(Retires . Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. Lau. Unhappy fortune ! by my brotherhood, Rom. Thou détestable maw, thou womb of death of dear import; and the neglecting it Gorg'd with the dearest morsel of the earth, And, in despite, I'll cram thee with more food! gue, Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake; Tbat murder'd my love's cousin ;-with which She will beshrew me much, that Romeo grief, Hath bad no notice of these accidents : It is supposed the fair creature died, But I will write again to Mautua, And here is come to do some villanous shame And keep her at my cell till Romeo come; To the dead bodies : I will apprehend him.Poor living corse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb ! (Adrances. (Erit. Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague ; Can vengeance be pursu'd farther than death ? SCENE III.-A Church-Yard ; in it, a Mo- Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee : nument belonging to the CAPULETS. Obey, and go with me ; for thou must die. Rom. I must, indeed ; and therefore came ! Enter PARIS, and his Page bearing Flowers bither.and a Torch. Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man, Par. Give me thy torch, boy: Hence and Fly hence and leave me ;-think upon these stand aloof; gone ; Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Let them aftriglit thee.-1 beseech thee, youth, Heap not another sin upon my head, Page. I am almost afraid to stand alone And do attach thee as a felon here. (Retires. [They figkt. Par. Sweet flower, with flowers I surew thy Page. o lord'! they fight : I will go call the bridal bed : watch. [Erit Pace. Sweet tomb, that in thy circuit dost contain Par. 0 I am slain ! (Falls.)-ıf thou be The perfect model of eternity; merciful, Rom. In faith, I will :-Let me peruse this Mercutio's kinsman, noble county Paris : [The boy whistles. What said my man, when my betossed soul The boy gives warning, something doth ap- Did not attend him as we rode ? I think, proach. He told me Paris should have married Juliet : Said he not so ? or did I dream it so ? (Retires. One writ with me in sour misfortune's book! l'll bury thee in a triumpbant grave, Enter Romeo and BALTHAZAR with a Turch, A grave? O no; a lantern, + slaughter'd youth, Mattock, &c. For bere lies Juliet, and her beauty makes Rom. Give me that mattock, and the wrench- This vault a feasting presence full of light. ing iron. Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd. Hold, take this letter ; early in the morning (Laying Paris in the Monument. See thou deliver it to my lord and father. How oft when men are at the point of death Give me the light : Upon thy life I charge thee, Have they been merry? which their keepers Whate'er thou hear'st or seest, stand all aloof, call And do not interrupt me in my course. A lightning before death : Oh! how may I Why I descend into this bed of death, Call this a lightning 1-0 my love! my wife ! Is partly, to behold my lady's face : Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, But, chiefly, to take hence from her dead finger Hath had no power yet upon thy beanty : Thou art not conquer'd ; beauty's ensign yet Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet ? oh! what more favour can I do to thee, And strew this bungry church-yard with thy Than with that band that cut thy youth in limbs : twain, The time and my intents are savage-wild ; To sunder his that was thine enemy? More fierce, and more inexorable far, Forgive me, cousin !- Ah! dear Juliet, Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea. Why art thou yet so fair ? Shall I believe Bal. I will be gone, Sir, and pot trouble That unsubstantial Death is amorous ; you. And that the lean abhorred monster keeps Rom. So shalt thou show me friendship.- Thee here in dark to be his parainour ! Take thou that: For fear of that, I will still stay with thee ; Live and be prosperous, and farewell, good and never from this palace of dim night fellow. Depart again ; here, here will I remain Bal. For all this same, I'll hide me here. With worms that are thy chainbermaids; O here • I refuse to do as thou conjurest me to do, i, e depart. + The allusion is to a louvre or turret full of wiados • 1. e. On a trivial or idle subject. by means of which ancient balls, &c. are illuminated. I. . Action of importance. i Presence chamber. face ; about ; way 1 Will I set up my everlasting rest ; To make me dle with a restorative. And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars (Kisses him. From this workil-wearied desh.-Eyes, look your Thy lips are warm ! i Watch. (Within.) Lead, boy :- Which Arms, take your last embrace ! and lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss Jul. Yea, noise 1-then I'll be brief.