The Dramatic Works of W. Shakespeare

Char. Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain; that I may | Touch their effects in this: Thyself art coming To see perform'd the dreaded act, which thou So sought'st to hinder.

say,

The gods themselves do weep!

Cleo. This proves me base: If she first meet the curled Antony, He'll make demand of her; and spend that kiss, Which is my heaven to have. Come, mortal wretch,

[To the Asp, which she applies to her Breast. With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool, Be angry and despatch. O, couldst thou speak! That I might hear thee call great Cæsar, ass Unpolicied!

Char.

Cleo.

O eastern star!

Peace, peace! Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, That sucks the nurse asleep? Char. O, break! O, break! Cleo. As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentleO Antony!-Nay, I will take thee too:

[Applying another Asp to her Arm. What should I stay-[Falls on a Bed, and dies. Char. In this wild world?-So, fare thee well.— Now boast thee, death! in thy possession lies A lass unparallel'd.-Downy windows, close; And golden Phoebus never be beheld Of eyes again so royal! Your crown's awry; I'll mend it, and then play.

Enter the Guard, rushing in.

1 Guard. Where is the queen? Char.

Speak softly, wake her not.

1 Guard. Cæsar hath sentChar.

Too slow a messenger. [Applies the Asp. O, come: apace, despatch: I partly feel thee. 1 Guard. Approach, ho! All's not well: Cæsar's beguil'd.

2 Guard. There's Dolabella sent from Cæsar;

call him.

1 Guard. What work is here?-Charmian, is

this well done?

Char. It is well done, and fitting for a princess Descended of so many royal kings. Ah, soldier!

[Dies.

Cæsar, thy thoughts

3 Unpolitic, to leave me to myself.

[Within.]

A way there, way for Cæsar! Enter CESAR, and Attendants. Dol. O, sir, you are too sure an augurer; That you did fear, is done. Cæs.

Bravest at the last: She levell'd at our purposes, and, being royal, Took her own way.-The manner of their deaths! I do not see them bleed. Dol.

Who was last with them! 1 Guard. A simple countryman, that brought her figs; This was his basket.

Cæs.

Have slime upon them, such as the aspic leaves
Upon the caves of Nile.
Most probable,
That so she died; for her physician tells me,
She hath pursued conclusions infinite
And bear her women from the monument:
Of easy ways to die.-Take up her bed;
No grave upon the earth shall clip in it
She shall be buried by her Antony:
Strike those that make them: and their story is
A pair so famous. High events as these
No less in pity than his glory, which
Brought them to be lamented. Our army shall,
In solemn show, attend this funeral;
And then to Rome.-Come, Dolabella, see
High order in this great solemnity.

4 Graceful appearance.

[Exeunt

• Enfold.

beline's Palace.

Enter two Gentlemen.

1 Gent. You do not meet a man but frowns:
our bloods1

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

But what's the matter?
2 Gent.
1 Gent. His daughter, and the heir of his king-
dom, 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.

None but the king?
2 Gent.
1 Gent. He, that hath lost her, too: so is the queen,
That most desir'd the match: But not a courtier,
Although 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
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.

■ Inclination, natural disposition.

Gent.

You speak him far.'

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

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 honor,
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,
father
Died with their swords in hand; for which their

(Then old and fond of issue) took such sorrow,
That he quit being; and his 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-chamber:
Puts him to 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 his spring became a harvest: Lived in court
(Which rare it is to do) most prais'd, most lov'd:
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 banished,-her own price
Proclaims how she esteem'd him and his virtue;

21. e. You praise him extensively.

3 My praise, however extensive, is within his merit. Formed their manners. The father of Cymbeline.

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

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,

Were stolen: and to this hour, no guess in know- Such parting were too petty. Look here, love;

Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant
Can tickle where she wounds!-My dearest hus-
band,

I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing,
(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; not comforted to live,
But that there is this jewel in the 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 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

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,
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 on her Arm.
O, the gods!

Imo.
When shall we see again?

Enter CYMBELINE, and Lords.
Post.
Alack, the king!
Cym. Thou basest thing, avoid! hence, from
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.
More sharp than this is.
There cannot be a pinch in death

Cym.

That shouldst repair my youth; thou heapest
O disloyal thing,
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 rare
Subdues all pangs, all fears.

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

Clo. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me!

SCENE IV.

CYMBELINE.

[Exit.

Enter PISAN10.

Fye!-you must give way:

Here is your servant.-How now, sir? What news?
Pis. My lord your son drew on my master.
Queen.

No harm, I trust, is done?

Pis.

Ha!

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

This hath been
Your faithful servant; I dare lay mine honor,
He will remain so.
Pis.

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

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 reflec-
[Aside.
tion should hurt her.
Clo. Come, I'll to my chamber: 'Would there
had been some hurt done!

[Aside.

2 Lord. I wish not so; unless it had been the fall
of an ass, which is no great hurt.
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 Palace.

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.

And kiss'd it, madam.

"Twas, His queen, his queen!
Imo. Then waved his handkerchief?
Pis.
Imo. Senseless linen! happier therein than I-
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.

I humbly thank your highness. As little as a crow,
Queen. Pray, walk a while.
About some half hour hence,
Imo.
I pray you speak with me: you shall, at least,
Go see my lord aboard: for this time, leave me.

SCENE III-A public Place.
Enter CLOTEN, and two Lords.

[Exeunt.

1 Lord. Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt;
the violence of action hath made you reek as a sac-
rifice: Where air comes out, air comes in: there's
none abroad so wholesome as that you vent.

Clo. If my shirt were bloody, then to shift it-
Have I hurt him?

2 Lord. No, faith; not so much as his patience.
[Aside.
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.

Lord. His steel was in debt; it went o' the
[Aside.
backside the town.
Clo. The villain would not stand me.
2 Lord. No; but he fled forward still, toward
[Aside.
your face.
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!

Thou shouldst have made him or less, ere left

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
Pisanio,

Be assured, madam,
When shall we hear from him?
Pis.

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 swear
The shes of Italy should not betray

Mine interest, and his honor; 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.

Imo. Those things I bid you do, get them de- out last night, where each of us fell in praise of our spatch'd.I will attend the queen.

Pis.

Madam, I shall.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.-An Apartment in Philario's

House.

Enter PHILARIO, IACHIMO, a Frenchman, a Dutchman, and a Spaniard.

Iach. 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.

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.

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 Italy.

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

hand comparison,) had been something too fair, and Iach. As fair, and as good, (a kind of hand-intoo good, for any lady in Britany. If she went Phi. You speak of him when he was less fur-before others I have seen, as that diamond of yours nished 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.

Jach. 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:

lach. Ay, and the approbation of those, that weep this lamentable divorce, under her colors, 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?

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 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.

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 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.

Post. 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.

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 "Praise him. • Reconcile. 1 Destroyed.

Increasing in fame. Instigation.

out-lustres 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. 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.

Jach. Either your unparagoned mistress is dead, or she's out-prized by a trifle.

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

Iach. Which the gods have given you? Post. Which, by their grace, I will keep. know, strange fowl light upon neighboring ponds. lach. You may wear her in title yours: but, you unprizeable estimations, the one is but frail, and the Your ring may be stolen too: so, of your brace of other casual; a cunning thief, or a that-way accom plished courtier, would hazard the winning both of first and last.

Post. Your Italy contains none so accomplished a courtier, to convince the honor 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.

Phi. Let us leave here, gentlemen.

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

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

Post. No, no.

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