2nd Gent. What's his name and birth?

1st Gent. I cannot delve him to the root: his
father

Was called Sicilius, who did join his honour
Against the Romans, with Cassibelan;
But had his titles by Tenantius, whom
He served with glory and admired success;
So gained the sur-addition, Leonatus:
And had, besides this gentleman in question,
Two other sons, who, in the wars o' the time,
Died with their swords in hand; for which their
father

(Then old and fond of issue) took such sorrow,
That he quit being; and his gentle lady,
Big of this gentleman our theme, deceased
As he was born. The king he takes the babe
To his protection; calls him Posthumus Leonatus;
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 't was ministered,
And in his spring became a harvest: lived in court
(Which rare it is to do) most praised, most loved :
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 esteemed him and his virtue;
By her election may be truly read
What kind of man he is.

Enter the QUEEN, POSTHUMUS, and IMOGEN. Queen. No, be assured, you shall not find me, daughter,

After the slander of most stepmothers,
Evil-eyed unto you: you are my prisoner, but
Your gaoler shall deliver you the keys
That lock up your restraint. For you, Posthumus,
So soon as I can win the offended king,

I will be known your advocate: marry, yet
The fire of rage is in him; and 't were good
You leaned unto his sentence, with what patience
Your wisdom may inform you.

Can tickle where she wounds!—My dearest husband,

I something fear my father's wrath, but nothing
(Always reserved 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.

To walk this way: I never do him wrong,
But he does buy my injuries, to be friends;
Pays dear for my offences.
Post.

[Exit.

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,
Such parting were too petty. Look here, love;
This diamond was my mother's: take it, heart;
But keep it till you woo another wife,
When Imogen is dead.

Post. How! how! another?--
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.

Imo. O blessed that I might not! I chose an

eagle,

And did avoid a puttock.

Cym. Thou took'st a beggar; wouldst have made my throne

A seat for baseness.

Queen. 'Beseech your patience :-Peace, Dear lady daughter, peace:-Sweet sovereign, Leave us to ourselves; and make yourself some comfort

Out of your best advice.

A drop of blood a-day; and, being aged, Die of this folly!

Queen.

[Exit.

Enter PISANIO.

Fie!—you must give way:

Here is your servant.-How now, sir? what news?
Pisa. My lord your son drew on my master.
Queen.
Ha!

No harm, I trust, is done?

There might have been,

Pisa. But that my master rather played than fought, And had no help of anger: they were parted By gentlemen at hand.

Imo. Your son's my father's friend; he takes his part.

To draw upon an exile! O brave sir!

I would they were in Afric both together;
Myself by with a needle, that I might prick
The goer back. Why came you from your master?
Pisa. On his command: he would not suffer me
To bring him to the haven: left these notes
Of what commands I should be subject to,
When it pleased you to employ me.
This hath been

Queen.

1st Lord. Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt; the violence of action hath made you reek as a sacrifice. 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?

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

1st 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.

2nd Lord. His steel was in debt; it went o' the backside the town.

[Aside.

Clo. The villain would not stand me. 2nd Lord. No; but he fled forward still, toward your face. [Aside. 1st Lord. Stand you! You have land enough of your own but he added to your having; gave you some ground.

2nd Lord. As many inches as you have oceans.Puppies! [Aside.

Clo. I would they had not come between us. 2nd Lord. So would I, till you had measured how long a fool you were upon the ground. [Aside. Clo. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me!

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

1st 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.

2nd 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!

2nd Lord. I wish not so; unless it had been the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt. [Aside. Clo. You'll go with us?

1st Lord. I'll attend your lordship.

Clo. Nay, come, let's go together. 2nd Lord. Well, my lord.

[Exeunt.

Imo. I would have broke mine eye-strings; cracked them, but

To look upon him; till the diminution

Of
space had pointed 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?
Pisa.
Be assured, madam,
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 honour; 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.

SCENE V.-Rome. 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.

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 deal 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 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'errate 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 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 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-inhand 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 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. 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.

Jach. You may wear her in title yours; but you know strange fowl light upon neighbouring ponds your ring may be stolen too:-so, of 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 loss of that, you term her frail. I do nothing doubt you have

Post. A repulse:-though your attempt, as you call it, deserves more; a punishment 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 as dear as my finger; 'tis 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 thou- |

sand 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.

swer.

Post. I embrace these conditions; let us have articles betwixt us :-only, thus far you shall anIf 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 counsel, and straight away for Britain, lest the bargain should catch cold, and starve. I will fetch my gold, and have our two wagers recorded. Post. Agreed.

[Exeunt POSTHUMUS and IACHIMO. French. Will this hold, think you?

Phi. Signior Iachimo will not from it. Pray let us follow 'em. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-Britain. A Room in CYMBELINE'S Palace.

Enter QUEEN, Ladies, and Cornelius. Queen. Whiles yet the dew 's on ground, gather those flowers:

Make haste: who has the note of them? 1st Lady. I, madam. Queen. Despatch.- [Exeunt Ladies. Now, master doctor, have you brought those drugs?

Cor. Pleaseth your highness, ay: here they are, madam: [Presenting a small box. But I beseech your grace (without offence; My conscience bids me ask), wherefore you have Commanded of me these most poisonous com

pounds,

Which are the movers of a languishing death;
But, though slow, deadly?
Queen. I wonder, doctor,
Thou ask 'st me such a question. Have I not been
Thy pupil long? hast thou not learned 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? I will try the forces
Of these thy compounds on such creatures as
We count not worth the hanging (but none

human),