A sleeping potion; which so took effect

As I intended, for it wrought on her

The form of death: meantime, I writ to Romeo,
That he should hither come as this dire night,
To help to take her from her borrow'd grave, 58
Being 59 the time the potion's force should cease.

But he which bore my letter, friar John,
Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight
Return'd my letter back. Then, all alone,
At the prefixed hour of her waking,

Came I to take her from her kindred's vault,
Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,
Till I conveniently could send to Romeo:
But when I came, (some minute ere the time
Of her awakening) here untimely 60 lay
The noble Paris, and true Romeo, dead.
She wakes; and I entreated her come forth,
And bear this work of heaven with patience:
But then a noise did scare me from the tomb,
And she, too desperate, would not go with me,
But (as it seems) did violence on herself.
All this I know, and to the marriage
Her nurse is privy; and, if aught in this
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
Be sacrific'd some hour before his time,
Unto the rigour of severest law.

Prince. We still have known thee for a holy man.
Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this?

Bal. I brought my master news of Juliet's death,
And then in post he came from Mantua,
To this same place, to this same monument.
This letter he early bid me give his father;
And threaten'd me with death, going in the vault,
If I departed not, and left him there.

Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on it.
Where is the county's page, that rais'd the watch?

Sirrah, what made your master in this place?

Page. He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave,

And bid me stand aloof, and so I did:

Anon, comes one with light to ope the tomb,

56 Das Grab, das sie nur zum Schein angenommen hatte, nicht ihr wirkliches, sondern nur ein scheinbar erborgtes Grab.

53) being the time gehört zu as this dire night.

60 untimely dead ist mit einander zu verbinden.

And, by and by, my master drew on him;

And then I ran away to call the watch.

Prince. This letter doth make good the friar's words,
Their course of love, the tidings of her death:
And here he writes, that he did buy a poison
Of a poor 'pothecary; and therewithal 61
Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet.
Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love;
And I, for winking at your discords too,

Have lost a brace of kinsmen: 62

all are punish’d.

Cap. O, brother Montague! give me thy hand: This is my daughter's jointure; for no more

Can I demand.

Mon.

But I can give thee more;

For I will raise her statue in pure gold,
That, while Verona by that name is known,

There shall no figure at such rate be set,

As that of true and faithful Juliet.

Cap. As rich shall Romeo by his lady lie;

Poor sacrifices of our enmity!

Prince. A glooming 63 peace this morning with it brings;

The sun for sorrow will not show his head.

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;

Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:

For 64

never was a story of more woe,

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

[Exeunt.

61) scil. with the poison.

62) Das Paar Verwandte, welche der Prinz verloren hat, sind Mercutio, der als Verwandter des Fürsten schon früher vorgeführt war, und Paris, von dem Romeo in dieser Scene gesagt hatte: Mercutio's kinsman, noble county Paris.

63) to gloom trübe aussehen, matt scheinen, gebrauchten Sh's. Zeitgenossen von dem Dämmerlichte, nicht von der Nacht. Q. A. liest gloomy peace.

64) For etc. lässt sich nicht wohl auf die nächstvorhergehende Zeile, sondern auf die früheren beziehen.

CYMBELINE.

HERAUSGEGEBEN UND ERKLÄRT

VON

DR. NICOLAUS DELIUS.

ELBERFELD, 1855.
VERLAG VON R. L. FRIDERICHS.

Einleitung.

Shakspere's Cymbeline erschien zuerst gedruckt in der Gesammtausgabe aller Shakspere'schen Dramen in Folio 1623, wo es, The Tragedie of Cymbeline betitelt, den Schluss der dritten Abtheilung des Bandes, der Tragedies, bildet. Die Acte und Scenen sind dort schon angegeben, aber ein Personenverzeichniss fehlt. Der Text der Folioausgabe (Fol.) ist verhältnissmässig correct, und auch in der Versabtheilung und Interpunction haben die Herausgeber weniger zu ändern gefunden, als bei manchen anderen Dramen, welche unmittelbar aus einer Bühnenhandschrift in die Fol. übergingen.

Die erste Erwähnung des Dramas findet sich in dem von Collier entdeckten Tage- und Notizenbuche eines gewissen Doctor Symon Forman, der bereits in der Einleitung zum Macbeth citirt worden ist. Forman giebt den Inhalt des Schauspiels, das er darstellen sah, folgender.

massen an:

Remember, also, the story of Cymbeline, King of England, in Lucius' time: how Lucius came from Octavius Cæsar for tribute, and, being denied, after sent Lucius with a great army of soldiers, who landed at Milford Haven, and after were vanquished by Cymbeline, and Lucius taken prisoner, and all by means of three outlaws, of the which two of them were the sons of Cymbeline, stolen from him when they were but two years old, by an old man whom Cymbeline had banished; and he kept them as his own sons twenty years with him in a cave. And how one of them slew Cloten, that was the Queen's son, going to Milford Haven to seek the love of Imogen the King's daughter, whom he had banished also for loving his daughter.

And how the Italian that came from her love conveyed himself into a chest, and said it was a chest of plate sent from her love and others to be presented to the King. And in the deepest of the night, she being asleep he opened the chest and came forth of it, and viewed her in her bed, and