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Id. 1. 21. Be brooch'd with me:] Be brooch'd. 1. e. adorn'd. A brooch was an ornament formerly worn in the hat.

Id 1. 24. - still conclusion, Sedate determination; silent coolness of resolution. Id. l. 29. Here's sport, indeed! Cleopatra. perhaps, by this affected levity, this phrase which has no determined signification, only wishes to inspire Antony with cheerfulness, and encourage those who are engaged in the melancholy task of drawing him up into the monu

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Diseases in our bodies:] When we have any bodily complaint, that is curable by scarifying, we use the lancet; and if we neglect to do so, we are destroyed by it. Autony was to me a disease; and by his being cut off, I am made whole. We could not both have lived in the world together. MALONE.

Id. c. 2, l. 6. -his thoughts- His is here used for its.

Id. 1. 8. Our equalness to this] That is, should have made us, in our equality of fortune, disagree to a pitch like this, that one of us must die.

SCENE 11.

Id. l. 48. - fortune's knave,] The servant of fortune. Id. l. 49.

And it is great, &c.] The difficulty of the passage, if any difficulty there be, arises only from this, that the act of suicide, and the state which is the effect of suicide, are confounded. Voluntary death, says she, is an act which bolts up change: it produces a state, Which sleeps, and never palates more the dụng,

The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's. Which has no longer need of the gross and terrene sustenance, in the use of which Casar and the beggar are on a level.

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Id.

Id.

his rear'd arm

Crested the world:) Alluding to some of the old crests in heraldry, where a raised arm on a wreath was mounted on the helmet. 1. 13 As plates- Mr. Steevens justly interprets plates to mean silver money. It is 4 term in heraldry. The balls or roundels in an escutcheon of arms, according to their diferest colours, have different names. If gules, or red, they are called tortures; if cr. of yellow, bezants: if argent, or white, plates. which are buttons of silver without any pression, but only prepared for the stamp 1. 21. To vie strange forms- To vie was a

term at cards.

Id. l. 23.

yet, to imagine

An Antony, were nature's piece 'gainst fancy,

Condemning shadows quite.] The word piece is a term appropriated to works of art. Here nature and fancy produce each their piece. and the piece done by nature had the preference. Antony was in reality past the se of dreaming; he was more by nature than fancy could present in sleep.

Id. 1. 56. I cannot project-] 1. e. I cannot shape or form my cause, &c.

P. 413, c. 1, 7. 4. -seel my lips.] It means, close up my lips as effectually as the eyes of a hawk are closed. To seel hawks was the technical

term

Id. 1. 20. O rarely base!] i. e. base in an uncom mon degree.

Id. 1. 26. Parcel the sum of my disgraces byThe meaning either is, "that this fellow shood add one more parcel or item to the sum of my disgraces, namely, his own malice ;” or, “that this fellow should top up the sum of my die graces, and add his own malice to the account.” Id. l. 30. modern friends—] Modern means here, as it generally does in these plays, commes or ordinary.

Id. 1. 34. With one-] With, in the present instance, has the power of by.

Id. 1. 38. Through the ashes of my chance - Or fortune. The meaning is, Begoue, or I shal exert that royal spirit which I had in my prosperity, in spite of the imbecility of my present weak condition.

Id. 1. 45. We answer others' merits-] As demerita was often used, in Shakspeare's time, as syn nymous to merit, so merit might have been used in the sense which we now affix to demerit; or the meaning may be only,-we are called to account, and to answer in our own names for acts, with which others, rather tas we, deserve to be charged. Id. c. 2, l. 18.

and scald rhymers) Scald ws a word of contempt, implying poverty, disease, and filth.

Id. l. 19. the quick comedians- The Lively, inventive, quick-witted comedians.

P. 413, c. 2, 1. 23.

-boy my greatness-] The | Id. l. 48. parts of women were acted on the stage by boys. Id.. 45. "What poor," &c.-MALONE

-now the fleeting moon-] Fleeting

Id 1 50 is inconstant.

Id 1 55--the pretty worm of Nilus-] Worm is the Teutonic word for serpent; we have the blind-worm and slow-worm still in our Language, and the Norwegians call an enormous monster, seen sometimes in the Northern ocean, the sea-worm. Id. 1. 75. will do his kind.] The serpent will act according to his nature.

P. 414, c. 1, 7. 20. Yare, yare,] i. e. make haste, be nimble, be ready.

Id. 1 31. Have I the aspick in my lips?] are my lips poison'd by the aspick, that my kiss has destroy'd thee?

