ACT I
SCENE I. Britain. The garden of Cymbeline's palace.
Enter two Gentlemen
- First Gentleman
- You do not meet a man but frowns: our bloods
- No more obey the heavens than our courtiers
- Still seem as does the king.
- Second Gentleman
- But what's the matter?
- First Gentleman
- His daughter, and the heir of's kingdom, whom
- He purposed to his wife's sole son — a widow
- That late he married — hath referr'd herself
- Unto a poor but worthy gentleman: she's wedded;
- Her husband banish'd; she imprison'd: all
- Is outward sorrow; though I think the king
- Be touch'd at very heart.
- Second Gentleman
- None but the king?
- First Gentleman
- He that hath lost her too; so is the queen,
- That most desired the match; but not a courtier,
- Although they wear their faces to the bent
- Of the king's look's, hath a heart that is not
- Glad at the thing they scowl at.
- Second Gentleman
- And why so?
- First Gentleman
- He that hath miss'd the princess is a thing
- Too bad for bad report: and he that hath her —
- I mean, that married her, alack, good man!
- And therefore banish'd — is a creature such
- As, to seek through the regions of the earth
- For one his like, there would be something failing
- In him that should compare. I do not think
- So fair an outward and such stuff within
- Endows a man but he.
- Second Gentleman
- You speak him far.
- First Gentleman
- I do extend him, sir, within himself,
- Crush him together rather than unfold
- His measure duly.
- Second Gentleman
- What's his name and birth?
- First Gentleman
- I cannot delve him to the root: his father
- Was call'd Sicilius, who did join his honour
- Against the Romans with Cassibelan,
- But had his titles by Tenantius whom
- He served with glory and admired success,
- So gain'd the sur-addition Leonatus;
- And had, besides this gentleman in question,
- Two other sons, who in the wars o' the time
- Died with their swords in hand; for which
- their father,
- Then old and fond of issue, took such sorrow
- That he quit being, and his gentle lady,
- Big of this gentleman our theme, deceased
- As he was born. The king he takes the babe
- To his protection, calls him Posthumus Leonatus,
- Breeds him and makes him of his bed-chamber,
- Puts to him all the learnings that his time
- Could make him the receiver of; which he took,
- As we do air, fast as 'twas minister'd,
- And in's spring became a harvest, lived in court —
- Which rare it is to do — most praised, most loved,
- A sample to the youngest, to the more mature
- A glass that feated them, and to the graver
- A child that guided dotards; to his mistress,
- For whom he now is banish'd, her own price
- Proclaims how she esteem'd him and his virtue;
- By her election may be truly read
- What kind of man he is.
- Second Gentleman
- I honour him
- Even out of your report. But, pray you, tell me,
- Is she sole child to the king?
- First Gentleman
- His only child.
- He had two sons: if this be worth your hearing,
- Mark it: the eldest of them at three years old,
- I' the swathing-clothes the other, from their nursery
- Were stol'n, and to this hour no guess in knowledge
- Which way they went.
- Second Gentleman
- How long is this ago?
- First Gentleman
- Some twenty years.
- Second Gentleman
- That a king's children should be so convey'd,
- So slackly guarded, and the search so slow,
- That could not trace them!
- First Gentleman
- Howsoe'er 'tis strange,
- Or that the negligence may well be laugh'd at,
- Yet is it true, sir.
- Second Gentleman
- I do well believe you.
- First Gentleman
- We must forbear: here comes the gentleman,
- The queen, and princess.
Exeunt
Enter the QUEEN, POSTHUMUS LEONATUS, and IMOGEN
- QUEEN
- No, be assured you shall not find me, daughter,
- After the slander of most stepmothers,
- Evil-eyed unto you: you're my prisoner, but
- Your gaoler shall deliver you the keys
- That lock up your restraint. For you, Posthumus,
- So soon as I can win the offended king,
- I will be known your advocate: marry, yet
- The fire of rage is in him, and 'twere good
- You lean'd unto his sentence with what patience
- Your wisdom may inform you.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Please your highness,
- I will from hence to-day.
- QUEEN
- You know the peril.
- I'll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying
- The pangs of barr'd affections, though the king
- Hath charged you should not speak together.
Exit
- IMOGEN
- O
- Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant
- Can tickle where she wounds! My dearest husband,
- I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing —
- Always reserved my holy duty — what
- His rage can do on me: you must be gone;
- And I shall here abide the hourly shot
- Of angry eyes, not comforted to live,
- But that there is this jewel in the world
- That I may see again.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- My queen! my mistress!
- O lady, weep no more, lest I give cause
- To be suspected of more tenderness
- Than doth become a man. I will remain
- The loyal'st husband that did e'er plight troth:
- My residence in Rome at one Philario's,
- Who to my father was a friend, to me
- Known but by letter: thither write, my queen,
- And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send,
- Though ink be made of gall.
Re-enter QUEEN
- QUEEN
- Be brief, I pray you:
- If the king come, I shall incur I know not
- How much of his displeasure.
- Aside
- Yet I'll move him
- To walk this way: I never do him wrong,
- But he does buy my injuries, to be friends;
- Pays dear for my offences.
Exit
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Should we be taking leave
- As long a term as yet we have to live,
- The loathness to depart would grow. Adieu!
- IMOGEN
- Nay, stay a little:
- Were you but riding forth to air yourself,
- Such parting were too petty. Look here, love;
- This diamond was my mother's: take it, heart;
- But keep it till you woo another wife,
- When Imogen is dead.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- How, how! another?

- Putting on the ring
- Remain, remain thou here
- While sense can keep it on. And, sweetest, fairest,
- As I my poor self did exchange for you,
- To your so infinite loss, so in our trifles
- I still win of you: for my sake wear this;
- It is a manacle of love; I'll place it
- Upon this fairest prisoner.
Putting a bracelet upon her arm
- IMOGEN
- O the gods!
- When shall we see again?
Enter CYMBELINE and Lords
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Alack, the king!
- CYMBELINE
- Thou basest thing, avoid! hence, from my sight!
- If after this command thou fraught the court
- With thy unworthiness, thou diest: away!
- Thou'rt poison to my blood.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- The gods protect you!
- And bless the good remainders of the court! I am gone.
Exit
- IMOGEN
- There cannot be a pinch in death
- More sharp than this is.
- CYMBELINE
- O disloyal thing,
- That shouldst repair my youth, thou heap'st
- A year's age on me.

- CYMBELINE
- Past grace? obedience?
- IMOGEN
- Past hope, and in despair; that way, past grace.
- CYMBELINE
- That mightst have had the sole son of my queen!
- IMOGEN
- O blest, that I might not! I chose an eagle,
- And did avoid a puttock.
- CYMBELINE
- Thou took'st a beggar; wouldst have made my throne
- A seat for baseness.
- IMOGEN
- No; I rather added
- A lustre to it.
- CYMBELINE
- O thou vile one!
- IMOGEN
- Sir,
- It is your fault that I have loved Posthumus:
- You bred him as my playfellow, and he is
- A man worth any woman, overbuys me
- Almost the sum he pays.
- CYMBELINE
- What, art thou mad?
- IMOGEN
- Almost, sir: heaven restore me! Would I were
- A neat-herd's daughter, and my Leonatus
- Our neighbour shepherd's son!
- CYMBELINE
- Thou foolish thing!
- Re-enter QUEEN
- They were again together: you have done
- Not after our command.
- 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!
Exeunt CYMBELINE and Lords
- QUEEN
- Fie! you must give way.
- Enter PISANIO
- 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 prick
- 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 pleased 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,
- I pray you, speak with me: you shall at least
- Go see my lord aboard: for this time leave me.
Exeunt
SCENE II. The same. 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 bloody, 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 passable carcass, if he be
- not hurt: it is a thoroughfare for steel, if it be not hurt.
- Second Lord
- Aside His steel was in debt; it went o' the
- backside 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!
- 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 measured 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 damned.
- 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 ass, 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. A room in Cymbeline's palace.
Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO
- IMOGEN
- I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' the haven,
- And question'dst every sail: if he should write
- And 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 waved 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 this eye or ear
- 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 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?
- PISANIO
- Be assured, 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 charged 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 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 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.
- PHILARIO
- You speak of him when he was less furnished 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.
- 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 LEONATUS
- 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.
- Frenchman
- Sir, we have known together in Orleans.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies,
- which I will be ever to pay and yet pay still.
- Frenchman
- 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.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- 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.
- Frenchman
- '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.
- IACHIMO
- Can we, with manners, ask what was the difference?
- Frenchman
- 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 attemptable
- than any the rarest of our ladies in France.
- IACHIMO
- That lady is not now living, or this gentleman's
- opinion by this worn out.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- She holds her virtue still and I my mind.
- IACHIMO
- You must not so far prefer her 'fore ours of Italy.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Being so far provoked as I was in France, I would
- abate her nothing, though I profess myself her
- adorer, not her friend.
- IACHIMO
- As fair and as good — a kind of hand-in-hand
- comparison — had been something too fair and too good
- for any lady in Britain. If she went before others
- I have seen, as that diamond of yours outlustres
- many I 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.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- I praised her as I rated her: so do I my stone.
- IACHIMO
- What do you esteem it at?
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- More than the world enjoys.
- IACHIMO
- Either your unparagoned mistress is dead, or she's
- outprized by a trifle.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- 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.
- IACHIMO
- Which the gods have given you?
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Which, by their graces, I will keep.
- IACHIMO
- You may wear her in title yours: but, you know,
- strange fowl light upon neighbouring ponds. Your
- ring may be stolen too: so your brace of unprizable
- 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.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- 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.
- PHILARIO
- Let us leave here, gentlemen.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Sir, with all my heart. This worthy signior, I
- thank him, makes no stranger of me; we are familiar at first.
- IACHIMO
- 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.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- No, no.
- IACHIMO
- I dare thereupon pawn the moiety of my estate to
- your ring; which, in my opinion, o'ervalues it
- something: but I make my wager rather against your
- confidence than her reputation: and, to bar your
- offence herein too, I durst attempt it against any
- lady in the world.

- IACHIMO
- What's that?
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- A repulse: though your attempt, as you call it,
- deserve more; a punishment too.
- PHILARIO
- Gentlemen, enough of this: it came in too suddenly;
- let it die as it was born, and, I pray you, be
- better acquainted.
- IACHIMO
- Would I had put my estate and my neighbour's on the
- approbation of what I have spoke!
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- What lady would you choose to assail?
- IACHIMO
- Yours; whom in constancy you think stands so safe.
- I will lay you ten thousand ducats to your ring,
- that, commend me to the court where your lady is,
- with no more advantage than the opportunity of a
- second conference, and I will bring from thence
- that honour of hers which you imagine so reserved.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- I will wage against your gold, gold to it: my ring
- I hold dear as my finger; 'tis part of it.
- IACHIMO
- You are afraid, and therein the wiser. If you buy
- ladies' flesh at a million a dram, you cannot
- preserve it from tainting: but I see you have some
- religion in you, that you fear.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- This is but a custom in your tongue; you bear a
- graver purpose, I hope.

- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Will you? I shall but lend my diamond till your
- return: let there be covenants drawn between's: my
- mistress exceeds in goodness the hugeness of your
- unworthy thinking: I dare you to this match: here's my ring.
- PHILARIO
- I will have it no lay.
- IACHIMO
- By the gods, it is one.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- I embrace these conditions; let us have articles
- betwixt us. Only, thus far you shall answer: if
- you make your voyage upon her and give me directly
- to understand you have prevailed, I am no further
- your enemy; she is not worth our debate: if she
- remain unseduced, you not making it appear
- otherwise, for your ill opinion and the assault you
- have made to her chastity you shall answer me with
- your sword.
- IACHIMO
- Your hand; a covenant: we will have these things set
- down by lawful counsel, and straight away for
- Britain, lest the bargain should catch cold and
- starve: I will fetch my gold and have our two
- wagers recorded.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Agreed.
Exeunt POSTHUMUS LEONATUS and IACHIMO
- Frenchman
- Will this hold, think you?
- PHILARIO
- Signior Iachimo will not from it.
- Pray, let us follow 'em.
Exeunt
SCENE V. Britain. A room in Cymbeline's palace.
Enter QUEEN, Ladies, and CORNELIUS
- QUEEN
- Whiles yet the dew's on ground, gather those flowers;
- Make haste: who has the note of them?
- First Lady
- I, madam.
- QUEEN
- Dispatch.
- Exeunt Ladies
- Now, master doctor, have you brought those drugs?
- CORNELIUS
- Pleaseth your highness, ay: here they are, madam:
- Presenting a small box
- But I beseech your grace, without offence —
- My conscience bids me ask — wherefore you have
- Commanded of me those most poisonous compounds,
- Which are the movers of a languishing death;
- But though slow, deadly?
- QUEEN
- I wonder, doctor,
- Thou ask'st me such a question. Have I not been
- Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learn'd me how
- To make perfumes? distil? preserve? yea, so
- That our great king himself doth woo me oft
- For my confections? Having thus far proceeded —
- Unless thou think'st me devilish — is't not meet
- That I did amplify my judgment in
- Other conclusions? I will try the forces
- Of these thy compounds on such creatures as
- We count not worth the hanging, but none human,
- To try the vigour of them and apply
- Allayments to their act, and by them gather
- Their several virtues and effects.
- CORNELIUS
- Your highness
- Shall from this practise but make hard your heart:
- Besides, the seeing these effects will be
- Both noisome and infectious.
- QUEEN
- O, content thee.
- Enter PISANIO
- Aside
- Here comes a flattering rascal; upon him
- Will I first work: he's for his master,
- An enemy to my son. How now, Pisanio!
- Doctor, your service for this time is ended;
- Take your own way.
- CORNELIUS
- Aside I do suspect you, madam;
- But you shall do no harm.
- QUEEN
- To PISANIO Hark thee, a word.
- CORNELIUS
- Aside I do not like her. She doth think she has
- Strange lingering poisons: I do know her spirit,
- And will not trust one of her malice with
- A drug of such damn'd nature. Those she has
- Will stupefy and dull the sense awhile;
- Which first, perchance, she'll prove on
- cats and dogs,
- Then afterward up higher: but there is
- No danger in what show of death it makes,
- More than the locking-up the spirits a time,
- To be more fresh, reviving. She is fool'd
- With a most false effect; and I the truer,
- So to be false with her.
- QUEEN
- No further service, doctor,
- Until I send for thee.
- CORNELIUS
- I humbly take my leave.
