mer's is the more licentious; but he makes the sense clear, and leaves the reader an easy passage. Dr. Warburton has corrected with more caution, but less improvement: his reasoning upon his own reading is so obscure and perplexed, that I suspect some injury of the press. I am now to tell my opinion, which is, that the lines stand as they were originally written, and that a paraphrase, such as the licentious and abrupt expressions of our author too frequently require, will make emendation unnecessary. We do not meet a man but frowns: our bloods-our countenances, which, in popular speech, arc said to be regulated by the temper of the blood,—no more obey the laws of heaven, which direct us to appear what we really are, than our courtiers, that is, than the bloods of our courtiers; but our bloods, like theirs, still seem, as doth the king's. JOHN.

'You do not meet a man but frowns: our bloods
No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers',
Still seem, as does the king's.'

The commentators perceive not the form, neither have they attended to the drift, the tendency of the speech: their reasoning on it is consequently erroneous. The punctuation must be altered. For 'no' we must read not.' This done, the whole may be easily understood.

'You do not meet a man but frowns. Our bloods

Not more obey the heavens, than our courtiers
Still seem as does the king.'

The meaning is plainly as follows: the gentleman first observes, You do not meet a man but frowns,' i. e. the people are dissatisfied with the state of affairs. He then proceeds to point out more particularly the cause of their discontent. Our bodies do not more obey, they are not more susceptible of the influence of the heavens, than are our courtiers of the influence of the king.' They ever seem as he [the king] seems. Their nature, in short, is worked on entirely by him. B.

Post.

Remain, remain thou here

While sense can keep it on.

[Putting on the ring.

While sense can keep thee on! The folio (the only ancient and authentic copy of this play) reads:

While sense can keep it on!

which I believe to be right. The expression means, while sense can maintain its operations; while sense continues to have power. STEEV.

'While sense can keep it on.'

and not the intellectual faculty.

Sense in this place is life, motion, Posthumus would say, that while

he has life the ring shall remain on his finger. B..

Cym. O disloyal thing,

That should'st repair my youth; thou heapest
A year's age on me!

-Thou heapest

A year's age on me !]

Dr. Warburton reads:

A yare age on me.

It seems to me, even from Skinner, whom he cites, that yare is used only as a personal quality. Nor is the authority of Skinner sufficient, without some example to justify the alteration. Hanmer's reading is better, but rather too far from the original copy:

I read:

thou heapest many

A year's age on me.

-thou heap'st

Years, ages, on me.

JOHN.

I would receive Dr. Johnson's emendation: he is, however, mistaken when he says that yure is used only as a personal quality. See Antony and Cleopatra,

Their ships are yare, yours heavy.

Yure, however, will by no means apply to Dr. Warburton's sense. STEEV. A year's age on me.' The present reading is feeble. For' year' I would propose sear, or sere, i. e. dry, withered. B.

Imo. I beseech you, sir,

Harm not yourself with your vexation; I

Am senseless of your wrath, a touch more rare
Subdues all pangs, all fears.

-a touch more rare

Subdues all pangs, all fears.]

Rare is used often for eminently good; but I do not remember any pas sage in which it stands for eminently bad. May we read:

———a touch more near.

'Cura deam propior luctusque domesticus angit.' Ovid.

Shall we try again:

-a touch more rear.

Crudum vulnus. But of this I know not any example. There is yet another interpretation which perhaps will remove the difficulty. A touch more rare may mean a nobler passion. JOHN.

A touch more rare is undoubtedly a more exquisite feeling, a superior sensation. So as Dr. Farmer observes to me in Fraunce's Yvichurch. He is speaking of Mars and Venus, "When sweet tickling joyes of tutching came to the highest poynt, when two were one," &C. STEEV.

A touch more rare.'

'A touch more rare,' is not a sensation of the body but of the mind. Dr. Farmer's quotation is therefore impertinent. Johnson has rightly interpreted the expression in our author by a nobler passion,' as meaning, that her love for her husband was greater than her love for her father. From the word rare,' however, it seems to have a more extended signification to involve in it the sense of a finer affection, more than that of ordinary natures. This would Imogen say. B.

Pis.

For so long

As he could make me with this eye, or ear,
Distinguish him from others, he did keep
The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief,
Still waving,

-for so long

As he could make me with his eye, or ear,

Distinguish him from others.]

But how could Posthumus make himself distinguished by his ear to Pisanio? By his tongue he might to the other's ear: and this was certainly Shakspeare's intention. We must therefore read:

As he could make me with this eye or ear,

Distinguish him from others.

The expression is deuries, as the Greeks term it: the party speaking points to that part spoken of. WARB. Sir T. Hanmer alters it thus:

-for so long

As he could mark me with his eye, or I
Distinguish-

The reason of Hanmer's reading was, that Pisanio describes no address made to the ear.

