sleep Did mock sad fools withal this cannot be : My daughter's buried. Well where were you bred? I'll hear you more, to the bottom of your story, And never interrupt you. Mar. You scorn: believe me, 'twere best I did give o'er. 169 Per. I will believe you by the syllable Of what you shall deliver. Yet, give me leave: How came you in these parts? where were you bred ? [me; Mar. The king my father did in Tarsus leave Till cruel Cleon, with his wicked wife, Did seek to murder me and having woo'd A villain to attempt it, who having drawn to do't, A crew of pirates came and rescued me; Brought me to Mytilene. But, good sir, Whither will you have me? Why do you weep? It may be, 180 You think me an impostor: no, good faith; Per. Ho, Helicanus ! Per. Thou art a grave and noble counsellor, Lys. 190 Per. O Helicanus, strike me, honor'd sir; Give me a gash, put me to present pain; Lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me O'erbear the shores of my mortality, And drown me with their sweetness. O, come hither, Thou that beget'st him that did thee beget; Thou that wast born at sea, buried at Tarsus, And found at sea again! O Helicanus, The music of the spheres! List, my Marina. Lys. It is not good to cross him; give him way. Per. Rarest sounds! Do ye not hear? So, leave him all. Well, my companion friends, 240 [Exeunt all but Pericles. DIANA appears to PERICLES as in a vision. Dia. My temple stands in Ephesus: hie thee thither, And do upon mine altar sacrifice. [gether, There, when my maiden priests are met toBefore the people all, Reveal how thou at sea didst lose thy wife : To mourn thy crosses, with thy daughter's, call And give them repetition to the life. Or perform my bidding, or thou livest in woe; Do it, and happy; by my silver bow! Now our sands are almost run; More a little, and then dumb. This, my last boon, give me, 270 For such kindness must relieve me, To greet the king. So he thrived, 280 [Exit. SCENE III. The temple of Diana at Ephesus; THAISA standing near the altar, as high priestess; a number of Virgins on each side; CERIMON and other Inhabitants of Ephesus attending. Enter PERICLES, with his train; LYSIMACHUS, HELICANUS, MARINA, and a Lady. Per. Hail, Dian! to perform thy just command, I here confess myself the king of Tyre; At sea in childbed died she, but brought forth Thai. 'Twas Helicanus then. Per. Still confirmation : Embrace him, dear Thaisa; this is he. Now do I long to hear how you were found; How possibly preserved; and who to thank, Besides the gods, for this great miracle Thai. Lord Cerimon, my lord; this man, Through whom the gods have shown the r power; that can From first to last resolve you. Per. Reverend sir, The gods can have no mortal officer More like a god than you. Will you deliver How this dead queen re-lives? 60 Cer. How she came placed here in the temple; Per. Pure Dian, bless thee for thy vision! ] Will offer night-oblations to thee. Thaisa, 70 This prince, the fair-betrothed of your daugh CYMBELINE. (WRITTEN ABOUT 1609.) INTRODUCTION. Cymbeline interweaves with a fragment of British history taken from Holinshed, a story from Boccacio's Decameron (9th Novel of 2nd Day), the Genevra of the Italian novel corresponding to Shakespeare's Imogen. The story is told in a tract called Westward for Smelts, 1620 (stated by Steevens and Malone to have been published as early as 1603); but Shakespeare appears in some way, directly or indirectly, to have made acquaintance with it as given by Boccacio. The names of the two princes Shakespeare found, as well as the king's name, in Holinshed; but the incidents of their having been stolen, and their life, among the mountains of Wales, appear to have been invented by the dramatist. Dr. Forman records in his MS Booke of Plaies and Notes thereof that he saw Cymbeline acted; but he gives no date. His book, however, belongs to the years 1610-1611, and the metrical and other internal evidence point to that time as about the period when the drama must have been written. It is loosely constructed, and some passages possess little dramatic intensity. Several critics have questioned whether the vision of Posthumus (Act V. Sc. IV.) is of Shakespeare's authorship, and it is certainly poorly conceived and written. Nevertheless, the play is one of singular charm, and contains in Imogen one of the loveliest of Shakespeare's creations of female character. Except grandeur and majesty, which were reserved for Hermione and Queen Katherine, every thing that can make a woman lovely is given by the poet to Imogen: quick and exquisite feelings, brightness of intellect, delicate imagination, energy to hate evil and to right what was wrong, scorn for what is mean or rude, culture, dainty womanly accomplishments, the gift of song, a capacity for exquisite happiness and no less sensitiveness to the sharpness of sorrow, a power of quick recovery from disaster when the warmth of love breathes upon her once more, beauty of a type which is noble and refined. And her lost brothers are gallant youths, bred happily far from the court, in wilds where their generous instincts and love of freedom and activity find innocent if insufficient modes of gratification. As in all the works of this period, an open-air feeling pervades a great part of the drama; nature, itself joyous and free, ministers to what is beautiful, simple, or heroic in man, while yet by Shakespeare nature alone is never anywhere conceived as sufficient to satisfy the heart or the imagination of a human being. With reconciliation and reunion this, like the other Romances, closes. The faith of Posthumus in Imogen is of a half-romantic kind, unconfirmed by calm and deep acquaintance with her heart: that faith is not subtly poisoned, like the love of Othello, but suddenly, in one brief and desperate encounter, overthrown, His jealousy is not heroic, like Othello's; it shows something of grossness, unworthy of his true self. In due time penitential sorrow does its work, his nobler nature reasserts itself, and in the final reunion of parent and lost children, the erring husband is also restored to the quick-beating, joyous heart of his wife. ACT I. SCENE I. Britain. Could make him the receiver of; which he took, The garden of Cymbe- As we do air, fast as 'twas minister'd, line's palace. And in's spring became a harvest, lived in court Enter two Gentlemen. 30 Was call'd Sicilius, who did join his honor Then old and fond of issue, took such sorrow [Exit. Imo. Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant |