Leave us to ourselves; and make yourself some comfort Out of your best advice.2 A drop of blood a day; and, being aged, Cymbeline. Die of this folly! Queen. Nay, let her languish [Exit. Enter PISANIO. Fye!-you must give way: Here is your servant.-How now, sir? What news? Pisanio. My lord your son drew on my master. Queen. No harm, I trust, is done? Pisanio. There might have been, Queen. I am very glad on't. Ha! 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 Africk both together; Myself by with a needle, that I might prick The goer back.—Why came you from your master? To bring him to the haven: left these notes This hath been Queen. Pisanio. I humbly thank your highness. Queen. Pray, walk a while. About some half hour hence, 2 Consideration. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-A publick Place. Enter CLOTEN, and two LORDS. Cloten. Have I hurt him? 2 Lord. No, faith; not so much as his patience. [A side. 1 Lord. Hurt him? his body's a passable carcass, if he be not hurt: it is a thoroughfare for steel if it be not hurt. 2 Lord. His steel was in debt. Cloten. The villain would not stand me. 2 Lord. No; but he fled forward still, toward your face. [A side. 1 Lord. Stand you! You have land enough of your own: but he added to your having; gave you some ground. 2 Lord. As many inches as you have oceans: Puppies! [Aside. Cloten. I would they had not come between us. 2 Lord. So would I, till you had measured how long a fool you were upon the ground. [Aside. Cloten. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me! 1 Lord. Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and her brain go not together: She's a good sign, but I have seen small reflection of her wit.3 2 Lord. She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection should hurt her. [Aside. Cloten. Come, I'll to my chamber: 'Would there had been some hurt done! 2 Lord. I wish not so; unless it had been the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt. Cloten. You'll go with us? 1 Lord. I'll attend your lordship. Cloten. Nay, come, let's go together. 2 Lord. Well, my lord. [Aside. [Exeunt. 3 To understand the force of this idea, it should be remembered that anciently almost every sign had a motto, or some attempt at a witticism underneath it. SCENE IV.-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 I not have it, 'twere a paper lost As offer'd mercy is. That he spake to thee? Pisanio. What was the last 'Twas, His queen, his queen! And kiss'd it, madam. Imogen. Then wav'd his handkerchief? Imogen. Senseless linen! happier therein than I!— And that was all? Pisanio. Imogen. Thou shouldst have made him 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 tur'd mine eye, and wept.-But, good Pisanio, When shall we hear from him? Pisanio. With his next 'vantage.1 Be assur'd, madam, Imogen. I did not take my leave of him, but had Most pretty things to say: ere I could tell him, VOL. V. Opportunity. 2 E How I would think on him, at certain hours, Mine interest, and his honour; or have charg'd him, I am in heaven for him: or ere I could Give him that parting kiss, which I had set Lady. Enter a LADY. The queen, madam, Desires your highness' company. Imogen. Those things I bid you do, get them de spatch'd. I will attend the queen. Pisanio. Madam, I shall. [Exeunt. SCENE V.-An Apartment in 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 6 Increasing in far 5 Meet me with reciprocal prayer. his own,) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the 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 more quality. But how comes it, he is to sojourn with you? How creeps acquaintance? Philario. His father and I were soldiers together; to whom I have been often bound for no less than my life: Enter POSTHUMUS. Here comes the Briton: Let him be so entertained amongst you, as suits with gentlemen of your knowing, 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. Frenchman. Sir, we have known together in Orleans. Posthumus. 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 atones my countryman and you; it had been pity, you should have been put together with so mortal a purpose, as then each bore, upon importance9 of so slight and trivial a nature. Posthumus. By your pardon, sir, I was then a young traveller: rather shunn'd 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. |