Solemn Mufick.3 Enter, as an Apparition, SiciLIUS LEONATUS, Father to POSTHUMUS, an old Man, attired like a Warrior; leading in his Hand an ancient Matron, his Wife, and Mother to POSTHUMUS, with Mufick before them. Then, after other Mufick, follow the Two young Leonati, Brothers to POSTHUMUS, with Wounds, as they died in the Wars. They circle POSTHUMUS

round, as he lies fleeping.

Sici. No more, thou thunder-master, fhow
Thy fpite on mortal flies:

With Mars fall out, with Juno chide,

That thy adulteries

Rates and revenges.

3 Solemn mufick. &c.] Here follow a vifion, a masque, and a prophefy, which interrupt the fable without the leaft neceflity, and unmeasurably lengthen this A&t. I think it plainly foifted in afterwards for mere show, and apparently not of Shakspeare.

РОРЕ.

Every reader must be of the fame opinion. The subsequent narratives of Pofthumus, which render this mafque, &c. unneceffary, (or perhaps the scenical directions fupplied by the poet himself) feem to have excited fome manager of a theatre to difgrace the play by the prefent metrical interpolation. Shakspeare, who has conducted his fifth A& with such matchlefs fkill, could never have defigned the vifion to be twice defcribed by Pofthu mus, had this contemptible nonsense been previously delivered on the ftage. The following paffage from Dr. Farmer's Ejay will fhow that it was no unufual thing for the players to indulge themselves in making additions equally unjustifiable:-"We have a fufficient inftance of the liberties taken by the actors, in an old pamphlet by Nath, called Lenten Stuffe, with the Prayfe of the Red Herring, 4to. 1599, where he affures us, that in a play of his called The Isle of Dogs, foure Acts, without his confent, or the leaft guefs of his drift or fcope, were fupplied by the players." STEEVENS.

In a note on Vol. II. (Article-SHAKSPEARE, FORD, and JONSON,) may be found a strong confirmation of what has been here fuggefted. MALONE.

Hath my poor boy done aught but well,
Whofe face I never faw?

I died, whilft in the womb he ftay'd
Attending Nature's law.

Whofe father then (as men report,
Thou orphans' father art,)

Thou should't have been, and fhielded him
From this earth-vexing smart.
MOTH. Lucina lent not me her aid,
But took me in my throes;
That from me was Pofthúmus ript,4
Came crying 'mongst his foes,
A thing of pity!

SICI. Great nature, like his ancestry,
Moulded the ftuff fo fair,

That he defery'd the praise o'the world,
As great Sicilius' heir.

1 BRO. When once he was mature for man,
In Britain where was he
That could stand up his parallel;

Or fruitful object be
In eye of Imogen, that beft
Could deem his dignity?

One would think that, Shakspeare's ftyle being too refined for his audiences, the managers had employed fome playwright of the old School to regale them with a touch of " King Cambyfes' vein." The margin would be too honourable a place for fo impertinent an interpolation. RITson.

• That from me was Pofthumus ript,] Perhaps we should read: That from my womb Pofthumus ript,

Came crying 'mongst his foes. JOHNSON,

This circumftance is met with in The Devil's Charter, 1607. The play of Cymbeline did not appear in print till 1623 :

"What would'ft thou run again into my womb?
"If thou wert there, thou fhould'st be Pofthumus,
"And ript out of my fides," &c. STEEVENS.

MOTH. With marriage wherefore was he mock'd,s

To be exil'd, and thrown
From Leonati' feat, and caft
From her his dearest one,
Sweet Imogen?

SICI. Why did you fuffer Iachimo,
Slight thing of Italy,

To taint his nobler heart and brain
With needless jealoufy

And to become the geck and fcorn
O' the other's villainy?

2 BRO. For this, from ftiller feats we came,
Our parents, and us twain,
That; ftriking in our country's caufe,
Fell bravely, and were flain;

Our fealty, and Tenantius' right,
With honour to maintain.

