1 Guard. Cæsar hath sentChar.

Too slow a messenger.

[Applies the Asp.

O! come; apace; despatch: I partly feel thee. 1 Guard. Approach, ho! All's not well: Cæsar's beguil❜d.

2 Guard. There's Dolabella sent from Cæsar: call

him.

1 Guard. What work is here ?-Charmian, is this

well done?

Char. It is well done, and fitting for a princess Descended of so many royal kings.

Touch their effects in this: thyself art coming
To see perform'd the dreaded act, which thou
So sought'st to hinder.

Within. A way there! a way for Cæsar!

Enter CAESAR, and all his Train.

Dol. O, sir! you are too sure an augurer: That you did fear, is done.

Cæs.

Bravest at the last:

She levell'd at our purposes, and, being royal,

Took her own way. The manner of their deaths?
I do not see them bleed.

This Charmian lived but now; she stood, and spake.

I found her trimming up the diadem

On her dead mistress: tremblingly she stood,
And on the sudden dropp'd.

Cæs.

O noble weakness!

If they had swallow'd poison, 'twould appear
By external swelling; but she looks like sleep,
As she would catch another Antony

In her strong toil of grace.

Dol.

Here, on her breast,

There is a vent of blood, and something blown :
The like is on her arm.

1 Guard. This is an aspick's trail; and these figleaves

Have slime upon them, such as the aspick leaves
Upon the caves of Nile3.

Cæs.

Most probable,

That so she died; for her physician tells me,

She hath pursu'd conclusions infinite

Of easy ways to die.-Take up her bed,
And bear her women from the monument.
She shall be buried by her Antony:
No grave upon the earth shall clip in it

A pair so famous. High events as these
Strike those that make them; and their story is
No less in pity, than his glory, which
Brought them to be lamented. Our army shall,
In solemn show, attend this funeral,
And then to Rome.-Come, Dolabella, see
High order in this great solemnity.

[Exeunt.

66

3 Upon the CAVES of Nile.] This is the word in all the old copies, but the Rev. Mr. Barry suggests that the true reading is canes, and not caves:" in the folio, 1623, it is printed caues, the u being employed instead of, and Mr. Barry is of opinion that the error arose from the turning of the lettern, which thus became u. On the other hand, we have the evidence of the folio, 1632, that the old understanding of the passage was "caves," for it is there so printed, the u of the older copy having been discarded for its substitute. It is, besides, very obvious that the aspick might leave its slime upon the "caves" of Nile as well as upon the canes of Nile.

CYMBELINE.

"The Tragedie of Cymbeline" was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it stands last in the division of "Tragedies," and occupies thirty-one pages; viz. from p. 369 to p. 399, misprinted p. 993. There is another error in the pagination, as p. 379 is numbered p. 389. These errors are corrected in the three later folios.

INTRODUCTION.

THE materials in Holinshed for the historical portion of " "Cymbeline" are so imperfect and scanty, that a belief may be entertained that Shakespeare resorted to some other more fertile source, which the most diligent inquiries have yet failed to discover. The names of Cymbeline and of his sons, Guiderius and Arviragus, occur in the old Chronicle, and there we hear of the tribute demanded by the Roman emperor, but nothing is said of the stealing of the two young princes, nor of their residence with Bellarius among the mountains, and final restoration to their father.

All that relates to Posthumus, Imogen, and Iachimo is merely fabulous, and some of the chief incidents of this part of the plot are to be found in French, Italian, and English. We will speak of them separately.

They had been employed for a dramatic purpose in France at an early date, in a Miracle-play, printed in 1839 by Messrs. Monmerqué and Michel, in their Théâtre François au Moyen-age, from a manuscript in the Bibliothèque du Roi. In that piece, mixed up with many romantic circumstances, we find the wager on the chastity of the heroine, her flight in the disguise of a page, the proof of her innocence, and her final restoration to her husband. There also we meet with two circumstances, introduced into Shakespeare's "Cymbeline," but not contained in any other version of the story with which we are acquainted: we allude to the boast of Berengier (the Iachimo of the French drama), that if he were allowed the opportunity of speaking to the heroine but twice, he should be able to accomplish his design: Iachimo (Act i. sc. 5) makes the same declaration. Again, in the French Miracle-play, Berengier takes exactly Shakespeare's mode of assailing the virtue of Imogen, by exciting her anger and jealousy by pretending that her husband, in Rome, had set her the example of infidelity. Incidents somewhat similar are narrated in the French romances of La Violette, and Flore et Jehanne: in the latter the villain, being secretly admitted by an old woman into the bed-room of the heroine, has the means of ascertaining a particular mark upon her person while she is bathing. The novel by Boccaccio has many corresponding features: it is the ninth of Giornata II., and bears the following title: "Bernabo da Genova, da Ambrogiuolo ingannato, perde il suo, e comanda che la moglie innocente sia uccisa. Ella scampa, et in habito di huomo