(or by probable inference in the few imperfect lines) Posthumus. Mr. Steevens, in a remark, omitted in Mr. Reed's edition, upon a passage, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, made a strange mistake, in asserting that this name in Cymbeline is always Posthumus, and not Posthumus.

But the false accentuation so prevalent in this play is not without authority; in Warner's Albion's England the same objection occurs more than once, both in Posthumus and Arviragus:

Posthumus Sylvius did succeed; Launia was his mother;

"And Saturne him: from mother thus Posthumus lacked not.

"Anchises he Æneas had; of him Posthumus

came;

"Duke Arviragus using then the armour of the king,

"And through his gentle victorie, bound Arvirăgus still."

586. "I fast, and pray'd."

Milton has " uplift," for uplifted, in Paradise Lost:

"With head uplift above the waves, &c.

591. "

SCENE III.

And shall perform."

It should be-" and will perform."

592. "To yield me often tidings."

; I am doubtful whether "often," here, is an adverb or an adjective to yield tidings fre

quently, or to yield frequent tidings;-if it be the adjective, it is not singular; for we find in As You Like It

593.

My often rumination.”

Wherein I am false, I am honest; not true, to be true."

A similar play upon words occurred before, in the second act:

"To do a great right, do a little wrong."

And

"I must be cruel only to be kind.”

SCENE IV.

595. "Never bestrid a horse, save one, that had "A rider like myself, who ne'er wore rowel "Nor iron on his heel."

I never rode a horse, but such a one as (belonging to a rustic like myself) was untrained to exercise-it should be "or iron," &c. "nor" disunites the kindred ideas of the spur, rowel and

iron.

597.

ACT V. SCENE I.

Better than themselves."

As this relates to the apostrophis'd, "married ones!" it surely should be "yourselves."

"No bond, but to do just ones.” (There is) no bond, &c.

Milton makes use of a similar ellipsis :

A dungeon horrible, on all sides round "As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames

"No light, but rather darkness," &c.

i. e. No light (proceeded.)

The abrupt introduction, thus, of the negative conjunction, without a leading negative, has been remarked already as unwarrantable: " not," or "neither," is necessary before " pitied."

An ancient soldier,

Who deserv'd

"So long a breeding, as his white beard

came to."

Who deserved to have lived so long as his beard indicated.

605. "With their own nobleness

"Gilded pale looks."

B. STRUTT.

Flushed their cheeks with shame or emulation. Lady Macbeth says,

"I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal."

See a note of Mr. Henley's on "the gilded puddle," first act of Antony and Cleopatra.

This corruption of " he would rather" has been noted already. See Dr. Lowth's grammar.

618. "Tis still a dream; or else such stuff as madmen

Tongue, and brain not; either both, or nothing:

"Or senseless speaking, or a speaking

such

"As sense cannot untie."

If it could for a moment be supposed that Shakspeare ever allowed such nonsense as is here alluded-to, to be associated or incorporated with any work of his, this may be considered a very proper comment by him upon it.

619. "Fear no more tavern bills; which are often the sadness of parting, as the procuring of mirth."

This is imperfectly expressed: I suppose the meaning is that tavern bills are as often, when the hour of payment comes, the motive of sadness, as the articles which compose them had before been of mirth.

621. "I never saw one so prone."

Prone implies addiction-prompt or natural inclination; in which sense the word occurs in King Henry VIII. Act 1, 189, and in Measure for Measure, Act 1, 273.

625. "IVhen she had fitted you."

When she had prepared you; made you ready for her purpose.

627. "Though he have serv'd a Roman."

This is not the subjunctive sense; it should be, "Though he has serv'd a Roman-" the particles "though," and "if," denoting, sometimes as they both do, the subjunctive mood, are often carelessly mistaken as the absolute signs of it.

66

Your life, good master,

"Must shuffle for itself."

This ingratitude of Imogen does not at all suit with her general character, and is, perhaps, an additional argument, to many which I think are obvious, that much of this play is spurious.

629. "Thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that

"Which, to be spoke, would torture thee." Cymbeline had commanded Iachimo to speak, on pain of the torture, and Iachimo replies, that it would be torture to him not to speak; the sense, therefore, requires that the passage should proceed thus:

"Thou'dst torture me to leave unspoken that "Which, to be spoke, will torture thee."

631.

For feature, laming "The shrine of Venus."

But Posthumus, on the occasion referred to, gave no such extravagant description of his mistress; and, as Iachimo at this time has renounced imposture, there is an evident inconsistency in the passage.