I will go there and do 't; i' the court; before
Her father. I'll do something

PHI.

[Exit.

Quite besides

150

The government of patience! You have won:
Let's follow him and pervert the present wrath
He hath against himself.

POST. Is there no way for men to be, but women
Must be half-workers? We are all bastards;
And that most venerable man which I
Did call my father, was I know not where
When I was stamp'd; some coiner with his tools
Made me a counterfeit: yet my mother seem'd
The Dian of that time: so doth my wife

The nonpareil of this. O, vengeance, vengeance!
Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain'd,

And pray'd me oft forbearance; did it with

A pudency so rosy, the sweet view on 't

Might well have warm'd old Saturn; that I thought her As chaste as unsunn'd snow. O, all the devils!

151 pervert] turn aside, divert or avert.

5-6 stamp'd . . . counterfeit] For this common metaphor cf. Meas. for

Meas., II, iv, 45, and note.

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This yellow Iachimo, in an hour,

Or less, at first? - perchance he spoke not, but
Like a full-acorn'd boar, a German one,

Cried "O!" and mounted; found no opposition
But what he look'd for should oppose and she
Should from encounter guard. Could I find out
The woman's part in me! For there's no motion
That tends to vice in man but I affirm

It is the woman's part: be it lying, note it,
The woman's; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers;
Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers;
Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,
Nice longing, slanders, mutability,

All faults that may be named, nay, that hell knows,
Why, hers, in part or all, but rather all;

For even to vice

They are not constant, but are changing still
One vice, but of a minute old, for one

Not half so old as that. I'll write against them,
Detest them, curse them: yet 't is greater skill
In a true hate, to pray they have their will:
The very devils cannot plague them better.

[Exit.

16 a German one] Rowe's correction of the original reading a Jarmen on. 20 motion] impulse.

25 change of prides] alternations of wanton extravagance. Cf. Lucrece, 864; "in their pride do presently abuse it [i. e., gold]."

27 faults that may be named] The Second Folio's correction of the First Folio, faults that name.

ACT THIRD-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

OW SAY, WHAT WOULD
Augustus Cæsar with us?

Luc. When Julius Cæsar, 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 Cæsar'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.
QUEEN.

Shall be so ever.

CLO.

And, to kill the marvel,

There be many Cæsars

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 unscaleable and roaring waters,

With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats,

But suck them up to the topmast. A kind of conquest
Cæsar made here; but made not here his brag

Of "Came, and saw, and overcame: " with shame
The first that ever touch'd him - he was carried
From off our coast, twice beaten; and his shipping
Poor ignorant baubles! — on 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 Cæsar's sword,
Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright
And Britons strut with courage.

CLO. Come, there's no more tribute to be paid: our kingdom is stronger than it was at that time; and, as I

20 rocks] Hanmer's correction of the Folio reading oaks.

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20

30

said, there is no moe such Cæsars: other of them may have crooked noses, but to owe such straight arms, none. CYм. Son, let your mother end.

CLO. 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 Cæsar 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.

CYM. You must know,

Till the injurious Romans did extort

This tribute from us, we were free: Cæsar'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.

CLO. AND LORDS. We do.
CYM.

Say then to Cæsar,
Our ancestor was that Mulmutius which

Ordain'd our laws, whose use the sword of Cæsar

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,

49 against all colour] contrary to all pretence of right.

52 We do] This arrangement of these words is due to the Globe edition. The Folios make We do part of Cymbeline's speech, and attach it unintelligibly to the preceding sentence. Others run the words into the succeeding sentence: We do say then.

55 repair and franchise] amendment and free exercise.

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50