As you did mean indeed to be our brother;

Joy'd are we that you are.

lord of Rome,

Post. Your servant, Princes. Good my
Call forth your soothsayer. As I slept, methought
Great Jupiter, upon his eagle back'd,
Appear'd to me, with other spritely shows 33
Of mine own kindred: when I waked, I found
This label on my bosom; whose containing 34
Is so from sense in hardness, that I can
Make no collection 35 of it: let him show
His skill in the construction.

Luc.

Sooth. Here, my good lord.
Luc.

Philarmonus,

Read, and declare the meaning.

*Sooth. [Reads.] Whenas a lion's whelp shall, to him*self unknown, without seeking find, and be embraced by a *piece of tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall be *lopp'd branches, which, being dead many years, shall after *revive, be jointed to the old stock, and freshly grow; then *shall Posthumus end his miseries, Britain be fortunate, and *flourish in peace and plenty.36

*Thou, Leonatus, art the lion's whelp;

*The fit and apt construction of thy name,

38 Spritely shows are groups of sprites, ghostly appearances.

84 "Whose containing " means, evidently, "the contents of which."—"So from sense in hardness" means, apparently, so difficult to be understood, or so hard to make sense of.

35 A collection is a corollary, a consequence deduced from premises. So in Hamlet: "Her speech is nothing, yet the unshaped use of it doth move the hearers to collection."

36 Coleridge remarks upon this strange "label" as follows: "It is not easy to conjecture why Shakespeare should have introduced this ludicrous scroll, which answers no one purpose, either propulsive or explicatory, unless as a joke on etymology." See Critical Notes on the preceding scene.

*Being Leo-natus, doth import so much.

*[To CYMBE.] The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daughter, *Which we call mollis aer, and mollis aer

*We term it mulier;- [To POSTHU.] which mulier I divine *Is thy most constant wife; who, even now, *Answering the letter of the oracle,

*Unknown to you, unsought, were clipp'd about *With this most tender air.

*Cym.

This frath some seeming.

Sooth. The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline,
Personates thee: and thy lopp'd branches point
Thy two sons forth; who, by Belarius stol'n,
For many years thought dead, are now revived,
To the majestic cedar join'd; whose issue
Promises Britain peace and plenty.

Well,

Сут.
By peace we will begin ; —and, Caius Lucius,
Although the victor, we submit to Cæsar,
And to the Roman Empire; promising
To pay our wonted tribute, from the which
We were dissuaded by our wicked Queen;
Whom Heavens,37 in justice, both on her and hers,
Have laid most heavy hand.

Sooth. The fingers of the powers above do tune
The harmony of this peace. The vision
Which I made known to Lucius, ere the stroke
Of this yet scarce-cold battle, at this instant
Is full accomplish'd; for the Roman eagle,
From South to West on wing soaring aloft,
Lessen'd herself, and in the beams o' the Sun
So vanish'd; which foreshow'd our princely eagle,

37 The construction is somewhat irregular, and the language probably

elliptical; "Upon whom." The Poet has many such ellipses.

Th' imperial Cæsar, should again unite
His favour with the radiant Cymbeline,
Which shines here in the West.

Cym.

Laud we the gods;

And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils
From our bless'd altars. Publish we this peace

To all our subjects. Set we forward; let

A Roman and a British ensign wave

Friendly together: so through Lud's-town march;
And in the temple of great Jupiter

Our peace we'll ratify; seal it with feasts.
Set on there! - Never was a war did cease,

Ere bloody hands were wash'd, with such a peace.

[Exeunt.

CRITICAL NOTES.

ACT I., SCENE 1.

Page 9. You do not meet a man but frowns: our bloods

Not more obey the heavens than our courtiers

Still seem as does the King. — In the second of these lines, the original has No instead of Not, and in the third Kings instead of King. No does not give the right sense. Coleridge proposed to substitute countenances for courtiers, and Keightley conjectures "courtiers' faces"; either of which would accord with King's. But with the two slight changes here made we get substantially the same sense. second correction is Tyrwhitt's.

P. 10.

But not a courtier,

Although they wear their faces to the bent
Of the King's looks, but hath a heart that is
Glad at the thing they scowl at.

The

So Theobald. Instead of

"but hath a heart that is," the original reads "hath a heart that is not." The sense is about the same either way; but I can hardly think the

Poet would have endured such a halt in the metre. tion reads as in the text.

P. II. I cannot delve him to the root: his father

Was call'd Sicilius, who did gain his honour

Pope's second edi

Against the Romans with Cassibelan; &c.—The original has joyne instead of gain, which is White's correction. Jervis conjectured win, which gives the same sense as gain, but involves more of literal change. I do not well see how to get any fitting sense out of join.

P. 14. You gentle gods, give me but this I have,

And cere up my embracements from a next, &c. - The original has "And seare up"; but this seems to have been only another way of spelling cere. Singer reads "And seal up." See foot-note 9.

P. 14.

Remain, remain thou here While sense can keep it on. - As both thou and it refer to the ring, Pope substituted thee for it, and has been followed by various editors. Perhaps rightly; for the change of person is very harsh. See, however, foot-note 10.

That shouldst repair my youth, thou heap'st

A year's age on me!-To complete the second of these lines, Hanmer reads "thou heapest many"; Capell, "thou heap'st instead.” Perhaps it should be “thou heap'st more than A year's age on me.”

P. 17.
I pray you, speak with me. The original omits I.

About some half hour hence,

ACT I., SCENE 2.

P. 19. 2 Lord. I'll attend your lordship.— The original assigns this speech to the first Lord. Corrected by Capell.

P. 19.

ACT I., SCENE 3.

No, madam; for so long

As he could make me with this eye or ear

Distinguish him from others, &c. - So Theobald. The original reads "with his eye," &c. Coleridge proposed "with the eye"; which I am apt to think the better correction.

P. 20. I would have broke mine eye-strings, crack'd the balls,

To look upon him; &c.— Here the original has an awkward and uncharacteristic anti-climax,-"crack'd them but to look upon him." Staunton proposed to read "I would have crack'd mine eyestrings, broke their balls, To look upon him." But I think the climax is duly made without transposing broke and crack'd; while in the proposed reading their would of course refer to eye-strings, and thus untune the language, if not the sense.

ACT I., SCENE 4.

P. 22. For taking a beggar without his quality. The old text has “without lesse quality"; which expresses no meaning at all suited to the place. Rowe changed less to more, and has been followed by some