Chapter CXIV: Act IV: SCENE 9. Page 611

1. SOLD. ... so bad a prayer
Was never yet for _sleeping_.

2. SOLD. Go we to him.

In the old copy _sleep_. The alteration is by Mr. Steevens, and, as he says, for the sake of _measure_; but that was already complete. The _harmony_ is certainly improved, as the accent is to be laid on _to_ in the ensuing line.

SCENE 12. Page 624.

ANT. My good _knave_, Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body: here I am Antony;
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my _knave_.
I made these wars for Egypt; and the _queen_,--
Whose _heart_, I thought, I had, for she had mine;
... she, Eros, has
_Pack'd cards_ with Cæsar, and _false play'd_ my glory
Unto an enemy's _triumph_.

One should really suppose that Shakspeare had written this speech just after having lost a game at cards, and before the manner in which it had been played was out of his mind. Dr. Warburton's explanation is too superficial to merit the commendation which Dr. Johnson has bestowed on it. That of Mr. Malone is much more judicious and satisfactory; but it has not been perceived that a marked and particular allusion is intended. This is to the old card game of _trump_, which bore a very strong resemblance to our modern whist. It was played by two against two, and sometimes by three against three. It is thus mentioned in _Gammer Gurton's needle_, Act II. Scene 2: "We be fast set at _trump_ man, hard by the fire;" and like wise in Dekkar's _Belman of London_, among other card games. In Eliot's _Fruits for the French_, 1593, p. 53, it is called "a verie common alehouse game in England;" and Rice, in his _Invective against vices_, 12mo, b. l. n. d. but printed before 1600, speaking of sharpers' tricks at cards, mentions "renouncyng the _trompe_ and comming in againe." The Italians call it _triomphetto_; see Florio's dictionary. In Capitolo's poem on Primero, another card game, 1526, 8vo, it is called _trionfi_, and consigned to the peasants. Minsheu, in his _Spanish dialogues_, p. 25, makes it a game for old men. We, in all probability, received it from the French _triomphe_, which occurs in Rabelais as one of Gargantua's games. The term indicates a winning or _triumphant_ card; and therefore there can be no pretence for deriving it from _tromper_, whatever Ben Jonson might have thought to the contrary, who, in reality, seems only to indulge in a pun upon the word.

SCENE 12. Page 627.

ANT. I will o'ertake thee, Cleopatra, and
Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now
All _length_ is torture.

Mr. Steevens suspects that the author wrote _life_; surely without reason. Length is _extension_ or _protraction of life_.

THE CLOWN.

He is a mere country fellow; but Shakspeare, in compliance with the usual expectations of the audience, has bestowed on him a due portion of wit and satire.

CYMBELINE.

ACT I.

SCENE 2. Page 18.

IMO. ... he is
A man worth any woman; overbuys me
Almost the sum he pays.

This has already been so ingeniously interpreted, that there is considerable hazard in the offer of any other conjecture on the subject; yet, may not Imogen mean, "the possession of me is much too dearly bought by the _banishment_ to which you sentence him; he has almost nothing for so large a price."

SCENE 5. Page 27.

Enter PHILARIO, IACHIMO, &c.

Mr. Malone having shown that this name is borrowed from the Italian _Giacomo_, it should be printed _Jachimo_, in order to prevent any mistake in the pronunciation.