Fri. Stay then, I'll go alone: -Fear comes upon O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing. Bal. As I did sleep under this yew-tree here, I dreamt my master and another fought, And that my master slew him. Fri. Romeo?- [Advances. Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains The stony entrance of this sepulchre ?What mean these masterless and gory swords To lie discolour'd by this place of peace? [Enters the Monument. Romeo O, pale!-Who else? what, Paris too? And steep'd in blood?-Ah, what an unkind hour Is guilty of this lamentable chance!The lady stirs. [JUL. wakes and stirs. Jul. O, comfortable friar ! where is my lord ? I do remember well where I should be, And there I am:-Where is my Romeo? [Noise within. Fri. I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep ; Hath thwarted our intents; come, come away: Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end :- 1 Watch. [Within.] Lead, boy:-Which way? Jul. Yea, noise?-then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! [Snatching Roм.'s Dagger. This is thy sheath; [Stabs herself.] there rust, and let me die. [Falls on Rom.'s Body, and dies. Enter Watch, with the Page of PARIS. Page. This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn. 1 Watch. The ground is bloody; Search about the churchyard: Go, some of you, whoe'er you find, attach. [Exeunt some. Pitiful sight ! here lies the county slain ; And Juliet bleeding; warm, and newly dead, Who here hath lain these two days buried.Go, tell the prince,-run to the Capulets,Raise up the Montagues,-some others search;[Exeunt other Watchmen. We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; But the true ground of all these piteous woes, We cannot without circumstance descry. Enter some of the Watch, with BALTHAZAR. 2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man; we found him in the churchyard. [ come hither. 1 Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prinee Enter another Watchman, with FRIAR LAURENCE. 3 Watch. Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs, and weeps : We took this mattock and this spade from him, As he was coming from this churchyard side. 1 Watch. A great suspicion; Stay the friar too. Enter the Prince and Attendants. Prince. What misadventure is so early up, That calls our person from our morning's rest? Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and Others. Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek abroad? La. Cap. The people in the street cry-Romeo, Some--Juliet, and some-Paris; and all run, With open outcry, toward our monument. Prince. What fear is this which startles in our ears? [slain; 1 Watch. Sovereign, here lies the County Paris And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before, Warm and new kill'd. Prince. Seareh, seek, and know how this foul murder comes. [meo's man; 1 Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd RoWith instruments upon them, fit to open These dead men's tombs. Cap. O, heavens!-O, wife! look how our daughter bleeds! This dagger hath mista'en,-for, lo! his house* Is empty on the back of Montague, And is mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom. La. Cap. O me! this sight of death is as a bell, That warns my old age to a sepulchre. Enter MONTAGUE and Others. Prince. Come, Montague; for thou art early To see thy son and heir more early down. [up, Mon. Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath: What further woe conspires against mine age? Prince. Look, and thou shalt see. [this, Mon. O thou untaught! what manners is in To press before thy father to a grave? [while, Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a Till we can clear these ambiguities, [descent ; And know their spring, their head, their true And then will I be general of your woes, And lead you even to death: Meantime forbear, And let mischance be slave to patience.Bring forth the parties of suspicion. Fri. I am the greatest, able to do least, Yet most suspected, as the time and place Doth make against me, of this direful murder; And here I stand, both to impeach and purge Myself condemned and myself excus'd. [in this. Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know Fri. I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale. Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet; And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife: I married them; and their stolen marriage-day Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whose untimely death Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city; For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd. * i. e. The scabbard. But he which bore my letter, Friar John, Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on it. Where's the county's page, that rais'd the watch? Sirrah, what made your master in this place? Page. He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave; And bid me stand aloof, and so I did: Mon. But I can give thee more: For I will raise her statue in pure gold; Cap. As rich shall Romeo by his lady lie; Prince. A glooming peace this morning with it The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head : [Exeunt. CYMBELINE appears to have been written in the enduring wrong and suffering with the most full strength of our poet's maturity: it is at- touching patience and sweetness. The gentler tributed to the year 1605, and