JOHN.

For, so long

As he could make me with his eye, or ear,
Distinguish him from others.'

We need not hesitate in displacing ear:' not only for the reason given by Hanmer, but from the improbability that Posthumus should be calling out to Pisanio from the deck of the ship, or that, even supposing he had done so, Pisanio, on the shore, should have been able to hear him. It is the business of an editor to keep as near as possible to the text: I therefore read,

'No, madam,- for so long

As he could make me with his eye, or e'er [I]
Distinguish him from others.'

The meaning is, No, madam; for so long as he could make me with his eye, [reach me with his eye] or so long as ever [as he, Posthumus, supposed] that I could distinguish him, he kept the deck, &c.' The want of the personal pronoun, which should accompany 'e'er,' obscures the expression. It must here, however, as in many other passages of Shakspeare, be understood. Make' is the sea term for reach. Make the shore.' B.

Give him that parting kiss, which I had set
Betwixt two charming words, comes in my

father

And, like the tyrannous breathing of the north,
Shakes all our buds from growing.

-Or ere I could

Give him that parting kiss, which I had set
Betwixt two charming words.]

Dr. Warburton pronounces as absolutely as if he had been present at their parting, that these two charming words were, adieu, Posthumus; but, as Mr. Edwards has observed, "she must have understood the language of love very little, if she could find no tenderer expression of it, than the name by which every one called her husband." STEEV.

By charming words,' we are not, I believe, to understand either pleasing or tender expressions. Charming words are apparently such as have the power of charms, or enchantments: words which have some occult, some secret property: words, in short, which will serve as a protection from evil, from every kind of harm. Such spell Imogen would here make use of. This is according to the opinions of Shakspeare's time. Charms and witcheries were then generally believed in. B.

Shakes all our buds from growing.] A bud, without any distinct idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural representation of any thing incipient or immature; and the buds of flowers, if flowers are meant, grow to flowers, as the buds of fruits grow to fruits. JOHN.

I think the old reading may be sufficiently supported by the following passage in the 18th sonnet of our author;

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May." Again, in the Taming of a Shrew:

"Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds." STEEV.

Shakes all our buds from growing.'

The passages which Mr. Steevens has adduced in support of the original reading are nothing to the purpose. No one will dispute with him but that rough winds may shake the darling buds of May,' or that whirlwinds may shake fair buds.' But the question is not if rough winds can shake a bud, but how rough winds can shake a bud from growing. The one is a simple assertion, the other an assertion bearing with it an inference or consequence. I do not think, however, that there is any necessity for altering the text. The meaning plainly is, that the tyrannous breath of the north' strikes the bud or blossom of the tree to the ground, so that the expected fruit is consequently lost. B.

Phil. You speak of him when he was less furnish'd, than now he is, with that which makes him both without and within.

Makes him.] In the sense in which we say, This will make or mar you. JOHN.

'Makes him both without and within.'

Than that which makes him,' seems to mean than that of which he is composed, the accomplishments both of body and mind. B.

Iach. This matter of marrying his king's daughter, (wherein he must be weigh'd rather by her value, than his own) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the

matter.

SHAK.

II.

R

Words him-a great deal from the matter.] Makes the description of him very distant from the truth. Joan.

'Words him-a great deal from the matter.'

Words him' is particularly harsh. I read wonds him, i. e. places him differently, or turns him from. See Chaucer. B.

Iach. Be it but to fortify her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beggar without more quality.

Without more quality. The folio reads less quality. Mr. Rowe first made the alteration. STEEV.

Without more quality.' The original reading 'less quality,' is right. The words are not used in relation to Posthumus but to Imogen: for what can be understood of a beggar without more quality? We must change the order of the words: for taking without less quality, a beggar.' She will ever be censured for making choice of (except she had been of less quality, of less consideration in the court) a beggar.' B.

If you

Iach. You are a friend, and therein the wiser. buy ladies' flesh at a million a dram, you cannot preserve it from tainting: But, I see, you have some religion in you, that you fear.

You are a friend, and therein the wiser.] I correct it :

You are afraid, and therein the wiser.

What Iachimo says, in the close of his speech, determines this to have been our poet's reading:

But, I see you have some religion in you, that you fear. WARB. You are a friend to the lady, and therein the wiser, as you will not expose her to hazard; and that you fear, is a proof of your religious fidelity. JOHN.

'You are a friend, and therein the wiser.'

I read you are affied and therein the wiser.' i, e. You have sworn fidelity to each other; and therefore think yourself secure.' Iachimo afterwards says to Imogen,

B.

'I have spoke this, to know if your affiance were deeply rooted.'

Of these thy compounds on such creatures as

We count not worth the hanging, (but none human)