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CYM.

Past grace? obedience? IMO. Past hope, and in despair; that way, past

grace.

CYм. That might'st have had the sole son of my queen!

IMO. Obless'd, that I might not! I chose an eagle, And did avoid a puttock.4

CYм. Thou took'st a beggar; would'st have made my throne

A seat for baseness.

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It is your fault that I have lov'd Posthumus:
You bred him as my play-fellow; and he is
A man, worth any woman; overbuys me
Almost the sum he pays.5

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!

a puttock.] A kite. JOHNSON.

A puttock is a mean degenerate species of hawk, too worthless to deserve training. STEEVENS.

overbuys me

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 himself,) 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.

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Re-enter Queen.

CYM.

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."

CYM.

Nay, let her languish A drop of blood a day; and, being aged, Die of this folly!

[Exit.

QUEEN.

Enter PISANIO.

Fye!-you must give way:

Here is your servant.-How now, sir? What news?

PIs. My lord your son drew on my master.

QUEEN.

No harm, I trust, is done?

PIS.

Ha!

There might have been, But that my master rather play'd than fought,

your best advice.] i. e. consideration, reflection. So, in Measure for Measure:

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"But did repent me after more advice." STEEVENS. let her languish

A drop of blood a day;] We meet with a congenial form of malediction in Othello:

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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;
Myself by with a needle, that I might prick
The goer back.-Why came you from your master?

PIS. On his command: He would not suffer me
To bring him to the haven: left these notes
Of what commands I should be subject to,
When it pleas'd you to employ me.

QUEEN.

This hath been

Your faithful servant: I dare lay mine honour, He will remain so.

PIS.

I humbly thank your highness.

About some half hour hence,

QUEEN. Pray, walk a while.

IMO.

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: Where air comes out, air comes in: there's none abroad so wholesome as that you vent.

CLO. If my shirt were bloody, then to shift itHave I hurt him?

2 LORD. No, faith; not so much as his patience. [Aside.

1 LORD. Hurt him? his body's a passable carcase, if he be not hurt: it is a thoroughfare for steel, if it be not hurt.

2 LORD. His steel was in debt; it went o'the backside the town.

CLO. The villain would not stand me.

[Aside.

2 LORD. No; but he fled forward still, toward your face. 8

[Aside. 1 LORD. Stand you! You have land enough of your own but he added to your having; gave you some ground.

2 LORD. As many inches as you have oceans: Puppies! [Aside. CLO. I would, they had not come between us. 2 LORD. So would I, till you had measured how long a fool you were upon the ground. [Aside. CLO. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me!

2 LORD. If it be a sin to make a true election, she is damned. [Aside. 1 LORD. Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and her brain go not together: She's a good sign, but I have seen small reflection of her wit.1 1

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she fled forward still, toward your face.] So, in Troilus and Cressida :

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thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly "With his face backward." STEEVENS.

her beauty and her brain go the lord means to speak a sentence, beauty and brain go not together."

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not together:] I believe
Sir, as I told
JOHNSON.

you always,

2 LORD. She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection should hurt her.

[Aside. CLO. Come, I'll to my chamber: 'Would there had been some hurt done!

2 LORD. I wish not so; unless it had been the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt.

CLO. You'll go with us?

1 LORD. I'll attend your lordship.

CLO. Nay, come, let's go together. 2 LORD. Well, my lord.

[Aside.

[Exeunt.

That is, are not equal, " ne vont pás de pair." A similar expression occurs in The Laws of Candy, where Gonzalo, speaking of Erota, says:

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"Her tongue the same gait with her wit?" M. MASON. 'She's a good sign, but I have seen small reflection of her wit.] She has a fair outside, a specious appearance, but no wit. O quanta species, cerebrum non habet! Phædrus. EDWARDS.

I believe the poet meant nothing by sign, but fair outward show. JOHNSON.

The same allusion is common to other writers. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn:

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a common trull,

"A tempting sign, and curiously set forth,
"To draw in riotous guests,"

Again, in The Elder Brother, by the same authors:

"Stand still, thou sign of man."

To understand the whole force of Shakspeare's idea, it should be remembered, that anciently almost every sign had a motto, or some attempt at a witticism, underneath it. STEEVENS.

2

In a subsequent scene, Iachimo speaking of Imogen, says:

"All of her, that is out of door, most rich!

"If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare,
"She is alone the Arabian bird." MALONE.

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