To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.

2 Sen. So did we woo
Transformed Timon to our city's love,
By humble message, and by promis'd means;
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
The common stroke of war.

1 Sen. These walls of ours

Were not erected by their hands, from whom You have receiv'd your griefs: nor are they such,

Than these great towers, trophies, and schools should fall

For private faults in them.

2 Sen. Nor are they living,

Who were the motives that you first went out;
Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread:
By decimation, and a tithed death,
(If thy revenges hunger for that food,
Which nature loaths,) take thou the destin'd
tenth;

And by the hazard of the spotted die,
Let die the spotted.

1 Sen. All have not offended;

For those that were, it is not square,t to take, On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,

Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman, Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:

Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin, Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall, With those that have offended: like a shepherd,

Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth, But kill not altogether.

2 Sen. What thou wilt,

Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile.
Than hew to't with thy sword.

1 Sen. Set but thy foot

[ope; Against our rampir'd gates, and they shall So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before, To say, thou'lt enter friendly.

2 Sen. Throw thy glove;

Or any token of thine honour else,
That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress,
And not as our confusion, all thy powers

I. e. By promising him a competent subsistence.
Not regular, not equitable.

Shall make their harbour in our town, till we Have seal'd thy full desire.

Alcib. Then there's my glove; Descend, and open your uncharged ports ;* Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own, Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof, Fall, and no more: and,-to atonet your fears With my more noble meaning,-not a man Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream Of regular justice in your city's bounds, But shall be remedied, to your public laws At heaviest answer.

Both. 'Tis most nobly spoken.

Alcib. Descend, and keep your words.

The SENATORS descend, and open the Gates.

Enter a SOLDIER.

Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead; Entomb'd upon the very hem o'the sea: And on his grave-stone, this insculpture; which [sion With wax I brought away, whose soft impresInterprets for my poor ignorance.

Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft:

Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiff's left!

Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate:

Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait.

These well express in thee thy latter spirits: Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, Scorn'dst our brain's flow, and those our droplets which

From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for

aye

On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead
Is noble Timon; of whose memory
Hereafter more.-Bring me into your city,
And I will use the olive with my sword:
Make war breed peace; make peace stint§
war; make each

Prescribe to other, as each other's leech.||
Let our drums strike.

* Unattacked gates, I. e. Our tears.

[Exeunt.

A FRENCH GENTLEMAN, Friend to Philario.

CAIUS LUCIUS, General of the Roman Forces.

CORNELIUS, a Physician.
Two GENTLEMEN.
Two JAILERS.

QUEEN, Wife to Cymbeline.
IMOGEN, Daughter to Cymbeline, by a former
Queen.

HELEN, Woman to Imogen.

Lords, Ladies, Roman Senators, Tribunes, Apparitions, a Soothsayer, a Dutch Gentle man, a Spanish Gentleman, Musicians, Officers, Captains, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

Italy.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Britain.-The Garden behind CYMBELINE's Palace.

Enter two GENTLEMEN.

1 Gent. You do not meet a man, but frowns: our bloods*

No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers; Still seem, as does the king's.

2 Gen. But what's the matter?

1 Gent. His daughter, and the heir of his kingdom, whom'

He purpos'd 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."

2 Gent. None but the king?

1 Gent. He, that hath lost her, too: so is the queen, [tier, That most desir'd the match: But not a courAlthough they wear their faces to the bent Of the king's looks, hath a heart that is not Glad at the thing they scowl at.

2 Gent. And why so?

1 Gent. 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

* Inclination, natural disposition.

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.

2 Gent. You speak him far.*

1 Gent. I do extend him, Sir, within himself; Crush him together, rather than unfold His measure duly.t

2 Gent. What's his name, and birth?

1 Gent. 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 serv'd with glory and admir'd 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 this gentle lady,
Big of this gentleman, our theme, deceas'd
As he was born. The king, he takes the babe
To his protection; calls him Posthumus;
Breeds him, and makes him of his bed-cham-
ber:

Puts him to all the learnings that his time
Could make him the receiver of; which he
As we do air, fast as 'twas minister'd; and
took,
In his spring became a harvest: Liv'd in court,

* 1 e. You praise him extensively.

My praise, however extensive, is within his merit.
The father of Cymbeline.

2 Gent. How long is this ago?

1 Gent. Some twenty years.

2 Gent. That a king's children should be so convey'd!

So slackly guarded! And the search so slow, That could not trace them!

1 Gent. Howsoe'er 'tis strange,

Re-enter QUEEN.

Queen. Be brief, I pray you:

769

If the king come, I shall incur I know not How much of his displeasure:-Yet I'll move him [Aside.

To walk this way: I never do him wrong, But he does buy my injuries, to be friends; Pays dear for my offences.

[Exit.

Post. Should we be taking leave
As long a term as yet we have to live,
The loathness to depart would grow: Adieu!
Imo. 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.

Post. How! how! another?-
You gentle gods, give me but this I have,
And sear up my embracements from a next
With bonds of death!-Remain thou here

[Putting on the Ring.

While sense can keep it on! And sweetest, fairest,

As I my poor self did exchange for you,

2 Gent. I do well believe you.

1 Gent. We must forbear: Here comes the queen and princess.

SCENE II.-The same.

[Exeunt.

Enter the QUEEN, POSTHUMUS, and IMOGEN.

Queen. No, be assur'd, you shall not find me,

daughter,

After the slander of most step-mothers,
Evil-ey'd unto you: you are my prisoner, but
Your jailer shall deliver you the keys [mus,
That lock up your restraint. For you, Posthú-
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 pa-
Your wisdom may inform you.

Post. Please your highness,

I will from hence to-day.