-0 happy A dateless bargain to engrossing death! dagger! Corpe, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide! (Snatching ROM BO's Dagger. Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on This is thy sheath ; [Stabs herself.] there rast, The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark ! and let me die. Here's to my love !-[Drinks.] o true apothe (Falls on Rombo's Body, and dies. cary Tby drugs are quick.-Thus with a kiss I die. Enter WATCH, with the Page of Paris. (Dies. Page. This is the place; there, where the Enter at the other end of the Church-Yard, torch doth burn. Friar LAURENCE, with a Lantern, Crow, 1 Wutch. The ground is bloody ; Search about and Spade. the church-yard : Go, some of you, whoe'er you find, attach. Fri. Saint Francis be my speed ! how oft to [Ereunt some. Eight Pitiful sight; here lies the connty slain ;Hare my old feet stumbled at graves ?—Who's And Juliet bleeding; warm, and newly dead, there? Who here hath lain these two days buried. Who is it that consorts, so late, the dead? Bel. Here's one, a friend, and one that kuows Raise up the Moutagues,-some others search ; Go, tell the prince,--run to the Capulets, you well. FH. Bliss be upon you ! Tell me, good my we see the ground whereon these woes do lie ; [Ereunt other WATCHMEN. friend, But the true ground of all these piteous woes, What torch is yond', that vainly lends his light We cannot without circumstance descry. Enter some of the Watch, with BALTHAZAR. Bel. It doth so, holy Sir; and there's my master, 2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man, we found him Ope that you love. in the church-yard. Fri. Who is it? 1 Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince Bal. Romeo. come hither. Fri. How long hath he been there? Enter another WATCHYAN, with Friar Bal. Full balf an hour. LAURENCE. 3 Watch. Here is a friar, that trembles, My Easter knows not, but I am gone hence ; sighs, and weeps : And fearfully did menace me with death, We took this mattock and this spade from him, If I did stay to look on his intents. As he was coming from this church-yard side. Fri, Stay then, I'll go aloue :-Fear comes 1 Watch. A great suspicion ; Stay the friar too. Enter the PRINCE and Attendants. Prince. What misadventure is so early up, And that my master slew him. That calls our person from our morning's rest? Fri. Romeo 1 [Advances. Enter CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, and others. Alach, alack, what blood is this, which staius The roay entrance of this sepulchre ? Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek Wbu bean these masterless and gory swords abroad? To lie discolour'd by this place of peace ? La. Cap. The people in the street cry(Enters the Monument. Romeo, Romeo! ob ! pale !-Who else? what, Paris Some-Juliet, and some-Paris ; and all run, too! With open outcry toward our monument. And steep'd in blood I-Ah! what an unkind Prince. What fear is this, wbich startles in boor our ears? b qours of this lamentable chance ! I Watch. Sovereign, bere lies the county The lady stirs. (JULIET wakes and stirs. Paris slain ; Jul. O comfortable friar ! where is my lord ? And Romeo dead ; and Juliet, dead before, I do remember well where I should be, Warm and new kill'd. And there I am :-Where is my Romeo ? Prince. Search, seek, and know how this soul (Noise within. murder comes. Pri. I hear some noise.-Lady, come from 1 Watch. Here is a friar, and slanghter'd that nest Romeo's man; Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep; With instruments upon them, fit to open A peater power than we can contradict These dead men's tombs. Haib ibwarted our intents ; come, come away : Cap. O heavens! O wife I look how our daugh. To bastrand in thy bosom there lies dead; ter bleeds! And Paris too :--come, I'll dispose of thee This dagger bath mista'en,- for lo ! bis house Amoeg a sisterbood of holy nuns : Is empty on the back of Montague, Stay tot lo question, for the watch is coming ; And is mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom. Come, go, good Juliet,-(Noise again.) I dare La. Cap. O me! this sight of death is as a stay do longer. [Erit. Jul. Gó, get thee hence, for I will not That warns my old age to a sepulchre. away, Enter MONTAGUE and others. What's bere? a cup, "clos'd in my true love's band 1 Prince. Come, Montague ; for thou art early Puison, I see, hath been his timeless end : UP Mon. Alas, my liege, my wife is dcad to. Haply, some poison yet doth hang on them, nigbt. • Conduetor. • I. e. The scabbard. bell, man. liet ; Grief of my son's exile bath stopp'd her