supposed to have sex should be always grateful to the memory of been composed immediately after King Lear, our great Shakespeare, for his genius did sweet and just before Macbeth. At such a period of homage to their character: he invests his female Shakespeare's life, he could scarcely give to the creations with all that is most pure and generous world any feeble production, and we conse- in humanity, picturing them, indeed, as beautiful quently find this play to be full of exquisite to the eye, but a thousand times more acceptable poetry, and also to contain the sweetest and to the heart. There is a moral dignity about his most tender female character ever drawn, even women, a holy strength of affection, which neiby his pen. Still there is, in Cymbeline, a singu- ther suffering nor death can pervert, that elevates lar confusion of times and customs, and the play them above the sterner nature of man, placing is full of anachronisms. The rude ancient them on an equality with angels. The advenBritons of the time of Augustus Cæsar are pictures of Imogen are like a beautiful romance: her tured as possessing the manners and luxuries of flight after her banished husband, her wretchthe Elizabethan period. The polished court of edness and forlorn condition when informed Cymbeline is altogether out of place in Britain that he believes her false and has given order for at such a time-it is an incredibility; so also is her death; her assumption of boy's attire, in the description of Imogen's chamber, with its which disguise she wanders among the mountapestry of silk and silver, so "rarely and exactly tains, at point to perish from hunger; her meetwrought;" and the chimney-piece, with its carving with her disguised brothers in the cave; ner ing of "chaste Diana bathing," its ornaments of supposed death, and recovery; and, finally, her silver, and the golden cherubins with which the discovery of her repentant husband, and throwing roof is fretted. Such things were seen in Eng- herself, without one reproach, upon his bosomland in Shakespeare's time; but were never are all beautifully pourtrayed. Imogen is, indreamed of in Augustus Cæsar's. In the fifth deed, a pattern of connubial love and chastity. act also, Posthumus, when condemned to death, Posthumus is an irritable and impatient chais told by his gaoler that " he shall fear no more racter; his love for Imogen is rather a selfish tavern bills." Schlegel makes a graceful apology one, or he would not have been so easily perfor these errors; but it does not greatly mend suaded that she was false: it undergoes some purithe matter to argue the poet's faults into beau-fication in his trouble, and we scarcely sympathise ties. In Shakespeare, as a poet and philosopher, we have implicit faith; but very little, as an antiquarian or historian. Imogen is a personification of woman; woman enthroned in the holy temple of her pure and chaste affections, rejecting the tempter of her honour with the bitterest scorn and loathing, and with him until his repentance of his rashness. lachimo is an unconfirmed villain, as dishonest as Iago, but not so devilish, for he has the grace to repent of his treachery; he tries to compound with his conscience, and satisfy it with * Mercutio and Paris. Jesuitical sophistries. Iachimo's confession, in the last scene, is too wordy, and tediously prolonged, and the humility of it is scarcely in accordance with his character, as pourtrayed in the earlier scenes of the play. These three characters are the principal ones of that group to which the attention is chiefly attracted; Cymbeline, himself, is represented as weak and vacillating-a mere tool of his wicked queen this woman is utterly villanous without any redeeming quality, unless affection for her foolish and unprincipled son be called one. Perhaps she is introduced to bring the sweet character of the pure and loving Imogen into greater prominence, by the power of contrast. Cloten has been said to be so singular a character, and possessed of qualities so contradictory, that he has been supposed to form an exception to Shakespeare's usual integrity in copying from nature. I cannot see in what particular he is irreconcilable to humanity: he is a knave, a braggart, and a fool in most matters, but that is no reason why he should not possess some shrewd CYMBELINE, King of Britain. common-sense ideas occasionally. Nothing can be happier than his defiance of the Roman ambassador:-"If Cæsar can hide the sun from us with a blanket, or put the moon in his pocket, we will pay him tribute for light; else, sir, no more tribute." Respecting the character of Cloten, Hazlitt has remarked-"that folly is as often owing to a want of proper sentiments, as to a want of understanding." In the delineation of the two princes, Guiderius and Arviragus, Shakespeare propagates a doctrine which will find many opponents in the present day: he infers that there is an innate royalty of nature; and the young princes, brought up as simple rustics, are represented as feeling their high birth so strongly, that it impels them to acts of heroism. According to Holinshed, Cymbeline, or Kimbeline, began his reign in the nineteenth year of that of Augustus Cæsar; and the play commences in or about the twenty-fourth year of Cymbeline's reign, which was the forty-second of that of Augustus, and the sixteenth of the Christian era. Cymbeline. CLOTEN, Son to the Queen by a former Husband. Sons of Cymbeline, disguised under the names of Polydore and CadARVIRAGUS, wal, supposed Sons to Belarius. PHILARIO, Friend to Posthumus, Italians. A French Gentleman, Friend to Philario. PISANIO, Servant to Posthumus. QUEEN, Wife to Cymbeline. IMOGEN, Daughter to Cymbeline, by a former HELEN, an Attendant on Imogen. Lords, Ladies, Roman Senators, Tribunes, Ap- SCENE. Sometimes in Britain; sometimes in Italy. SCENE I.