Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

2 Lord. He's a ftrange fellow himself, and knows it not. [Afide 1 Lord. There's an Italian come; and, 'tis thought, one of Leonatus's friends.

Clot. Leonatus! a banifh'd rafcal; and he's another, whatsoever he be. Who told you of this stranger? 1 Lord. One of your lordship's pages.

Clot. Is it fit I went to look upon him? Is there no derogation in't?

1 Lord. You cannot derogate, my lord.
Clot. Not eafily, I think.

2 Lord. You are a fool granted; therefore your iffues being foolish, do not derogate.

[Afide.

Come, go. [Exit Cloten:

Clot. Come, I'll go fee this Italian: what I have loft
to-day at bowls, I'll win to-night of him.
2 Lord. I'll attend your lordship.
That fuch a crafty devil as his mother
Should yield the world this afsa woman, that
Bears all down with her brain; and this her fon
Cannot take two from twenty for his heart,
And leave eighteen.Alas, poor princefs,
Thou divine Imogen, what thou endur'ft!
Betwixt a father by thy ftep-dame govern'd;
A mother hourly coining plots; a woer,
More hateful than the foul expulfion is
Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act

Of the divorce 5 he'd make! The heavens hold firm
The walls of thy dear honour; keep unshak'd
That temple, thy fair mind; that thou may'ft ftand
To enjoy thy banifh'd lord, and this great land!

[blocks in formation]

In which he is followed by Dr. WARBURTON. JOHNSON.

SCENE

SCENE II.

A magnificent bed-chamber; in one part of it a large

trunk.

Imogen reading in her bed, a lady attending.

Imo. Who's there? my woman Helen?

Lady. Please you, madam,

Imo. What hour is it?

Lady. Almoft midnight, madam.

Imo. I have read three hours then; mine eyes are weak;

Fold down the leaf where I have left. To bed.
Take not away the taper, leave it burning;
And if thou canft awake by four o' the clock,
I pr'ythee call me. Sleep hath feiz'd me wholly.

[Exit lady.

To your protection I commend me, gods:
From fairies, and the tempters of the night,
Guard me, befeech ye!

[Sleeps. [Lachimo rifes from the trunk. Jach. The crickets fing, and man's o'er-labour'd

sense

I

Repairs itself by reft: our Tarquin thus

2 Did foftly prefs the rushes, ere he waken'd
The chastity, he wounded. Cytherea,

How bravely thou becom❜ft thy bed! fresh lilly,
And whiter than the fheets! That I might touch!
But kifs; one kifs!-rubies unparagon'd,
How dearly they do't!-'tis her breathing that
Perfumes the chamber thus: the flame o' the taper
Bows toward her, and would under-peep her lids,

[ocr errors]

our Tarquin] The fpeaker is an Italian. Joнкs. 2 Did foftly press the rushes,] It was the custom in the time of our author to ftrew chambers with rufhes, as we now cover them with carpets. The practice is mentioned in Caius de Ephemera Britannica. JOHNSON.

Το

To fee the inclofed lights, now canopy'd

Under thefe windows: 3 white and azure! lac'd
With blue of heaven's own tinct.-But my defign
To note the chamber:-I will write all down:
Such, and fuch pictures ;-there the window ;-fuch
The adornment of her bed;-the arras, figures?
Why, fuch and fuch:-and the contents o' the story-
Ah, but fome natural notes about her body, ·
(Above ten thousand meaner moveables
Would teftify) to enrich my inventory.

O fleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her!
And be her fenfe but as a monument,

Thus in a chapel lying!Come off, come off,--
[Taking off her bracelet.
As flippery, as the Gordian knot was hard!
'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly,
As ftrongly as the confcience does within,
To the madding of her lord. On her left breast
A mole cinque-fpotted, 4 like the crimson drops
I' the bottom of a cowflip: here's a voucher,
Stronger than ever law could make this fecret
Will force him think, I have pick'd the lock, and ta'én
The treasure of her honour. No more-to what end?
Why fhould I write this down, that's rivetted,
Screw'd to my memory? She hath been reading, late,
The tale of Tereus; here the leaf's turn'd down,
Where Philomel gave up-
gave up I have enough:
To the trunk again, and fhut the fpring of it.