Exit
- QUEEN
- Weeps she still, say'st thou? Dost thou think in time
- She will not quench and let instructions enter
- Where folly now possesses? Do thou work:
- When thou shalt bring me word she loves my son,
- I'll tell thee on the instant thou art then
- As great as is thy master, greater, for
- His fortunes all lie speechless and his name
- Is at last gasp: return he cannot, nor
- Continue where he is: to shift his being
- Is to exchange one misery with another,
- And every day that comes comes to decay
- A day's work in him. What shalt thou expect,
- To be depender on a thing that leans,
- Who cannot be new built, nor has no friends,
- So much as but to prop him?
- The QUEEN drops the box: PISANIO takes it up
- Thou takest up
- Thou know'st not what; but take it for thy labour:
- It is a thing I made, which hath the king
- Five times redeem'd from death: I do not know
- What is more cordial. Nay, I prethee, take it;
- It is an earnest of a further good
- That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how
- The case stands with her; do't as from thyself.
- Think what a chance thou changest on, but think
- Thou hast thy mistress still, to boot, my son,
- Who shall take notice of thee: I'll move the king
- To any shape of thy preferment such
- As thou'lt desire; and then myself, I chiefly,
- That set thee on to this desert, am bound
- To load thy merit richly. Call my women:
- Think on my words.
- Exit PISANIO
- A sly and constant knave,
- Not to be shaked; the agent for his master
- And the remembrancer of her to hold
- The hand-fast to her lord. I have given him that
- Which, if he take, shall quite unpeople her
- Of liegers for her sweet, and which she after,
- Except she bend her humour, shall be assured
- To taste of too.
- Re-enter PISANIO and Ladies
- So, so: well done, well done:
- The violets, cowslips, and the primroses,
- Bear to my closet. Fare thee well, Pisanio;
- Think on my words.
Exeunt QUEEN and Ladies
- PISANIO
- And shall do:
- But when to my good lord I prove untrue,
- I'll choke myself: there's all I'll do for you.
Exit
SCENE VI. The same. Another room in the palace.
Enter IMOGEN
- IMOGEN
- A father cruel, and a step-dame false;
- A foolish suitor to a wedded lady,
- That hath her husband banish'd; — O, that husband!
- My supreme crown of grief! and those repeated
- Vexations of it! Had I been thief-stol'n,
- As my two brothers, happy! but most miserable
- Is the desire that's glorious: blest be those,
- How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills,
- Which seasons comfort. Who may this be? Fie!
Enter PISANIO and IACHIMO
- PISANIO
- Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome,
- Comes from my lord with letters.
- IACHIMO
- Change you, madam?
- The worthy Leonatus is in safety
- And greets your highness dearly.
Presents a letter
- IMOGEN
- Thanks, good sir:
- You're kindly welcome.
- IACHIMO
- Aside All of her that is out of door most rich!
- If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare,
- She is alone the Arabian bird, and I
- Have lost the wager. Boldness be my friend!
- Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!
- Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight;
- Rather directly fly.
- IMOGEN
- Reads 'He is one of the noblest note, to whose
- kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon
- him accordingly, as you value your trust —
- LEONATUS.'
- So far I read aloud:
- But even the very middle of my heart
- Is warm'd by the rest, and takes it thankfully.

- IACHIMO
- Thanks, fairest lady.
- What, are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes
- To see this vaulted arch, and the rich crop
- Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt
- The fiery orbs above and the twinn'd stones
- Upon the number'd beach? and can we not
- Partition make with spectacles so precious
- 'Twixt fair and foul?
- IMOGEN
- What makes your admiration?
- IACHIMO
- It cannot be i' the eye, for apes and monkeys
- 'Twixt two such shes would chatter this way and
- Contemn with mows the other; nor i' the judgment,
- For idiots in this case of favour would
- Be wisely definite; nor i' the appetite;
- Sluttery to such neat excellence opposed
- Should make desire vomit emptiness,
- Not so allured to feed.
- IMOGEN
- What is the matter, trow?
- IACHIMO
- The cloyed will,
- That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub
- Both fill'd and running, ravening first the lamb
- Longs after for the garbage.
- IMOGEN
- What, dear sir,
- Thus raps you? Are you well?
- IACHIMO
- Thanks, madam; well.
- To PISANIO
- Beseech you, sir, desire
- My man's abode where I did leave him: he
- Is strange and peevish.
- PISANIO
- I was going, sir,
- To give him welcome.
Exit
- IMOGEN
- Continues well my lord? His health, beseech you?
- IACHIMO
- Well, madam.
- IMOGEN
- Is he disposed to mirth? I hope he is.
- IACHIMO
- Exceeding pleasant; none a stranger there
- So merry and so gamesome: he is call'd
- The Briton reveller.
- IMOGEN
- When he was here,
- He did incline to sadness, and oft-times
- Not knowing why.
- IACHIMO
- I never saw him sad.
- There is a Frenchman his companion, one
- An eminent monsieur, that, it seems, much loves
- A Gallian girl at home; he furnaces
- The thick sighs from him, whiles the jolly Briton —
- Your lord, I mean — laughs from's free lungs, cries 'O,
- Can my sides hold, to think that man, who knows
- By history, report, or his own proof,
- What woman is, yea, what she cannot choose
- But must be, will his free hours languish for
- Assured bondage?'
- IMOGEN
- Will my lord say so?
- IACHIMO
- Ay, madam, with his eyes in flood with laughter:
- It is a recreation to be by
- And hear him mock the Frenchman. But, heavens know,
- Some men are much to blame.
- IMOGEN
- Not he, I hope.
- IACHIMO
- Not he: but yet heaven's bounty towards him might
- Be used more thankfully. In himself, 'tis much;
- In you, which I account his beyond all talents,
- Whilst I am bound to wonder, I am bound
- To pity too.
- IMOGEN
- What do you pity, sir?
- IACHIMO
- Two creatures heartily.
- IMOGEN
- Am I one, sir?
- You look on me: what wreck discern you in me
- Deserves your pity?
- IACHIMO
- Lamentable! What,
- To hide me from the radiant sun and solace
- I' the dungeon by a snuff?
- IMOGEN
- I pray you, sir,
- Deliver with more openness your answers
- To my demands. Why do you pity me?
- IACHIMO
- That others do —
- I was about to say — enjoy your — But
- It is an office of the gods to venge it,
- Not mine to speak on 't.
- IMOGEN
- You do seem to know
- Something of me, or what concerns me: pray you —
- Since doubling things go ill often hurts more
- Than to be sure they do; for certainties
- Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing,
- The remedy then born — discover to me
- What both you spur and stop.
- IACHIMO
- Had I this cheek
- To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch,
- Whose every touch, would force the feeler's soul
- To the oath of loyalty; this object, which
- Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye,
- Fixing it only here; should I, damn'd then,
- Slaver with lips as common as the stairs
- That mount the Capitol; join gripes with hands
- Made hard with hourly falsehood — falsehood, as
- With labour; then by-peeping in an eye
- Base and unlustrous as the smoky light
- That's fed with stinking tallow; it were fit
- That all the plagues of hell should at one time
- Encounter such revolt.
- IMOGEN
- My lord, I fear,
- Has forgot Britain.
- IACHIMO
- And himself. Not I,
- Inclined to this intelligence, pronounce
- The beggary of his change; but 'tis your graces
- That from pay mutest conscience to my tongue
- Charms this report out.
- IMOGEN
- Let me hear no more.
- IACHIMO
- O dearest soul! your cause doth strike my heart
- With pity, that doth make me sick. A lady
- So fair, and fasten'd to an empery,
- Would make the great'st king double — to be partner'd
- With tomboys hired with that self-exhibition
- Which your own coffers yield! with diseased ventures
- That play with all infirmities for gold
- Which rottenness can lend nature! such boil'd stuff
- As well might poison poison! Be revenged;
- Or she that bore you was no queen, and you
- Recoil from your great stock.
- IMOGEN
- Revenged!
- How should I be revenged? If this be true —
- As I have such a heart that both mine ears
- Must not in haste abuse — if it be true,
- How should I be revenged?
 Revenge it.
- I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure,
- More noble than that runagate to your bed,
- And will continue fast to your affection,
- Still close as sure.
- IMOGEN
- What, ho, Pisanio!
- IACHIMO
- Let me my service tender on your lips.
- IMOGEN
- Away! I do condemn mine ears that have
- So long attended thee. If thou wert honourable,
- Thou wouldst have told this tale for virtue, not
- For such an end thou seek'st — as base as strange.
- Thou wrong'st a gentleman, who is as far
- From thy report as thou from honour, and
- Solicit'st here a lady that disdains
- Thee and the devil alike. What ho, Pisanio!
- The king my father shall be made acquainted
- Of thy assault: if he shall think it fit,
- A saucy stranger in his court to mart
- As in a Romish stew and to expound
- His beastly mind to us, he hath a court
- He little cares for and a daughter who
- He not respects at all. What, ho, Pisanio!
- IACHIMO
- O happy Leonatus! I may say
- The credit that thy lady hath of thee
- Deserves thy trust, and thy most perfect goodness
- Her assured credit. Blessed live you long!
- A lady to the worthiest sir that ever
- Country call'd his! and you his mistress, only
- For the most worthiest fit! Give me your pardon.
- I have spoke this, to know if your affiance
- Were deeply rooted; and shall make your lord,
- That which he is, new o'er: and he is one
- The truest manner'd; such a holy witch
- That he enchants societies into him;
- Half all men's hearts are his.
- IMOGEN
- You make amends.
- IACHIMO
- He sits 'mongst men like a descended god:
- He hath a kind of honour sets him off,
- More than a mortal seeming. Be not angry,
- Most mighty princess, that I have adventured
- To try your taking a false report; which hath
- Honour'd with confirmation your great judgment
- In the election of a sir so rare,
- Which you know cannot err: the love I bear him
- Made me to fan you thus, but the gods made you,
- Unlike all others, chaffless. Pray, your pardon.
- IMOGEN
- All's well, sir: take my power i' the court
- for yours.
- IACHIMO
- My humble thanks. I had almost forgot
- To entreat your grace but in a small request,
- And yet of moment to, for it concerns
- Your lord; myself and other noble friends,
- Are partners in the business.
- IMOGEN
- Pray, what is't?
- IACHIMO
- Some dozen Romans of us and your lord —
- The best feather of our wing — have mingled sums
- To buy a present for the emperor
- Which I, the factor for the rest, have done
- In France: 'tis plate of rare device, and jewels
- Of rich and exquisite form; their values great;
- And I am something curious, being strange,
- To have them in safe stowage: may it please you
- To take them in protection?
- IMOGEN
- Willingly;
- And pawn mine honour for their safety: since
- My lord hath interest in them, I will keep them
- In my bedchamber.
- IACHIMO
- They are in a trunk,
- Attended by my men: I will make bold
- To send them to you, only for this night;
- I must aboard to-morrow.
- IMOGEN
- O, no, no.
- IACHIMO
- Yes, I beseech; or I shall short my word
- By lengthening my return. From Gallia
- I cross'd the seas on purpose and on promise
- To see your grace.
- IMOGEN
- I thank you for your pains:
- But not away to-morrow!
- IACHIMO
- O, I must, madam:
- Therefore I shall beseech you, if you please
- To greet your lord with writing, do't to-night:
- I have outstood my time; which is material
- To the tender of our present.
- IMOGEN
- I will write.
 You're very welcome.
Exeunt
ACT III
SCENE I. Britain. A hall in Cymbeline's palace.
Enter in state, CYMBELINE, QUEEN, CLOTEN,
and Lords at one door, and at another,
CAIUS LUCIUS and Attendants
- CYMBELINE
- Now say, what would Augustus Caesar with us?
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- When Julius Caesar, whose remembrance yet
- Lives in men's eyes and will to ears and tongues
- Be theme and hearing ever, was in this Britain
- And conquer'd it, Cassibelan, thine uncle —
- Famous in Caesar's praises, no whit less
- Than in his feats deserving it — for him
- And his succession granted Rome a tribute,
- Yearly three thousand pounds, which by thee lately
- Is left untender'd.

- CLOTEN
- There be many Caesars,
- Ere such another Julius. Britain is
- A world by itself; and we will nothing pay
- For wearing our own noses.
- QUEEN
- That opportunity
- Which then they had to take from 's, to resume
- We have again. Remember, sir, my liege,
- The kings your ancestors, together with
- The natural bravery of your isle, which stands
- As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in
- With rocks unscalable and roaring waters,
- With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats,
- But suck them up to the topmast. A kind of conquest
- Caesar made here; but made not here his brag
- Of 'Came' and 'saw' and 'overcame: ' with shame —
- That first that ever touch'd him — he was carried
- From off our coast, twice beaten; and his shipping —
- Poor ignorant baubles! — upon our terrible seas,
- Like egg-shells moved upon their surges, crack'd
- As easily 'gainst our rocks: for joy whereof
- The famed Cassibelan, who was once at point —
- O giglot fortune! — to master Caesar's sword,
- Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright
- And Britons strut with courage.
- CLOTEN
- Come, there's no more tribute to be paid: our
- kingdom is stronger than it was at that time; and,
- as I said, there is no moe such Caesars: other of
- them may have crook'd noses, but to owe such
- straight arms, none.
- CYMBELINE
- Son, let your mother end.
- CLOTEN
- We have yet many among us can gripe as hard as
- Cassibelan: I do not say I am one; but I have a
- hand. Why tribute? why should we pay tribute? If
- Caesar can hide the sun from us with a blanket, or
- put the moon in his pocket, we will pay him tribute
- for light; else, sir, no more tribute, pray you now.
- CYMBELINE
- You must know,
- Till the injurious Romans did extort
- This tribute from us, we were free:
- Caesar's ambition,
- Which swell'd so much that it did almost stretch
- The sides o' the world, against all colour here
- Did put the yoke upon 's; which to shake off
- Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon
- Ourselves to be.
- CLOTEN
- Lords
- We do.
- CYMBELINE
- Say, then, to Caesar,
- Our ancestor was that Mulmutius which
- Ordain'd our laws, whose use the sword of Caesar
- Hath too much mangled; whose repair and franchise
- Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed,
- Though Rome be therefore angry: Mulmutius made our laws,
- Who was the first of Britain which did put
- His brows within a golden crown and call'd
- Himself a king.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- I am sorry, Cymbeline,
- That I am to pronounce Augustus Caesar —
- Caesar, that hath more kings his servants than
- Thyself domestic officers — thine enemy:
- Receive it from me, then: war and confusion
- In Caesar's name pronounce I 'gainst thee: look
- For fury not to be resisted. Thus defied,
- I thank thee for myself.
