"Dung" here is probably used contemptuously, and must be taken in a wide sense for food in general. As bread is raised from manure, man, who lives by bread, may be said to feed on manure. The sense probably is—it is great to do the thing (suicide) which causes us to sleep, and never more to taste the produce of the earth, which nourishes alike Cæsar and the beggar. The MS. correction is dug, which was long ago suggested, and which certainly does not mend matters. This new reading affords no extrication of the construction, "which sleeps," which we have ventured to explain as "which lays us asleep, and causes us never more to palate or taste," &c.
Scene 2.—
"A grief that shoots
My very heart at root,"
is perhaps judiciously altered into "a grief that smites." The old copies read "suites." This emendation was proposed by the late Mr Barron Field.
Cymbeline.— Act I. Scene 5. "We here encounter," says Mr Collier, "the first MS. emendation of much value." Iachimo has remarked, that the marriage of Posthumus with the king's daughter, from whom, however, he has been divorced, tends to raise Posthumus in the public estimation. "And then his banishment," says the Frenchman. "Ay," adds Iachimo, "and the approbation of those that weep this lamentable divorce under her colours are wonderfully to extend him;" that is, his banishment, and the approbation of those of his wife's party (this is the meaning of "under her colours"), who weep this lamentable divorce, help to enhance still further the opinion of his merits. The old corrector thus disfigures the passage: "Ay, and the approbations of those that weep this lamentable divorce, and her dolours, are wont wonderfully to extend him." The old corrector's mental vision does not seem to be capable of taking in more than a quarter of an inch of the text at once. He saw that the verb "are" required a plural nominative, hence he reads "approbations." But he might have avoided this barbarism had he extended his optical range, so as to comprehend the word "banishment" in the preceding speech. The two words, "banishment" and "approbation," are surely entitled to be followed by the verb "are."
Of a piece with this is the next. Posthumus is defying Iachimo to make good his boast that he will overcome the chastity of Imogen. He says, "If you make your voyage upon her, and give me directly to understand you have prevailed, I am no further your enemy." This is converted into, "if you make good your vauntage upon her," &c. And this is a restitution of the language of Shakespeare!
Scene 7.—When Iachimo is introduced to Imogen he exclaims,
"What, are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes
To see this vaulted arch, and the rich crop
Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt
The fiery orbs above said the twinn'd stones
Upon the numbered beach; and can we not
Partition make with spectacles so precious
'Twixt fair and foul?"
In this passage cope has been proposed for "crop," and unnumbered for "numbered," by several of the commentators, and among them by Mr Collier's anonymous corrector. We are of opinion that in neither of the places ought the text to be altered. Cope is a mere repetition of the "vaulted arch," and must, therefore, be set aside as tautological. "Numbered" is more difficult. Let us consider the bearing of the whole speech. It has a sinister reference to Posthumus, the husband of Imogen, the lady in whose presence the speech is uttered. "How can Posthumus," says Iachimo, "with such a wife as this—this Imogen—take up with the vile slut who now holds him in her clutches? Are men mad—with senses so fine that they can distinguish, or separate from each other, the fiery orbs above; and also so acute that they can distinguish between the 'twinned' (or closely resembling) stones which can be counted upon the beach; 'with spectacles'—that is, with eyes—so precious, are they yet unable (as Posthumus seems to be) to make partition 'twixt a fair wife and a foul mistress?" The words, "which can distinguish 'twixt the fiery orbs above and the twinned stones," do