[blocks in formation]

WITH blue of heaven's own tinct. -] We fhould read, white with azure lac'd,

THE blue of heaven's own tinct.—] i. e. the white fkin laced with blue veins. WARBURTON.

like the crimson drops

I' the bottom of a cowflip :- -] This fimile contains the fmalleft out of a thoufand proofs that Shakespeare was a most accurate obferver of nature. STEEVENS.

Swift, fwift, 5 you dragons of the night! 6 that

dawning'

May bare the raven's eye: I lodge in fear;

Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here.

One, two, three: time, time!

[Clock Strikes.

[Goes into the trunk, the fcene clefes.

[blocks in formation]

1 Lord. Your lordship is the moft patient man in lofs, the most coldeft that ever turn'd up ace.

[ocr errors]

you dragons of the night!] The task of drawing the chariot of night was affigned to dragons, on account of their fuppofed watchfulness. Milton mentions the dragon yoke of night in one of his fmaller pieces. STEEVENS.

6

that darning

May bear the raven's eye-] Some copies read bare, or make bare; others ope. But the true reading is bear, a term taken from heraldry, and very fublimely applied. The meaning is, that morning may affume the colour of the raven's eye, which is grey. Hence it is fo commonly called the grey-ey'd morning. And Romeo and Juliet,

"I'll fay yon grey is not the morning's eye." Had Shakespeare meant to bare or open the eye, that is, to awake,' he had instanced rather in the lark than raven, as the earlier rifer. Befides, whether the morning bared or opened the raven's eye was of no advantage to the fpeaker, but it was of much advantage that it should bear it, that is, become light. Yet the Oxford Editor judicioufly alters it to,

May bare its raven-eye.-

WARBURTON.

I have received Hanmer's emendation. JOHNSON.

that dawning

May bare the raven's eye:-] The old reading is beare. The colour of the raven's eye is not grey, but totally black. This I affirm on repeated infpection; therefore the poet means no more than that the light might wake the raven; or, as it is poetically expreffed, bare his eye. STEEVENS.

VOL. IX.

N

Clot.

Clet. It would make any man cold to lose.

1 Lord. But not every man patient, after the noble temper of your lordship: you are moft hot, and furious, when you win.

Clot. Winning will put any man into courage.

If

I could get this foolish Imogen, I fhould have gold enough. It's almoft morning, is't not?

1 Lord. Day, my lord.

Clot. I would this mufic would come: I am advis'd to give her mufic o' mornings; they fay, it will penetrate.

Enter Muficians.

If

Come on: tune. you can penetrate her with your fingering, fo; we'll try with tongue too: if none will do, let her remain; but I'll ne'er give o'er. First, a very excellent good conceited thing; after, a wonderful fweet air with admirable rich words to it; and then let her confider.

SONG.

Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate fings,
And Phabus 'gins arise,

His feeds to water at thofe fprings

On chalic'd flowers that lies:

Hark! bark! the lark at heaven's gate fings,] The fame hyperbole occurs in Milton's Paradise Loft, book v.

up

[ocr errors]

ye birds

"That finging up to heaven's gate afcend." STEEV. 2 His feeds to water at thofe fprings

On chalic'd flowers that lies:] i. e. the morning fun dries the dew which lies in the cups of flowers. WARBURTON. Hanm r reads,

Each chalic'd flower supplies;

to escape a falfe concord: but correctnefs must not be obtained by fuch icentious alterations. It may be noted, that the cup of a fic: er is called calix, whence chalice. JOHNSON.

And

« ZurückWeiter »