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
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