The passage in the original edition (folio of 1623) stands thus:

"You do not meet a man but frowns.
Our bloods no more obey the heavens
Then our courtiers :

Still seem, as do's the king's."

In several editions courtiers is sometimes printed as the genitive case; sometimes is cut off from the verb seem by a semicolon, and the king's is retained as the genitive case. This we have ventured to alter to king, as Tyrwhitt suggested. As we have punctuated the passage, we think it presents no difficulty. Blood is used by Shakspere for natural disposition, as in All's Well that Ends Well

"Now his important blood will nought deny
That she'll demand."

The meaning of the passage then is-You do not meet a man but frowns: our bloods do not more obey the heavens than our courtiers still seem as the king seems. As is afterwards expressed

"they wear their faces to the bent Of the king's looks."

1 Gent. His daughter, and the heir of his kingdom, whom

He purpos'd to his wife's sole son, (a widow,
That late he married,) hath referr'd herself
Unto a poor but worthy gentleman: She's
wedded;

Her husband banish'd; she imprison'd: all
Is outward sorrow; though, I think, the king
Be touch'd at very heart.

2 Gent.

What's his name, and birth?

1 Gent. I cannot delve him to the root: His
father

Was call'd Sicilius, who did join his honour,
Against the Romans, with Cassibelan;
But had his titles by Tenantius, whom
He serv'd with glory and admir'd success :
So gain'd the sur-addition, Leonatus :
And had, besides this gentleman in question,
Two other sons, who, in the wars o' the time,
Died with their swords in hand; for which, their
father

(Then old and fond of issue,) took such sorrow
That he quit being; and his gentle lady,
Big of this gentleman, our theme, deceas'd
As he was born. The king, he takes the babe
To his protection; calls him Posthumus Leo-
natus ;

Breeds him, and makes him of his bed-chamber:
Puts to him all the learnings that his time
Could make him the receiver of; which he took,
As we do air, fast as 't was ministered,
And in's spring became a harvest: Liv'd in court,
(Which rare it is to do,) most prais'd, most lov'd:
A sample to the youngest; to th' more mature
A glass that feated them; and to the graver,

a You carry your praise far.

Extend is here used in the same sense as in the fifth Scene of this Act: "His banishment, and the approbation of those that weep this lamentable divorce are wonderfully to extend him." The Gentleman says-I do extend himappreciate his good qualities-but only within the real limits of what they are: instead of unfolding his measure duly, I crush him together-compress his excellence. Malone thinks that the term extend is originally legal. An extent, according to Blackstone, is an order to the sheriff to appraise lands or goods to their full extended value. It is a well-known term in old Scotch law, meaning nearly the same as a census or valuation.

So the folio. The variorum editors rejected the second name, reading

"To his protection; calls him Posthumus."

To make a line of ten syllables-as if dramatic rhythm had no irregularities-they have destroyed the sense. The name of Posthumus Leonatus was given to connect the child with the memory of his father, and to mark the circumstance of his being born after his father's death.

d Puts to him is the original reading, which has been sometimes corrupted into puts him to.

e We arrange these two lines, as in the folio. Some modern editors read

"As we do air, fast as 't was minister'd, and

In his spring becaine a harvest."

f Feated. Johnson says, "a glass that formed them." But feat is used by Shakspere for nice, exact, with pro priety-as in The Tempest

"And look how well my garments sit upon me
Much feater than before;"

A child that guided dotards: to his mistress-
For whom he now is banish'd,-her own price
Proclaims how she esteem'd him and his virtue;
By her election may be truly read
What kind of man he is.

2 Gent.
I honour him
Even out of your report. But, 'pray you, tell me,
Is she sole child to the king?

1 Gent. His only child. He had two sons, (if this be worth your hearing, Mark it,) the eldest of them at three years old, I' the swathing clothes the other, from their nursery

Were stolen; and to this hour no guess in knowledge

Enter the QUEEN, POSTHUMUS, and IMOGEN. Queen. No, be assur'd, you shall not find me, daughter,

After the slander of most step-mothers,
Evil-ey'd unto you: you are my prisoner, but
Your gaoler shall deliver
the keys
you
That lock up your restraint. For you, Posthúmus,
So soon as I can win the offended king,

I will be known your advocate: marry, yet
The fire of rage is in him; and 't were good,
You lean'd unto his sentence, with what patience
Your wisdom may inform you.

Post.

I will from hence to-day.

Queen.

