"Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy."

"Gild" is one of Shakespeare's favourite words; he uses it very often,
sometimes indeed as in this case, ineffectively.

But the scene which reveals the character of Posthumus beyond all doubt
is the prison scene in the fifth act. His soliloquy which begins:

"Most welcome, bondage, for thou art a way,
I think, to liberty "--

is all pure Shakespeare. When he determines to give up life, he says:

"O Imogen!
I'll speak to thee in silence,"

and Hamlet at his death comes to the self-same word:

"The rest is silence."

The scene with the gaoler is from Hamlet's soul; Posthumus jests with
his keeper as Hamlet with the gravedigger:

"So, if I prove a good repast to the spectators, the
ship pays the shot;"

and the Hamlet melancholy:

"I am merrier to die than them art to live;"