F

CYMBEL. O disloyal thing,

That shouldst repair my youth; thou heapest
A year's age on me!

IMOGEN. I beseech you, sir,

Harm not yourself with your vexation;

I am senseless of your wrath; a touch more rare
Subdues all pangs, all fears.

CYMBEL. Past grace? obedience?

IMOGEN. Past hope, and in despair; that way, past

grace.

CYMBEL. That mightst have had the sole son of my

queen!

IMOGEN. O bless'd that I might not! I chose an eagle,

And did avoid a puttock.

CYMBEL. Thou took'st a beggar; wouldst have made my throne

A seat for baseness.

IMOGEN. NO; I rather added

A lustre to it.

CYMBEL. O, thou vile one!

IMOGEN. Sir,

It is your fault that I have lov'd Posthumus:
You bred him as my playfellow; and he is
A man worth any woman; overbuys me
Almost the sum he pays.

CYMBEL. What! art thou mad?

IMOGEN.

were

Almost, sir; heaven restore me! Would I

A neat-herd's daughter! aud my Leonatus

Our neighbour shepherd's son!

Re-enter QUEEN, R. U. E.

CYMBEL. (To the Queen.) Thou foolish thing!
They were again together: you have done
Not after our command. Away with her,

And pen her up.

QUEEN. 'Beseech your patience: peace,
Dear lady daughter, peace. Sweet sovereign,

Leave us to ourselves; and make yourself some comfort
Out of your best advice.

CYMBEL. Nay, let her languish

A drop of blood a day, and, being aged,

Die of this folly!

[Exit Cymbeline and Lords, R.

Enter PISANIO, L. I E.

QUEEN. Fie!-you must give way:

Here is your servant.-How now, sir? What news? PISAN. My lord, your son drew on my master. QUEEN. Ha!

No harm, I trust, is done?

PISAN. 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.

IMOGEN. 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?
PISAN. 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,
When 't pleas'd you to employ me.

QUEEN. This hath been

Your faithful servant: I dare lay mine honour
He will remain so.

PISAN. I humbly thank your highness.
QUEEN. Pray, walk a while.

[Queen goes off R.

IMOGEN. About some half hour hence,

I pray you, speak with me: you shall, at least, Go see my lord aboard: for this time, leave me. [Exeunt Imogen, R., Pisanio, L.

Enter CLOTEN, MADAN, and LOCRINE, L.

CLOTEN.

MADAN.

Have I hurt him?

No, faith! (aside) not so much as his pa tience.

CLOTEN. The villain would not stand me. I would they had not come between us.

MADAN. (Aside.) So would I, till you had measured how long a fool you were upon the ground.

CLOTEN. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me!

MADAN. (Aside.) If it be a sin to make a true election, she is damned.

CLOTEN. Come, I'll to my chamber.

had been some hurt done!

'Would there

MADAN. (Aside.) I wish not so; unless it had been

the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt.

CLOTEN. You'll go with us?

LOCRINE. I'll attend your lordship.

CLOTEN. Nay, come, let's go together.
MADAN. Well, my lord.

[Exeunt, L.

SCENE SECOND.—A Room in Cymbeline's Palace.

Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO, L.

IMOGEN. 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, 't were a paper lost,

As offered mercy is. What was the last

That he spake to thee?

PISAN. It was "His queen, his queen!"

IMOGEN. Then wav'd his handkerchief?

PISAN. And kiss'd it, madam.

IMOGEN. Senseless linen! happier therein than I! And that was all?

PISAN. No, madam; for so long

As he could make me with his eye or ear
Distinguish him from others, he did keep
The deck, with glove or hat or handkerchief
Still waving, as the fits or stirs of his mind
Could best express how slow his soul sail'd on,
How swift his ship.

IMOGEN. Thou shouldst have made him

As little as a crow, or less, ere left

To after-eye him.

PISAN. Madam, so I did.

IMOGEN. 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?

PISAN. Be assur'd, madam,

With his next vantage.

IMOGEN. I did not take my leave of him, but had
Most pretty things to say: ere I could tell him
How I would think on him, at certain hours,

Such thoughts, and such; or could make him swear
The shes of Italy should not betray

Mine interest and his honour; or have charg'd him
At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight,
To encounter me with orisons, for then

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,
And like the tyrannous breathing of the North,
Shakes all our buds from growing.

Enter HELEN, R

HELEN. The queen, madam,

Desires your highness' company.

IMOGEN. Those things I bid you do, get them de

spatch'd;

I will attend the queen.

PISAN. Madam, I shall.

[Exeunt Imogen and Helen, R., Pisanio, L.

SCENE THIRD.-Rome.

An Apartment in Philario's

House.

PHILARIO, IACHIMO and LEWIS, a Frenchman, discovered lying on couches at a banquet.

IACH. (R.) 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.

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

LEWIS. 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.

LEWIS. And then his banishment

IACH. Ay, and the approbation of those that weep this lamented 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?

PHILAK. His father and I were soldiers together; to whom I have been often bound for no less than my life-Here comes the Briton. Let him be so entertained amongst you as suits with gentlemen of your knowing, to a stranger of his quality.

Enter POSTHUMUS, L.

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.

LEWIS. (c.) Sir, we have known together in Orleans. POST. (L.) Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies, which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still.

LEWIS. 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.

LEWIS. 'Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrement of