Imatges de pàgina
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2 LORD. No; but he fled forward still, toward your face.

[Aside.

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!

CLO. I would they had not come between us.

[Aside.

2 LORD. So would I, till you had measured how long a fool you were upon the ground.

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.

[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.

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.

CLO. You'll go with us?

1 LORD. I'll attend your lordship.

[Aside.

CLO. Nay, come, let 's go together.

2 LORD. Well, my lord.

SCENE IV-A Room in Cymbeline's Palace.

Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO.

IMO. I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' the haven,

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[Exeunt.

IMO. I would have broke mine eye-strings1; crack'd them, but
To look upon him; till the diminution

PIS.

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,
When shall we hear from him?

With his next vantagea.

Be assur'd, madam,

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 honour; or have charg'd 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".

LADY.

Enter a Lady.

The queen, madam,

Desires your highness' company.

IMO. Those things I bid you do, get them despatch'd.

I will attend the queen.

PIS.

Madam, I shall.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.-Rome. An Apartment in Philario's House.

Enter PHILARIO, IACHIMO, and a Frenchman c.

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.

Vantage-opportunity.

So in the 18th Sonnet

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May."

* In the stage-direction of the original, we have “a Dutchman and a Spaniard" brought in, as well as a Frenchman. But these characters are mute; and may be therefore omitted here, and in the list of persons represented. It was no doubt the intention to show that the foolish wager of Posthumus was made amidst strangers who had resorted to Rome.

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 Ideal 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 judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beggar without less quality a. 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 :

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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

c

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 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: 't was a contention in public, which may, without

a Less quality. So the folio. It has been corrected into more quality; but we doubt the propriety of the change. Posthumus is spoken of by all as one of high qualifications-and he is presently introduced as "a stranger of his quality." He was bred as Imogen's "playfellow,” and therefore cannot be spoken of as a low man-" without more quality." As this play was first printed, like many others, after Shakspere's death, it is probable that it contains some typographical errors. We do not feel warranted in altering the text, or we would read, "for taking a beggar without his quality,""—a beggar who does not follow the occupation of a beggar.

Atone-to make at one. Importance-import, matter. . Not is omitted in the original.

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.

IACH. 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 hand-in-hand comparison,) had been something too fair, and too good, for any lady in Britany. If she went before others I have seen, as that diamond of yours outlustres many I have beheld, I could not but believe she excelled manya: 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.

IACH. Either your unparagoned mistress is dead, or she 's outprized by a trifle. POST. You are mistaken: the one may be sold, or given, 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.

IACH. Which the gods have given you?
POST. Which, by their graces, I will keep.

IACH. You may wear her in title yours: but you know strange fowl light upon neighbouring ponds. Your ring may be stolen too: so, 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 the 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 signior, 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 yielding; had I admittance and opportunity to friend.

POST. No, no.

IACH. I dare, thereupon, pawn the moiety of my estate to your ring; which, in

a The passage stands in the folio-"I could not believe she excell'd many." The reasoning is then inconclusive; but the introduction of the word but, by Malone, gets over the difficulty. Convince-overcome.

my opinion, o'ervalues it something: But I make my wager rather against your confidence than her reputation: and, to bar your offence herein too, I durst attempt it against any lady in the world.

POST. You are a great deal abused in too bold a persuasion; and I doubt not you sustain what you 're worthy of by your attempt.

IACH. What's that?

POST. A repulse: Though your attempt, as you call it, deserve more,-a punish

ment too.

PHI. Gentlemen, enough of this: it came in too suddenly; let it die as it was born, and, I pray you, be better acquainted.

IACH. 'Would I had put my estate, and my neighbour's, on the approbation of what I have spoke.

POST. What lady would you choose to assail?

IACH. Yours; whom in constancy you think stands so safe. I will lay you ten thousand ducats to your ring, that, commend me to the court where your lady is, with no more advantage than the opportunity of a second conference, and I will bring from thence that honour of hers which you imagine so reserved.

POST. I will wage against your gold, gold to it: my ring I hold dear as my finger; 't is part of it.

IACH. You are a friend, and therein the wiser. If you buy ladies' flesh at a million a dram, you cannot preserve it from tainting: But, I see you have some religion in you, that you fear.

POST. This is but a custom in your tongue; you bear a graver purpose, I hope. IACH. I am the master of my speeches; and would undergo what 's spoken, I

swear.

POST. Will you?--I shall but lend my diamond till your return :-Let there be covenants drawn between us: My mistress exceeds in goodness the hugeness of your unworthy thinking: I dare you to this match: here 's my ring. PHI. I will have it no lay. IACH. By the gods it is one :-) -If I bring you no sufficient testimony that I have enjoyed the dearest bodily part of your mistress, my ten thousand ducats are yours; so is your diamond too. If I come off, and leave her in such honour as you have trust in, she your jewel, this your jewel, and my gold, are yours:-provided I have your commendation for my more free entertainment.

POST. I embrace these conditions; let us have articles betwixt us;-only, thus far you shall answer. If you make your voyage upon her, and give me directly to understand you have prevailed, I am no further your enemy: she is not worth our debate. If she remain unseduced, (you not making it appear otherwise,) for your ill opinion, and the assault you have made to her chastity, you shall answer me with your sword.

IACH. Your hand; a covenant: We will have these things set down by lawful

a A friend. So the original. Warburton proposed to read afraid.

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