to be intolerable, or to be nonsense. The speaker only rises in his ideas. _She has all courtly parts_, says he, _more exquisite than_ any _lady_, than all _ladies_, than all _womankind_. Is this nonsense?

III.v.101 (236,3) _Pia._ Or this, or perish] These words, I think, belong to Cloten, who, requiring the paper, says,

Let's see't: I will pursue her Even to Augustus' throne. Or this, or perish.

Then Pisanio giving the paper, says to himself,

She's far enough, &c.

III.vi.12 (239,1) To lapse in fullness/Is sorer, than to lye for need] Is a _greater_, or _heavier_ crime.

III.vi.23 (239,3) If any thing that's civil, speak; if savage,/Take, or lend] [W: Take 'or 't end.] I suppose the emendation proposed will not easily be received; it is strained and obscure, and the objection against Hanmer's reading is likewise very strong. I question whether, after the words, _if savage_, a line be not lost. I can offer nothing better than to read,

--Ho! who's here? If any thing that's civil, _take or lend_, If savage, _speak_.

If you are _civilised_ and _peaceable, take_ a price for what I want, or _lend_ it for a future recompence; if you are _rough inhospitable_ inhabitants of the mountain, _speak_, that I may know my state.

III.vi.77 (242,4) then had my prize/Been less; and so more equal ballasting] HANMER reads plausibly, but without necessity, _price_, for _prize_, and _balancing_, for _ballasting_. He is followed by Dr. WARBURTON. The meaning is, Had I been a less prize, I should not have been too heavy for Posthumus.

III.vi.86 (243,5) That nothing-gift of differing multitudes] [T: deferring] He is followed by Sir T. HANMER and Dr. WARBURTON; but I do not see why _differing_ may not be a general epithet, and the expression equivalent to the _many-headed_ rabble.

III.vii.8 (244,2)

and to you, the tribunes, For this immediate levy, he commands His absolute commission]

The plain meaning is, he _commands_ the commission to be given to you. So we say, I _ordered_ the materials to the workmen.

IV.ii.10 (245,1) Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom/ Is breach of all] Keep your _daily_ course uninterrupted; if the stated plan of life is once broken, nothing follows but confusion.

IV.ii.17 (246,2) How much the quantity] I read, _As_ much the quantity.--

IV.ii.38 (247,3) I could not stir him] Not _move_ him to tell his story.

IV.ii.39 (247,4) gentle, but unfortunate] _Gentle_, is _well born_, of birth above the vulgar.

IV.ii.59 (248,6) And let the stinking elder, Grief, untwine/ His perishing root, with the encreasing vine!] Shakespeare had only seen _English vines_ which grow against walls, and therefore may be sometimes entangled with the _elder_. Perhaps we should read _untwine from the vine_.

IV.ii.105 (251,9) the snatches in his vice,/And burst of speaking] This is one of our author's strokes of observation. An abrupt and tumultuous utterance very frequently accompanies a confused and cloudy understanding.

IV.ii.111 (251,1) for the effect of judgment/Is oft the cause of fear] HANMER reads, with equal justness of sentiment,

--for defect of judgment Is oft the _cure_ of fear.--

But, I think, the play of _effect_ and _cause_ more resembling the manner of our author.

IV.ii.118 (252,2) I am perfect, what] I am _well informed_, what. So in this play,

I'm _perfect_, the Pannonians are in arms.

IV.ii.121 (252,3) take us in] To _take in_, was the phrase in use for to _apprehend_ an out-law, or to make him amenable to public justice.

IV.ii.148 (253,5) the boy Fidele's sickness/Did make my way long forth] Fidele's sickness made my _walk forth_ from the cave _tedious_.

IV.ii.159 (254,6) revenges/That possible strength might meet] Such pursuit of vengeance as fell within any possibility of opposition.

IV.ii.168 (254,7) I'd let a parish of such Clotens blood] [W: marish] The learned commentator has dealt the raproach of nonsense very liberally through this play. Why this is nonsense, I cannot discover. I would, says the young prince, to recover Fidele, kill as many Clotens as would fill a _parish_.

IV.ii.246 (258,1) He was paid for that] HANMER reads,

He _has_ paid for that:--

rather plausibly than rightly. _Paid_ is for _punished_. So JONSON,

"Twenty things more, my friend, which you know due, For which, or pay me quickly, or I'll _pay_ you."

(see 1765, VII, 356, 3)

IV.ii.247 (258,2) reverence,/(That angel of the world)] _Reverence_, or due regard to subordination, is the power that keeps peace and order in the world.