- CYMBELINE
- Thou art welcome, Caius.
- Thy Caesar knighted me; my youth I spent
- Much under him; of him I gather'd honour;
- Which he to seek of me again, perforce,
- Behoves me keep at utterance. I am perfect
- That the Pannonians and Dalmatians for
- Their liberties are now in arms; a precedent
- Which not to read would show the Britons cold:
- So Caesar shall not find them.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Let proof speak.
- CLOTEN
- His majesty bids you welcome. Make
- pastime with us a day or two, or longer: if
- you seek us afterwards in other terms, you
- shall find us in our salt-water girdle: if you
- beat us out of it, it is yours; if you fall in
- the adventure, our crows shall fare the better
- for you; and there's an end.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- So, sir.
- CYMBELINE
- I know your master's pleasure and he mine:
- All the remain is 'Welcome!'
Exeunt
SCENE II. Another room in the palace.
Enter PISANIO, with a letter
- PISANIO
- How? of adultery? Wherefore write you not
- What monster's her accuser? Leonatus,
- O master! what a strange infection
- Is fall'n into thy ear! What false Italian,
- As poisonous-tongued as handed, hath prevail'd
- On thy too ready hearing? Disloyal! No:
- She's punish'd for her truth, and undergoes,
- More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults
- As would take in some virtue. O my master!
- Thy mind to her is now as low as were
- Thy fortunes. How! that I should murder her?
- Upon the love and truth and vows which I
- Have made to thy command? I, her? her blood?
- If it be so to do good service, never
- Let me be counted serviceable. How look I,
- That I should seem to lack humanity
- so much as this fact comes to?
- Reading
- 'Do't: the letter
- that I have sent her, by her own command
- Shall give thee opportunity.' O damn'd paper!
- Black as the ink that's on thee! Senseless bauble,
- Art thou a feodary for this act, and look'st
- So virgin-like without? Lo, here she comes.

Enter IMOGEN
- IMOGEN
- How now, Pisanio!
- PISANIO
- Madam, here is a letter from my lord.
- IMOGEN
- Who? thy lord? that is my lord, Leonatus!
- O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer
- That knew the stars as I his characters;
- He'ld lay the future open. You good gods,
- Let what is here contain'd relish of love,
- Of my lord's health, of his content, yet not
- That we two are asunder; let that grieve him:
- Some griefs are med'cinable; that is one of them,
- For it doth physic love: of his content,
- All but in that! Good wax, thy leave. Blest be
- You bees that make these locks of counsel! Lovers
- And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike:
- Though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet
- You clasp young Cupid's tables. Good news, gods!
- Reads
- 'Justice, and your father's wrath, should he take me
- in his dominion, could not be so cruel to me, as
- you, O the dearest of creatures, would even renew me
- with your eyes. Take notice that I am in Cambria,
- at Milford-Haven: what your own love will out of
- this advise you, follow. So he wishes you all
- happiness, that remains loyal to his vow, and your,
- increasing in love,
- LEONATUS POSTHUMUS.'
- O, for a horse with wings! Hear'st thou, Pisanio?
- He is at Milford-Haven: read, and tell me
- How far 'tis thither. If one of mean affairs
- May plod it in a week, why may not I
- Glide thither in a day? Then, true Pisanio —
- Who long'st, like me, to see thy lord; who long'st —
- let me bate,-but not like me — yet long'st,
- But in a fainter kind: — O, not like me;
- For mine's beyond beyond — say, and speak thick;
- Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing,
- To the smothering of the sense — how far it is
- To this same blessed Milford: and by the way
- Tell me how Wales was made so happy as
- To inherit such a haven: but first of all,
- How we may steal from hence, and for the gap
- That we shall make in time, from our hence-going
- And our return, to excuse: but first, how get hence:
- Why should excuse be born or e'er begot?
- We'll talk of that hereafter. Prithee, speak,
- How many score of miles may we well ride
- 'Twixt hour and hour?
- PISANIO
- One score 'twixt sun and sun,
- Madam, 's enough for you:
- Aside
- and too much too.
- IMOGEN
- Why, one that rode to's execution, man,
- Could never go so slow: I have heard of
- riding wagers,
- Where horses have been nimbler than the sands
- That run i' the clock's behalf. But this is foolery:
- Go bid my woman feign a sickness; say
- She'll home to her father: and provide me presently
- A riding-suit, no costlier than would fit
- A franklin's housewife.
- PISANIO
- Madam, you're best consider.
- IMOGEN
- I see before me, man: nor here, nor here,
- Nor what ensues, but have a fog in them,
- That I cannot look through. Away, I prithee;
- Do as I bid thee: there's no more to say,
- Accessible is none but Milford way.
Exeunt
SCENE III. Wales: a mountainous country with a cave.
Enter, from the cave, BELARIUS; GUIDERIUS,
and ARVIRAGUS following
- BELARIUS
- A goodly day not to keep house, with such
- Whose roof's as low as ours! Stoop, boys; this gate
- Instructs you how to adore the heavens and bows you
- To a morning's holy office: the gates of monarchs
- Are arch'd so high that giants may jet through
- And keep their impious turbans on, without
- Good morrow to the sun. Hail, thou fair heaven!
- We house i' the rock, yet use thee not so hardly
- As prouder livers do.
- GUIDERIUS
- Hail, heaven!
- ARVIRAGUS
- Hail, heaven!
- BELARIUS
- Now for our mountain sport: up to yond hill;
- Your legs are young; I'll tread these flats. Consider,
- When you above perceive me like a crow,
- That it is place which lessens and sets off;
- And you may then revolve what tales I have told you
- Of courts, of princes, of the tricks in war:
- This service is not service, so being done,
- But being so allow'd: to apprehend thus,
- Draws us a profit from all things we see;
- And often, to our comfort, shall we find
- The sharded beetle in a safer hold
- Than is the full-wing'd eagle. O, this life
- Is nobler than attending for a cheque,
- Richer than doing nothing for a bauble,
- Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk:
- Such gain the cap of him that makes 'em fine,
- Yet keeps his book uncross'd: no life to ours.
- GUIDERIUS
- Out of your proof you speak: we, poor unfledged,
- Have never wing'd from view o' the nest, nor know not
- What air's from home. Haply this life is best,
- If quiet life be best; sweeter to you
- That have a sharper known; well corresponding
- With your stiff age: but unto us it is
- A cell of ignorance; travelling a-bed;
- A prison for a debtor, that not dares
- To stride a limit.
- ARVIRAGUS
- What should we speak of
- When we are old as you? when we shall hear
- The rain and wind beat dark December, how,
- In this our pinching cave, shall we discourse
- The freezing hours away? We have seen nothing;
- We are beastly, subtle as the fox for prey,
- Like warlike as the wolf for what we eat;
- Our valour is to chase what flies; our cage
- We make a quire, as doth the prison'd bird,
- And sing our bondage freely.
- BELARIUS
- How you speak!
- Did you but know the city's usuries
- And felt them knowingly; the art o' the court
- As hard to leave as keep; whose top to climb
- Is certain falling, or so slippery that
- The fear's as bad as falling; the toil o' the war,
- A pain that only seems to seek out danger
- I' the name of fame and honour; which dies i'
- the search,
- And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph
- As record of fair act; nay, many times,
- Doth ill deserve by doing well; what's worse,
- Must court'sy at the censure: — O boys, this story
- The world may read in me: my body's mark'd
- With Roman swords, and my report was once
- First with the best of note: Cymbeline loved me,
- And when a soldier was the theme, my name
- Was not far off: then was I as a tree
- Whose boughs did bend with fruit: but in one night,
- A storm or robbery, call it what you will,
- Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves,
- And left me bare to weather.
- GUIDERIUS
- Uncertain favour!
- BELARIUS
- My fault being nothing — as I have told you oft —
- But that two villains, whose false oaths prevail'd
- Before my perfect honour, swore to Cymbeline
- I was confederate with the Romans: so
- Follow'd my banishment, and this twenty years
- This rock and these demesnes have been my world;
- Where I have lived at honest freedom, paid
- More pious debts to heaven than in all
- The fore-end of my time. But up to the mountains!
- This is not hunters' language: he that strikes
- The venison first shall be the lord o' the feast;
- To him the other two shall minister;
- And we will fear no poison, which attends
- In place of greater state. I'll meet you in the valleys.
- Exeunt GUIDERIUS and ARVIRAGUS
- How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature!
- These boys know little they are sons to the king;
- Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive.
- They think they are mine; and though train'd
- up thus meanly
- I' the cave wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit
- The roofs of palaces, and nature prompts them
- In simple and low things to prince it much
- Beyond the trick of others. This Polydore,
- The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, who
- The king his father call'd Guiderius — Jove!
- When on my three-foot stool I sit and tell
- The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out
- Into my story: say 'Thus, mine enemy fell,
- And thus I set my foot on 's neck;' even then
- The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats,
- Strains his young nerves and puts himself in posture
- That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal,
- Once Arviragus, in as like a figure,
- Strikes life into my speech and shows much more
- His own conceiving. — Hark, the game is roused!
- O Cymbeline! heaven and my conscience knows
- Thou didst unjustly banish me: whereon,
- At three and two years old, I stole these babes;
- Thinking to bar thee of succession, as
- Thou reft'st me of my lands. Euriphile,
- Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for
- their mother,
- And every day do honour to her grave:
- Myself, Belarius, that am Morgan call'd,
- They take for natural father. The game is up.
Exit
SCENE IV. Country near Milford-Haven.
Enter PISANIO and IMOGEN
- IMOGEN
- Thou told'st me, when we came from horse, the place
- Was near at hand: ne'er long'd my mother so
- To see me first, as I have now. Pisanio! man!
- Where is Posthumus? What is in thy mind,
- That makes thee stare thus? Wherefore breaks that sigh
- From the inward of thee? One, but painted thus,
- Would be interpreted a thing perplex'd
- Beyond self-explication: put thyself
- Into a havior of less fear, ere wildness
- Vanquish my staider senses. What's the matter?
- Why tender'st thou that paper to me, with
- A look untender? If't be summer news,
- Smile to't before; if winterly, thou need'st
- But keep that countenance still. My husband's hand!
- That drug-damn'd Italy hath out-craftied him,
- And he's at some hard point. Speak, man: thy tongue
- May take off some extremity, which to read
- Would be even mortal to me.
- PISANIO
- Please you, read;
- And you shall find me, wretched man, a thing
- The most disdain'd of fortune.
- IMOGEN
- Reads 'Thy mistress, Pisanio, hath played the
- strumpet in my bed; the testimonies whereof lie
- bleeding in me. I speak not out of weak surmises,
- but from proof as strong as my grief and as certain
- as I expect my revenge. That part thou, Pisanio,
- must act for me, if thy faith be not tainted with
- the breach of hers. Let thine own hands take away
- her life: I shall give thee opportunity at
- Milford-Haven. She hath my letter for the purpose
- where, if thou fear to strike and to make me certain
- it is done, thou art the pandar to her dishonour and
- equally to me disloyal.'
- PISANIO
- What shall I need to draw my sword? the paper
- Hath cut her throat already. No, 'tis slander,
- Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
- Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
- Rides on the posting winds and doth belie
- All corners of the world: kings, queens and states,
- Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
- This viperous slander enters. What cheer, madam?
- IMOGEN
- False to his bed! What is it to be false?
- To lie in watch there and to think on him?
- To weep 'twixt clock and clock? if sleep
- charge nature,
- To break it with a fearful dream of him
- And cry myself awake? that's false to's bed, is it?
- PISANIO
- Alas, good lady!
- IMOGEN
- I false! Thy conscience witness: Iachimo,
- Thou didst accuse him of incontinency;
- Thou then look'dst like a villain; now methinks
- Thy favour's good enough. Some jay of Italy
- Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him:
- Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion;
- And, for I am richer than to hang by the walls,
- I must be ripp'd: — to pieces with me! — O,
- Men's vows are women's traitors! All good seeming,
- By thy revolt, O husband, shall be thought
- Put on for villany; not born where't grows,
- But worn a bait for ladies.
- PISANIO
- Good madam, hear me.
- IMOGEN
- True honest men being heard, like false Aeneas,
- Were in his time thought false, and Sinon's weeping
- Did scandal many a holy tear, took pity
- From most true wretchedness: so thou, Posthumus,
- Wilt lay the leaven on all proper men;
- Goodly and gallant shall be false and perjured
- From thy great fall. Come, fellow, be thou honest:
- Do thou thy master's bidding: when thou see'st him,
- A little witness my obedience: look!
- I draw the sword myself: take it, and hit
- The innocent mansion of my love, my heart;
- Fear not; 'tis empty of all things but grief;
- Thy master is not there, who was indeed
- The riches of it: do his bidding; strike
- Thou mayst be valiant in a better cause;
- But now thou seem'st a coward.
- PISANIO
- Hence, vile instrument!

- IMOGEN
- Why, I must die;
- And if I do not by thy hand, thou art
- No servant of thy master's. Against self-slaughter
- There is a prohibition so divine
- That cravens my weak hand. Come, here's my heart.
- Something's afore't. Soft, soft! we'll no defence;
- Obedient as the scabbard. What is here?
- The scriptures of the loyal Leonatus,
- All turn'd to heresy? Away, away,
- Corrupters of my faith! you shall no more
- Be stomachers to my heart. Thus may poor fools
- Believe false teachers: though those that
- are betray'd
- Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
- Stands in worse case of woe.
- And thou, Posthumus, thou that didst set up
- My disobedience 'gainst the king my father
- And make me put into contempt the suits
- Of princely fellows, shalt hereafter find
- It is no act of common passage, but
- A strain of rareness: and I grieve myself
- To think, when thou shalt be disedged by her
- That now thou tirest on, how thy memory
- Will then be pang'd by me. Prithee, dispatch:
- The lamb entreats the butcher: where's thy knife?
- Thou art too slow to do thy master's bidding,
- When I desire it too.
- PISANIO
- O gracious lady,
- Since I received command to do this business
- I have not slept one wink.
- IMOGEN
- Do't, and to bed then.
- PISANIO
- I'll wake mine eye-balls blind first.
- IMOGEN
- Wherefore then
- Didst undertake it? Why hast thou abused
- So many miles with a pretence? this place?
- Mine action and thine own? our horses' labour?
- The time inviting thee? the perturb'd court,
- For my being absent? whereunto I never
- Purpose return. Why hast thou gone so far,
- To be unbent when thou hast ta'en thy stand,
- The elected deer before thee?
