Pis. My lord your son drew on my master. Queen. No harm, I trust, is done? Pis. Ha! There might have been, But that my master rather play'd than fought, 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!- Queen. 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. SCENE III. A publick Place. 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 itHave 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. Clo. The villain would not stand me. [Aside. 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. Člo. 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, but I have seen small reflection of her wit." 2 Lord. She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection should hurt her. [Aside. 6 her beauty and her brain go not together:] I believe the lord means to speak a sentence, Sir, as I told you always, beauty and brain go not together." JOHNSON. 7 She's a good sign, but I have seen small reflection of her wit.] She has a fair outside, a specious appearance, but no wit. But to understand the whole force of Shakspeare's idea, it should be remembered, that anciently almost every sign had a motto, or some attempt at a witticism, underneath it, 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. Clo. Nay, come, let's go together. 2 Lord. Well, my lord. SCENE IV. A Room in Cymbeline's Palace. Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO. [Aside. [Exeunt. Imo. I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' the haven, And question'dst every sail: if he should write, As offer'd mercy is. What was the last That he spake to thee? Pis. Imo. Then wav'd his handkerchief? Pis. "Twas, His queen, his queen! And kiss'd it, madam. Imo. Senseless linen! happier therein than I!And that was all? Pis. 'twere a paper lost, As offer'd mercy is.] Perhaps the meaning is, that the loss of that paper would prove as fatal to her, as the loss of a pardon to a condemned criminal. Imo. Thou should'st 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; crack'd them, but To look upon him; till the diminution Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle: Have turn'd mine eye, and wept.-But, good Pisanio, Pis. With his next vantage. 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 de 1 prayer. spatch'd. next vantage.] Next opportunity. encounter me with orisons,] i. e, meet me with reciprocal 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 him2 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.3 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 2 . makes him-] Makes him, in the text, means forms him. words him, ——a great deal from the matter,] Makes the description of him very distant from the truth. 4 · under her colours,] Under her banner; by her influence. VOL. VIII. C |