Please your highness,

You know the peril :I'll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying The pangs of barr'd affections; though the king

and, consequently, the glass which feats the mature who look upon Posthumus, is "the mark and glass, copy and book," which renders their appearance and deportment as proper as his own.

a The most important person (with reference to this conversation) who was coming is Posthumus-"the gentleman." The editors, however, quietly drop him, reading"We must forbear: here comes the queen, and princess." What can justify such capricious alterations of the text?

Hath charg'd you should not speak together. [Exit QUEEN. Imo. O dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant

Can tickle where she wounds! - My dearest husband,

I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing
(Always reserv'd my holy duty,) what
His rage can do on me: You must be gone;
And I shall here abide the hourly shot
Of angry eyes; not comforted to live,
But that there is this jewel in the world,
That I may see again.

Post. My queen! my mistress!

O, lady, weep no more; lest I give cause
To be suspected of more tenderness
Than doth become a man! I will remain
The loyal'st husband that did e'er plight troth.
My residence in Rome, at one Philario's ;
Who to my father was a friend, to me
Known but by letter: thither write, my queen,
And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send,
Though ink be made of gall.

To walk this way: I never do him wrong, But he does buy my injuries to be friends;" Pays dear for my offences.

Post.

[Exit.

Should we be taking leave
As long a term as yet we have to live,
The loathness to depart would grow: Adien!
Imo. Nay, stay a little :

Were you but riding forth to air yourself,
Such parting were too petty. Look here, love;
This diamond was my mother's: take it, heart;
But keep it till you woo another wife,
When Imogen is dead.

Post. How! how! another ?-
You gentle gods, give me but this I have,
And sear up my embracements from a next
With bonds of death!-Remain thou here

[Putting on the ring. While sense can keep it on! And sweetest, fairest,

As I my poor self did exchange for you,
To your so infinite loss; so, in our trifles
I still win of you: For my sake wear this;

a This sentence is obscure; but the meaning of the crafty Queen appears to be, that the kindness of her hsband, even when she is doing him wrong, purchases injuries as if they were benefits.

And did avoid a puttock.b

Cym. Thou took'st a beggar; would'st have made my throne

A seat for baseness.

2 Lord. No; but he fled forward still, toward your face. [Aside. 1. Lord. Stand you! You have land enough of your own: but he added to your having; gave you some ground.

2 Lord. As many inches as you have oceans : Puppies! [Aside. Clo. I would they had not come between us. 2 Lord. So would I, till you had measured how long a fool you were upon the ground. [Aside. Clo. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me!

2 Lord. If it be a sin to make a true election, she is damned. [Aside.

1 Lord. Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and her brain go not together: She's a good sign, but I have seen small reflection of her wit. 2 Lord. She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection should hurt her. [Aside Clo. Come, I'll to my chamber: 'Would there had been some hurt done!

2 Lord. I wish not so; unless it had been the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt. [Aside. Clo. You'll go with us?

1 Lord. I'll attend your lordship. Clo. Nay, come, let's go together. 2 Lord. Well, my lord.

[Ereunt.

to prove so worthy as since he hath been allowed the name of: but I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration; though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his side, and I to peruse him by items.

Phi. You speak of him when he was less furnished, than now he is, with that which makes him both without and within.

French. I have seen him in France: we had very many there could behold the sun with as firm eyes as he.

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

French. And then his banishment

Iach. Ay, and the approbation of those that weep this lamentable divorce, under her colours, are wonderfully to extend him; be it but to fortify her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beggar without less quality. But how comes it he is to sojourn with you? How creeps acquaintance ?

Phi. His father and I were soldiers together; to whom I have been often bound for no less than my life:

Enter POSTHUMUS.

Here comes the Briton: Let him be so entertained amongst you, as suits, with gentlemen of your knowing, to a stranger of his quality.-I beseech you all, be better known to this gentleman, whom I commend to you as a noble friend of mine: How worthy he is I will leave to appear hereafter, rather than story him in his own hearing.

French. Sir, we have known together in Orleans.

Post. Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies, which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still.

French. Sir, you o'er-rate my poor kindness: I was glad I did atoneb my countryman and you; it had been pity you should have been put together with so mortal a purpose as then each bore, upon importance of so slight and trivial a nature.

Less quality. So the folio. It has been corrected into more quality; but we doubt the propriety of the change. Posthumus is spoken of by all as one of high qualificationsand he is presently introduced as "a stranger of his quality." He was bred as Imogen's "playfellow," and therefore cannot be spoken of as a low man-"without more quality." As this play was first printed, like many others, after Shakspere's death, it is probable that it contains some typographical errors. We do not feel warranted in altering the text, or we would read, "for taking a beggar without his quality,"a beggar who does not follow the occupation of a beggar. b Alone to make at one. c Importance-import, matter.

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