• Other conclufions? I will try the forces
Of these thy compounds on fuch creatures as
We count not worth the hanging (but none human)
To try the vigour of them, and apply

Allayments to their act; and by them gather
Their feveral virtues and effects.

2

Cor. Your highness

Shall from this practice but make hard
Befides, the fecing these effects will be
Both noifome and infectious.

Queen. O, content thee.

Enter Pifanio.

your heart:

Here comes a flattering rafcal, upon him

【Afide.

Will I first work: he's for his mafter,

And enemy to my fon.-How now, Pifanio?

Doctor, your fervice for this time is ended;

Take your own way

Cor. I do fufpect you, madam;

But you fhall do no harm.

Queen. Hark thee, a word.

[Afide. [To Pifanio.

Cor. [Solus.] 3 I do not like her. She doth think,

fhe has

Strange lingering poifons: I do know her fpirit,

And

Other conclufions?] Other experiments. I commend, says WALTON, an angler that tries conclufions, and improves his art. JOHNSON.

2 Your highness

Shall from this practice but make hard pour heart:] There is in this paffage nothing that much requires a note, yet I cannot forbear to push it forward into obfervation. The thought would probably have been more amplified, had our author lived to be fhocked with fuch experiments as have been published in later times, by a race of men that have practised tortures without pity, and related them without fhame, and are yet suffered to erect their heads among human beings.

"Cape faxa manu, cape robora, paftor." JoHNSON. 3 I do not like her.—] This foliloquy is very inartificial. The speaker is under no frong preffure of thought; he is neither

And will not truft one of her malice with
A drug of fuch damn'd nature. Those she has
Will ftupefy and dull the fenfe a while: -
Which firft, perchance, fhe'll prove on cats and dogs,
Then afterwards up higher: but there is
No danger in what fhew of death it makes,
More than the locking up the fpirits a time,
To be more fresh, reviving. She is fool'd
With a moft falfe effect; and I the truer,
So to be falfe with her.

Queen. No further fervice, doctor,

Until I fend for thee.

Cor. I humbly take my leave.

[Exit. Queen. Weeps fhe ftill, fay'ft thou? doft thou think in time

She will not quench, and let inftructions enter
Where folly now poffeffes? Do thou work;
When thou shalt bring me word she loves my fon,
I'll tell thee, on the inftant, thou art then
As great as is thy mafter: greater; for
His fortunes all lie fpeechlefs, and his name
Is at laft gafp. Return he cannot, nor
Continue where he is: 4 to fhift his being,
Is to exchange one mifery with another;
And every day that comes, comes to decay
A day's work in him. What fhalt thou expect,
To be depender on a thing 5 that leans?

neither refolving, repenting, fufpecting, nor deliberating, and yet makes a long fpeech to tell himself what himself knows. JOHNSON,

I do not like her.- J This foliloquy, however inartificial in refpect of the speaker, is yet neceflary to prevent that uneafinefs which would naturally arife in the mind of the audience on the recollection that the queen had mifchievous ingredients in her poffeffion, unless they had been undeceiv'd as to their quality; and is no lefs ufeful to prepare them for the return of Imogen to life. STEEVENS.

to fhift his being,] To change his abode. JOHNS. that leans?] That inclines towards its fall. JOHNS.

Who

Who cannot be new built, nor has no friends,
So much as but to prop him?-Thou tak❜ft up

[Pifanio takes up the phial.
Thou know'ft not what; but take it for thy labour:
It is a thing I make, which hath the king
Five times redeem'd from death; I do not know.
What is more cordial. Nay, I pr'ythee, take it;
It is an earnest of a further good

That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how
The cafe ftands with her; do't as from thyfelf:
"Think what a chance thou changeft on; but think-
Thou haft thy miftrefs ftill; to boot, my son,
Who fhall take notice of thee. I'll move the king
To any fhape of thy preferment, fuch

As thoul't defire; and then myself, I chiefly
That fet thee on to this defert, am bound
To load thy merit richly. Call my women.