1 BRO. Like hardiment Pofthumus hath
To Cymbeline perform'd:
Then Jupiter, thou king of gods,
Why haft thou thus adjourn'd

The graces for his merits due;

Being all to dolours turn'd?

SICI. Thy cryftal window ope; look out;
No longer exercise,
Upon a valiant race, thy harsh

And potent injuries:

5 With marriage wherefore was he mock'd,] The fame phrase occurs in Meafure for Measure :

"I hope you will not mock me with a husband.”

STEEVENS. And to become the geck-] And permit Pofthumus to become the geck, &c. MALONE.

A geck is a fool. See Vol. V. p. 415, n. 7. STEEVENS, 7- Tenantius'] See p. 407, n.7. STEEVENS.

MоTH. Since, Jupiter, our fon is good,

Take off his miferies.

SICI. Peep through thy marble mansion; help! Or we poor ghofts will cry

To the fhining fynod of the reft,

Against thy deity.

2 BRO. Help, Jupiter; or we appeal, And from thy juftice fly.

JUPITER defcends in Thunder and Lightning, fitting upon an Eagle: he throws a Thunder-bolt. The Ghofis fall on their Knees.

JUP. No more, you petty spirits of region low,
Offend our hearing; hufh!-How dare you ghofts,
Accufe the thunderer, whofe bolt you know,
Sky-planted, batters all rebelling coafts?
Poor fhadows of Elyfium, hence; and reft
Upon your never-withering banks of flowers:
Be not with mortal accidents oppreft;

No care of yours it is; you know, 'tis ours.
Whom beft I love, I crofs; to make my gift,
The more delay'd, delighted. Be content;
Your low-laid fon our godhead will uplift :

His comforts thrive, his trials well are spent.

8 Jupiter defcends-] It appears from Acolaftus, a comedy by T. Palgrave, chaplain to King Henry VIII. bl. 1. 1540, that the defcent of deities was common to our ftage in its earliest state: "Of whyche the lyke thyng is ufed to be thewed now a days in ftage-plaies, when fome God or fome Saynt is made to appere forth of a cloude, and fuccoureth the parties which feemed to be towardes fome great danger, through the Soudan's crueltie." The author, for fear this defcription fhould not be fuppofed to extend itself to our theatres, adds in a marginal note, "the lyke maner used nowe at our days in ftage playes." STEEVENS.

9 The more delay'd, delighted.] That is, the more delightful

Our Jovial ftar reign'd at his birth, and in
Our temple was he married.-Rife, and fade !-
He fhall be lord of lady Imogen,

And happier much by his affliction made.
This tablet lay upon his breast; wherein
Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine;
And fo, away: no further with your din
Exprefs impatience, left you ftir up mine.-
Mount, eagle, to my palace cryftalline.'

[Afcends. SICI. He came in thunder; his celeftial breath Was fulphurous to fmell: the holy eagle

for being delayed.-It is fcarcely neceffary to obferve, in the eighteenth volume, that Shakspeare uses indifcriminately the active and paffive participles. M. MASON.

Delighted is here either used for delighted in, or for delighting. So, in Othello:

"If virtue no delighted beauty lack." MALONe. Though it be hardly worth while to waste a conjecture on the wretched stuff before us, perhaps the author of it, instead of delighted wrote dilated, i. e. expanded, rendered more copious. This participle occurs in King Henry V. and the verb in Othello.

I

STEEVENS. my palace crystalline.] Milton has tranfplanted this idea into his verses In Obitum Præfulis Elienfis: "Ventum eft Olympi & regiam chrystallinam."

STEEVENS

He came in thunder; his celeftial breath Was fulphurous to Smell:] A paffage like this one may fuppofe to have been ridiculed by Ben Jonfon, when in Every Man in his Humour he puts the following strain of poetry into the mouth of Juftice Clement :

testify,

"How Saturn fitting in an ebon cloud, "Difrob'd his podex white as ivory,

"And through the welkin thunder'd all aloud "

If, however, the dates of Jonfon's play and Chapman's tranflation of the eleventh Book of Homer's Iliad, are at all reconcileable, one might be tempted to regard the paffage laft quoted as a ridicule on the following: