The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Part 90

CYMBELINE. Thou foolish thing!

[To the QUEEN] 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.

CYMBELINE. Nay, let her languish A drop of blood a day and, being aged, Die of this folly. Exit, with LORDS

Enter PISANIO

QUEEN. Fie! you must give way.

Here is your servant. How now, sir! What news?

PISANIO. My lord your son drew on my master.

QUEEN. Ha!

No harm, I trust, is done?

PISANIO. 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 p.r.i.c.k The goer-back. Why came you from your master?

PISANIO. 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.

PISANIO. I humbly thank your Highness.

QUEEN. Pray walk awhile.

IMOGEN. About some half-hour hence, Pray you speak with me. You shall at least Go see my lord aboard. For this time leave me. Exeunt

SCENE II.

Britain. A public place

Enter CLOTEN and two LORDS

FIRST 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.

CLOTEN. If my shirt were b.l.o.o.d.y, then to shift it. Have I hurt him?

SECOND LORD. [Aside] No, faith; not so much as his patience.

FIRST LORD. Hurt him! His body's a pa.s.sable carca.s.s if he be not hurt. It is a throughfare for steel if it be not hurt.

SECOND LORD. [Aside] His steel was in debt; it went o' th' back side the town.

CLOTEN. The villain would not stand me.

SECOND LORD. [Aside] No; but he fled forward still, toward your face.

FIRST LORD. Stand you? You have land enough of your own; but he added to your having, gave you some ground.

SECOND LORD. [Aside] As many inches as you have oceans.

Puppies!

CLOTEN. I would they had not come between us.

SECOND LORD. [Aside] So would I, till you had measur'd how long a fool you were upon the ground.

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

SECOND LORD. [Aside] If it be a sin to make a true election, she is d.a.m.n'd.

FIRST 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.

SECOND LORD. [Aside] She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection should hurt her.

CLOTEN. Come, I'll to my chamber. Would there had been some hurt done!

SECOND LORD. [Aside] I wish not so; unless it had been the fall of an a.s.s, which is no great hurt.

CLOTEN. You'll go with us?

FIRST LORD. I'll attend your lordship.

CLOTEN. Nay, come, let's go together.

SECOND LORD. Well, my lord. Exeunt

SCENE III.

Britain. CYMBELINE'S palace

Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO

IMOGEN. I would thou grew'st unto the sh.o.r.es o' th' haven, And questioned'st every sail; if he should write, And I not have it, 'twere a paper lost, As offer'd mercy is. What was the last That he spake to thee?

PISANIO. It was: his queen, his queen!

IMOGEN. Then wav'd his handkerchief?

PISANIO. And kiss'd it, madam.

IMOGEN. Senseless linen, happier therein than I!

And that was all?

PISANIO. No, madam; for so long As he could make me with his eye, or care Distinguish him from others, he did keep The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief, Still waving, as the fits and stirs of's 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.

PISANIO. Madam, so I did.

IMOGEN. I would have broke mine eyestrings, crack'd them but To look upon him, till the diminution Of s.p.a.ce had pointed him sharp as my needle; Nay, followed 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?

PISANIO. Be a.s.sur'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 I 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, T' 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 a LADY

LADY. The Queen, madam, Desires your Highness' company.

IMOGEN. Those things I bid you do, get them dispatch'd.

I will attend the Queen.

PISANIO. Madam, I shall. Exeunt

SCENE IV.

Rome. PHILARIO'S house

Enter PHILARIO, IACHIMO, a FRENCHMAN, a DUTCHMAN, and a SPANIARD

IACHIMO. 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 look'd 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.

PHILARIO. You speak of him when he was less furnish'd than now he is with that which makes him both without and within.

FRENCHMAN. I have seen him in France; we had very many there could behold the sun with as firm eyes as he.

IACHIMO. 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.

FRENCHMAN. And then his banishment.

IACHIMO. 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 less quality. But how comes it he is to sojourn with you? How creeps acquaintance?

PHILARIO. His father and I were soldiers together, to whom I have been often bound for no less than my life.

Enter POSTHUMUS