Id. 1. 31. Dost fall?] Iras must be supposed to have applied an asp to her arm while her mistress was settling her dress, or I know not why she should fall so soon. STEEVENS. Id. 1. 41. He'll make demand of her;] He will enquire of her concerning me, and kiss her for giving him intelligence.

Id. . 42. "Come, thou mortal wretch," &c.MALONE.

Id.

Id.

ass

Unpolicied!] i. e. an ass without more policy than to leave the means of death within my reach, and thereby deprive his triumph of its noblest decoration.

1. 60. Downy windows, close ;] Charmian, in saying this, must be conceived to close Cleopatra's eyes; one of the first ceremonies performed toward a dead body.

1. 63. and then play. i. e. play her part in this tragic scene by destroying herself: or she may mean, that having performed her last office for her mistress, she will accept the permission given her before, to "play till doomsday."

Id. l. 44. something blown:] The flesh is somewhat puffed or swoln.

Id. 1. 51. She hath pursu'd conclusions infinite-] To pursue conclusions, is to try experi

ments.

Id. 1. 55. shall clip-] i. e. infold.
Id. 1.58. - their story is

No less in pity, than his glory, &c.] i. e. the narrative of such events demands not less compassion for the sufferers, than glory on the part of him who brought on their sufferings.

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Cymbeline.

୧୪୪୪

Historical Notes.

M.POPE supposed the story of this play to have been borrowed from a novel of Boccace; but le was mistaken, as an imitation of it is found n an old story-book entitled Westward for melts. This imitation differs in as many pariculars from the Italian novelist, as from Shakseare, though they concur in some material arts of the fable. It was published in a quarto amphlet 1603. This is the only copy of it which I have hitherto seen.

There is a late entry of it in the books of he Stationer's Company, Jan. 1619, where it is aid to have been written, by Kitt of Kingston.

THEVENS.

The only part of the fable which can be proounced with certainty to be drawn from the bove, is, Imogen's wandering about after Pisaio has left her in the forest: her being almost mished and being taken, at a subsequent pe od, into the service of the Roman General as a age. The general scheme of Cymbeline is, in opinion, formed on Boccace's novel (Day 2, lov. 9.) and Shakspeare has taken a circumance from it, that is not mentioned in the other de. See Act II. sc. ii. It appears from the reface to the old translation of the Decamerone, finted in 1620, that many of the novels had efore received an English dress, and had been rinted separately: "I know, most worthy lord ays the printer in his Epistle Dedicatory), that any of them [the novels of Boccace] have long ace been published before, as stolen from the riginal author, and yet not beautified with his weet style and elocution of phrase, neither saouring of his singular moral applications." Cymbeline, I imagine, was written in the year 690. The king, from whom the play takes its te, began his reign, according to Holinshed, a the 19th year of the reign of Augustus Cæar; and the play commences in or about the wenty-fourth year of Cymbeline's reign, which vas the forty-second year of the reign of AuJustus, and the 16th of the Christian æra; notwithstanding which, Shakspeare has peopled

Rome with modern Italians; Philario, Iachi mo, &c. Cymbeline is said to have reigned thirty-five years, leaving at his death two sons, Guiderius and Arviragus. MALONE.

An ancient translation, or rather, a deformed and interpolated imitation, of the ninth novel of the second day of the Decameron of Boccacio, has recently occurred. The title and Colophon of this rare piece are as follows:

"This mater treateth of a merchantes wyfe that afterwarde went lyke a man and becam a great lorde and was called Frederyke of Jennen afterwarde."

"Thus endeth this lytell story of lorde Frederyke. Imprynted in Anwarpe by me John Dusborowhge, dwellynge besyde ye Camer porte in the yere of our lorde god a. M. CCCCC. and xviij."

This novel exhibits the material features of its original; though the names of the characters are changed, their sentiments debased, and their conduct rendered still more improbable than in the scenes before us. John of Florence is the Ambrogiulo, Ambrosius of Jennens the Bernabo of the story. Of the translator's elegance of imagination, and felicity of expression, the two following instances may be sufficient. He has converted the picturesque mole under the left breast of the lady, into a black wart on her left arm; and when at last, in a male habit, she discovers her sex, instead of displaying her bosom only, he obliges her to appear before the king and his whole court completely" naked, save that she had a karcher of sylke before hyr members."-The whole work is illustrated with wooden cuts, representing every scene throughout the narrative.

I know not that any advantage is gained by the discovery of this antiquated piece, unless it serves to strengthen our belief that some more faithful translation had furnished Shakspeare with incidents which, in their original Italian, to him at least were inaccessible. STEEVENS.

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