"Whan the larke messager of day Of custome aye Aurora doth salue, Lydgate's Sege of Troye, B. iii. "Upsprang the golden candle matutyne, With cleir depurit bemys chrystallyne, In may intill a morrow mirth fullest." Dunbar's Golden terge. "With merry note her loud salutes the mounting lark.” Spenser's Fairy queen, B. I. Canto xi. st. 51. "Early, cheerful, mounting lark, Light's gentle usher, morning's clerk, In merry notes delighting; Stint awhile thy song, and hark, And learn my new inditing "Bear up this hymn, to heav'n it bear " E'en up to heav'n, and sing it there," &c. Davies's Acrostick hymns, 1599. and then my state, (Like to the lark, at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate." Shakspeare's 29th Sonnet. "The larke that left her food, her nest, her yong, And early mounting, first with her sweet song Saluted heaven." Niccolls's London artillery, 1616, 4to. UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA CYMBELINE. "And the lark from out the furrow, And at the gate of heaven sings." 101 Penshurst. In Dodsley's collection, vol. iv. IACH. Sc. 4. p. 88. The roof o' the chamber Mr. Steevens calls the golden cherubims a tawdry image, and proceeds, justly enough, to ridicule an idle representation of the heavenly choirs; but the poet must be cleared from any imputation of blame. He is not accountable for the fashions or follies of his age, and has, in this instance, given a faithful description of the mode in which the rooms in great houses were sometimes ornamented. That brands were those parts of the andirons which supported the wood, according to Mr. Whalley, remains to be proved. The Cupids would not lean or hang over these bars, but rather stand with their faces turned from them, and opposite to the spectator. The brands are more likely to have been the inverted torches mentioned by Mr. Steevens. NO VIMU Sc. 5. p. 94. POST. Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain'd, With a pudency so rosy, &c. A useless note on this speech, which would make our poet equally vulgar and obscene, when he was expressing a sentiment of the most refined delicacy, may be well dispensed with in any future edition. ACT III. Scene 1. Page 99. CYм. Our ancestor was that Mulmutius, which Ordain'd our laws Mulmutius, Who was the first of Britain, &c. The judicious and necessary omission of the words "made our laws," after the second Mulmutius, originally belongs to Sir Thomas Hanmer, who would have deserved more thanks from his readers for his regulations of Shakspeare's metre, if they had not been too frequently made. without a proper regard to the accuracy of the text. Sc. 1. p. 100. CYм. Thy Cæsar knighted me. Although our old writers frequently make mention of Roman knights, that is, military chieftains, it is very much to be apprehended that the present expression must be regarded as a downright anachronism, as well as another similar passage in p. 213, where Cymbeline addresses Belarius and his sons: "Bow your knees; arise, my knights of the battle, &c." The word knight was formerly used with great latitude. Dr. Bullein calls Dioscorides "that olde famous Egyptian knyghte." Sc. 2. p. 105. IMO. (Some griefs are med 'cinable;) that is one of them, For it doth physick love ; The whole of this should be included in the parenthesis, as in Mr. Malone's edition. No reason has been assigned by Mr. Steevens for the variation, which may be an error of the press. BEL. Sc. 3. p. 117. Thou wast their nurse The above name might have been borrowed from the story of Amphiaraus and Eriphile, in Pettie's Petite palace, 1598, 4to. Outvenoms all the worms of Nile. So in the anonymous play of Wily beguilde, "Whose tongue more venom than the serpent's sting." It is difficult to say which is the imitation. ACT IV. Scene 2. Page 154. GUI. But his neat cookery. This speech has exercised the talents of a certain ingenious female illustrator of Shakspeare, who has endeavoured to ridicule the character of Imogen, and indeed the whole of the play. She degrades our heroine into a mere kitchen wench, and adverts to what she calls her œconomical education. Now what is this but to expose her own ignorance of ancient manners? If she had missed the advantage of qualifying herself as a commentator on Shakspeare's plots by a perusal |