breath : All this I know; and to the marriage Miscarried by my fault, let my old life Mon. O thou untaught! what manners is in Be sacrific'd some hour before his time, this, Unto the rigor of severest law. To press before thy father to a grave ? Prince. We still have known thee for a boly Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while, Where's Romeo's man? wbat can he say in 'Till we can clear these ambiguities, this? And kuow their spring, their head, their true Bal. I brought my master news of Juliet's descent; death; And then will I be general of your woes, And then in post he came from Mantua, And lead you even to death : Meantime for. To this same place, to this same mouument. bear, This letter be early bid me give his father ; And let mischance be slave to patience. Aud threaten'd me with death, going in the Bring forth the parties of suspicion. vault, Fri. I am the greatest, able to do least, If I departed not, and left him there. Yet most suspected, as the time and place Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on Doth make against me, of this diretui mur it. der; Where is the county's page, that rais'd the And here I stand, both to impeach and purge watch Myself condemned and myself accus'd. Sirrah, what made your master in this place ! Prince. Then say at once what thou dost Page. He came with flowers to strew bis know in this. lady's grave; Fri. I will be brief, for my short date of And bid me stand aloof, and so I did : breath Anon, comes one with light to ope the tomb; Is not so long as is a tedious tale. And, by and by, my master drew on him ; Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Ju. And then I ran away to call the watch. Prince. This letter doth make good the And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful friar's words, wife: Their course of love, the tidings of her death : I married them; and their stolen-marriage. And here he writes--that be did buy a poison day or a poor 'pothecary, and therewithal Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death came to this vault to die, and lie with JaBanish'd the new-made bridegroom froin this liet.city; Where be these enemies ? Capulet! MontaFor whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd. You-to remove that siege of grief from her,- See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, Betroth'd, and would have married her per- That beaven finds means to kill your joys force, with love! To mounty Paris :-Then comes she to me; And I, for winking at your discords too, And, with wild looks, bid me devise some Have lost a brace of kinsmen :' all are pubmeans ish'd. To rid her from this second marriage, Cap. o brother Montague, give me thy Or, in my cell there would she kill berself. hand : 'Theu gave I ber, so tutor'd by my art, This is my daughter's jointure, for no more A sleeping potion ; which so took effect Can I demaud. Mon. But I can give thee more : Cap. As rich shall Ruineo by his lady lie; But he which bore my letter, friar John, Poor sacrifices of our eminity! Was staid by accident ; and yesternight Prince. A glooming peace this morning with Return'd my letter back : Then all alone, it brings; At the prefixed hour of her waking, The sun for sorrow will not show his head : Came i to take her from her kindred's vault; Go hence, to have more talk of these sail Meaning to keep her closely at my cell, things ; Till I conveniently could send to Romeo : Some shall be pardon'd, and some puzBut when I came, (some minute ere the time ished : + of her awakening,) here untimely lay For never was a story of more woe, The noble Paris, and true Romeo, dead. Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. She wakes ; and I entreated her come forth, (Exeunt. And bear this work of heaveu with patience : • Mercutio and Paris. But then a noise did scare me from the tomb ; # In the original story (to which this line refers) And she too desperate, would not go with me, the prince tortures and hang's the apothecary : baviskes But (as it seems, did violence on herself. the old nurse ; perdons Romeo's servant; and allows Friar Laurence to relire tu a hermitage in the vicinity • Seat. of Verona. gne ! AS a piece for dramatic exhibition, this tragedy has been essentially improred by the celebrated Mr. Garrick: not only in the style and language, by which the jingle and quibble of many of its passages are expunged, but also by the transposition of several scenes, and by the following essential deviation from the original plot : As a menced by him, and represented at present, no mention is made of Rosaline, and the sudden and unsatural change of Romeo's affectiou from her to Juliet is thereby