articles betwixt us:-only, thus far you shall answer. If you make your voyage upon her, and give me directly to understand you have prevailed, I am no further your enemy, she is not worth our debate: if she remain unseduced, (you not making it appear otherwise,) for your ill opinion, and the assault you have made to her chastity, you shall answer me with your sword.

IACH. Your hand; a covenant: We will have these things set down by lawful counsel, and straight away for Britain; lest the bargain should catch cold, and starve: I will fetch my gold, and have our two wagers recorded.

POST. Agreed.

Exeunt POSTHUMUS and IACHIMO. FRENCH. Will this hold, think you? PHI. Signior Iachimo will not from it.

us follow 'em.

Pray, let [Exeunt.

mentions only that of the two conditions which was favourable to Posthumus: namely, that if his wife preserved her honour he should win concerning the other, in case she preserved it not, lachimo, the accurate expounder of the wager, is silent. To make him talk more in character, for we find him sharp enough in the prosecution of his bet; we should strike out the negative, and read the rest thus: "If I bring you sufficient testimony that I have enjoyed, &c. my ten thousand ducats are mine; so is your diamond too. If I come off, and leave her in such honour, &c. she your jewel, &c. and my gold are yours." WARBURTON.

I once thought this emendation right, but am now of opinion, that Shakspeare intended that Iachimo having gained his purpose, should designedly drop the invidious and offensive part of the wager, and to flatter Posthumus, dwell long upon the more pleasing part of the representation. One condition of a wager implies the other, and there is no need to mention both. JOHNSON.

SCENE VI.

Britain. A Room in CYMBELINE'S Palace.

Enter Queen, Ladies, and CORNELIUS.

QUEEN. Whiles yet the dew's on ground, gather those flowers;

Make haste: Who has the note of them?

1 LADY.

QUEEN. Despatch..

I, madam. [Exeunt Ladies.

Now, master doctor; have you brought those

drugs?

COR. Pleaseth your highness, ay: here they are,

madam:

[Presenting a small box. But I beseech your grace, (without offence;

My conscience bids me ask ;) wherefore you have Commanded of me these most poisonous com

pounds,

Which are the movers of a languishing death;
But, though slow, deadly?

QUEEN.
I wonder, doctor,
Thou ask'st me such a question: Have I not been
Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learn'd me how
To make perfumes? distil? preserve? yea, so,
That our great king himself doth woo me oft
For my confections? Having thus far proceeded,
(Unless thou think'st me devilish,) is't not meet
That I did amplify my judgment in

Other conclusions'? I will try the forces

I Do wonder, doctor,] I have supplied the verb do for the sake of measure, and in compliance with our author's practice when he designs any of his characters to speak emphatically: Thus, in Much Ado About Nothing: I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool," &c.

STEEVENS.

7 Other CONCLUSIONS?] Other experiments. "I commend," says Walton," an angler that trieth conclusions, and improves his art." JOHNSON.

Of these thy compounds on such creatures as
We count not worth the hanging, (but none human,)
To try the vigour of them, and apply

Allayments to their act; and by them gather
Their several virtues, and effects.

COR.

Your highness

Shall from this practice but make hard your heart: Besides, the seeing these effects will be

Both noisome and infectious.

QUEEN.

O, content thee.

Enter PISANIO.

Here comes a flattering rascal; upon him [Aside.
Will I first work: he's for his master,

And enemy to my son.-How now, Pisanio?-
Doctor, your service for this time is ended;
Take your own way.

COR.

But you shall do no harm.

QUEEN.

I do suspect you, madam;

[Aside.

Hark thee, a word.-
[TO PISANIO.

COR. [Aside.] I do not like her. She doth think,

she has

So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"She hath pursued conclusions infinite

"Of easy ways to die." MALONE.

8 Your highness

Shall from this practice but make hard your heart:] There is in this passage nothing that much requires a note, yet I cannot forbear to push it forward into observation. The thought would probably have been more amplified, had our author lived to be shocked with such experiments as have been published in later times, by a race of men who have practised tortures without pity, and related them without shame, and are yet suffered to erect their heads among human beings.

Cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor. JOHNSON.

9 I do not like her.] This soliloquy is very inartificial. The speaker is under no strong pressure of thought; he is neither resolving, repenting, suspecting, nor deliberating, and yet makes a long speech to tell himself what himself knows. JOHNSON.

Strange lingering poisons: I do know her spirit,
And will not trust one of her malice with

A drug of such damn'd nature: Those, she has,
Will stupify and dull the sense awhile:

Which first, perchance, she'll prove on cats, and dogs;

Then afterward up higher; but there is
No danger in what show of death it makes,
More than the locking up the spirits a time',
To be more fresh, reviving. She is fool'd
With a most false effect; and I the truer,
So to be false with her 2.

QUEEN. Weeps she still, say'st thou? Dost thou think, in time

She will not quench3; and let instructions enter
Where folly now possesses? Do thou work;
When thou shalt bring me word, she loves my son,
I'll tell thee, on the instant, thou art then
As great as is thy master: greater; for
His fortunes all lie speechless, and his name

This soliloquy, however inartificial in respect of the speaker, is yet necessary to prevent that uneasiness which would naturally arise in the mind of an audience on recollection that the Queen had mischievous ingredients in her possession, unless they were undeceived as to the quality of them; and it is no less useful to prepare us for the return of Imogen to life. STEEVENS.

1-a time,] So the old copy. All the modern editionsfor a time. So, in the novel printed at the end of this play: "She appointing the other to be at the court the same time."

MALONE.

2 So to be false WITH HER.] The two last words may be fairly considered as an interpolation, for they hurt the metre, without enforcement of the sense.

"For thee," in the next line but one, might on the same account be omitted. STEEVENS.

3 — quench;] i. e. grow cool. STEEVENS.

Is at last gasp: Return he cannot, nor
Continue where he is: to shift his being ",
Is to exchange one misery with another;
And every day, that comes, comes to decay
A day's work in him: What shalt thou expect,
To be depender on a thing that leans "?
Who cannot be new built; nor has no friends,

6

[The Queen drops a box: PISANIO takes it up. So much as but to prop him ?-Thou tak'st up Thou know'st not what; but take it for thy labour: It is a thing I made, which hath the king

Five times redeem'd from death: I do not know
What is more cordial :-Nay, I pr'ythee, take it;
It is an earnest of a further good

That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how
The case stands with her; do't, as from thyself.
Think what a chance thou changest on; but think
Thou hast thy mistress still; to boot, my son,
Who shall take notice of thee: I'll move the king
To any shape of thy preferment, such

As thou❜lt desire; and then myself, I chiefly,
That set thee on to this desert, am bound
To load thy merit richly. Call my women:
Think on my words. [Exit Pisa.]—A sly and con-
stant knave;

7 Think what a CHANCE thou CHANGEST on ;] Such is the reading of the old copy, which by succeeding editors has been altered into

And

"Think what a chance thou chancest on-;"

"Think what a change thou chancest on-;"

but unnecessarily. The meaning is: "Think with what a fair prospect of mending your fortunes you now change your present service." STEEVENS.

A line in our author's Rape of Lucrece adds some support to the reading-thou chancest on, which is much in Shakspeare's

manner:

"Let there bechance him pitiful mis-chances." MALONE.