Cymbeline Read online

  But that there is this jewel in the world

  That I may see again.

  POSTHUMUS    My queen, my mistress:

  O lady, weep no more, lest I give cause

  To be suspected of more tenderness106

  Than doth become a man. I will remain

  The loyal’st husband that did e’er plight troth.108

  My residence in Rome, at one Philario’s,

  Who to my father was a friend, to me

  Known but by letter: thither111 write, my queen,

  And with mine eyes I’ll drink the words you send,

  Though ink be made of gall.113

  Enter Queen

  QUEEN    Be brief, I pray you:

  If the king come, I shall incur I know not

  Aside

  How much of his displeasure.—Yet I’ll move him

  To walk this way: I never do him wrong,

  But he does buy118 my injuries to be friends:

  Pays dear for my offences.

  [Exit]

  POSTHUMUS    Should we be taking leave

  As long a term121 as yet we have to live,

  The loathness122 to depart would grow. Adieu.

  INNOGEN    Nay, stay a little:

  Were you but riding forth to air yourself,

  Such parting were too petty.125 Look here, love,

  This diamond was my mother’s; take it, heart,

  Gives a ring

  But keep it till you woo another wife,

  When Innogen is dead.

  POSTHUMUS    How, how? Another?

  You gentle gods, give me but this I have,

  And cere131 up my embracements from a next

  With bonds of death. Remain, remain thou here

  Puts on the ring

  While sense133 can keep it on: and sweetest, fairest,

  As I my poor self did exchange for you134

  To your so infinite loss, so in our trifles135

  I still win of you. For my sake wear this,

  It is a manacle of love. I’ll place it

  Upon this fairest prisoner.138

  Puts a bracelet on her arm

  INNOGEN    O, the gods!

  When shall we see140 again?

  Enter Cymbeline and Lords

  POSTHUMUS    Alack141, the king!

  CYMBELINE    Thou basest thing, avoid hence142, from my sight:

  If after this command thou fraught143 the court

  With thy unworthiness, thou diest. Away,

  Thou’rt poison to my blood.

  POSTHUMUS    The gods protect you,

  And bless the good remainders147 of the court:

  I am gone.

  Exit

  INNOGEN    There cannot be a pinch149 in death

  More sharp than this is.

  CYMBELINE    O disloyal thing,

  That shouldst repair152 my youth, thou heap’st

  A year’s age on me.

  INNOGEN    I beseech you, sir,

  Harm not yourself with your vexation,

  I am senseless of your wrath; a touch more rare156

  Subdues all pangs, all fears.

  CYMBELINE    Past grace? Obedience?

  INNOGEN    Past hope and in despair: that way past grace.159

  CYMBELINE    That mightst have had the sole son of my queen.

  INNOGEN    O, blest that I might not: I chose an eagle,

  And did avoid a puttock.162

  CYMBELINE    Thou took’st a beggar, wouldst have made my throne

  A seat for baseness.

  INNOGEN    No, I rather added a lustre to it.

  CYMBELINE    O thou vile one!

  INNOGEN    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 me170

  Almost the sum he pays.

  CYMBELINE    What? Art thou mad?

  INNOGEN    Almost, sir: heaven restore me! Would I were

  A neatherd’s174 daughter, and my Leonatus

  Our neighbour shepherd’s son.

  Enter Queen

  CYMBELINE    Thou foolish thing!—

  To Queen

  They were again together: you have done

  Not after178 our command.— Away with her,

  And pen her up.

  QUEEN    Beseech180 your patience: peace,

  Dear lady daughter, peace. Sweet sovereign,

  Leave us to ourselves, and make yourself some comfort

  Out of your best advice.183

  CYMBELINE    Nay, let her languish184

  A drop of blood a day184, and being aged,

  Die of this folly.

  Exeunt [Cymbeline and Lords]

  Enter Pisanio

  QUEEN    Fie, you must give way.187

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

  PISANIO    My lord your son drew189 on my master.

  QUEEN    Ha?

  No harm I trust is done?

  PISANIO    There might have been,

  But that my master rather played than fought,

  And had no help of anger194: they were parted

  By gentlemen at hand.