- PISANIO
- But to win time
- To lose so bad employment; in the which
- I have consider'd of a course. Good lady,
- Hear me with patience.
- IMOGEN
- Talk thy tongue weary; speak
- I have heard I am a strumpet; and mine ear
- Therein false struck, can take no greater wound,
- Nor tent to bottom that. But speak.
- PISANIO
- Then, madam,
- I thought you would not back again.
- IMOGEN
- Most like;
- Bringing me here to kill me.
- PISANIO
- Not so, neither:
- But if I were as wise as honest, then
- My purpose would prove well. It cannot be
- But that my master is abused:
- Some villain, ay, and singular in his art.
- Hath done you both this cursed injury.
- IMOGEN
- Some Roman courtezan.
- PISANIO
- No, on my life.
- I'll give but notice you are dead and send him
- Some bloody sign of it; for 'tis commanded
- I should do so: you shall be miss'd at court,
- And that will well confirm it.
- IMOGEN
- Why good fellow,
- What shall I do the where? where bide? how live?
- Or in my life what comfort, when I am
- Dead to my husband?
- PISANIO
- If you'll back to the court —
- IMOGEN
- No court, no father; nor no more ado
- With that harsh, noble, simple nothing,
- That Cloten, whose love-suit hath been to me
- As fearful as a siege.
- PISANIO
- If not at court,
- Then not in Britain must you bide.
- IMOGEN
- Where then
- Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day, night,
- Are they not but in Britain? I' the world's volume
- Our Britain seems as of it, but not in 't;
- In a great pool a swan's nest: prithee, think
- There's livers out of Britain.
- PISANIO
- I am most glad
- You think of other place. The ambassador,
- Lucius the Roman, comes to Milford-Haven
- To-morrow: now, if you could wear a mind
- Dark as your fortune is, and but disguise
- That which, to appear itself, must not yet be
- But by self-danger, you should tread a course
- Pretty and full of view; yea, haply, near
- The residence of Posthumus; so nigh at least
- That though his actions were not visible, yet
- Report should render him hourly to your ear
- As truly as he moves.
- IMOGEN
- O, for such means!
- Though peril to my modesty, not death on't,
- I would adventure.
- PISANIO
- Well, then, here's the point:
- You must forget to be a woman; change
- Command into obedience: fear and niceness —
- The handmaids of all women, or, more truly,
- Woman its pretty self — into a waggish courage:
- Ready in gibes, quick-answer'd, saucy and
- As quarrelous as the weasel; nay, you must
- Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek,
- Exposing it — but, O, the harder heart!
- Alack, no remedy! — to the greedy touch
- Of common-kissing Titan, and forget
- Your laboursome and dainty trims, wherein
- You made great Juno angry.
- IMOGEN
- Nay, be brief
- I see into thy end, and am almost
- A man already.
- PISANIO
- First, make yourself but like one.
- Fore-thinking this, I have already fit —
- 'Tis in my cloak-bag — doublet, hat, hose, all
- That answer to them: would you in their serving,
- And with what imitation you can borrow
- From youth of such a season, 'fore noble Lucius
- Present yourself, desire his service, tell him
- wherein you're happy — which you'll make him know,
- If that his head have ear in music — doubtless
- With joy he will embrace you, for he's honourable
- And doubling that, most holy. Your means abroad,
- You have me, rich; and I will never fail
- Beginning nor supplyment.
- IMOGEN
- Thou art all the comfort
- The gods will diet me with. Prithee, away:
- There's more to be consider'd; but we'll even
- All that good time will give us: this attempt
- I am soldier to, and will abide it with
- A prince's courage. Away, I prithee.
- PISANIO
- Well, madam, we must take a short farewell,
- Lest, being miss'd, I be suspected of
- Your carriage from the court. My noble mistress,
- Here is a box; I had it from the queen:
- What's in't is precious; if you are sick at sea,
- Or stomach-qualm'd at land, a dram of this
- Will drive away distemper.  May the gods
- Direct you to the best!
- IMOGEN
- Amen: I thank thee.
Exeunt, severally
SCENE V. A room in Cymbeline's palace.
Enter CYMBELINE, QUEEN, CLOTEN, LUCIUS,
Lords, and Attendants
- CYMBELINE
- Thus far; and so farewell.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Thanks, royal sir.
- My emperor hath wrote, I must from hence;
- And am right sorry that I must report ye
- My master's enemy.
- CYMBELINE
- Our subjects, sir,
- Will not endure his yoke; and for ourself
- To show less sovereignty than they, must needs
- Appear unkinglike.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- So, sir: I desire of you
- A conduct over-land to Milford-Haven.
- Madam, all joy befal your grace!
- QUEEN
- And you!
- CYMBELINE
- My lords, you are appointed for that office;
- The due of honour in no point omit.
- So farewell, noble Lucius.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Your hand, my lord.
- CLOTEN
- Receive it friendly; but from this time forth
- I wear it as your enemy.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Sir, the event
- Is yet to name the winner: fare you well.
- CYMBELINE
- Leave not the worthy Lucius, good my lords,
- Till he have cross'd the Severn. Happiness!
Exeunt LUCIUS and Lords
- QUEEN
- He goes hence frowning: but it honours us
- That we have given him cause.
- CLOTEN
- 'Tis all the better;
- Your valiant Britons have their wishes in it.
- CYMBELINE
- Lucius hath wrote already to the emperor
- How it goes here. It fits us therefore ripely
- Our chariots and our horsemen be in readiness:
- The powers that he already hath in Gallia
- Will soon be drawn to head, from whence he moves
- His war for Britain.
- QUEEN
- 'Tis not sleepy business;
- But must be look'd to speedily and strongly.
- CYMBELINE
- Our expectation that it would be thus
- Hath made us forward. But, my gentle queen,
- Where is our daughter? She hath not appear'd
- Before the Roman, nor to us hath tender'd
- The duty of the day: she looks us like
- A thing more made of malice than of duty:
- We have noted it. Call her before us; for
- We have been too slight in sufferance.
Exit an Attendant
- QUEEN
- Royal sir,
- Since the exile of Posthumus, most retired
- Hath her life been; the cure whereof, my lord,
- 'Tis time must do.
Re-enter Attendant
- CYMBELINE
- Where is she, sir? How
- Can her contempt be answer'd?
- Attendant
- Please you, sir,
- Her chambers are all lock'd; and there's no answer
- That will be given to the loudest noise we make.
- QUEEN
- My lord, when last I went to visit her,
- She pray'd me to excuse her keeping close,
- Whereto constrain'd by her infirmity,
- She should that duty leave unpaid to you,
- Which daily she was bound to proffer: this
- She wish'd me to make known; but our great court
- Made me to blame in memory.
- CYMBELINE
- Her doors lock'd?
- Not seen of late? Grant, heavens, that which I fear
- Prove false!
Exit
- QUEEN
- Son, I say, follow the king.
- CLOTEN
- That man of hers, Pisanio, her old servant,
- have not seen these two days.
- QUEEN
- Go, look after.
- Exit CLOTEN
- Pisanio, thou that stand'st so for Posthumus!
- He hath a drug of mine; I pray his absence
- Proceed by swallowing that, for he believes
- It is a thing most precious. But for her,
- Where is she gone? Haply, despair hath seized her,
- Or, wing'd with fervor of her love, she's flown
- To her desired Posthumus: gone she is
- To death or to dishonour; and my end
- Can make good use of either: she being down,
- I have the placing of the British crown.
- Re-enter CLOTEN
- How now, my son!
- CLOTEN
- 'Tis certain she is fled.
- Go in and cheer the king: he rages; none
- Dare come about him.
- QUEEN
- Aside All the better: may
- This night forestall him of the coming day!
Exit
- CLOTEN
- I love and hate her: for she's fair and royal,
- And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite
- Than lady, ladies, woman; from every one
- The best she hath, and she, of all compounded,
- Outsells them all; I love her therefore: but
- Disdaining me and throwing favours on
- The low Posthumus slanders so her judgment
- That what's else rare is choked; and in that point
- I will conclude to hate her, nay, indeed,
- To be revenged upon her. For when fools Shall —
- Enter PISANIO
- Who is here? What, are you packing, sirrah?
- Come hither: ah, you precious pander! Villain,
- Where is thy lady? In a word; or else
- Thou art straightway with the fiends.
- PISANIO
- O, good my lord!
- CLOTEN
- Where is thy lady? Or, by Jupiter —
- I will not ask again. Close villain,
- I'll have this secret from thy heart, or rip
- Thy heart to find it. Is she with Posthumus?
- From whose so many weights of baseness cannot
- A dram of worth be drawn.
- PISANIO
- Alas, my lord,
- How can she be with him? When was she missed?
- He is in Rome.
- CLOTEN
- Where is she, sir? Come nearer;
- No further halting: satisfy me home
- What is become of her.
- PISANIO
- O, my all-worthy lord!
- CLOTEN
- All-worthy villain!
- Discover where thy mistress is at once,
- At the next word: no more of 'worthy lord!'
- Speak, or thy silence on the instant is
- Thy condemnation and thy death.
- PISANIO
- Then, sir,
- This paper is the history of my knowledge
- Touching her flight.
Presenting a letter
- CLOTEN
- Let's see't. I will pursue her
- Even to Augustus' throne.
- PISANIO
- Aside Or this, or perish.
- She's far enough; and what he learns by this
- May prove his travel, not her danger.
- CLOTEN
- Hum!
- PISANIO
- Aside I'll write to my lord she's dead. O Imogen,
- Safe mayst thou wander, safe return again!
- CLOTEN
- Sirrah, is this letter true?
- PISANIO
- Sir, as I think.
- CLOTEN
- It is Posthumus' hand; I know't. Sirrah, if thou
- wouldst not be a villain, but do me true service,
- undergo those employments wherein I should have
- cause to use thee with a serious industry, that is,
- what villany soe'er I bid thee do, to perform it
- directly and truly, I would think thee an honest
- man: thou shouldst neither want my means for thy
- relief nor my voice for thy preferment.
- PISANIO
- Well, my good lord.
- CLOTEN
- Wilt thou serve me? for since patiently and
- constantly thou hast stuck to the bare fortune of
- that beggar Posthumus, thou canst not, in the
- course of gratitude, but be a diligent follower of
- mine: wilt thou serve me?
- PISANIO
- Sir, I will.
- CLOTEN
- Give me thy hand; here's my purse. Hast any of thy
- late master's garments in thy possession?
- PISANIO
- I have, my lord, at my lodging, the same suit he
- wore when he took leave of my lady and mistress.
- CLOTEN
- The first service thou dost me, fetch that suit
- hither: let it be thy lint service; go.
- PISANIO
- I shall, my lord.
Exit
- CLOTEN
- Meet thee at Milford-Haven! — I forgot to ask him one
- thing; I'll remember't anon: — even there, thou
- villain Posthumus, will I kill thee. I would these
- garments were come. She said upon a time — the
- bitterness of it I now belch from my heart — that she
- held the very garment of Posthumus in more respect
- than my noble and natural person together with the
- adornment of my qualities.  He on the ground, my
- speech of insultment ended on his dead body, and
- when my lust hath dined — which, as I say, to vex
- her I will execute in the clothes that she so
- praised — to the court I'll knock her back, foot
- her home again. She hath despised me rejoicingly,
- and I'll be merry in my revenge.
- Re-enter PISANIO, with the clothes
- Be those the garments?
- PISANIO
- Ay, my noble lord.
- CLOTEN
- How long is't since she went to Milford-Haven?
- PISANIO
- She can scarce be there yet.
- CLOTEN
- Bring this apparel to my chamber; that is the second
- thing that I have commanded thee: the third is,
- that thou wilt be a voluntary mute to my design. Be
- but duteous, and true preferment shall tender itself
- to thee. My revenge is now at Milford: would I had
- wings to follow it! Come, and be true.
Exit
- PISANIO
- Thou bid'st me to my loss: for true to thee
- Were to prove false, which I will never be,
- To him that is most true. To Milford go,
- And find not her whom thou pursuest. Flow, flow,
- You heavenly blessings, on her! This fool's speed
- Be cross'd with slowness; labour be his meed!
Exit
SCENE VI. Wales. Before the cave of Belarius.
Enter IMOGEN, in boy's clothes
- IMOGEN
- I see a man's life is a tedious one:
- I have tired myself, and for two nights together
- Have made the ground my bed. I should be sick,
- But that my resolution helps me. Milford,
- When from the mountain-top Pisanio show'd thee,
- Thou wast within a ken: O Jove! I think
- Foundations fly the wretched; such, I mean,
- Where they should be relieved. Two beggars told me
- I could not miss my way: will poor folks lie,
- That have afflictions on them, knowing 'tis
- A punishment or trial? Yes; no wonder,
- When rich ones scarce tell true. To lapse in fulness
- Is sorer than to lie for need, and falsehood
- Is worse in kings than beggars. My dear lord!
- Thou art one o' the false ones. Now I think on thee,
- My hunger's gone; but even before, I was
- At point to sink for food. But what is this?
- Here is a path to't: 'tis some savage hold:
- I were best not to call; I dare not call:
- yet famine,
- Ere clean it o'erthrow nature, makes it valiant,
- Plenty and peace breeds cowards: hardness ever
- Of hardiness is mother. Ho! who's here?
- If any thing that's civil, speak; if savage,
- Take or lend. Ho! No answer? Then I'll enter.
- Best draw my sword: and if mine enemy
- But fear the sword like me, he'll scarcely look on't.
- Such a foe, good heavens!
Exit, to the cave
Enter BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS
- BELARIUS
- You, Polydote, have proved best woodman and
- Are master of the feast: Cadwal and I
- Will play the cook and servant; 'tis our match:
- The sweat of industry would dry and die,
- But for the end it works to. Come; our stomachs
- Will make what's homely savoury: weariness
- Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth
- Finds the down pillow hard. Now peace be here,
- Poor house, that keep'st thyself!
- GUIDERIUS
- I am thoroughly weary.
- ARVIRAGUS
- I am weak with toil, yet strong in appetite.
- GUIDERIUS
- There is cold meat i' the cave; we'll browse on that,
- Whilst what we have kill'd be cook'd.
- BELARIUS
- Looking into the cave
- Stay; come not in.
- But that it eats our victuals, I should think
- Here were a fairy.
- GUIDERIUS
- What's the matter, sir?
- BELARIUS
- By Jupiter, an angel! or, if not,
- An earthly paragon! Behold divineness
- No elder than a boy!
