Nor what enfues, but have a fog in ken
That I cannot look thro'. Away, I pr'ythee,
Do as I bid thee; there's no more to fay;
Acceffible is none but Milford way.

[Exeunt SCENE changes to a Foreft with a Cave, in Wales. Enter BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS. Bel. A goodly day! not to keep house, with fuch

Whofe roof's as low as ours: fee, boys! this gate Inftructs you how to adore the Heavens; and bows

you

To morning's holy office. Gates of monarchs
Are arched fo high that giants may get through
And keep their impious turbands on, without
Good-morrow to the fun. Hail, thou fair heaven!
We house i' th' rock, yet ufe thee not so hardly
As prouder livers do.

Guid. Hail, Heaven!

Arv. Hail, Heaven !

Bel. Now for our mountain fport: up to yond

hill:

[der,

Your legs are young: I'll tread thefe flats. Confi-
When you above perceive me like a crow,
That it is place which leffens and sets off;
And you may then revolve what tales I told you,
Of Courts, of Princes, of the tricks in war;

ther fee prefent events, nor confequences; but am in a mist of fortune, and refolved to proceed on the project deter mined. In ken means, a profpect within fight, before my eyes. So, afterwards, in this play;

-Milford,

LO When from the mountain top Pifanio fhewed thee, A Thou waft within a ken..

So, in 2 Henry IV.

For, lo! within a ken our army lyes.
many other paffages.

And in

That fervice is not fervice, fo being done,
But being fo allowed. To apprehend thus,
Draws us a profit from all things we fee:
And often, to our comfort, fhall we find
The fharded beetle in a fafer hold,
Than is the full-winged eagle. Oh, this life
Is nobler than attending for a check;
Richer than doing nothing for a bauble;
Prouder than ruftling in unpaid for filk:
Such gain the cap of him that makes them fine,
Yet keeps his book uncrofs'd; no life to ours.
Guid. Out of your proof you fpeak; we, poor,
unfledged,

Have never winged from view o' th' neft; nor know
What air's from home. Haply this life is best,
If quiet life is beft; fweeter to you,

That have a fharper known: well correfponding.
With your tiff age; but unto us it is
A cell of ignorance; travelling a-bed;
A prifon, for a debtor that not dares
To ftride a limit.

Aro. What fhould we fpeak of,

When we are old as you? when we shall bear
The rain and wind beat dark December? how,
In this our pinching cave, fhall we discourse
The freezing hours away? We have feen nothing;
We're beaftly; fubtle as the fox for prey,
Like warlike as the wolf, for what we eat:
Our valour is to chafe what flies: our cage
We make a choir, as doth the prifoned bird,
And fing our bondage freely.

Bel. How you speak!

Did you but know the city's ufuries,

And felt them knowingly; the art o' th' court,
As hard to leave, as keep; whose top to climb,
Is certain falling; or fo flippery, that

The fear's as bad as falling; the toil of war;

A pain, that only feems to feek out danger
I' th' name of fame and honour; which dies i' th'.
And hath as oft a flanderous epitaph,

As record of fair act; nay, many time

[fearch,

Dothill deferve, by doing well: what's worse, Muft curt'fy at the cenfure :-----Oh, boys, this

story

The world may read in me: my body's marked
With Roman fwords; and my report was once
First with the beft of note. Cymbeline loved me;
And when a foldier was the theme, my name
Was not far off: then was I as a tree, [night,
Whofe boughs did bend with fruit. But, in one
A ftorm, or robbery, call it what you will,
Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves;
And left me bare to weather.

Guid. Uncertain favour!

Bel. My fault being nothing, as I have told you oft,

But that two villains (whofe falfe oaths prevailed
Before my perfect honour) fwore to Cymbeline,
I was confederate with the Romans: fo,

Followed my banishment; and these twenty years,
This rock and thefe demefnes have been my world;
Where have lived at honeft freedom; paid
More pious debts to Heaven, than in all

The fore-end of my time.----But, up to the moun tains!

This is not hunter's language; he that strikes
The venifon firft, fhall be the Lord o' th' feaft;
To him the other two fhall minister,

And we will fear no poison, which attends -
In place of greater state:

I'll meet you in the valleys.

[Exeunt Guid, and Arvir.

How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature!
Thefe boys know little they are fons to the King;
Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive.

They think they're mine; though trained up thus meanly (31)

I' th' cave, there, on the brow, their thoughts do hit

The roof of palaces; and nature prompts them,
In fimple and low things, to prince it, much
Beyond the trick of others. This Paladour, (32)
(The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, whom
The King his father called Guiderius) Jove!
When on my three-foot-ftool I fit, and tell

(31)

though trained up thus meanly

Here in the cave, wherein their thoughts do hit
The roof of palaces.]

Thus Mr Pope; but the fentence breaks off imperfectly.
The old editions read;

I' th' cave, whereon the bow their thoughts do hit, &c. Mr Rowe faw this likewife was faulty; and therefore amended it thus;

l' th' cave, where, on the bow, their thoughts do hit, &c. I think it should be only with the alteration of one letter, and the addition of another;

I' th' cave, there on the brow..

And fo the grammar and syntax of the fentence is compleat. We call the arching of a cavern, or overhanging of a hill, metaphorically, the brow; and in like manner the Greeks and Latins ufed oppus, and fupercilium.

(32) This Polydore,] Though the name be feveral times writ thus in the old books, I am perfuaded it is not as the Author intended. It is a compound purely Greek, without the turn or foundation of a British name. The first time this name is mentioned in both the old Folios, it is written Paladour, as I have reformed the text; because this, as well as Cadwal, is of the British caft. What pala in the first name, or wal in the other, may fignify, I am not deep enough in Cambrian to know; but dour, or dhür, means profiuens aqua, as câd does caput. VOL. X.

The warlike feats I've done, his fpirits fly out
Into my story: fay, "thus mine enemy fell,

And thus I fet my foot on's neck"----even then The princely blood flows on his cheek, he fweats, Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in pofture

That acts my words----The younger brother Cadwall,

(Once, Arviragus,) in as like a figure

Strikes life into my speech, and thews much more
His own conceiving. Hark, the game is rouzed.--
Oh Cymbeline! Heaven and my conicience know
Thou didst unjuftly banish me: whereon,

At three and two years old, I ftole these babes;
Thinking to bar thee of fucceffion, as

Thou refteft me of my lands. Euriphile,

Thou waft their nurse; they take thee for their mother,

And every day do honour to thy grave;

Myfelf Belarius, that am Morgan called,

They take for natural father. The game's up.

Enter PISAN10 and IMOGEN.

[Exit.

Imo. Thou toldest me, when we came from horse, the place

Was near at hand. Ne'er longed my mother fo To fee me first, as I have now----Pifanio,

Where is Pofthumus? What is in thy mind,

"That makes thee ftare thus? wherefore breaks that

figh

From the inward of thee? one, but painted thus,
Would be interpreted a thing perplexed
Beyond felf-explication. Put thyfelf
Into a 'haviour of lefs fear, ere wildness
Vanquish my taider senses ---what's the matter!