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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!

[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. [aside.

1 Lord. Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and her brain go not together: she's a good sign,1 but I have seen small reflection of her wit.

2 Lord. She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection should hurt her.

Clo. Come, I'll to my chamber.

had been some hurt done!

[aside.

Would there

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.

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

[aside.

[Exeunt.

SHAK.

1 i. e. a fair outside.

XII

M

SCENE IV.

A room in Cymbeline's palace.

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

As offer'd mercy is. What was the last

That he spake to thee?

Pi.

'Twas, 'His queen, his queen!

And kiss'd it, madam.

Imo. Then waved his handkerchief?

Pi.

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

Pi.
No, madam; for so long
As he could make me with this eye or ear
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 sail'd on,
How swift his ship.

Imo.

Thou shouldst have made him

As little as a crow, or less, ere left

To after-eye him.

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Imo. I would have broke mine eye-strings;

crack'd them, but

To look upon him; till the diminution

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 Pi

sanio,

When shall we hear from him?

Pi.

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

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.—

1 Opportunity.

2 i. e. meet me with reciprocal prayer.

I will attend the queen.

Pi.

Madam, I shall.

[Exeunt.

Rome.

SCENE V.

An apartment in Philario's house.

Enter PHILARIO, IACHIMO, a FRENCHMAN, α DUTCHMAN, and a SPANIARD.

1

Ia. Believe it, sir; I have seen him in Britain: he was then of a crescent note; 1 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 2 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.

Ia. 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.3

French. And then his banishment :

1 Izcreasing in fame.

2 Forms.

Makes the description of him very distant from the truth.

Ia. Ay, and the approbation of those, that weep this lamentable divorce, under her colors, 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 1 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'er-rate 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.

1 Less for more; an error of frequent occurrence in our author. 2 Importunity, instigation.

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