Re-enter IMOGEN
- IMOGEN
- Good masters, harm me not:
- Before I enter'd here, I call'd; and thought
- To have begg'd or bought what I have took:
- good troth,
- I have stol'n nought, nor would not, though I had found
- Gold strew'd i' the floor. Here's money for my meat:
- I would have left it on the board so soon
- As I had made my meal, and parted
- With prayers for the provider.
- GUIDERIUS
- Money, youth?
- ARVIRAGUS
- All gold and silver rather turn to dirt!
- As 'tis no better reckon'd, but of those
- Who worship dirty gods.
- IMOGEN
- I see you're angry:
- Know, if you kill me for my fault, I should
- Have died had I not made it.
- BELARIUS
- Whither bound?
- IMOGEN
- To Milford-Haven.
- BELARIUS
- What's your name?
- IMOGEN
- Fidele, sir. I have a kinsman who
- Is bound for Italy; he embark'd at Milford;
- To whom being going, almost spent with hunger,
- I am fall'n in this offence.
- BELARIUS
- Prithee, fair youth,
- Think us no churls, nor measure our good minds
- By this rude place we live in. Well encounter'd!
- 'Tis almost night: you shall have better cheer
- Ere you depart: and thanks to stay and eat it.
- Boys, bid him welcome.
- GUIDERIUS
- Were you a woman, youth,
- I should woo hard but be your groom. In honesty,
- I bid for you as I'd buy.
- ARVIRAGUS
- I'll make't my comfort
- He is a man; I'll love him as my brother:
- And such a welcome as I'd give to him
- After long absence, such is yours: most welcome!
- Be sprightly, for you fall 'mongst friends.
- IMOGEN
- 'Mongst friends,
- If brothers.
- Aside
- Would it had been so, that they
- Had been my father's sons! then had my prize
- Been less, and so more equal ballasting
- To thee, Posthumus.
- BELARIUS
- He wrings at some distress.
- GUIDERIUS
- Would I could free't!
- ARVIRAGUS
- Or I, whate'er it be,
- What pain it cost, what danger. God's!
- BELARIUS
- Hark, boys.
Whispering
- IMOGEN
- Great men,
- That had a court no bigger than this cave,
- That did attend themselves and had the virtue
- Which their own conscience seal'd them — laying by
- That nothing-gift of differing multitudes —
- Could not out-peer these twain. Pardon me, gods!
- I'd change my sex to be companion with them,
- Since Leonatus's false.
- BELARIUS
- It shall be so.
- Boys, we'll go dress our hunt. Fair youth, come in:
- Discourse is heavy, fasting; when we have supp'd,
- We'll mannerly demand thee of thy story,
- So far as thou wilt speak it.
- GUIDERIUS
- Pray, draw near.
- ARVIRAGUS
- The night to the owl and morn to the lark
- less welcome.
- IMOGEN
- Thanks, sir.
- ARVIRAGUS
- I pray, draw near.
Exeunt
SCENE VII. Rome. A public place.
Enter two Senators and Tribunes
- First Senator
- This is the tenor of the emperor's writ:
- That since the common men are now in action
- 'Gainst the Pannonians and Dalmatians,
- And that the legions now in Gallia are
- Full weak to undertake our wars against
- The fall'n-off Britons, that we do incite
- The gentry to this business. He creates
- Lucius preconsul: and to you the tribunes,
- For this immediate levy, he commends
- His absolute commission. Long live Caesar!
- First Tribune
- Is Lucius general of the forces?
- Second Senator
- Ay.
- First Tribune
- Remaining now in Gallia?
- First Senator
- With those legions
- Which I have spoke of, whereunto your levy
- Must be supplyant: the words of your commission
- Will tie you to the numbers and the time
- Of their dispatch.
- First Tribune
- We will discharge our duty.
Exeunt
ACT IV
SCENE I. Wales: near the cave of Belarius.
Enter CLOTEN
- CLOTEN
- I am near to the place where they should meet, if
- Pisanio have mapped it truly. How fit his garments
- serve me! Why should his mistress, who was made by
- him that made the tailor, not be fit too? the
- rather — saving reverence of the word — for 'tis said
- a woman's fitness comes by fits. Therein I must
- play the workman. I dare speak it to myself — for it
- is not vain-glory for a man and his glass to confer
- in his own chamber — I mean, the lines of my body are
- as well drawn as his; no less young, more strong,
- not beneath him in fortunes, beyond him in the
- advantage of the time, above him in birth, alike
- conversant in general services, and more remarkable
- in single oppositions: yet this imperceiverant
- thing loves him in my despite. What mortality is!
- Posthumus, thy head, which now is growing upon thy
- shoulders, shall within this hour be off; thy
- mistress enforced; thy garments cut to pieces before
- thy face: and all this done, spurn her home to her
- father; who may haply be a little angry for my so
- rough usage; but my mother, having power of his
- testiness, shall turn all into my commendations. My
- horse is tied up safe: out, sword, and to a sore
- purpose! Fortune, put them into my hand! This is
- the very description of their meeting-place; and
- the fellow dares not deceive me.
Exit
SCENE II. Before the cave of Belarius.
Enter, from the cave, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS,
ARVIRAGUS, and IMOGEN
- BELARIUS
- To IMOGEN You are not well: remain here in the cave;
- We'll come to you after hunting.
- ARVIRAGUS
- To IMOGEN Brother, stay here
- Are we not brothers?
- IMOGEN
- So man and man should be;
- But clay and clay differs in dignity,
- Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
- GUIDERIUS
- Go you to hunting; I'll abide with him.
- IMOGEN
- So sick I am not, yet I am not well;
- But not so citizen a wanton as
- To seem to die ere sick: so please you, leave me;
- Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom
- Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me
- Cannot amend me; society is no comfort
- To one not sociable: I am not very sick,
- Since I can reason of it. Pray you, trust me here:
- I'll rob none but myself; and let me die,
- Stealing so poorly.
- GUIDERIUS
- I love thee; I have spoke it
- How much the quantity, the weight as much,
- As I do love my father.
- BELARIUS
- What! how! how!
- ARVIRAGUS
- If it be sin to say so, I yoke me
- In my good brother's fault: I know not why
- I love this youth; and I have heard you say,
- Love's reason's without reason: the bier at door,
- And a demand who is't shall die, I'd say
- 'My father, not this youth.'
- BELARIUS
- Aside O noble strain!
- O worthiness of nature! breed of greatness!
- Cowards father cowards and base things sire base:
- Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace.
- I'm not their father; yet who this should be,
- Doth miracle itself, loved before me.
- 'Tis the ninth hour o' the morn.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Brother, farewell.
- IMOGEN
- I wish ye sport.
- ARVIRAGUS
- You health. So please you, sir.
- IMOGEN
- Aside These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies
- I have heard!
- Our courtiers say all's savage but at court:
- Experience, O, thou disprovest report!
- The imperious seas breed monsters, for the dish
- Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.
- I am sick still; heart-sick. Pisanio,
- I'll now taste of thy drug.
Swallows some
- GUIDERIUS
- I could not stir him:
- He said he was gentle, but unfortunate;
- Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Thus did he answer me: yet said, hereafter
- I might know more.
- BELARIUS
- To the field, to the field!
- We'll leave you for this time: go in and rest.
- ARVIRAGUS
- We'll not be long away.
- BELARIUS
- Pray, be not sick,
- For you must be our housewife.
- IMOGEN
- Well or ill,
- I am bound to you.
- BELARIUS
- And shalt be ever.
- Exit IMOGEN, to the cave
- This youth, how'er distress'd, appears he hath had
- Good ancestors.
- ARVIRAGUS
- How angel-like he sings!

- ARVIRAGUS
- Nobly he yokes
- A smiling with a sigh, as if the sigh
- Was that it was, for not being such a smile;
- The smile mocking the sigh, that it would fly
- From so divine a temple, to commix
- With winds that sailors rail at.
- GUIDERIUS
- I do note
- That grief and patience, rooted in him both,
- Mingle their spurs together.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Grow, patience!
- And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine
- His perishing root with the increasing vine!
- BELARIUS
- It is great morning. Come, away! —
- Who's there?
Enter CLOTEN
- CLOTEN
- I cannot find those runagates; that villain
- Hath mock'd me. I am faint.
- BELARIUS
- 'Those runagates!'
- Means he not us? I partly know him: 'tis
- Cloten, the son o' the queen. I fear some ambush.
- I saw him not these many years, and yet
- I know 'tis he. We are held as outlaws: hence!
- GUIDERIUS
- He is but one: you and my brother search
- What companies are near: pray you, away;
- Let me alone with him.
Exeunt BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS
- CLOTEN
- Soft! What are you
- That fly me thus? some villain mountaineers?
- I have heard of such. What slave art thou?
- GUIDERIUS
- A thing
- More slavish did I ne'er than answering
- A slave without a knock.
- CLOTEN
- Thou art a robber,
- A law-breaker, a villain: yield thee, thief.
- GUIDERIUS
- To who? to thee? What art thou? Have not I
- An arm as big as thine? a heart as big?
- Thy words, I grant, are bigger, for I wear not
- My dagger in my mouth. Say what thou art,
- Why I should yield to thee?
- CLOTEN
- Thou villain base,
- Know'st me not by my clothes?
- GUIDERIUS
- No, nor thy tailor, rascal,
- Who is thy grandfather: he made those clothes,
- Which, as it seems, make thee.
- CLOTEN
- Thou precious varlet,
- My tailor made them not.
- GUIDERIUS
- Hence, then, and thank
- The man that gave them thee. Thou art some fool;
- I am loath to beat thee.
- CLOTEN
- Thou injurious thief,
- Hear but my name, and tremble.
- GUIDERIUS
- What's thy name?
- CLOTEN
- Cloten, thou villain.
- GUIDERIUS
- Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name,
- I cannot tremble at it: were it Toad, or
- Adder, Spider,
- 'Twould move me sooner.
- CLOTEN
- To thy further fear,
- Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know
- I am son to the queen.
- GUIDERIUS
- I am sorry for 't; not seeming
- So worthy as thy birth.
- CLOTEN
- Art not afeard?
- GUIDERIUS
- Those that I reverence those I fear, the wise:
- At fools I laugh, not fear them.
- CLOTEN
- Die the death:
- When I have slain thee with my proper hand,
- I'll follow those that even now fled hence,
- And on the gates of Lud's-town set your heads:
- Yield, rustic mountaineer.
Exeunt, fighting
Re-enter BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS
- BELARIUS
- No companies abroad?
- ARVIRAGUS
- None in the world: you did mistake him, sure.
- BELARIUS
- I cannot tell: long is it since I saw him,
- But time hath nothing blurr'd those lines of favour
- Which then he wore; the snatches in his voice,
- And burst of speaking, were as his: I am absolute
- 'Twas very Cloten.
- ARVIRAGUS
- In this place we left them:
- I wish my brother make good time with him,
- You say he is so fell.
- BELARIUS
- Being scarce made up,
- I mean, to man, he had not apprehension
- Of roaring terrors; for the effect of judgment
- Is oft the cause of fear. But, see, thy brother.
Re-enter GUIDERIUS, with CLOTEN'S head
- GUIDERIUS
- This Cloten was a fool, an empty purse;
- There was no money in't: not Hercules
- Could have knock'd out his brains, for he had none:
- Yet I not doing this, the fool had borne
- My head as I do his.
- BELARIUS
- What hast thou done?
- GUIDERIUS
- I am perfect what: cut off one Cloten's head,
- Son to the queen, after his own report;
- Who call'd me traitor, mountaineer, and swore
- With his own single hand he'ld take us in
- Displace our heads where — thank the gods! — they grow,
- And set them on Lud's-town.
- BELARIUS
- We are all undone.
- GUIDERIUS
- Why, worthy father, what have we to lose,
- But that he swore to take, our lives? The law
- Protects not us: then why should we be tender
- To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us,
- Play judge and executioner all himself,
- For we do fear the law? What company
- Discover you abroad?
- BELARIUS
- No single soul
- Can we set eye on; but in all safe reason
- He must have some attendants. Though his humour
- Was nothing but mutation, ay, and that
- From one bad thing to worse; not frenzy, not
- Absolute madness could so far have raved
- To bring him here alone; although perhaps
- It may be heard at court that such as we
- Cave here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time
- May make some stronger head; the which he hearing —
- As it is like him — might break out, and swear
- He'ld fetch us in; yet is't not probable
- To come alone, either he so undertaking,
- Or they so suffering: then on good ground we fear,
- If we do fear this body hath a tail
- More perilous than the head.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Let ordinance
- Come as the gods foresay it: howsoe'er,
- My brother hath done well.
- BELARIUS
- I had no mind
- To hunt this day: the boy Fidele's sickness
- Did make my way long forth.
- GUIDERIUS
- With his own sword,
- Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en
- His head from him: I'll throw't into the creek
- Behind our rock; and let it to the sea,
- And tell the fishes he's the queen's son, Cloten:
- That's all I reck.
Exit
- BELARIUS
- I fear 'twill be revenged:
- Would, Polydote, thou hadst not done't! though valour
- Becomes thee well enough.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Would I had done't
- So the revenge alone pursued me! Polydore,
- I love thee brotherly, but envy much
- Thou hast robb'd me of this deed: I would revenges,
- That possible strength might meet, would seek us through
- And put us to our answer.
- BELARIUS
- Well, 'tis done:
- We'll hunt no more to-day, nor seek for danger
- Where there's no profit. I prithee, to our rock;
- You and Fidele play the cooks: I'll stay
- Till hasty Polydote return, and bring him
- To dinner presently.

- I'll weringly to him: to gain his colour
- I'ld let a parish of such Clotens' blood,
- And praise myself for charity.
Exit
- BELARIUS
- O thou goddess,
- Thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon'st
- In these two princely boys! They are as gentle
- As zephyrs blowing below the violet,
- Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough,
- Their royal blood enchafed, as the rudest wind,
- That by the top doth take the mountain pine,
- And make him stoop to the vale. 'Tis wonder
- That an invisible instinct should frame them
- To royalty unlearn'd, honour untaught,
- Civility not seen from other, valour
- That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop
- As if it had been sow'd.
Re-enter GUIDERIUS
- GUIDERIUS
- Where's my brother?
- I have sent Cloten's clotpoll down the stream,
- In embassy to his mother: his body's hostage
- For his return.
Solemn music
- BELARIUS
- My ingenious instrument!
- Hark, Polydore, it sounds! But what occasion
- Hath Cadwal now to give it motion? Hark!
- GUIDERIUS
- Is he at home?
- BELARIUS
- He went hence even now.