  QUEEN    I am very glad on’t.

  INNOGEN    Your son’s my father’s friend, he takes his part197

  To draw upon an exile.—O brave sir!—

  I would they were in Afric199 both together,

  Myself by with a needle, that I might prick

  The goer-back.201—Why came you from your master?

  PISANIO    On his command: he would not suffer202 me

  To bring him to the haven203: 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 lay207 mine honour

  He will remain so.

  PISANIO    I humbly thank your highness.

  To Innogen

  QUEEN    Pray walk awhile.

  To Pisanio

  INNOGEN    About some half hour hence, pray you

  speak with me.

  You shall, at least, go see my lord aboard.

  For this time leave me.

  Exeunt

  Act 1 Scene 2

  running scene 1 continues

  Enter Cloten and two Lords

  FIRST LORD    Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt; the violence1

  of action hath made you reek as a sacrifice: where air comes2

  out, air comes in: there’s none abroad3 so wholesome as that

  you vent.

  CLOTEN    If my shirt were bloody, then to5 shift it. Have I hurt

  him?

  Aside

  SECOND LORD    No, faith: not so much as7 his patience.

  FIRST LORD    Hurt him? His body’s a passable carcass8 if he be not

  hurt. It is a thoroughfare for steel if it be not hurt.

  Aside

  SECOND LORD    His steel was in debt, it went o’th’backside10

  the town.

  CLOTEN    The villain would not stand me.12

  Aside

  SECOND LORD    No, but he fled forward still, toward your

  face.

  FIRST LORD    Stand you? You have land enough of your own: but

  he added to your having, gave you some ground.

  Aside

  SECOND LORD    As many inches as you have oceans. Puppies!17

  CLOTEN    I would they had not come between us.

  Aside

  SECOND LORD    So would I, till you had measured how long19

  a fool you were upon the ground.

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

  Aside

  SECOND LORD    If it be a sin to make a true election22, she is

  damned.

  FIRST LORD    Sir, as I told you always: her beauty and her brain

  go not together. She’s a good sign25, but I have seen small

  reflection of her wit.26

  Aside

  SECOND LORD    She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection

  should hurt her.

  CLOTEN    Come, I’ll to my chamber: would there had29 been

  some hurt done.

  Aside

  SECOND LORD    I wish not so, unless it had been the fall of

  an ass32, 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    Well36, my lord.

  Exeunt

  Act 1 Scene 3

  running scene 1 continues

  Enter Innogen and Pisanio

  INNOGEN    I would thou grew’st unto1 the shores o’th’haven,

  And questioned’st every sail2: if he should write,

  And I not have it, ’twere a paper lost,

  As offered mercy4 is. What was the last

  That he spake5 to thee?

  PISANIO    It was his queen, his queen.

  INNOGEN    Then waved his handkerchief?

  PISANIO    And kissed it, madam.

  INNOGEN    Senseless9 linen, happier therein than I:

  And that was all?

  PISANIO    No, madam: for so long

  As he could make me12 with this eye, or ear,

  Distinguish him from others, he did keep13

  The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief,

  Still waving, as the fits and stirs of’s mind15

  Could best express how slow his soul sailed on16,

  How swift his ship.

  INNOGEN    Thou shouldst have made him18

  As little as a crow, or less, ere left19

  To after-eye20 him.

  PISANIO    Madam, so I did.

  INNOGEN    I would have broke mine eyestrings22, cracked them, but

  To look upon him, till the diminution23

  Of space had pointed24 him sharp as my needle:

  Nay, followed him, till he had melted from

  The smallness of a gnat to air: and then

  Have turned mine eye, and wept. But, good Pisanio,

  When shall we hear from him?

  PISANIO    Be assured, madam,

  With his next vantage.30

  INNOGEN    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 shes35 of Italy should not betray

  Mine interest36 and his honour: or have charged him,

  At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight37,

  T’encounter me with orisons38, for then

  I am in heaven for him: or ere I could

  Give him that parting kiss, which I had set

  Betwixt two charming41 words, comes in my father,

  And like the tyrannous breathing of the north42,

  Shakes all our buds from growing.

