and starve.

counsel, and straight away for Britain; lest the bargain should catch cold, I will fetch my gold, and have our two wagers recorded. [Exeunt POSTHUMUS and IACHIMO.

POST. Agreed.
FRENCH. Will this hold, think you?

PHI. Signior Iachimo will not from it. Pray, let us follow 'em.

SCENE VI.-Britain. A Room in Cymbeline's Palace.

Enter QUEEN, Ladies, and CORNELIUS.

QUEEN. Whiles yet the dew 's on ground, gather those flowers2;
Make haste: Who has the note of them?

1 LADY.
QUEEN. Despatch.

I, madam.

Now, master doctor, have you brought those drugs? COR. Pleaseth your highness, ay: here they are, madam:

But I beseech your grace, (without offence-
My conscience bids me ask,) wherefore you have
Commanded of me these most poisonous compounds,
Which are the movers of a languishing death;
But, though slow, deadly?

QUEEN.

COR.

I wonder, doctor,

Thou ask'st me such a question: Have I not been
Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learn'd me how
To make perfumes? distil? preserve? yea, so,
That our great king himself doth woo me oft
For my confections? Having thus far proceeded,
(Unless thou think'st me devilish,) is 't not meet
That I did amplify my judgment in

Other conclusions a? I will try the forces
Of these thy compounds on such creatures as
We count not worth the hanging, (but none human,)

To try the vigour of them, and apply

Allayments to their act; and by them gather

Their several virtues, and effects.

Your highness

heart:

Shall from this practice but make hard your
Besides, the seeing these effects will be
Both noisome and infectious.

[Exeunt.

[Exeunt Ladies.

[Presenting a small box.

COR. [Aside.] I do not like her. She doth think she has

Strange lingering poisons: I do know her spirit,

And will not trust one of her malice with

A drug of such damn'd nature: Those she has
Will stupify and dull the sense awhile:

Which first, perchance, she 'll prove on cats and dogs;
Then afterward up higher; but there is

No danger in what show of death it makes,
More than the locking up the spirits a time,
To be more fresh, reviving. She is fool'd
With a most false effect; and I the truer
So to be false with her.

QUEEN.

COR.

Until I send for thee.

No further service, doctor,

I humbly take my leave.

QUEEN. Weeps she still, say'st thou? Dost thou think in time
She will not quench; and let instructions enter
Where folly now possesses? Do thou work:
When thou shalt bring me word she loves my son,
I'll tell thee, on the instant, thou art then
As great as is thy master: greater; for
His fortunes all lie speechless, and his name
Is at last gasp: Return he cannot, nor
Continue where he is: to shift his being
Is to exchange one misery with another;
And every day that comes, comes to decay
A day's work in him: What shalt thou expect,
To be depender on a thing that leans,—
Who cannot be new built, nor has no friends,

[Aside.

[TO PISANIO.

[Exit.

[The QUEEN drops a box: PISANIO takes it up.

So much as but to prop him?-Thou tak'st up
Thou know'st not what; but take it for thy labour:
It is a thing I made, which hath the king
Five times redeem'd from death: I do not know
What is more cordial :-Nay, I prithee, take it;
It is an earnest of a further good

That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how

The case stands with her; do 't, as from thyself.

T

PIS.

Think what a chance thou changest on; but think
Thou hast thy mistress still,-to boot, my son,
Who shall take notice of thee: I'll move the king
To any shape of thy preferment, such

As thou 'lt desire; and then myself, I chiefly,
That set thee on to this desert, am bound

To load thy merit richly. Call my women:
Think on my words.

[Exit PISANIO.]—A sly and constant knave;

Not to be shak'd: the agent for his master;
And the remembrancer of her, to hold
The handfast to her lord.-I have given him that,
Which, if he take, shall quite unpeople her

Of liegers for her sweet; and which she, after,
Except she bend her humour, shall be assur'd

Re-enter PISANIO and Ladies.

To taste of too. So, so;-well done, well done :
The violets, cowslips, and the primroses,
Bear to my closet:-Fare thee well, Pisanio;
Think on my words.

And shall do:

[Exeunt QUEEN and Ladies.

A foolish suitor to a wedded lady,

That hath her husband banish'd;—O, that husband!
My supreme crown of grief! and those repeated
Vexations of it! Had I been thief-stolen,
As my two brothers, happy! but most miserable
Is the desire that 's glorious: Blessed be those,
How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills,
Which seasons comfort.-Who may this be? Fye!

Enter PISANIO and IACHIMO.

PIs. Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome,
Comes from my lord with letters.

IACH.

Handfast-contract of marriage.

Change you, madam?

Seasons is a verb. The mean have their honest, homely wills-(opposed to the desire that's glorious)—and that circumstance gives a relish to comfort.

IMO. [Reads.] "He is one of the noblest note, to whose kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon him accordingly, as you value your trusta

So far I read aloud:

But even the very middle of my heart

Is warmed by the rest, and takes it thankfully.

You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I

Have words to bid you; and shall find it so

In all that I can do.

IACH.

IMO.

Thanks, fairest lady.

What! are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes
To see this vaulted arch, and the rich crop

Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt
The fiery orbs above, and the twinn'd stones
Upon the number'd beach"? and can we not
Partition make with spectacles so precious
"Twixt fair and foul?

What makes your admiration?
IACH. It cannot be i' the eye; for apes and monkeys,
"Twixt two such shes, would chatter this way and
Contemn with mows the other: Nor i' the judgment;
For idiots, in this case of favour, would
Be wisely definite: Nor i' the appetite;
Sluttery, to such neat excellence oppos'd,
Should make desire vomit emptiness,
Not so allur'd to feed.

"LEONATUS."

a Trust. Imogen breaks off in reading the letter of Leonatus. That which is addressed to her in the tenderness of affection is not "read aloud." Unmindful of this, the passage has been altered into "Reflect upon him accordingly, as you value your truest Leonatus." The signature is separated from the word which has been changed to truest, by the passage which Imogen glances at in thankful silence.

The stones of the beach are each so like the other that the epithet twinn'd is appropriate. If number'd be the right word it must be taken in the sense of numerous, numberous. Theobald read "th' unnumber'd beach."

• Dr. Johnson has given an explanation of this passage, which is an amusing specimen of his Lexiphanic style: "to feel the convulsions of eructation without plenitude."

[TO PISANIO.

IACH. Thanks, madam; well:-'Beseech you, sir, desire
My man's abode where I did leave him he

PIS.

Is strange and peevish.

I was going, sir,

To give him welcome.

[Exit PISANIO.

IMO. Continues well my lord? His health, 'beseech you?

There is a Frenchman his companion, one

An eminent monsieur, that, it seems, much loves

A Gallian girl at home: he furnaces

The thick sighs from him; whiles the jolly Briton

(Your lord, I mean) laughs from 's free lungs, cries, "O! Can my sides hold, to think that man,-who knows,

IACH. Ay, madam; with his eyes in flood with laughter.

IMO.

It is a recreation to be by,

And hear him mock the Frenchman: But, heavens know,
Some men are much to blame.

Not he, I hope.

LACH. Not he: But yet heaven's bounty towards him might
Be us'd more thankfully. In himself, 't is much;

In you,-which I account his, beyond all talents,—
Whilst I am bound to wonder, I am bound

To pity too.

Raps you-transports you. We are familiar with the participle rapt, but this form of the verb is uncommon.