V.iv.18 (138,2) the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism, and policy grows into an ill opinion] To set up the authority of ignorance to declare that they will be governed by policy no longer. V.vi.11 (142,1) you cogging Greeks] This epithet has no particular propriety in this place, but the author had heard of _Graecia Mendax_. V.vi.29 (144,3) I'll frush it] The word _frush_ I never found elsewhere, nor understand it. HANMER explains it, to _break_ or _bruise_. V.viii.7 (146,1) Even with the vail and darkening of the sun] The _vail_ is, I think, the _sinking_ of the sun; not _veil_ or _cover_. (149) General Observation. This play is more correctly written than most of Shakespeare's compositions, but it is not one of those in which either the extent of his views or elevation of his fancy is fully displayed. As the story abounded with materials, he has exerted little invention; but he has diversified his characters with great variety, and preserved them with great exactness. His vicious characters sometimes disgust, but cannot corrupt, for both Cressida and Pandarus are detested and contemned. The comic characters seem to have been the favourites of the writer; they are of the superficial kind, and exhibit more of manners than nature; but they are copiously filled and powerfully impressed. Shakespeare has in his story followed, for the greater part, the old book of Caxton, which was then very popular; but the character of Thersites, of which it makes no mention, is a proof that this play was written after Chapman had published his version of _Homer_. CYMBELINE I.i.1 (153,2) You do not meet a man, but frowns: our bloods No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers' Still seen, as does the king's] [W: brows/No more] This passage is so difficult, that commentators may differ concerning it without animosity or shame. Of the two emendations proposed, Hanmer's is the more licentious; but he makes the sense clear, and leaves the reader an easy passage. Dr. Warburton has corrected with more caution, but less improvement: his reasoning upon his own reading is so obscure and perplexed, that I suspect some injury of the press.--I am now to tell my opinion, which is, that the lines stand as they were originally written, and that a paraphrase, such as the licentious and abrupt expressions of our author too frequently require, will make emendation unnecessary. _We do not meet a man but frowns; our bloods_--our countenances, which, in popular speech, are said to be regulated by the temper of the blood,--_no more obey_ the laws of _heaven_,--which direct us to appear what we really are,--_than our courtiers_;--that is, than the_ bloods of our courtiers_; but our bloods, like theirs,--_still seem, as doth the king's_. I.i.25 (155,3) I do extend him, Sir, within himself] I extend him within himself: my praise, however _extensive_, is _within_ his merit.