all. His enthusiasm only excites the laughter and mockery of his companions, particularly of Ambrogiolo, who, by the most artful mixture of contradiction and argument, rouses the anger of Bernabo, and he at length exclaims that he would willingly stake his life, his head, on the virtue of his wife. This leads to the wager which forms so important an incident in the drama. Ambrogiolo bets one thousand florins of gold against five thousand that Zinevra, like the rest of her sex, is accessible to temptation - that in less than three months he will undermine her virtue, and bring her husband the most undeniable proofs of her falsehood. He sets off for Genoa in order to accomplish his purpose; but on his arrival, all that he learns, and all that he beholds with his own eyes, of the discreet and noble character of the lady, make him despair of success by fair means; he therefore has recourse to the basest treachery. By bribing an old woman in the service of Zinevra, he is conveyed to her sleeping apartment concealed in a trunk, from which he issues in the dead of night; he takes note of the furniture of the chamber, makes himself master of her purse, her morning robe, or cymar, and her girdle, and of a certain mark on her person. He repeats these observations for two nights, and, furnished with these evidences of Zinevra's guilt, he returns to Paris, and lays them before the wretched husband. Bernabo rejects every proof of his wife's infidelity except that which finally convinces Posthumus. When Ambrogiolo mentions the 'mole, cinque-spotted,' he stands like one who has received a poniard in his heart; without further dispute he pays down the forfeit, and filled with rage and despair both at the loss of his money and the falsehood of his wife, he returns towards Genoa. He retires to his country-house, and sends a messenger to the city with letters to Zinevra, desiring that she would come and meet him, but with secret orders to the man to despatch her by the way. The servant prepares to execute his master's command, but, overcome by h entreaties for mercy and his own remorse, he spares her condition that she will fly from the country forever. He t1 him. CYMBELINE-12 guises her in his own cloak and cap, and brings back to her husband the assurance that she is killed, and that her body has been devoured by the wolves. In the disguise of a mariner, Zinevra then embarks on board a vessel bound to the Levant, and on arriving at Alexandria she is taken into the service of the Sultan of Egypt, under the name of Sicurano. She gains the confidence of her master, who, not suspecting her sex, sends her as captain of the guard which was appointed for the protection of the merchants at the fair of Acre. Here she accidentally meets Ambrogiolo, and sees in his possession the purse and girdle, which she immediately recognizes as her own. In reply to her inquiries, he relates with fiendish exultation the manner in which he had obtained possession of them, and she persuades him to go back with her to Alexandria. She then sends a messenger to Genoa in the name of the Sultan, and induces her husband to come and settle in Alexandria. At a proper opportunity, she summons both to the presence of the Sultan, obliges Ambrogiolo to make a full confession of his treachery, and wrings from her husband the avowal of his supposed murder of herself; then, falling at the feet of the Sultan, discovers her real name and sex, to the great amazement of all. Bernabo is pardoned at the prayer of his wife, and Ambrogiolo is condemned to be fastened to a stake, smeared with honey, and left to be devoured by the flies and locusts. This horrible sentence is executed; while Zinevra, enriched by the presents of the Sultan and the forfeit wealth of Ambrogiolo, returns with her husband to Genoa, where she lives in great honour and happiness, and maintains her reputation of virtue to the end of her life." Mrs. Jameson adds: "These are the materials from which Shakespeare has drawn the dramatic situation of Imogen. He has also endowed her with several of the qualities which are attributed to Zinevra ; but for the essential truth and beauty of the individual character, for the sweet colouring of pathos, and sentiment, and accory interfused through the whole, he is indebted only to nature and reacself." ACT I SCENE I. -1. Bloods. Temperaments, dispositions; as in 2 Hen. IV. iv. 4. 