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Imo.

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 me
Almost the sum he pays.1

Cym.

What!-art thou mad?

Imo. Almost, sir; Heaven restore me!-'Would

I were

A neat-herd's daughter! and my Leonatus

Our neighbor shepherd's son!

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And pen her up.

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.2

Cym.

Nay, let her languish

[Exit.

A drop of blood a day; and, being aged,

Die of this folly!

Queen.

Enter PISANIO.

Fie!-you must give way;

Here is your servant.-How now, sir? What news? Pis. My lord your son drew on my master.

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Ha!

There might have been, played than fought, They were parted

1 "My worth is not half equal to his."
2 Advice is consideration, reflection.

Queen.

I am very glad on't.

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

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The goer back. Why came you from your master?
Pis. 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.

Queen.
This hath been
Your faithful servant; I dare lay mine honor,
He will remain so.

Pis.

I humbly thank your highness.

Queen. Pray, walk a while.
Imo.

About some half hour hence,

I pray you, speak with me; you shall, at least,
Go see my lord aboard. For this time, leave me.

[Exeunt.

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Enter CLOTEN and two Lords.

1 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?

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

[Aside.

1 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.

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

Clo. The villain would not stand me.

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! [Aside.

Clo. I would they had not come between us. 2 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!

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

1 Lord. Sir, as I told you always, her her brain go not together. She's a good have seen small reflection of her wit.1 2 Lord. She shines not upon fools, lest tion should hurt her.

Clo. Come, I'll to my chamber.

been some hurt done!

[Aside. beauty and sign, but I

'Would

the reflec[Aside. there had

2 Lord. I wish not so; unless it had been the fall

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Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO.

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

And question'dst every sail; if he should write,
And I not have it, 'twere a paper lost

1 "Her beauty and her sense are not equal." To understand the force of this idea, it should be remembered, that anciently almost every sign had a motto, or some attempt at a witticism underneath.

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Imo. Senseless linen! happier therein than I!—
And that was all?

Pis.
No, madam; for so long
As he could make me with this eye or ear 2
Distinguish him from others, he did keep
The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief,
Still waving, as the fits and stirs of his mind
Could best express how slow his soul sailed on,
How swift his ship.

Imo.

Thou shouldst have made him

As little as a crow, or less, ere left

To after-eye him.

Pis. Madam, so I did.

-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?

Pis.

With his next vantage.1

Be assured, 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 honor; or have charged him,
At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight,

To encounter me with orisons, for then

1 "Its loss would be as fatal as the loss of intended mercy to a condemned criminal."

2 The old copy reads, "his eye or ear."

3 The diminution of space is the diminution of which space is the cause. 4 Opportunity.

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 de

spatched.

I will attend the queen.

Pis.

Madam, I shall. [Exeunt.

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 3 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,

1 i. e. "to meet me with reciprocal prayer, for then my solicitations ascend to heaven on his behalf."

2 This enumeration of persons is from the old copy; but the two last are mute characters.

3 i. e. accomplishes him.

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