PHI. Enter IACHIMO. See! Iachimo? POST. The swiftest harts have posted you by land: And winds of all the corners kiss'd your sails, To make your vessel nimble ". PHI. Welcome, sir. POST. I hope, the briefness of your answer made The speediness of your return. Іасн. Your lady Is one of the fairest that I have look'd upon. POST. And, therewithal, the best; or let her beauty Look through a casement to allure false hearts 1, And be false with them. Ілсн. Here are letters for you. POST. Their tenour good, I trust. Ілсн. 'Tis very like. PHI. Was Caius Lucius 2 in the Britain court, When you were there? 8 The swiftest harts have posted you by land, And winds of all the corners kiss'd your sails, To make your vessel nimble.] From this remark our author appears to have been conscious of his glaring offence against one of the unities, in the precipitate return of lachimo from the court of Cymbeline. STEEVENS. 9 İS ONE THE fairest, &c.] So, p. 57: 66 And he is one "The truest manner'd-." The interpolated old copy, however, reads, to the injury of the metre: 66 Is one of the fairest," &c. STEEVENS. or let her beauty Look through a casement to allure false hearts,] So, in Ti mon of Athens: "Let not those milk paps, "That through the window bars bore at men's eyes, 2 Phi. Was Caius Lucius, &c.] This speech in the old copy is given to Posthumus. I have transferred it to Philario, to whom it certainly belongs, on the suggestion of Mr. Steevens, who VOL. XIII. G Ілсн. But not approach'd 3. POST. He was expected then, All is well yet.— Sparkles this stone as it was wont? or is't not Іасн. If I have lost it, I should have lost the worth of it in gold. Your lady being so easy. POST Not a whit, Make not, sir, Your loss your sport: I hope, you know that we Must not continue friends. Ілсн. Good sir, we must, If you keep covenant: Had I not brought The knowledge of your mistress home, I grant your wills. POST. Іасн. Sir, my circumstances, justly observes that "Posthumus was employed in reading his letters." MALONE. 3 But not approach'd.] Sir Thomas Hanmer supplies the apparent defect in this line by reading: "But was not yet approach'd." STEEVENS. 4-knowledge-] This word is here used in its scriptural acceptation: "And Adam knew Eve his wife :-" STEEVENS. Being so near the truth, as I will make them, Must first induce you to believe: whose strength I will confirm with oath; which, I doubt not, You'll give me leave to spare, when you shall find You need it not. POST. Ілсн. Proceed. First, her bed-chamber, (Where, I confess, I slept not; but, profess, In workmanship, and value; which, I wonder'd, _7 POST. This is true 8 ; 5 Had that was well worth watching,] i. e. that which was well worth watching, or lying awake for. See p. 73, n. 3. ❝ And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for MALONE. The press of boats, or pride :] Iachimo's language is such as a skilful villain would naturally use, a mixture of airy triumph and serious deposition. His gaiety shows his seriousness to be without anxiety, and his seriousness proves his gaiety to be without art. JOHNSON. 7 ————————— which, I wonder'd, Could be so rarely and exactly wrought, SINCE the true life on't was-] This passage is nonsense as it stands, and therefore the editors have supposed to be an imperfect sentence. But I believe we should amend it by reading"Such the true life on't was." instead of since. We frequently say the life of a picture, or of a statue; and without alteration the sentence is not complete. M. MASON. 8 This is true;] The present deficiency in the metre, shows that some word has been accidentally omitted in this or in the preceding hemistich. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads: 66 Why this is true." STEEVENS. And this you might have heard of here, by me, Is south the chamber; and the chimney-piece, This is a thing, POST. Іасн. 9 So likely to report themselves:] So near to speech. The Italians call a portrait, when the likeness is remarkable, a speaking picture. JOHNSON. I Was as another nature, DUMB;] The meaning is this: The sculptor was as nature, but as nature dumb; he gave every thing that nature gives, but breath and motion. In breath is included speech. JOHNSON. 2 With GOLDEN CHERUBINS IS FRETTED:] The same tawdry image occurs again in King Henry VIII. : 66 their dwarfish pages were "As cherubins, all gilt: The sole recommendation of this Gothick idea, which is tritically repeated by modern artists, seems to be, that it occupies but little room on canvas or marble; for chubby unmeaning faces, with ducks' wings tucked under them, are all the circumstances that enter into the composition of such infantine and absurd representatives of the choirs of heaven. STEEVENS. 66 - fretted:" So again, in Hamlet: "this majestical roof, fretted with golden fire." So, Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. ii. ch. ix. : "In a long purple pall, whose skirt with gold "Was fretted all about, she was array'd." MALOne. Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely POST. 4 This is her honour 1! Let it be granted, you have seen all this, (and praise Be given to your remembrance,) the description 3 Ілсн. -nicely Then, if you can, [Pulling out the Bracelet. Depending on their BRANDS.] I am not sure that I understand this passage. Perhaps Shakspeare meant that the figures of the Cupids were nicely poized on their inverted torches, one of the legs of each being taken off the ground, which might render such a support necessary. STEEVENS. I have equal difficulty with Mr. Steevens in explaining this passage. Here seems to be a kind of tautology. I take brands to be a part of the andirons, on which the wood for the fire was supported, as the upper part, in which was a kind of rack to carry a spit, is more properly termed the andiron. These irons, on which the wood lies across, generally called dogs, are here termed brands. WHALLEY. It should seem from a passage in The Black Book, a pamphlet published in 1604, that andirons in our author's time were sometimes formed in the shape of human figures: ever and anon turning about to the chimney, where he sawe a paire of corpulent gigantick andirons, that stood like two burgomasters at both corners." Instead of these corpulent burgomasters, Imogen had Cupids. The author of the pamphlet might, however, only have meant that the andirons he describes were uncommonly large. MALONE. 4 This is her honour! -] The expression is ironical. Iachimo relates many particulars, to which Posthumus answers with impatience : "This is her honour!" That is, And the attainment of this knowledge is to pass for the corruption of her honour. JOHNSON. 5 Let it be granted, &c.] Surely, for the sake of metre, we should read, with some former editor [Mr. Capell]: "Be it granted." STEEVENS. |