[Exit Pifanio.
Think on my words. A fly, and conftant knave,
Not to be shak'd: the agent for his master;
And the remembrancer of her, to hold

The hand faft, to her lord.-I have given him that,
Which, if he take, fhall quite unpeople her
7 Of leigers for her fweet; and which fhe, after,
Except the bend her humour, fhall be affur'd
To tafte of too.

• Think what a chance thou changeft on; -] Such is the reading of the old copy, which by fucceeding editors has been altered into,

and

Think what a chance thou chanceft on;·

Think what a change thou chanceft on ;

but unneceffarily. The meaning is, "think with what a fair profpect of mending your fortunes you now change your "present service." STEEVENS.

7 Of leigers for her fweet;] A leiger ambaffador, is one that refides at a foreign court to promote his matter's interest.

JOHNSON.

Re-enter

Re-enter Pifanio, and Ladies.

So, fo; well done, well done.

The violets, cowflips, and the primroses,
Bear to my closet. Fare thee well, Pifanio;

Think on my words.

Pif. And fhall do:

[Exeunt queen and ladies.

But when to my good lord I prove untrue,

I'll choke myself: there's all I'll do for you, [Exit.

Imo. A father cruel, and a step-dame false;
A foolish fuitor to a wedded lady,

That hath her husband banish'd;-O that husband!
My fupreme crown of grief! and those repeated
Vexations of it!-Had I been thief-stolen,
As my two brothers, happy! but most miferable
Is the defire that's glorious. 9 Blefs'd be those,
How mean foe'er, that have their honeft wills,
Which feafons comfort. Who may this be? fie!

8 but most miferable

Enter

Is the defire that's glorious.- ] Her husband, she says, proves her fupreme grief. She had been happy had he been tolen as her brothers were, but now fhe is miferable, as all thofe are who have a sense of worth and honcur fuperior to the vulgar, which occafions them infinite vexations from the envious and worthless part of mankind. Had the not fo refined a tafte as to be content only with the fuperior merit of Pofthumus, but could have taken up with Cloten, fhe might have escaped thefe perfecutions. This elegance of tafte, which always difcovers an excellence and chufes it, fhe calls with great fublimity of expreflion, The defire that's glorious; which the Oxford Editor not understanding, alters to, The degree that's glorious. WARB. Blefs'd be thoje,

9

How mean foe'er, that have their honeft wills,

Which fecfens comfort. The laft words are equivocal;

but

Enter Pifanio and Tachimo.

Pif. Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome
Comes from my lord with letters.
Iach. Change you, madam?

The worthy Leonatus is in fafety,

And greets your highness dearly.
Imo. Thanks, good Sir;

You are kindly welcome.

[Gives a letter.

Iach. All of her, that is out of door, most rich! If the be furnifh'd with a mind fo rare,

my

friend!

She is alone the Arabian bird; and I
Have loft the wager. Boldnefs be
Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!
Or, like the Parthian, I fhall flying fight;
Rather directly fly.

[Afide.

but the meaning is this: Who are beholden only to the feafons for their fupport and nourishment; fo that, if those be kindly, fuch have no more to care for or defire. WARBURTON.

I am willing to comply with any meaning that can be extorted from the prefent text, rather than change it, yet will propose, but with great diffidence, a flight alteration:

Blefs'd be thofe,

How mean foe'er, that have their honeft wills,

With reafon's comfort.

Who gratify their innocent wishes with reasonable enjoyments.

JOHNSON.

"To

I shall venture at another explanation, which, as the laft words are admitted to be equivocal, may be proposed. "be able to refine on calamity (fays fhe) is the miserable pri"vilege of those who are educated with afpiring thoughts and

66

elegant defires. Bleffed are they, however mean their con"dition, who have the power of gratifying their honeft in"clinations, which circumftance beftows an additional relish "on comfort itself."

"You lack the season of all natures, fleep." Macb. STERVENS.