  Enter a Lady

  LADY    The queen, madam,

  Desires your highness’ company.

  INNOGEN    Those things I bid you do, get them dispatched.

  I will attend the queen.

  PISANIO    Madam, I shall.

  Exeunt

  Act 1 Scene 4

  running scene 2

  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 note2, expected to prove so worthy as since he

  hath been allowed the name of.3 But I could then have looked

  on him without the help of admiration4, though the

  catalogue of his endowments had been tabled5 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.11

  IACHIMO    This matter of marrying his king’s daughter,

  wherein he must be weighed13 rather by her value than his

  own, words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter.14

  FRENCHMAN    And then his banishment.

  IACHIMO    Ay, and the approbation16 of those that weep this

  lamentable divorce under her colours17 are wonderfully to

  extend him, be it but to fortify18 her judgement, which else an

  easy battery19 might lay flat, for taking a beggar without less

  quality. But how comes it he is to sojourn20 with you? How

  creeps acquaintance?21

  PHILARIO    His father and I were soldiers together, to whom I

  have been often bound for no less than my life.

  Enter Posthumus

  Here comes the Briton. Let him be so entertained amongst

  you as suits with gentlemen of your knowing25 to a stranger of

  his quality. I beseech you all be better known to this

  gentleman, whom I commend to you as a noble friend of

  mine. How worthy he is I will leave to appear hereafter,

  rather than story him in his own hearing.29

  FRENCHMAN    Sir, we have known together30 in Orleans.

  POSTHUMUS    Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies,

  which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still.32

  FRENCHMAN    Sir, you o’errate my poor kindness, I was glad I did

  atone34 my countryman and you: it had been pity you should

  have been put together, with so mortal35 a purpose as then

  each bore, upon importance of so slight and trivial a nature.

  POSTHUMUS    By your pardon, sir, I was then a young traveller,

  rather shunned to go even with what I heard than in38

  my every action to be guided by others’ experiences: but

  upon my mended judgement — if I offend not to say it is

  mended — my quarrel was not altogether slight.

  FRENCHMAN    Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrament of42 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.48 It was much

  like an argument that fell out49 last night, where each of us fell

  in praise of our country mistresses.50 This gentleman at that

  time vouching — and upon warrant of bloody affirmation51 —

  his to be more fair, virtuous, wise, chaste, constant, qualified

  and less attemptable53 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.56

  POSTHUMUS    She holds her virtue still, and I my mind.57

  IACHIMO    You must not so far prefer her ’fore ours of Italy.

  POSTHUMUS    Being so far provoked as I was in France, I would

>   abate her nothing, though I profess myself60 her adorer, not

  her friend.

  IACHIMO    As fair and as good — a kind of hand-in-hand62

  comparison — had been something too fair and too good for

  any lady in Britain. If she went before64 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    I praised her as I rated68 her: so do I my stone.

  IACHIMO    What do you esteem69 it at?

  POSTHUMUS    More than the world enjoys.70

  IACHIMO    Either your unparagoned71 mistress is dead, or she’s

  outprized by a trifle.72

  POSTHUMUS    You are mistaken: the one may be sold or73 given, or 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    Which by their graces I will keep.

  IACHIMO    You may wear her in title yours79: but you know

  strange fowl light upon neighbouring ponds. Your ring80 may

  be stolen too, so your brace of unprizable estimations81, the

  one is but frail and the other casual.82 A cunning thief, or a

  that-way-accomplished courtier83, would hazard the winning

  both of first and last.

  POSTHUMUS    Your Italy contains none so accomplished a courtier

  to convince86 the honour of my mistress, if in the holding or

  loss of that you term her frail. I do nothing doubt you have

  store88 of thieves, notwithstanding, I fear not my ring.

  PHILARIO    Let us leave here89, gentlemen.

  POSTHUMUS    Sir, with all my heart. This worthy signior, I thank

  him, makes no stranger of me, we are familiar at first.91

  IACHIMO    With five times so much conversation, I should get92

  ground of your fair mistress, make her go back, even to the

  yielding, had I admittance and opportunity to friend.94

  POSTHUMUS    No, no.

  IACHIMO    I dare thereupon pawn the moiety of my estate, to96