38: "When you perceive his blood inclin'd to mirth," etc. The plural is used, as often, because more than one person is referred to. 3. Still seem as does the king. The folios have "kings," and some modern editors read "king's" (that is, the king's blood). The sense is: Our temperaments are not more surely controlled by planetary influences than the aspect of our courtiers is by that of the king; their looks reflect the sadness of his. Cf. 13 just below. 4. Of's. Such contractions are especially frequent in the latest plays of S. See many instances below. 6. Referr'd herself. Used somewhat peculiarly and " euphuistically." The speaker seems to think it necessary to explain it by adding that she's wedded. 10. None but the king? "Are all but the king in outward sor row only? none else touched at heart ?" 13. To the bent. According to the cast or aspect. Cf. A. and C. i. 3. 36: 23. Outward. For the noun, cf. Sonn. 69. 5: "Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd; "Outliving beauty's outward," etc. 24. But he. Cf. A. Y. L. i. 2. 18: "my father hath no child but I." You speak him far = you go far in what you say of him. Cf. v. 5. 309 below. 25. I do extend him, sir, within himself. That is, far as I speak him, I keep within the bounds of his merit. Malone paraphrases the passage thus: "My eulogium, however extended it may seem, is short of his real excellence; it is abbreviated rather than expanded." 29. Did join his honour. Gave his noble aid or alliance. The passage has troubled many of the commentators, who have suggested various changes, but none is really called for. 30. Cassibelan. Lud's younger brother, while Tenantius, whom Holinshed (see p. 174 above) calls "Theomantius or Lenantius,” was Lud's son. On the death of his brother, Cassibelan usurped the throne. 31. But had his titles, etc. That is, though he had joined the party of the usurper, he was forgiven and honoured by the rightful king. 33. Sur-addition. Surname; used by S. only here. "The name of Leonatus he found in Sidney's Arcadia. Leonatus is there the legitimate son of the blind King of Paphlagonia, on whose story the episode of Gloster, Edgar, and Edmund is formed in King Lear" (Malone). We have Leonato in Much Ado, and 'Innogen" appears as the name of his wife in a stage-direction, though she is not one of the dramatis personæ. 66 43. Learnings. The only instance of the plural in S. His time = his age. 46. In's. See on 4 above. On the line, cf. A. and C. v. 2. 86 "For his bounty There was no winter in 't; an autumn 't was 47. Which rare it is to do. "This encomium is high and artful. To be at once in any degree loved and praised is truly rare" (Johnson). 49. Feated. Fashioned, "featur'd" (Rowe's reading); used (as a verb) by S. only here. Singer quotes Palsgrave, 1530: "I am well feted or shapen of my lymmes; je suis bien aligné." Cf. 2 Hen. IV. ii. 3. 21 (see also 31): — "he was indeed the glass Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves; " and Ham. iii. 1. 161: "The glass of fashion and the mould of form." 50. To his mistress. Mason says that to is as to." I prefer to consider the passage an instance of "construction changed by change of thought." 58. Mark it. "Shakespeare's dramatic art uses this expedient, naturally introduced into the dialogue, to draw special attention to a circumstance that it is essential should be borne in mind, and which otherwise might escape notice in the course of narration" (Clarke). 60. No guess in knowledge. No certain guess, none that proves true. 63. Convey'd. Stolen; a cant term. Cf. Rich. II. iv. 1. 317 : "O, good! Convey?— conveyers are you all." See also M. W. i. 3.30 fol. 70. Enter the Queen, etc. The folio begins "Scena Secunda” here, and some modern editors follow it. Rowe was the first to continue the scene. 74. Posthumus. Accented by S. on the second syllable. Verplanck remarks: "Well-educated men in England have an accuracy as to Latin quantity, and lay a stress upon it, such as are elsewhere found only among professed scholars. On this account Steevens and other critics have considered the erroneous quantity or accentuation of Posthúmus and Arvirágus as decisive of Shakespeare's want of learning. But the truth is, that in his day great latitude, in this respect, prevailed among authors; and it is probable that Latin was taught in the schools, as it still is in Scotland and many parts of the United States, without any minute attention to prosody. Steevens himself has shown that the older poets were |