- GUIDERIUS
- What does he mean? since death of my dear'st mother
- it did not speak before. All solemn things
- Should answer solemn accidents. The matter?
- Triumphs for nothing and lamenting toys
- Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.
- Is Cadwal mad?
- BELARIUS
- Look, here he comes,
- And brings the dire occasion in his arms
- Of what we blame him for.
Re-enter ARVIRAGUS, with IMOGEN, as dead,
bearing her in his arms
- ARVIRAGUS
- The bird is dead
- That we have made so much on. I had rather
- Have skipp'd from sixteen years of age to sixty,
- To have turn'd my leaping-time into a crutch,
- Than have seen this.
- GUIDERIUS
- O sweetest, fairest lily!
- My brother wears thee not the one half so well
- As when thou grew'st thyself.
- BELARIUS
- O melancholy!
- Who ever yet could sound thy bottom? find
- The ooze, to show what coast thy sluggish crare
- Might easiliest harbour in? Thou blessed thing!
- Jove knows what man thou mightst have made; but I,
- Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy.
- How found you him?
- ARVIRAGUS
- Stark, as you see:
- Thus smiling, as some fly hid tickled slumber,
- Not as death's dart, being laugh'd at; his
- right cheek
- Reposing on a cushion.
- GUIDERIUS
- Where?
- ARVIRAGUS
- O' the floor;
- His arms thus leagued: I thought he slept, and put
- My clouted brogues from off my feet, whose rudeness
- Answer'd my steps too loud.
- GUIDERIUS
- Why, he but sleeps:
- If he be gone, he'll make his grave a bed;
- With female fairies will his tomb be haunted,
- And worms will not come to thee.
- ARVIRAGUS
- With fairest flowers
- Whilst summer lasts and I live here, Fidele,
- I'll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack
- The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor
- The azured harebell, like thy veins, no, nor
- The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,
- Out-sweeten'd not thy breath: the ruddock would,
- With charitable bill — O bill, sore-shaming
- Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie
- Without a monument! — bring thee all this;
- Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none,
- To winter-ground thy corse.
- GUIDERIUS
- Prithee, have done;
- And do not play in wench-like words with that
- Which is so serious. Let us bury him,
- And not protract with admiration what
- Is now due debt. To the grave!
- ARVIRAGUS
- Say, where shall's lay him?
- GUIDERIUS
- By good Euriphile, our mother.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Be't so:
- And let us, Polydore, though now our voices
- Have got the mannish crack, sing him to the ground,
- As once our mother; use like note and words,
- Save that Euriphile must be Fidele.
- GUIDERIUS
- Cadwal,
- I cannot sing: I'll weep, and word it with thee;
- For notes of sorrow out of tune are worse
- Than priests and fanes that lie.
- ARVIRAGUS
- We'll speak it, then.
- BELARIUS
- Great griefs, I see, medicine the less; for Cloten
- Is quite forgot. He was a queen's son, boys;
- And though he came our enemy, remember
- He was paid for that: though mean and
- mighty, rotting
- Together, have one dust, yet reverence,
- That angel of the world, doth make distinction
- Of place 'tween high and low. Our foe was princely
- And though you took his life, as being our foe,
- Yet bury him as a prince.
- GUIDERIUS
- Pray You, fetch him hither.
- Thersites' body is as good as Ajax',
- When neither are alive.
- ARVIRAGUS
- If you'll go fetch him,
- We'll say our song the whilst. Brother, begin.
Exit BELARIUS
- GUIDERIUS
- Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to the east;
- My father hath a reason for't.
- ARVIRAGUS
- 'Tis true.
- GUIDERIUS
- Come on then, and remove him.
- ARVIRAGUS
- So. Begin.
SONG
- GUIDERIUS
- Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
- Nor the furious winter's rages;
- Thou thy worldly task hast done,
- Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages:
- Golden lads and girls all must,
- As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Fear no more the frown o' the great;
- Thou art past the tyrant's stroke;
- Care no more to clothe and eat;
- To thee the reed is as the oak:
- The sceptre, learning, physic, must
- All follow this, and come to dust.
- GUIDERIUS
- Fear no more the lightning flash,
- ARVIRAGUS
- Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
- GUIDERIUS
- Fear not slander, censure rash;
- ARVIRAGUS
- Thou hast finish'd joy and moan:
- GUIDERIUS
- ARVIRAGUS
- All lovers young, all lovers must
- Consign to thee, and come to dust.
- GUIDERIUS
- No exorciser harm thee!
- ARVIRAGUS
- Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
- GUIDERIUS
- Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
- ARVIRAGUS
- Nothing ill come near thee!
- GUIDERIUS
- ARVIRAGUS
- Quiet consummation have;
- And renowned be thy grave!
Re-enter BELARIUS, with the body of CLOTEN
- GUIDERIUS
- We have done our obsequies: come, lay him down.
- BELARIUS
- Here's a few flowers; but 'bout midnight, more:
- The herbs that have on them cold dew o' the night
- Are strewings fitt'st for graves. Upon their faces.
- You were as flowers, now wither'd: even so
- These herblets shall, which we upon you strew.
- Come on, away: apart upon our knees.
- The ground that gave them first has them again:
- Their pleasures here are past, so is their pain.
Exeunt BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS
- IMOGEN
- Awaking Yes, sir, to Milford-Haven; which is
- the way? —
- I thank you. — By yond bush? — Pray, how far thither?
- 'Ods pittikins! can it be six mile yet? —
- I have gone all night. 'Faith, I'll lie down and sleep.
- But, soft! no bedfellow! — O gods and goddesses!
- Seeing the body of CLOTEN
- These flowers are like the pleasures of the world;
- This bloody man, the care on't. I hope I dream;
- For so I thought I was a cave-keeper,
- And cook to honest creatures: but 'tis not so;
- 'Twas but a bolt of nothing, shot at nothing,
- Which the brain makes of fumes: our very eyes
- Are sometimes like our judgments, blind. Good faith,
- I tremble stiff with fear: but if there be
- Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity
- As a wren's eye, fear'd gods, a part of it!
- The dream's here still: even when I wake, it is
- Without me, as within me; not imagined, felt.
- A headless man! The garments of Posthumus!
- I know the shape of's leg: this is his hand;
- His foot Mercurial; his Martial thigh;
- The brawns of Hercules: but his Jovial face
- Murder in heaven? — How! — 'Tis gone. Pisanio,
- All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks,
- And mine to boot, be darted on thee! Thou,
- Conspired with that irregulous devil, Cloten,
- Hast here cut off my lord. To write and read
- Be henceforth treacherous! Damn'd Pisanio
- Hath with his forged letters — damn'd Pisanio —
- From this most bravest vessel of the world
- Struck the main-top! O Posthumus! alas,
- Where is thy head? where's that? Ay me!
- where's that?
- Pisanio might have kill'd thee at the heart,
- And left this head on. How should this be? Pisanio?
- 'Tis he and Cloten: malice and lucre in them
- Have laid this woe here. O, 'tis pregnant, pregnant!
- The drug he gave me, which he said was precious
- And cordial to me, have I not found it
- Murderous to the senses? That confirms it home:
- This is Pisanio's deed, and Cloten's: O!
- Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood,
- That we the horrider may seem to those
- Which chance to find us: O, my lord, my lord!
Falls on the body
Enter LUCIUS, a Captain and other Officers,
and a Soothsayer
- Captain
- To them the legions garrison'd in Gailia,
- After your will, have cross'd the sea, attending
- You here at Milford-Haven with your ships:
- They are in readiness.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- But what from Rome?
- Captain
- The senate hath stirr'd up the confiners
- And gentlemen of Italy, most willing spirits,
- That promise noble service: and they come
- Under the conduct of bold Iachimo,
- Syenna's brother.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- When expect you them?
- Captain
- With the next benefit o' the wind.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- This forwardness
- Makes our hopes fair. Command our present numbers
- Be muster'd; bid the captains look to't. Now, sir,
- What have you dream'd of late of this war's purpose?
- Soothsayer
- Last night the very gods show'd me a vision —
- I fast and pray'd for their intelligence — thus:
- I saw Jove's bird, the Roman eagle, wing'd
- From the spongy south to this part of the west,
- There vanish'd in the sunbeams: which portends —
- Unless my sins abuse my divination —
- Success to the Roman host.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Dream often so,
- And never false. Soft, ho! what trunk is here
- Without his top? The ruin speaks that sometime
- It was a worthy building. How! a page!
- Or dead, or sleeping on him? But dead rather;
- For nature doth abhor to make his bed
- With the defunct, or sleep upon the dead.
- Let's see the boy's face.
- Captain
- He's alive, my lord.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- He'll then instruct us of this body. Young one,
- Inform us of thy fortunes, for it seems
- They crave to be demanded.  Or who was he
- That, otherwise than noble nature did,
- Hath alter'd that good picture? What's thy interest
- In this sad wreck? How came it? Who is it?
- What art thou?
- IMOGEN
- I am nothing: or if not,
- Nothing to be were better. This was my master,
- A very valiant Briton and a good,
- That here by mountaineers lies slain. Alas!
- There is no more such masters: I may wander
- From east to occident, cry out for service,
- Try many, all good, serve truly, never
- Find such another master.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- 'Lack, good youth!
- Thou movest no less with thy complaining than
- Thy master in bleeding: say his name, good friend.
- IMOGEN
- Richard du Champ.
- Aside
- If I do lie and do
- No harm by it, though the gods hear, I hope
- They'll pardon it. — Say you, sir?
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Thy name?
- IMOGEN
- Fidele, sir.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Thou dost approve thyself the very same:
- Thy name well fits thy faith, thy faith thy name.
- Wilt take thy chance with me? I will not say
- Thou shalt be so well master'd, but, be sure,
- No less beloved. The Roman emperor's letters,
- Sent by a consul to me, should not sooner
- Than thine own worth prefer thee: go with me.
- IMOGEN
- I'll follow, sir. But first, an't please the gods,
- I'll hide my master from the flies, as deep
- As these poor pickaxes can dig; and when
- With wild wood-leaves and weeds I ha' strew'd his grave,
- And on it said a century of prayers,
- Such as I can, twice o'er, I'll weep and sigh;
- And leaving so his service, follow you,
- So please you entertain me.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Ay, good youth!
- And rather father thee than master thee.
- My friends,
- The boy hath taught us manly duties: let us
- Find out the prettiest daisied plot we can,
- And make him with our pikes and partisans
- A grave: come, arm him. Boy, he is preferr'd
- By thee to us, and he shall be interr'd
- As soldiers can. Be cheerful; wipe thine eyes
- Some falls are means the happier to arise.
Exeunt
SCENE III. A room in Cymbeline's palace.
Enter CYMBELINE, Lords, PISANIO, and Attendants
- CYMBELINE
- Again; and bring me word how 'tis with her.
- Exit an Attendant
- A fever with the absence of her son,
- A madness, of which her life's in danger. Heavens,
- How deeply you at once do touch me! Imogen,
- The great part of my comfort, gone; my queen
- Upon a desperate bed, and in a time
- When fearful wars point at me; her son gone,
- So needful for this present: it strikes me, past
- The hope of comfort. But for thee, fellow,
- Who needs must know of her departure and
- Dost seem so ignorant, we'll enforce it from thee
- By a sharp torture.
- PISANIO
- Sir, my life is yours;
- I humbly set it at your will; but, for my mistress,
- I nothing know where she remains, why gone,
- Nor when she purposes return. Beseech your highness,
- Hold me your loyal servant.
- First Lord
- Good my liege,
- The day that she was missing he was here:
- I dare be bound he's true and shall perform
- All parts of his subjection loyally. For Cloten,
- There wants no diligence in seeking him,
- And will, no doubt, be found.
- CYMBELINE
- The time is troublesome.
- To PISANIO
- We'll slip you for a season; but our jealousy
- Does yet depend.
- First Lord
- So please your majesty,
- The Roman legions, all from Gallia drawn,
- Are landed on your coast, with a supply
- Of Roman gentlemen, by the senate sent.
- CYMBELINE
- Now for the counsel of my son and queen!
- I am amazed with matter.
- First Lord
- Good my liege,
- Your preparation can affront no less
- Than what you hear of: come more, for more
- you're ready:
- The want is but to put those powers in motion
- That long to move.
- CYMBELINE
- I thank you. Let's withdraw;
- And meet the time as it seeks us. We fear not
- What can from Italy annoy us; but
- We grieve at chances here. Away!
Exeunt all but PISANIO
- PISANIO
- I heard no letter from my master since
- I wrote him Imogen was slain: 'tis strange:
- Nor hear I from my mistress who did promise
- To yield me often tidings: neither know I
- What is betid to Cloten; but remain
- Perplex'd in all. The heavens still must work.
- Wherein I am false I am honest; not true, to be true.
- These present wars shall find I love my country,
- Even to the note o' the king, or I'll fall in them.
- All other doubts, by time let them be clear'd:
- Fortune brings in some boats that are not steer'd.
Exit
SCENE IV. Wales::before the cave of Belarius.
Enter BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS.
- GUIDERIUS
- The noise is round about us.
- BELARIUS
- Let us from it.
- ARVIRAGUS
- What pleasure, sir, find we in life, to lock it
- From action and adventure?
- GUIDERIUS
- Nay, what hope
- Have we in hiding us? This way, the Romans
- Must or for Britons slay us, or receive us
- For barbarous and unnatural revolts
- During their use, and slay us after.
- BELARIUS
- Sons,
- We'll higher to the mountains; there secure us.
- To the king's party there's no going: newness
- Of Cloten's death — we being not known, not muster'd
- Among the bands — may drive us to a render
- Where we have lived, and so extort from's that
- Which we have done, whose answer would be death
- Drawn on with torture.
- GUIDERIUS
- This is, sir, a doubt
- In such a time nothing becoming you,
- Nor satisfying us.
- ARVIRAGUS
- It is not likely
- That when they hear the Roman horses neigh,
- Behold their quarter'd fires, have both their eyes
- And ears so cloy'd importantly as now,
- That they will waste their time upon our note,
- To know from whence we are.
- BELARIUS
- O, I am known
- Of many in the army: many years,
- Though Cloten then but young, you see, not wore him
- From my remembrance. And, besides, the king
- Hath not deserved my service nor your loves;
- Who find in my exile the want of breeding,
- The certainty of this hard life; aye hopeless
- To have the courtesy your cradle promised,
- But to be still hot summer's tamings and
- The shrinking slaves of winter.
- GUIDERIUS
- Than be so
- Better to cease to be. Pray, sir, to the army:
- I and my brother are not known; yourself
- So out of thought, and thereto so o'ergrown,
- Cannot be question'd.
