Imo.

I will write.

Send your trunk to me; it shall safe be kept,

And truly yielded you.

SCENE I. Britain. Before Cymbeline's palace.

Enter CLOTEN and two Lords.

Clo. Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the jack, upon an up-cast to be hit away! I had a hundred pound on 't: and then a whoreson jackanapes must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure.

First Lord. What got he by that? You have broke his pate with your bowl.

Sec. Lord. [Aside] If his wit had been like him that broke it, it would have run all out.

Clo. When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha?

Sec. Lord. No, my lord; [Aside] nor crop the ears of them.

Clo. Whoreson dog! I give him satisfaction? Would he had been one of my rank!

Sec. Lord. [Aside] To have smelt like a fool.

ΤΟ

Clo. I am not vexed more at any thing in the earth: a pox on 't! I had rather not be so noble 20 as I am; they dare not fight with me, because of

2. kissed the jack (in the game of bowls), hit the jack (i.e. the small ball at which aim is

taken).

2. up-cast, throw (of his rival's

bowl).

གས༥4 ་ ་

the queen my mother: every Jack-slave hath his bellyful of fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock that nobody can match.

Sec. Lord. [Aside] You are cock and capon too; and you crow, cock, with your comb on. Clo. Sayest thou?

Sec. Lord. It is not fit your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offence

to.

Clo. No, I know that: but it is fit I should commit offence to my inferiors.

Sec. Lord. Ay, it is fit for your lordship only.
Clo. Why, so I say.

First Lord. Did you hear of a stranger that's come to court to-night?

Clo. A stranger, and I not know on 't!

Sec. Lord. [Aside] He's a strange fellow himself, and knows it not.

First Lord. There's an Italian come; and, 'tis thought, one of Leonatus' friends.

Clo. Leonatus! a banished rascal; and he's another, whatsoever he be. Who told you of this stranger?

First Lord. One of your lordship's pages.

Clo. Is it fit I went to look upon him? is there no derogation in 't?

Sec. Lord. You cannot derogate, my lord.

Clo. Not easily, I think.

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40

Sec. Lord. [Aside] You are a fool granted; 50 therefore your issues, being foolish, do not derogate.

Clo. Come, I'll go see

25. capon (castrated cock), a term of contemptuous reproach; here also with a quibble on cap (i.e. cockcomb) on.

29. undertake, give satisfac

this Italian: what I

tion (in arms) to.

29. companion,

fellow.

common

51. issues, (1) actions, (2) descendants.

have lost to-day at bowls I'll win to-night of him.

Come, go.

Sec. Lord. I'll attend your lordship.

[Exeunt Cloten and First Lord.

That such a crafty devil as is his mother
Should yield the world this ass! a woman that
Bears all down with her brain; and this her son
Cannot take two from twenty, for his heart,
And leave eighteen. Alas, poor princess,
Thou divine Imogen, what thou endurest,
Betwixt a father by thy step-dame govern'd,
A mother hourly coining plots, a wooer
More hateful than the foul expulsion is
Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act

Of the divorce he 'ld make ! The heavens hold
firm

The walls of thy dear honour, keep unshaked
That temple, thy fair mind, that thou mayst stand,
To enjoy thy banish'd lord and this great land!

[Exit.

60

70

SCENE II. Imogen's bedchamber in Cymbeline's
palace: a trunk in one corner of it.

IMOGEN in bed, reading; a Lady attending.

Imo. Who's there? my woman Helen?

Lady.

Imo. What hour is it?

Lady.

Please you, madam.

Almost midnight, madam.

Imo. I have read three hours then: mine eyes

are weak:

Fold down the leaf where I have left: to bed:

Take not away the taper, leave it burning;
And if thou canst awake by four o' the clock,

I prithee, call me. Sleep hath seized me wholly.
[Exit Lady.

To your protection I commend me, gods.
From fairies and the tempters of the night
Guard me, beseech ye.

[Sleeps. Tachimo comes from the trunk. Iach. The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd

sense

Repairs itself by rest. Our Tarquin thus

Did softly press the rushes, ere he waken'd
The chastity he wounded. Cytherea,

How bravely thou becomest thy bed, fresh lily,

And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch!

Rubies unparagon'd,

But kiss; one kiss!
How dearly they do 't!
Perfumes the chamber

taper

'Tis her breathing that
thus: the flame o' the

Bows toward her, and would under-peep her lids,
To see the enclosed lights, now canopied

Under these windows, white and azure laced
With blue of heaven's own tinct. But my design,
To note the chamber: I will write all down:
Such and such pictures; there the window; such
The adornment of her bed; the arras; figures,
Why, such and such; and the contents o' the
story.

Ah, but some natural notes about her body,
Above ten thousand meaner moveables
Would testify, to enrich mine inventory.

O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her!
And be her sense but as a monument,
Thus in a chapel lying! Come off, come off:
[Taking off her bracelet.

18. How dearly they do 't, how exquisitely they (her lips) kiss.

ΙΟ

20

30

27. the story, viz. that represented in the arras (cf. ii. 4. 70).

As slippery as the Gordian knot was hard!
'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly,
As strongly as the conscience does within,
To the madding of her lord.

On her left breast
A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I' the bottom of a cowslip: here's a voucher,
Stronger than ever law could make: this secret
Will force him think I have pick'd the lock and
ta'en

The treasure of her honour. No more. To what
end?

Why should I write this down, that's riveted,

Screw'd to my memory? She hath been reading
late

The tale of Tereus; here the leaf's turn'd down
Where Philomel gave up. I have enough :

To the trunk again, and shut the spring of it.
Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that
dawning

May bare the raven's eye! I lodge in fear;

Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here.

40

50

[Clock strikes.