Cym. That mightst have had the sole son of my queen! And did avoid a puttock.* Cym. Thou took'st a beggar; wouldst have made my throne A seat for baseness. Imo. No; I rather added A lustre to it. Cym. O thou vile one! Imo. Sir, It is your fault that I have loved Posthumus: A man worth any woman; overbuys me Almost the sum he pays. Cym. What!-art thou mad? Imo. Almost, Sir: Heaven restore me!-'Would I were A neat-herd's daughter! and my Leonatus Our neighbour shepherd's son ! Re-enter QUEEN. Cym. Thou foolish thing! They were again together: you have aone Queen. 'Beseech your patience:-Peace, Dear lady daughter, peace;-Sweet sovereign, [To the QUEEN. Leave us to ourselves; and make yourself some comfort Cym. Nay, let her languish A drop of blood a day; and, being aged, Die of this folly! Enter PISANIO. Queen. Fie !-you must give way: Here is your servant.-How now, Sir? What news? Pis. My lord your son drew on my master. Queen. Ha! No harm, I trust, is done? Pis. There might have been, But that my master rather play'd than fought, And had no help of anger: they were parted By gentlemen at hand. Queen. I am very glad on't. Imo. Your son's my father's friend; he takes his part. To draw upon an exile !-O brave Sir! I would they were in Afric both together; Myself by with a needle, that I might prick The goer back.-Why came you from your master? Pis. On his command: He would not suffer me To bring him to the haven: left these notes Of what commands I should be subject to, Queen. This hath been [Exit. Your faithful servant: I dare lay mine honour, Pis. I humbly thank your highness. Imo. About some half-hour hence, 1 pray you, speak with me: you shall, at least, Go see my lord aboard: for this time, leave me. SCENE III-A public place. Enter CLOTEN and two LORDS. [Exeunt. 1 Lord. Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt; the violence of action hath made you reek as a sacrifice: Where air comes out, air comes in: there's none abroad so wholesome as that you vent. Clo. If my shirt were bloody, then to shift it-Have I hurt him? 2 Lord. No, faith; not so much as his patience. [Aside. 1 Lord. Hurt him? his body's a passable carcass, if he be not hurt it is a thoroughfare for steel, if it be not hurt. 2 Lord. His steel was in debt; it went o' the backside the town. [Aside. Clo. The villain would not stand me. 2 Lord. No; but he fled forward still, toward your face. [Aside. 1 Lord. Stand you! You had 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. 1 Lord. I'll attend your lordship. Clo. You'll go with us? Clo. Nay, come, let's go together. 2 Lord. Well, my lord. [Aside. [Excunt. SCENE IV-A Room in CYMBELINE's Palace. Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO. Imo. I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' the haven, And question'dst every sail: if he should write, And I not have it, 'twere a paper lost * Anciently almost every sign had a motto, or some attempt at a witticism underneath it. As offer'd mercy is.* What was the last Pis. "Twas, His queen, his queen! Imo. Then waved his handkerchief? Imo. Senseless linen! happier therein than I!- Pis. No, madam; for so long As he could make me with this eye or ear Imo. Thou shouldst have made him As little as a crow, or less, ere left To after-eye him. Pis. Madam, so I did. Imo. I would have broke mine eye-strings; crack'd them, but To look upon him; till the diminution Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle: Nay, follow'd him, till he had melted from The smallness of a gnat to air; and then Have turn'd mine eye, and wept.-But, good Pisanio, When shall we hear from him? Pis. Be assured, madam, With his next vantage.t Imo. I did not take my leave of him, but had Most pretty things to say: ere I could tell him, Such thoughts, and such; or I could make him swear Mine interest, and his honour; or have charged him I am in heaven for him: or ere I could Give him that parting kiss, which I had set Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father, Enter a LADY. Lady. The queen, madam, Desires your highness' company. Imo. Those things I bid you do, get them despatch'd. I will attend the queen. Pis. Madam, I shall. [Exeunt * "Twere as great a loss as that of a pardon transmitted to a criminal. † Opportunity. + Meet me with reciprocal prayer. SCENE V-Rome. An Apartment in PHILARIO's House. Enter PHILARIO, IACHIMO, a FRENCHMAN, a DUTCHMAN, and a SPANIARD. * Iach. Believe it, Sir, I have seen him in Britain; he was then of a crescent note, expected 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 furnish'd 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 more 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 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 atone 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. Post. By your pardon, Sir, I was then a young traveller: rather shunned to go even with what I heard, than in my every action to be guided by others' experiences: but, upon my mended judgment (if I offend not to say it is mended), my quarrel was not altogether slight. French. 'Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrement of swords; and by such two, that would, by all likelihood, have confounded** one the other, or have fallen both. * Increasing in fame. I. e. makes him over-estimated. + Forms him. Reconcile. Iach. Can we, with manners, ask what was the difference? French. Safely, I think: 'twas a contention in public, which may, without contradiction, suffer the report. It was much like an argument that fell out last night, where each of us fell in praise of our country mistresses: This gentleman at that time vouching (and upon warrant of bloody affirmation), his to be more fair, virtuous, wise, chaste, constant-qualified, and less attemptible, than any, the rarest of our ladies in France. Tach. That lady is not now living; or this gentleman's opinion, by this, worn out. Post. She holds her virtue still, and I my mind. Iach. You must not so far prefer her 'fore ours of Italy. Post. Being so far provoked as I was in France, I would abate her nothing; though I profess myself her adorer, not her friend.* Tach. As fair, and as good (a kind of hand-in-hand comparison), had been something too fair, and too good for any lady in Britany. If she went before others I have seen, as that diamond of yours outlustres many 1 have beheld, I could not but believe she excelled many: but I have not seen the most precious diamond that is, nor you the lady. Post. I praised her, as I rated her; so do I my stone. Post. More than the world enjoys. Tach. Either your unparagon'd mistress is dead, or she's outprized by a trifle. Post. You are mistaken: the one may be sold, or given; if there were wealth enough for the purchase, or merit for the gift; the other is not a thing for sale, and only the gift of the gods. Iach. Which the gods have given you? Post. Which by their graces, I will keep. Iach. You may wear her in title yours: but, you know, strange fowl light upon neighbouring ponds. Your ring may be stolen, too: so, of your brace of unprizeable estimations, the one is but frail, and the other casual; a cunning thief, or a that-way accomplished courtier, would hazard the winning both of first and last. Post. Your Italy contains none so accomplished a courtier, to convince the honour of my mistress; if, in the holding or loss of that, you term her frail. I do nothing doubt, you have store of thieves; notwithstanding I fear not my ring. Phi. Let us leave here, gentlemen. Post. Sir, with all my heart. This worthy signior,I thank him, makes no stranger of me; we are familiar at first. Iach. With five times so much conversation I should get ground of your fair mistress: make her go back, even to the yielding; had I admittance, and opportunity to friend. Post. No, no. Tach. I dare thereon pawn the moiety of my estate to your ring; which, in my opinion, o'er-values it something: But I |