aroided : Juliet also revives from her death-like slumber before the petion has fully operated upon the frame of Romeo, and he dies in her arms, after attempting to carry her from the tomb. By this most judicious alteration, the pathos of the scene is herghtened to its bighest pitch for nothing can be more melting than the incidents and expressions which so highly-wrought a catastrophe abords. In the lt lvanstory upon which the play is founded, such was actually the desclopment of the plot; but shahspeare had certainly recourse to the English or French translation ; in which thais adulusion ou the tale was upon seme secount omitted, CYMBELINE. LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE. MALONE sapposes that Shakspeare wrote Cymbeline in the year 1605. The main fucidents upon which the plot terns, secur in a novel of Boccaccio's; but our poet obtained them in a different shape, from an old story: book entitled Westward for Smelts. Cymbeline, who gives name to the play, but is a cipher of royalty, began to reign over Britain in the 19th year of Augustus Cæsar. He filled the throne during thirty-five years, leaving *6 seas, Guiderius and Arviragus. The play commences in the 16th year of the Christian era, which was the #th year of Cymbeline's reign, and the 42nd of Augustus's. The subject of the piece is disjointed and much teo digase : it exhibits some monstrous breaches of dramatic unity, and several very languid and make-shift keses. Bat the part of Imogen is most delicately and delightfully drawo ; ber ideas are remarkably luxuriant, yet restrained ; and the natural warmth of her affections is, in many instances, most beautifully expressed. Claten is an incongruous animal, with some strong points about him; and a fine contrast to Posthumus, who la sketched with great judgment, feeling, and consistency. The Queen is an unfinished character, desirous of producing mischief, but possessing neither energy nor ability to accomplish her schemes ; and though lachibo's cunning is portrayed with uncommon skill in his first attempt upon Im virtue, yet his subsequent penitence and candour (however conducive to the moral) are not consistent with the usual bardihood of sa thorough-paced a villain. Notwithstanding its fine passages and affecting incidents, this play was lost to the sage satil Garrick andertook to revise it, by the abridgment of some scenes, and the transposition of others, it was redaced within the compass of a night's performance ; and has since continued a periodical favourite with the public. Dr. Johnson decides the merits of this historical drama in the following summary manner : "To remark the folly of the fiction, tbe absurdity of the conduct, the confusion of the names and manners of diferent times, and the impossibility of the events in any system of life, were to waste criticism upon unresisting izbeality, upon faults too evident for detection, and too gross for aggravation.” No one can deny the elegance e point of the Doctor's critical sentences, nor their murderous efficiency when meant to despatch an adversary at a single blow ; but the greatest fault of our poet consists in his having christened some characters of the krse ceatnry with names which belonged to the fifteenth ; and in his having seasoued their antique Roman koseay with a smattering of modero Italian villany. DRAMATIS PERSON.E. CTYBELINE, King of Britain. A ROMAN CAPTAIN. Two BRITISH CAPTAINS. CWIEN, Son to the Queen by a former hus. PISANIO, Servant to Posthumus. brand. CORNELIUS, a Physician. LEONATUS PUSTRUMUS, a Gentleman, Hus. Two GENTLEMEN. band to Imogon. Two JAILERS. QUEEN, Wife to Cymbeline. TUOGEN, Daughter to Cymbeline by a former GUITERIUS, under the names of Poly: Helen, Woman to Imogen. Queen. dore and (adwal, supposed Lords, Ladies, Roman Senators, Tribunes, PHILARIO, Friend to Posthumus, lacno, Friend to Philario, Apparitions, a Soothsayer, a Dutch Gentle } Italians. man, a Spanish Gentleman, Musicians, OfA FRENCH GENTLEMAN, Friend to Philario. ficers, Captains, Soldiers, Messengers, and Caics Lucius, General of the Roman Forces. other Attendants. SCER E, sometimes in Britain ; sometimes in Italy. ACT I. I Gent. His daughter, and the heir of bis kingdom, whom SCENE 1.- Britain.