Queen. You know the peril :

[tience

I'll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying The pangs of barr'd affections; though the king

Hath charg'd you should not speak together. [Exit QUEEN.

Imo. O Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant Can tickle where she wounds!-My dearest husband, [thing,

I something fear my father's wrath; but no-
(Always reserv'd 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; nor comforted to live,
But that there is this jewel in this world,
That I may see again.

Post. 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
Though ink be made of gall.

* Formed their manners.

[send,

my sight!

If, after this command, thou fraught the court With thy unworthiness, thou diest: Away! Thou art poison to my blood.

Post. The gods protect you! And bless the good remainders of the court! I am gone. [Exit.

Imo. There cannot be a pinch in death More sharp than this is.

Cym. O disloyal thing,

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

Imo. I beseech you, Sir,

Harm not yourself with your vexation; I
Am senseless of your wrath; a touch more
Subdues all pangs, all fears.

[rares

Cym. Past grace? obedience?
Imo. Past hope, and in despair; that way,

past grace.

Cym. That might'st have had the sole son of my queen!

Imo. O bless'd, that I might not! I chose an eagle, And did avoid a puttock.¶

Cym. Thou took'st a beggar; would'st have made my throne

A seat for baseness.

Imo. No; I rather added
A lustre to it.

Cym. O thou vile one!
Imo. Sir,

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

Cym. What!-art thou mad?

Queen. Fie!-you must give way: [news? Here is your servant.-How now, Sir? What Pis. My lord your son drew on my master. Queen. Ha!

No harm, I trust, is done?

Pis. 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.

Imo. 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?

2 Lord. As many inches as you have oceans: Puppies! [Aside. Clo. 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. Clo. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me!

2 Lord. If it be a sin to make a true election, she is damned. [Aside.

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.t

2 Lord. She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection should hurt her. [Aside. Clo. 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. [Aside. Clo. You'll go with us?

1 Lord. I'll attend your lordship. Clo. Nay, come, let's go together. 2 Lord. Well, my lord.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-A Room in CYMBELINE'S Paluce. Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO.

Imo. 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. What was the last
That he spake to thee?

Pis. 'Twas, His queen, his queen!
Imo. Then wav'd his handkerchief?
Pis. And kiss'd it, madam.

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

Pis. 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 his mind
Could best express how slow his soul sail'd on,
How swift his ship.

Imo. Thou should'st have made him
As little as a crow, or less, ere left
To after-eye him.

Pis. Madam, so I did.

Imo. 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
When shall we hear from him? [Pisanio,

Pis. Be assur'd, madam,
With his next vantage.

Imo. 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 The shes of Italy should not betray [swear Mine interest, and his honour; or have charg'd him, At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at mid[night, 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

Her beauty and sense are not equal.

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. + Opportunity.

Mect me with reciprocal prayer.

Enter a LADY.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.-Rome.-An Apartment in PHILARIO'S House.

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

lach. 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.

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

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

Iach. This matter of marrying his king's daughter, (wherein he must be weighed rather by her value, than his own,) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter.

French. And then his banishment:

Iach. 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 judgement, 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 acquain

tance?

Phi. 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 quality.-1 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.

French. Sir, we have known together in Orleans.

Post. Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies, which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still.

French. Sir, you o'er-rate my poor kindness: I was glad I did atonell my countryman and you; it had been pity, you should have been put together with so mortal a purpose, as then each bore, upon importance¶ of so slight and trivial a nature.

Post. By your pardon, Sir, I was then a young traveller: rather shunned to go even with what I heard, than in my every action to be guided by others' experiences: but, upon my mended judgement, (if I offend not to say it + Accomplished. || Reconcile.

* Increasing in fame.
+ Forms him.
Praise him.
Importunity, instigation.

is mended,) my quarrel was not altogether slight.

French. '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.

Iach. Can we, with manners, ask what was the difference?

French. 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 attemptible, than any the rarest of our ladies in France.

lach. That lady is not now living; or this gentleman's opinion, by this, worn out. Post. She holds her virtue still, and I my mind.

Iach. You must not so far prefer her 'fore ours of Italy.

Post. Being so far provoked as I was in France, I would abate her nothing; though I profess myself her adorer, not her friend.+

Iach. As fair, and as good, (a kind of handfair, and too good for any lady in Britany. If in-hand comparison,) had been something too she went before others I have seen, as that held, I could not but believe she excelled diamond of yours outlustres many I have bemany: but I have not seen the most precious diamond that is, nor you the lady.

Post. I praised her, as I rated her: so do I my stone.

Iach. What do you esteem it at? Post. More than the world enjoys. dead, or she's outpriz'd by a trifle. Iach. Either your unparagoned mistress is

sold, or given; if there were wealth enough
Post. You are mistaken: the one may be
for the purchase, or merit for the gift: the
of the gods.
other is not a thing for sale, and only the gift

Iuch. Which the gods have given you?
Post. Which by their graces, I will keep.

Iach. You may wear her in title yours: but, ing ponds. Your ring may be stolen too: so, you know, strange fowl light upon neighbourof your brace of unprizeable 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.

Post. Your Italy contains none so accomplished a courtier, to convince the honour of my mistress; if, in the holding or loss of that, have store of thieves; notwithstanding I fear you term her frail. I do nothing doubt, you not my ring.

Phi. Let us leave here, gentlemen.

nior, I thank him, makes no stranger of me; Post. Sir, with all heart. This worthy sigwe are familiar at first.

lach. With five times so much conversation, I should get ground of your fair mistress: admittance, and opportunity to friend. make her go back, even to the yielding; had

I

Post. No, no.