- ARVIRAGUS
- By this sun that shines,
- I'll thither: what thing is it that I never
- Did see man die! scarce ever look'd on blood,
- But that of coward hares, hot goats, and venison!
- Never bestrid a horse, save one that had
- A rider like myself, who ne'er wore rowel
- Nor iron on his heel! I am ashamed
- To look upon the holy sun, to have
- The benefit of his blest beams, remaining
- So long a poor unknown.
- GUIDERIUS
- By heavens, I'll go:
- If you will bless me, sir, and give me leave,
- I'll take the better care, but if you will not,
- The hazard therefore due fall on me by
- The hands of Romans!
- ARVIRAGUS
- So say I amen.
- BELARIUS
- No reason I, since of your lives you set
- So slight a valuation, should reserve
- My crack'd one to more care. Have with you, boys!
- If in your country wars you chance to die,
- That is my bed too, lads, an there I'll lie:
- Lead, lead.
- Aside
- The time seems long; their blood
- thinks scorn,
- Till it fly out and show them princes born.
Exeunt
ACT V
SCENE I. Britain. The Roman camp.
 You married ones,
- If each of you should take this course, how many
- Must murder wives much better than themselves
- For wrying but a little! O Pisanio!
- Every good servant does not all commands:
- No bond but to do just ones. Gods! if you
- Should have ta'en vengeance on my faults, I never
- Had lived to put on this: so had you saved
- The noble Imogen to repent, and struck
- Me, wretch more worth your vengeance. But, alack,
- You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love,
- To have them fall no more: you some permit
- To second ills with ills, each elder worse,
- And make them dread it, to the doers' thrift.
- But Imogen is your own: do your best wills,
- And make me blest to obey! I am brought hither
- Among the Italian gentry, and to fight
- Against my lady's kingdom: 'tis enough
- That, Britain, I have kill'd thy mistress; peace!
- I'll give no wound to thee. Therefore, good heavens,
- Hear patiently my purpose: I'll disrobe me
- Of these Italian weeds and suit myself
- As does a Briton peasant: so I'll fight
- Against the part I come with; so I'll die
- For thee, O Imogen, even for whom my life
- Is every breath a death; and thus, unknown,
- Pitied nor hated, to the face of peril
- Myself I'll dedicate. Let me make men know
- More valour in me than my habits show.
- Gods, put the strength o' the Leonati in me!
- To shame the guise o' the world, I will begin
- The fashion, less without and more within.
Exit
SCENE II. Field of battle between the British and Roman camps.
Enter, from one side, LUCIUS, IACHIMO, and
the Roman Army: from the other side, the
British Army; POSTHUMUS LEONATUS following,
like a poor soldier. They march over and go
out. Then enter again, in skirmish, IACHIMO
and POSTHUMUS LEONATUS he vanquisheth and disarmeth
IACHIMO, and then leaves him
- IACHIMO
- The heaviness and guilt within my bosom
- Takes off my manhood: I have belied a lady,
- The princess of this country, and the air on't
- Revengingly enfeebles me; or could this carl,
- A very drudge of nature's, have subdued me
- In my profession? Knighthoods and honours, borne
- As I wear mine, are titles but of scorn.
- If that thy gentry, Britain, go before
- This lout as he exceeds our lords, the odds
- Is that we scarce are men and you are gods.
Exit
The battle continues; the Britons fly; CYMBELINE is
taken: then enter, to his rescue, BELARIUS,
GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS
- BELARIUS
- Stand, stand! We have the advantage of the ground;
- The lane is guarded: nothing routs us but
- The villany of our fears.
- GUIDERIUS
- ARVIRAGUS
- Stand, stand, and fight!
Re-enter POSTHUMUS LEONATUS, and seconds the
Britons: they rescue CYMBELINE, and exeunt. Then
re-enter LUCIUS, and IACHIMO, with IMOGEN
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Away, boy, from the troops, and save thyself;
- For friends kill friends, and the disorder's such
- As war were hoodwink'd.
- IACHIMO
- 'Tis their fresh supplies.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- It is a day turn'd strangely: or betimes
- Let's reinforce, or fly.
Exeunt
SCENE III. Another part of the field.
Enter POSTHUMUS LEONATUS and a British Lord
- Lord
- Camest thou from where they made the stand?
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- I did.
- Though you, it seems, come from the fliers.
- Lord
- I did.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- No blame be to you, sir; for all was lost,
- But that the heavens fought: the king himself
- Of his wings destitute, the army broken,
- And but the backs of Britons seen, all flying
- Through a straight lane; the enemy full-hearted,
- Lolling the tongue with slaughtering, having work
- More plentiful than tools to do't, struck down
- Some mortally, some slightly touch'd, some falling
- Merely through fear; that the straight pass was damm'd
- With dead men hurt behind, and cowards living
- To die with lengthen'd shame.
- Lord
- Where was this lane?
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Close by the battle, ditch'd, and wall'd with turf;
- Which gave advantage to an ancient soldier,
- An honest one, I warrant; who deserved
- So long a breeding as his white beard came to,
- In doing this for's country: athwart the lane,
- He, with two striplings-lads more like to run
- The country base than to commit such slaughter
- With faces fit for masks, or rather fairer
- Than those for preservation cased, or shame —
- Made good the passage; cried to those that fled,
- 'Our Britain s harts die flying, not our men:
- To darkness fleet souls that fly backwards. Stand;
- Or we are Romans and will give you that
- Like beasts which you shun beastly, and may save,
- But to look back in frown: stand, stand.'
- These three,
- Three thousand confident, in act as many —
- For three performers are the file when all
- The rest do nothing — with this word 'Stand, stand,'
- Accommodated by the place, more charming
- With their own nobleness, which could have turn'd
- A distaff to a lance, gilded pale looks,
- Part shame, part spirit renew'd; that some,
- turn'd coward
- But by example — O, a sin in war,
- Damn'd in the first beginners! — gan to look
- The way that they did, and to grin like lions
- Upon the pikes o' the hunters. Then began
- A stop i' the chaser, a retire, anon
- A rout, confusion thick; forthwith they fly
- Chickens, the way which they stoop'd eagles; slaves,
- The strides they victors made: and now our cowards,
- Like fragments in hard voyages, became
- The life o' the need: having found the backdoor open
- Of the unguarded hearts, heavens, how they wound!
- Some slain before; some dying; some their friends
- O'er borne i' the former wave: ten, chased by one,
- Are now each one the slaughter-man of twenty:
- Those that would die or ere resist are grown
- The mortal bugs o' the field.
- Lord
- This was strange chance
- A narrow lane, an old man, and two boys.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Nay, do not wonder at it: you are made
- Rather to wonder at the things you hear
- Than to work any. Will you rhyme upon't,
- And vent it for a mockery? Here is one:
- 'Two boys, an old man twice a boy, a lane,
- Preserved the Britons, was the Romans' bane.'
- Lord
- Nay, be not angry, sir.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- 'Lack, to what end?
- Who dares not stand his foe, I'll be his friend;
- For if he'll do as he is made to do,
- I know he'll quickly fly my friendship too.
- You have put me into rhyme.
- Lord
- Farewell; you're angry.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Still going?
- Exit Lord
- This is a lord! O noble misery,
- To be i' the field, and ask 'what news?' of me!
- To-day how many would have given their honours
- To have saved their carcasses! took heel to do't,
- And yet died too! I, in mine own woe charm'd,
- Could not find death where I did hear him groan,
- Nor feel him where he struck: being an ugly monster,
- 'Tis strange he hides him in fresh cups, soft beds,
- Sweet words; or hath more ministers than we
- That draw his knives i' the war. Well, I will find him
- For being now a favourer to the Briton,
- No more a Briton, I have resumed again
- The part I came in: fight I will no more,
- But yield me to the veriest hind that shall
- Once touch my shoulder. Great the slaughter is
- Here made by the Roman; great the answer be
- Britons must take. For me, my ransom's death;
- On either side I come to spend my breath;
- Which neither here I'll keep nor bear again,
- But end it by some means for Imogen.
Enter two British Captains and Soldiers
- First Captain
- Great Jupiter be praised! Lucius is taken.
- 'Tis thought the old man and his sons were angels.
- Second Captain
- There was a fourth man, in a silly habit,
- That gave the affront with them.
- First Captain
- So 'tis reported:
- But none of 'em can be found. Stand! who's there?
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- A Roman,
- Who had not now been drooping here, if seconds
- Had answer'd him.
- Second Captain
- Lay hands on him; a dog!
- A leg of Rome shall not return to tell
- What crows have peck'd them here. He brags
- his service
- As if he were of note: bring him to the king.
Enter CYMBELINE, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS,
PISANIO, Soldiers, Attendants, and Roman Captives.
The Captains present POSTHUMUS LEONATUS to
CYMBELINE, who delivers him over to a Gaoler:
then exeunt omnes
SCENE IV. A British prison.
Enter POSTHUMUS LEONATUS and two Gaolers
- First Gaoler
- You shall not now be stol'n, you have locks upon you;
- So graze as you find pasture.
- Second Gaoler
- Ay, or a stomach.
Exeunt Gaolers
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Most welcome, bondage! for thou art away,
- think, to liberty: yet am I better
- Than one that's sick o' the gout; since he had rather
- Groan so in perpetuity than be cured
- By the sure physician, death, who is the key
- To unbar these locks. My conscience, thou art fetter'd
- More than my shanks and wrists: you good gods, give me
- The penitent instrument to pick that bolt,
- Then, free for ever! Is't enough I am sorry?
- So children temporal fathers do appease;
- Gods are more full of mercy. Must I repent?
- I cannot do it better than in gyves,
- Desired more than constrain'd: to satisfy,
- If of my freedom 'tis the main part, take
- No stricter render of me than my all.
- I know you are more clement than vile men,
- Who of their broken debtors take a third,
- A sixth, a tenth, letting them thrive again
- On their abatement: that's not my desire:
- For Imogen's dear life take mine; and though
- 'Tis not so dear, yet 'tis a life; you coin'd it:
- 'Tween man and man they weigh not every stamp;
- Though light, take pieces for the figure's sake:
- You rather mine, being yours: and so, great powers,
- If you will take this audit, take this life,
- And cancel these cold bonds. O Imogen!
- I'll speak to thee in silence.
Sleeps
Solemn music. Enter, as in an apparition,
SICILIUS LEONATUS, father to Posthumus Leonatus,
an old man, attired like a warrior; leading in
his hand an ancient matron, his wife, and mother
to Posthumus Leonatus, with music before them:
then, after other music, follow the two young
Leonati, brothers to Posthumus Leonatus, with
wounds as they died in the wars. They circle
Posthumus Leonatus round, as he lies sleeping
- Sicilius Leonatus
- No more, thou thunder-master, show
- Thy spite on mortal flies:
- With Mars fall out, with Juno chide,
- That thy adulteries
- Rates and revenges.
- Hath my poor boy done aught but well,
- Whose face I never saw?
- I died whilst in the womb he stay'd
- Attending nature's law:
- Whose father then, as men report
- Thou orphans' father art,
- Thou shouldst have been, and shielded him
- From this earth-vexing smart.
- Mother
- Lucina lent not me her aid,
- But took me in my throes;
- That from me was Posthumus ript,
- Came crying 'mongst his foes,
- A thing of pity!
- Sicilius Leonatus
- Great nature, like his ancestry,
- Moulded the stuff so fair,
- That he deserved the praise o' the world,
- As great Sicilius' heir.
- First Brother
- When once he was mature for man,
- In Britain where was he
- That could stand up his parallel;
- Or fruitful object be
- In eye of Imogen, that best
- Could deem his dignity?
- Mother
- With marriage wherefore was he mock'd,
- To be exiled, and thrown
- From Leonati seat, and cast
- From her his dearest one,
- Sweet Imogen?
- Sicilius Leonatus
- Why did you suffer Iachimo,
- Slight thing of Italy,
- To taint his nobler heart and brain
- With needless jealosy;
- And to become the geck and scorn
- O' th' other's villany?
- Second Brother
- For this from stiller seats we came,
- Our parents and us twain,
- That striking in our country's cause
- Fell bravely and were slain,
- Our fealty and Tenantius' right
- With honour to maintain.
- First Brother
- Like hardiment Posthumus hath
- To Cymbeline perform'd:
- Then, Jupiter, thou king of gods,
- Why hast thou thus adjourn'd
- The graces for his merits due,
- Being all to dolours turn'd?
- Sicilius Leonatus
- Thy crystal window ope; look out;
- No longer exercise
- Upon a valiant race thy harsh
- And potent injuries.
- Mother
- Since, Jupiter, our son is good,
- Take off his miseries.
- Sicilius Leonatus
- Peep through thy marble mansion; help;
- Or we poor ghosts will cry
- To the shining synod of the rest
- Against thy deity.
- First Brother
- Second Brother
- Help, Jupiter; or we appeal,
- And from thy justice fly.
Jupiter descends in thunder and lightning, sitting
upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The
Apparitions fall on their knees
- Jupiter
- No more, you petty spirits of region low,
- Offend our hearing; hush!
- Poor shadows of Elysium, hence, and rest
- Upon your never-withering banks of flowers:
- Be not with mortal accidents opprest;
- No care of yours it is; you know 'tis ours.
- Whom best I love I cross; to make my gift,
- The more delay'd, delighted. Be content;
- Your low-laid son our godhead will uplift:
- His comforts thrive, his trials well are spent.
- Our Jovial star reign'd at his birth, and in
- Our temple was he married. Rise, and fade.
- He shall be lord of lady Imogen,
- And happier much by his affliction made.

- Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline.
Ascends
- Sicilius Leonatus
- He came in thunder; his celestial breath
- Was sulphurous to smell: the holy eagle
- Stoop'd as to foot us: his ascension is
- More sweet than our blest fields: his royal bird
- Prunes the immortal wing and cloys his beak,
- As when his god is pleased.
- All
- Thanks, Jupiter!
- Sicilius Leonatus
- The marble pavement closes, he is enter'd
- His radiant root. Away! and, to be blest,
- Let us with care perform his great behest.
The Apparitions vanish
- Posthumus Leonatus
- Waking Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and begot
- A father to me; and thou hast created
- A mother and two brothers: but, O scorn!
- Gone! they went hence so soon as they were born:
- And so I am awake. Poor wretches that depend
- On greatness' favour dream as I have done,
- Wake and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve:
- Many dream not to find, neither deserve,
- And yet are steep'd in favours: so am I,
- That have this golden chance and know not why.
- What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one!
- Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
- Nobler than that it covers: let thy effects
- So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers,
- As good as promise.
- Reads
- 'When as a lion's whelp shall, to himself unknown,
- without seeking find, and be embraced by a piece of
- tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall be
- lopped branches, which, being dead many years,
- shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock and
- freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his miseries,
- Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.'
- 'Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen
- Tongue and brain not; either both or nothing;
- Or senseless speaking or a speaking such
- As sense cannot untie. Be what it is,
- The action of my life is like it, which
- I'll keep, if but for sympathy.
Re-enter First Gaoler
- First Gaoler
- Come, sir, are you ready for death?
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Over-roasted rather; ready long ago.
- First Gaoler
- Hanging is the word, sir: if
- you be ready for that, you are well cooked.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- So, if I prove a good repast to the
- spectators, the dish pays the shot.
- First Gaoler
- A heavy reckoning for you, sir. But the comfort is,
- you shall be called to no more payments, fear no
- more tavern-bills; which are often the sadness of
- parting, as the procuring of mirth: you come in
- flint for want of meat, depart reeling with too
- much drink; sorry that you have paid too much, and
- sorry that you are paid too much; purse and brain
- both empty; the brain the heavier for being too
- light, the purse too light, being drawn of
- heaviness: of this contradiction you shall now be
- quit. O, the charity of a penny cord! It sums up
- thousands in a trice: you have no true debitor and
- creditor but it; of what's past, is, and to come,
- the discharge: your neck, sir, is pen, book and
- counters; so the acquittance follows.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- I am merrier to die than thou art to live.
- First Gaoler
- Indeed, sir, he that sleeps feels not the
- tooth-ache: but a man that were to sleep your
- sleep, and a hangman to help him to bed, I think he
- would change places with his officer; for, look you,
- sir, you know not which way you shall go.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Yes, indeed do I, fellow.
- First Gaoler
- Your death has eyes in 's head then; I have not seen
- him so pictured: you must either be directed by
- some that take upon them to know, or do take upon
- yourself that which I am sure you do not know, or
- jump the after inquiry on your own peril: and how
- you shall speed in your journey's end, I think you'll
- never return to tell one.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- I tell thee, fellow, there are none want eyes to
- direct them the way I am going, but such as wink and
- will not use them.
- First Gaoler
- What an infinite mock is this, that a man should
- have the best use of eyes to see the way of
- blindness! I am sure hanging's the way of winking.
Enter a Messenger
- Messenger
- Knock off his manacles; bring your prisoner to the king.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Thou bring'st good news; I am called to be made free.
- First Gaoler
- I'll be hang'd then.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Thou shalt be then freer than a gaoler; no bolts for the dead.
Exeunt POSTHUMUS LEONATUS and Messenger
- First Gaoler
- Unless a man would marry a gallows and beget young
- gibbets, I never saw one so prone. Yet, on my
- conscience, there are verier knaves desire to live,
- for all he be a Roman: and there be some of them
- too that die against their wills; so should I, if I
- were one. I would we were all of one mind, and one
- mind good; O, there were desolation of gaolers and
- gallowses! I speak against my present profit, but
- my wish hath a preferment in 't.
Exeunt
SCENE V. Cymbeline's tent.
Enter CYMBELINE, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS,
PISANIO, Lords, Officers, and Attendants
- CYMBELINE
- Stand by my side, you whom the gods have made
- Preservers of my throne. Woe is my heart
- That the poor soldier that so richly fought,
- Whose rags shamed gilded arms, whose naked breast
- Stepp'd before larges of proof, cannot be found:
- He shall be happy that can find him, if
- Our grace can make him so.
- BELARIUS
- I never saw
- Such noble fury in so poor a thing;
- Such precious deeds in one that promises nought
- But beggary and poor looks.
- CYMBELINE
- No tidings of him?
- PISANIO
- He hath been search'd among the dead and living,
- But no trace of him.
- CYMBELINE
- To my grief, I am
- The heir of his reward;
- To BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS
- which I will add
- To you, the liver, heart and brain of Britain,
- By whom I grant she lives. 'Tis now the time
- To ask of whence you are. Report it.
- BELARIUS
- Sir,
- In Cambria are we born, and gentlemen:
- Further to boast were neither true nor modest,
- Unless I add, we are honest.
- CYMBELINE
- Bow your knees.
- Arise my knights o' the battle: I create you
- Companions to our person and will fit you
- With dignities becoming your estates.
- Enter CORNELIUS and Ladies
- There's business in these faces. Why so sadly
- Greet you our victory? you look like Romans,
- And not o' the court of Britain.
- CORNELIUS
- Hail, great king!
- To sour your happiness, I must report
- The queen is dead.
- CYMBELINE
- Who worse than a physician
- Would this report become? But I consider,
- By medicine life may be prolong'd, yet death
- Will seize the doctor too. How ended she?
- CORNELIUS
- With horror, madly dying, like her life,
- Which, being cruel to the world, concluded
- Most cruel to herself. What she confess'd
- I will report, so please you: these her women
- Can trip me, if I err; who with wet cheeks
- Were present when she finish'd.
- CYMBELINE
- Prithee, say.
- CORNELIUS
- First, she confess'd she never loved you, only
- Affected greatness got by you, not you:
- Married your royalty, was wife to your place;
- Abhorr'd your person.
- CYMBELINE
- She alone knew this;
- And, but she spoke it dying, I would not
- Believe her lips in opening it. Proceed.

- CYMBELINE
- O most delicate fiend!
- Who is 't can read a woman? Is there more?
- CORNELIUS
- More, sir, and worse. She did confess she had
- For you a mortal mineral; which, being took,
- Should by the minute feed on life and lingering
- By inches waste you: in which time she purposed,
- By watching, weeping, tendance, kissing, to
- O'ercome you with her show, and in time,
- When she had fitted you with her craft, to work
- Her son into the adoption of the crown:
- But, failing of her end by his strange absence,
- Grew shameless-desperate; open'd, in despite
- Of heaven and men, her purposes; repented
- The evils she hatch'd were not effected; so
- Despairing died.
- CYMBELINE
- Heard you all this, her women?
- First Lady
- We did, so please your highness.
- CYMBELINE
- Mine eyes
- Were not in fault, for she was beautiful;
- Mine ears, that heard her flattery; nor my heart,
- That thought her like her seeming; it had
- been vicious
- To have mistrusted her: yet, O my daughter!
- That it was folly in me, thou mayst say,
- And prove it in thy feeling. Heaven mend all!
- Enter LUCIUS, IACHIMO, the Soothsayer, and other
Roman Prisoners, guarded; POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
behind, and IMOGEN
- Thou comest not, Caius, now for tribute that
- The Britons have razed out, though with the loss
- Of many a bold one; whose kinsmen have made suit
- That their good souls may be appeased with slaughter
- Of you their captives, which ourself have granted:
- So think of your estate.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Consider, sir, the chance of war: the day
- Was yours by accident; had it gone with us,
- We should not, when the blood was cool,
- have threaten'd
- Our prisoners with the sword. But since the gods
- Will have it thus, that nothing but our lives
- May be call'd ransom, let it come: sufficeth
- A Roman with a Roman's heart can suffer:
- Augustus lives to think on't: and so much
- For my peculiar care.
- CYMBELINE
- I have surely seen him:
- His favour is familiar to me. Boy,
- Thou hast look'd thyself into my grace,
- And art mine own. I know not why, wherefore,
- To say 'live, boy:' ne'er thank thy master; live:
- And ask of Cymbeline what boon thou wilt,
- Fitting my bounty and thy state, I'll give it;
- Yea, though thou do demand a prisoner,
- The noblest ta'en.
- IMOGEN
- I humbly thank your highness.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- I do not bid thee beg my life, good lad;
- And yet I know thou wilt.
- IMOGEN
- No, no: alack,
- There's other work in hand: I see a thing
- Bitter to me as death: your life, good master,
- Must shuffle for itself.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- The boy disdains me,
- He leaves me, scorns me: briefly die their joys
- That place them on the truth of girls and boys.
- Why stands he so perplex'd?
- CYMBELINE
- What wouldst thou, boy?
- I love thee more and more: think more and more
- What's best to ask. Know'st him thou look'st on? speak,
- Wilt have him live? Is he thy kin? thy friend?
- IMOGEN
- He is a Roman; no more kin to me
- Than I to your highness; who, being born your vassal,
- Am something nearer.
- CYMBELINE
- Wherefore eyest him so?
- IMOGEN
- I'll tell you, sir, in private, if you please
- To give me hearing.
- CYMBELINE
- Ay, with all my heart,
- And lend my best attention. What's thy name?
- IMOGEN
- Fidele, sir.
- CYMBELINE
- Thou'rt my good youth, my page;
- I'll be thy master: walk with me; speak freely.
CYMBELINE and IMOGEN converse apart
- BELARIUS
- Is not this boy revived from death?
- ARVIRAGUS
- One sand another
- Not more resembles that sweet rosy lad
- Who died, and was Fidele. What think you?
- GUIDERIUS
- The same dead thing alive.
- BELARIUS
- Peace, peace! see further; he eyes us not; forbear;
- Creatures may be alike: were 't he, I am sure
- He would have spoke to us.
- GUIDERIUS
- But we saw him dead.
- BELARIUS
- Be silent; let's see further.
- PISANIO
- Aside It is my mistress:
- Since she is living, let the time run on
- To good or bad.
CYMBELINE and IMOGEN come forward
- CYMBELINE
- Come, stand thou by our side;
- Make thy demand aloud.
- To IACHIMO
- Sir, step you forth;
- Give answer to this boy, and do it freely;
- Or, by our greatness and the grace of it,
- Which is our honour, bitter torture shall
- Winnow the truth from falsehood. On, speak to him.
- IMOGEN
- My boon is, that this gentleman may render
- Of whom he had this ring.
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Aside What's that to him?
- CYMBELINE
- That diamond upon your finger, say
- How came it yours?
- IACHIMO
- Thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that
- Which, to be spoke, would torture thee.
- CYMBELINE
- How! me?
- IACHIMO
- I am glad to be constrain'd to utter that
- Which torments me to conceal. By villany
- I got this ring: 'twas Leonatus' jewel;
- Whom thou didst banish; and — which more may
- grieve thee,
- As it doth me — a nobler sir ne'er lived
- 'Twixt sky and ground. Wilt thou hear more, my lord?
- CYMBELINE
- All that belongs to this.
- IACHIMO
- That paragon, thy daughter —
- For whom my heart drops blood, and my false spirits
- Quail to remember — Give me leave; I faint.
- CYMBELINE
- My daughter! what of her? Renew thy strength:
- I had rather thou shouldst live while nature will
- Than die ere I hear more: strive, man, and speak.
- IACHIMO
- Upon a time — unhappy was the clock
- That struck the hour! — it was in Rome — accursed
- The mansion where! — 'twas at a feast — O, would
- Our viands had been poison'd, or at least
- Those which I heaved to head! — the good Posthumus —
- What should I say? he was too good to be
- Where ill men were; and was the best of all
- Amongst the rarest of good ones — sitting sadly,
- Hearing us praise our loves of Italy
- For beauty that made barren the swell'd boast
- Of him that best could speak, for feature, laming
- The shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva.
- Postures beyond brief nature, for condition,
- A shop of all the qualities that man
- Loves woman for, besides that hook of wiving,
- Fairness which strikes the eye —
- CYMBELINE
- I stand on fire:
- Come to the matter.
- IACHIMO
- All too soon I shall,
- Unless thou wouldst grieve quickly. This Posthumus,
- Most like a noble lord in love and one
- That had a royal lover, took his hint;
- And, not dispraising whom we praised — therein
- He was as calm as virtue — he began
- His mistress' picture; which by his tongue
- being made,
- And then a mind put in't, either our brags
- Were crack'd of kitchen-trolls, or his description
- Proved us unspeaking sots.
- CYMBELINE
- Nay, nay, to the purpose.
- IACHIMO
- Your daughter's chastity — there it begins.
- He spake of her, as Dian had hot dreams,
- And she alone were cold: whereat I, wretch,
- Made scruple of his praise; and wager'd with him
- Pieces of gold 'gainst this which then he wore
- Upon his honour'd finger, to attain
- In suit the place of's bed and win this ring
- By hers and mine adultery. He, true knight,
- No lesser of her honour confident
- Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring;
- And would so, had it been a carbuncle
- Of Phoebus' wheel, and might so safely, had it
- Been all the worth of's car. Away to Britain
- Post I in this design: well may you, sir,
- Remember me at court; where I was taught
- Of your chaste daughter the wide difference
- 'Twixt amorous and villanous. Being thus quench'd
- Of hope, not longing, mine Italian brain
- 'Gan in your duller Britain operate
- Most vilely; for my vantage, excellent:
- And, to be brief, my practise so prevail'd,
- That I return'd with simular proof enough
- To make the noble Leonatus mad,
- By wounding his belief in her renown
- With tokens thus, and thus; averting notes
- Of chamber-hanging, pictures, this her bracelet —
- O cunning, how I got it! — nay, some marks
- Of secret on her person, that he could not
- But think her bond of chastity quite crack'd,
- I having ta'en the forfeit. Whereupon —
- Methinks, I see him now —
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Advancing Ay, so thou dost,
- Italian fiend! Ay me, most credulous fool,
- Egregious murderer, thief, any thing
- That's due to all the villains past, in being,
- To come! O, give me cord, or knife, or poison,
- Some upright justicer! Thou, king, send out
- For torturers ingenious: it is I
- That all the abhorred things o' the earth amend
- By being worse than they. I am Posthumus,
- That kill'd thy daughter: — villain-like, I lie —
- That caused a lesser villain than myself,
- A sacrilegious thief, to do't: the temple
- Of virtue was she; yea, and she herself.
- Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set
- The dogs o' the street to bay me: every villain
- Be call'd Posthumus Leonitus; and
- Be villany less than 'twas! O Imogen!
- My queen, my life, my wife! O Imogen,
- Imogen, Imogen!
- IMOGEN
- Peace, my lord; hear, hear —
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- Shall's have a play of this? Thou scornful page,
- There lie thy part.
Striking her: she falls
- PISANIO
- O, gentlemen, help!
- Mine and your mistress! O, my lord Posthumus!
- You ne'er kill'd Imogen til now. Help, help!
- Mine honour'd lady!
- CYMBELINE
- Does the world go round?
- POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
- How come these staggers on me?
- PISANIO
- Wake, my mistress!
- CYMBELINE
- If this be so, the gods do mean to strike me
- To death with mortal joy.
- PISANIO