--The Garden behind He purpos'd to his wife's sole son, (a widow, CYMBELINE's Palace. That late be married.) hath referr'd herself Unto a poor but worthy gentleman : She's wedded ; Enter two GENTLEMEN. Her husband banish'd ; she imprison'd : all I Gent. You do not meet a man, but frowns: Is outward sorrow; though, I think, the king our bloods. Be touch'd at very beart. Ne more obey the heavens, than our courtiers; 2 Gent. None but the king ? still seem, as does the king's. + 1 Gent. He, that bath lost her, too : so is the * Gent. But what's the matter? queen, (tier, That most desir'd the match : But not a cour. • Inclinations. Mony pages of controversy have been wasted upon of the king's looks, bath a heart that is not Although they wear their faces to the bent fais pavage, wbich is very obscure, and must ever re Glad at the thing they scowl at. 2 Gent. And why so? So soon as I can win the offended king, 1 Gent. He that hath miss'd the princess, is a I will be known your advocate : marry, yet thing The fire of rage is in him ; and 'twere good Too bad for bad report : and he that hath ber, You leau'd unto his sentence, with what pa(I mean, that married her, alack, good man ! tience And therefore banish'd) is a creature such Your wisdom may inform you. As, to seek through the relgions of the earth Post. Please your highness, For one bis like, there would be something I will from hence to-day. failing Queen. You know the peril :In him that should compare. I do not think I'll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying So fair an outward, and such stuff within, The pangs of barr'd affections; though the Endows a man but he. king 2 Gent. You speak him far.. Hath charg'd you should not speak together. I Gent. I do extend him, Sir, within himself; (Exit QCEEN. Crush him together, rather than unfold Inno. O His measure duly. Dissembling courtesy ! How fine this tyrant 2 Gent. What's his name, and birth ? Can tickle where she wounds 1-My dearest I Gent. I cannot delve him to the root : His husband, (thirag father I something fear my father's wrath ; but ne. Was call's Sicilius, who did join his honour (Always reserv'd my holy duty,) wbat Against the Romans, with Cassibelan; His rage can do on me : You must be gone; But had his titles by Tenantius, + whom And I shall here abide the hourly shot But that there is this jewel in this world, To be suspected of more tenderness send, Could make him the receiver of; which he Though ink be made of gall. took, As we do air, fast as 'twas minister'd; and Re-enter QUEEN. In his spring became a barvest : Liv'd' in court, Queen. Be brief, I pray you : (Which rare it is to do,) most prais'd, most If the king come, I shall incur I know not lov'd : 1 (ture, How much of his displeasure :-Yet I'll more A sample to the youngest ; to the more ma him (A side. A glass that feated | them; and to the graver, To walk this way: I never do him wrong, (Erit. Proclaims how she esteem'd bim and his virtue ; Post. Should we be taking leave By her election may be truly read, As long a term as yet we have to live, What kind of man he is. The loathness to depart would grow : Adien ! 2 Gent. I honour bim Imo. Nay, stay a little : Such parting were too petty. Look here, lore; 1 Gent. His only child. This diamond was my mother's : take it, beart; He had two sons, (if this be worth your hearing, But keep it till you woo another wife, Mark it,) the eldest of them at three years old, When Imogen is dead. l'the swathing clothes the other, from their Post. How ! how! another nursery (knowledge You gentle gods give me but this I have, Were stolen : and, to this hour, no guess in Aud sear up • my embracements from a dext Which way they went. With bonds of death! - Remain thou here 2 Gent. How long is this ago (Putting on the Ring. 1 Gent. Some twenty years. While sense + can keep it on ? And sweeless, 2 Gent. That a king's children should be so fairest, convey'd! As I my poor self did exchange for you, So slackly guarded! And the search so slow, To your so infinite loss; so, in our trifles That could not trace them! I still win of you : For my sake, wear this ; 1 Gent. Howsoe'er 'tis strange, It is a manacle of love : 1'11 place it Or that the negligence may well be laugb'd at, Upon this fairest prisoner. Yet is it true, Sir. (Putting a Bracelet on her Arn. 2 Gent. I do well believe you. Imo. O the gods ! I Gent. We must forbear : Here come the When shall we see again ? queen and princess. Ereunt. Enter CIMBELINE and LORDS. Post. Alack, the king ! Cym. Thou basest thing, avoid ! hence, from Enter the QUEEX, POSTHUMUS, and IMOGEN. my sight! Queen. No, be assur'd, you shall not find me, If, after this command, thou fraught the court daughter, With thy unworthiness, thou diest : Away! After the slander of most step-mothers, Thou art poison to my blood. Post. The gods protect you! (Erit. Imo. There cannot be a pinch in death • You are lavish in your encomiums. More sharp than this is. + The father of Cymbeline. Cym. 0 disloyal ibing, • To be at once loved and praised, is truly rare. Forted their manners, Scusation. # Fil. • Clow up. |