IV.ii.268 (259,4) _The scepter, learning, physic, must/ All follow this, and come to dust_] The poet's sentiment seems to have been this. All human excellence is equally the 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 then from the final destiny of man. (1773)

IV.ii.272 (260,5) _Fear not slander, censure rash_] Perhaps, Fear not _slander's_ censure rash.

IV.ii.275 (260,6) Consign to thee] Perhaps, Consign to _this_. And in the former stanza, for _all follow this_, we might read, _all follow_ thee.

IV.ii.280 (260,7) Both. _Quiet consummation have;/ And renowned be 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.

IV.ii.315 (262,1) Conspired with] The old copy reads thus,

--thou Conspir'd with that irregulous divel, Cloten.

I suppose it should be,

Conspir'd with _th' irreligious_ devil, Cloten.

IV.ii.346 (263,2) Last night the very gods shew'd me a vision] [W: warey] Of this meaning I know not any example, nor do I see any need of alteration. It was no common dream, but sent from _the very gods_, or the gods themselves.

IV.ii.363 (264,3)

who was he, That, otherwise than noble nature did, Hath alter'd that good figure?]

Here are many words upon a very slight debate. The sense is not much cleared by either critic [Theobald and Warburton]. The question is asked, not about a _body_, but a _picture_, which is not very apt to grow shorter or longer. To _do_ a picture, and a picture is well _done_, are standing phrases; the question therefore is, Who has altered this picture, so as to make it otherwise than nature _did_ it.

IV.ii.389 (266,5) these poor pickaxes] Meaning her fingers.

IV.iii (266,1) _Cymbeline's palace_] This scene is omitted against all authority by Sir T. HANMER. It is indeed of no great use in the progress of the fable, yet it makes a regular preparation for the next act.

IV.iii.22 (267,3) our jealousy/Does yet depend] My suspicion is yet undetermined; if I do not condemn you, I likewise have not acquitted you. We now say, the _cause_ is _depending_.

IV.iii.29 (267,4) Your preparation can affront no less/Than what you hear of] Your forces are able to _face_ such an army as we hear the enemy will bring against us.

IV.iii.44 (268,6) to the note o' the king] I will so distinguish myself, the king shall remark my valour.

IV.iv.11 (269,1) a render/Where we have liv'd] An account of our place of abode. This dialogue is a just representation of the superfluous caution of an old man.

IV.iv.13 (269,2) That which we have done, whose answer would be death] The _retaliation_ of the death of Cloten would be _death_, &c.

IV.iv.18 (269,3) their quarter'd fires] Their fires regularly disposed.

V.i (271,1) _Enter Posthumus, with a bloody handkerchief_] The bloody token of Imogen's death, which Pisanio in the foregoing act determined to send.

V.i.1-33 (271,2) Yea, bloody cloth, I'll keep thee] This is a soliloquy of nature, uttered when the effervescence of a mind agitated and perturbed spontaneously and inadvertently discharges itself in words. The speech, throughout all its tenor, if the last conceit be excepted, seems to issue warm from the heart. He first condemns his own violence; then tries to disburden himself, by imputing part of the crime to Pisanio; he next sooths his mind to an artificial and momentary tranquility, by trying to think that he has been only an instrument of the gods for the happiness of Imogen. He is now grown reasonable enough to determine, that having done so much evil he will do no more; that he will not fight against the country which he has already injured; but as life is not longer supportable, he will die in a just cause, and die with the obscurity of a man who does not think himself worthy to be remembered.

V.i.9 (271,3) to put on] Is to _incite_, to _instigate_.

V.i.14 (272,4) To second ills with ills, each elder worse] For this reading all the later editors have contentedly taken,

--each worse than other,

without enquiries whence they have received it. Yet they know, or might know, that it has no authority. The original copy reads,

--each elder worse,

The last deed is certainly not the oldest, but Shakespeare calls the _deed_ of an _elder_ man an _elder deed_.

V.i.15 (272,5) And make them dread it, to the doers' thrift] [T: dreaded, to] This emendation ia followed by HANMER. Dr. WARBURTON reads, I know not whether by the printer's negligence,

And make them _dread_, to the doers' thrift.

There seems to be no very satisfactory sense yet offered. I read, but with hesitation,

And make them _deeded_, to the doers' thrift.

The word _deeded_ I know not indeed where to find; but Shakespeare has, in another sense _undeeded_, in _Macbeth_:

"--my sword "I sheath again _undeeded_."--