Post. Should we be taking leave As long a term as yet we have to live, Were you but riding forth to air yourself, When Imogen is dead. Post. How! how! another?You gentle gods, give me but this I have, And sear up my embracements from a next With bonds of death!"-Remain, remain thou here [Putting on the Ring. While sense can keep it on!" And sweetest, fairest, And sear up my embracements from a next With bonds of death!] Shakspeare may poetically call the cerecloths in which the dead are wrapped, the bonds of death. If so, we should read cere instead, of sear: "Why thy canoniz'd bones hearsed in death, "Have burst their cerements?" To sear up, is properly to close up by burning; but in this passage the poet may have dropped that idea, and used the word simply for to close up. Steevens May not sear up, here mean solder up, and the reference be to a lead coffin' Perhaps cerements in Hamlet's address to the Ghost, was used for searments in the same sense. Henley. I believe nothing more than close up was intended. In the spelling of the last age, however, no distinction was made between cere-cloth and sear-cloth. Cole, in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, explains the word cerot by sear-cloth. Shakspeare therefore certainly might have had that practice in his thoughts. Malone. 7 While sense can keep it on!] This expression, I suppose, means, while sense can maintain its operations, while sense continues to have its usual power. That to keep on signifies to continue in a state of action, is evident from the following passage in Othello: The general sense of Posthumus's declaration, is equivalent to the Roman phrase,—dum spiritus hos regit artus Steevens. The poet [if it refers to the ring] ought to have written-can keep thee on, as Mr. Pope and the three subsequent editors read. But Shakspeare has many similar inaccuracies. So, in Julius Cæsar: "Casca, you are the first that rears your hand." instead of his hand. Again, in The Rape of Lucrece : "Time's office is to calm contending kings, As I my poor self did exchange for you, Upon this fairest prisoner. [Putting a bracelet on her arm. O, the gods! Imo. When shall we see again? Post. Enter CYMBELINE, and Lords. Alack, the king! Cym. Thou basest thing, avoid! hence, from my sight! If, after this command, thou fraught the court With thy unworthiness, thou diest: Away! Thou art poison to my blood. Post. The Gods protect you! [Exit. And bless the good remainders of the court! I am gone. Imo. There cannot be a pinch in death More sharp than this is." "To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light,- instead of his hours. Again, in the third Act of the play be fore us: "Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for their mother, "And every day do honour to her grave." Malone. As none of our author's productions were revised by himself as they passed from the theatre through the press; and as Julius Cesar and Cymbeline are among the plays which originally appeared in the blundering first folio; it is hardly fair to charge those irregularities on the poet, of which his publishers alone might have been guilty. I must therefore take leave to set down the present, and many similar offences against the established rules of language, under the article of Hemingisms and Condelisms; and, as such, in my opinion, they ought, without ceremony, to be corrected. The instance brought from The Rape of Lucrece might only have been a compositorial inaccuracy, like those which occasionally have happened in the course of our present republication. Steevens. 8 a manacle-] A manacle properly means what we now call a hand-cuff. Steevens. 9 There cannot be a pinch in death More sharp than this is.] So, in King Henry VIII: it is a sufferance, panging "As soul and body 's parting." Malone. Cym. O disloyal thing, That thou should'st repair my youth;1 thou heapest Imo. Cym. Past grace? obedience? as 1 That should'st repair my youth;] i. e. renovate my youth; make me young again. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609: ". for him, he brought his disease hither: here he doth but repair it." Again, in All's Well that Ends Well: 2 it much repairs me, "To talk of your good father." Malone. thou heapest A year's age on me!] The obvious sense of this passage, on which several experiments have been made, is in some degree countenanced by what follows in another scene: "And every day that comes, comes to decay "A day's work in him.” Dr. Warburton would read “A yare (i. e. a speedy) age:" Sir T. Hanmer would restore the metre by a supplemental epithet: thou heapest many A year's age &c. and Dr. Johnson would give us: Years, ages, on me! 66 I prefer the additional word introduced by Sir Thomas Hanmer, to all the other attempts at emendation Many a year's age," is an idea of some weight; but if Cymbeline meant to say that his daughter's conduct made him precisely one year older, his conceit is unworthy both of himself and Shakspeare.—I would read with Sir Thomas Hanmer. Steevens. 3 - a touch more rare Subdues all pangs, all fears.] A touch more rare, may mean nobler passion Johnson. A touch more rare is undoubtedly a more exquisite feeling; a superior sensation. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, sc ii: "The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, "Do strongly speak to us." Again, in The Tempest: "Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling A touch is not unfrequently used, by other ancient writers, in this sense. So, in Daniel's Hymen's Triumph, a masque, 1623: "You must not, Philis, be so sensible Steevens Imo. Past hope, and in despair; that way, past grace. Cym. That might'st have had the sole son of my queen! Imo. O bless'd, that I might not! I chose an eagle, And did avoid a puttock.4 Cym. Thou took'st a beggar; would'st have made my throne It is your fault that I have lov'd Posthumus: Cym. What!-art thou mad? Imo. Almost, sir: Heaven restore me!-'Would I were A neat-herd's daughter! and my Leonatus Our neighbour shepherd's son! Cym. Re-enter Queen. Thou foolish thing! They were again together: you have done [To the Queen. Not after our command. Away with her, And pen her up. Queen. 'Beseech your patience :-Peace, Dear lady daughter, peace;-Sweet sovereign, Leave us to ourselves; and make yourself some comfort Out of your best advice. 4 Cym. Nay, let her languish a puttock.] A kite. Johnson. A puttock is a mean degenerate species of hawk, too worthless to deserve training. Steevens. Almost the sum he pays.] So small is my value, and so great is his, that in the purchase he has made (for which he paid him. self), for much the greater part, and nearly the whole, of what he has given, he has nothing in return. The most minute portion of his worth would be too high a price for the wife he has acquired. Malone. 6 your best advice.] i. e. consideration, reflection. So, in Measure for Measure: "But did repent me after more advice." Steevens. A drop of blood a day; and, being aged, Die of this folly! Queen. Enter PISANIO. Fy!-you must give way: [Exit. Here is your servant.-How now, sir? What news? Queen. No harm, I trust, is done? Pis. Ha! There might have been, But that my master rather play'd than fought, And had no help of anger: they were parted By gentlemen at hand. Queen. I am very glad on 't. Imo. Your son's my father's friend; he takes his part.— To draw upon an exile!-O brave sir!- I would they were in Africk both together; The goer back.--Why came you from your master? Queen. Pis. I humbly thank your highness. Queen. Pray, walk a while. About some half hour hence, I pray you, speak with me: you shall, at least, Go see my lord aboard: for this time, leave me. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A publick Place. Enter CLOTEN, and Two Lords. 1 Lord. Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt; the violence of action hath made you reek as a sacrifice : 7 let her languish A drop of blood a day;] We meet with a congenial form of malediction in Othello: |