-Britain. The Garden behind A Gent. You do not meet a man, but frowns: No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers; 2 Gent. He purpos'd to his wife's sole son, (a widow, 2 Gent. None but the king? 1 Gent. He, that hath lost her, too: so is the That most desir'd the match: But not a courtier, And why so? * Inclination, natural disposition. +i.e. You praise him extensively. 1 Gent. He that hath miss'd the princess, is a Too bad for bad report: and he that hath her, 2 Gent. What's his name, and birth? Was call'd Sicilius, who did join his honour, (Then old and fond of issue) took such sorrow, My praise, however extensive, is within his merit. That he quit being; and his gentle lady, 2 Gent. His only child. 1 Gent. He had two sons, (if this be worth your hearing, Mark it,) the eldest of them at three years old, I' the swathing clothes the other, from their nursery [knowledge Were stolen; and to this hour, no guess in Which way they went. 2 Gent. How long is this ago? 1 Gent. Some twenty years. [convey'd! 2 Gent. That a king's children should be so So slackly guarded! And the search so slow, That could not trace them! 1 Gent. Howsoe'er 'tis strange, Or that the negligence may well be laugh'd at, Yet is it true, sir. 2 Gent. I do well believe you. 1 Gent. We must forbear: Here comes the queen and princess. SCENE II.-The same. [Exeunt. Enter the QUEEN, POSTHUMUS, and IMOGEN. Queen. No, be assur'd, you shall not find me, daughter, After the slander of most step-mothers, I will be known your advocate: marry, yet Post. I will from hence to-day. Queen. Please your highness, You know the peril :I'll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying The pangs of barr'd affections; though the king Hath charg'd you should not speak together. [Exit QUEEN. Imo. 0 Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant Can tickle where she wounds! - My dearest husband, I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing, Post. If the king come, I shall incur I know not To walk this way: I never do him wrong, [Exit. Post. Were you but riding forth to air yourself, Post. [Putting on the Ring. While sense can keep it on? And sweetest, fairest, As I my poor self did exchange for you, Imo. [Putting a Bracelet on her arm. O, the gods! 2 Lord. As many inches as you have oceans: Puppies! [Aside. Clo. I would they had not come between us. 2 Lord. So would I, till you had measured how long a fool you were upon the ground. [Aside. Clo. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me! 1 Lord. Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and her brain go not together: She's a good sign, but I have seen small reflection of her wit.‡ 2 Lord. She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection should hurt her. [ Aside. Clo. Come, I'll to my chamber : 'Would there had been some hurt done! 2 Lord. I wish not so; unless it had been the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt. [Aside. Clo. You'll go with us? 1 Lord. I'll attend your lordship. Clo. Nay, come, let's go together. 2 Lord. Well, my lord. [Exeunt. [Erit. Enter PISANIO. Fie!-you must give way: Here is your servant.-How now, sir? What 2 Lord. No, faith; not so much as his patience. [Aside. 1 Lord. Hurt him? his body's a passable carcass, if he be not hurt : it is a thoroughfare for steel, if it be not hurt. 2 Lord. His steel was in debt. 2 Lord. No; but he fled forward still, toward your face. [Aside. 1 Lord. Stand you! You have land enough of your own but he added to your having; gave you some ground. * Cattle-keeper. + Consideration. To understand the force of this idea, it should be remembered that anciently almost | SCENE IV.-A Room in CYMBELINE's Palace. Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO. Imo. I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' the haven, And question'dst every sail: if he should write, Pis. Twas, "his queen, his queen!" Imo. Then wav'd his handkerchief? Pis. And kiss'd it, madam. Imo. Senseless linen! happier therein than I!And that was all? Pis. No, madam; for so long As he could make me with this eye or ear Distinguish him from others, he did keep The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief, Still waving, as the fits and stirs of his mind Could best express how slow his soul sail'd on, How swift his ship. Imo. Thou should'st have made him As little as a crow, or less, ere left To after-eye him. Imo. I would have broke mine eye-strings; crack'd them, but To look upon him, till the diminution When shall we hear from him? With his next 'vantage.} Be assur'd, madam, Imo. I did not take my leave of him, but had Most pretty things to say: ere I could tell him, How I would think on him, at certain hours, Such thoughts, and such; or I could make him The shes of Italy should not betray [swear Mine interest, and his honour; or have charg’d him, At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight, |