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Imo.

Pray, what is't?

lach. Some dozen Romans of

us, and

your

lord,

(The best feather of our wing) have mingled sums, To buy a present for the emperor;

Which I, the factor for the rest, have done
In France: 'Tis plate, of rare device; and jewels,
Of rich and exquisite form; their values great;
And I am something curious, being strange,?
To have them in safe stowage; May it please you
To take them in protection?

Imo.

Willingly;
And pawn mine honour for their safety: since
My lord hath interest in them, I will keep them
my bed-chamber.

In

Iach.

Attended by my men:
To send them to you,

They are in a trunk,
I will make bold
only for this night;

I must aboard to-morrow.

Imo.

O, no, no.

Iach. Yes, I beseech; or I shall short my word, By length'ning my return. From Gallia

I cross'd the seas on purpose, and on promise
To see your grace.

Imo.

I thank you for your pains;

But not away to-morrow?

Iach.
O, I must, madam:
Therefore, I shall beseech you, if you please
To greet your lord with writing, do't to-night:
I have outstood my time; which is material
To the tender of our present.

Imo.
I will write.
Send your trunk to me; it shall safe be kept,
And truly yielded you: You are very welcome.

7-being strange,] i. e. being a stranger.

[Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]

ACT II.

SCENE I. Court before Cymbeline's Palace.

Enter CLOTEN, and Two Lords.

8

Clo. Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the jack upon an up-cast, to be hit away! I had a hundred pound on't: And then a whoreson jackanapes must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him, and might not spend them at my pleasure.

1 Lord. What got he by that? You have broke his pate with your bowl.

2 Lord. If his wit had been like him that broke it, it would have ran all out,

[Aside. Clo. When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths: Ha? 2 Lord. No, my lord; nor [Aside.] crop the ears

of them.

Clo. Whoreson dog!-I give him satisfaction? 'Would, he had been one of my rank!

[Aside.

2 Lord. To have smelt like a fool. Clo. I am not more vexed at any thing in the earth,-A pox on't! I had rather not be so noble as I am; they dare not fight with me, because of the queen my mother: every jack-slave hath his belly full of fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock that no body can match.

2 Lord. You are a cock and capon too; and you crow, cock, with your comb on.

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[Aside.

kissed the jack upon an up-cast,] He is describing his fate at bowls. The jack is the small bowl at which the others are aimed. He who is nearest to it wins. To kiss the jack is a state of great advantage.

Clo. Sayest thou?

1 Lord. It is not fit, your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offence to. Clo. No, I know that: but it is fit, I should commit offence to my inferiors.

2 Lord. Ay, it is fit for your lordship only. Clo. Why, so I say.

1 Lord. Did you hear of a stranger, that's come to court to-night?

Clo. A stranger! and I not know on't!

2 Lord. He's a strange fellow himself, and knows it not. [Aside. 1 Lord. There's an Italian come; and, 'tis thought, one of Leonatus' friends.

Clo. Leonatus! a banished rascal; and he's another, whatsoever he be. Who told you of this

stranger?

1 Lord. One of your lordship's pages.

Clo. Is it fit, I went to look upon him? Is there no derogation in't?

1 Lord. You cannot derogate, my lord.

Clo. Not easily, I think.

2 Lord. You are a fool granted; therefore your issues being foolish, do not derogate.

[Aside. Clo. Come, I'll go see this Italian: What I have lost to-day at bowls, I'll win to-night of him. Come, go.

2 Lord. I'll attend your lordship.

[Exeunt CLOTEN and first Lord.

That such a crafty devil as is his mother

Should yield the world this ass! a woman, that
Bears all down with her brain; and this her son
Cannot take two from twenty for his heart,
And leave eighteen. Alas, poor princess,

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every companion-] The use of companion was he same as of fellow now. It was a word of contempt.

Thou divine Imogen, what thou endur'st!
Betwixt a father by thy step-dame govern'd;
A mother hourly coining plots; a wooer,
More hateful than the foul expulsion is
Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act
Of the divorce he'd make! The heavens hold firm
The walls of thy dear honour; keep unshak'd
That temple, thy fair mind; that thou may'st stand,
To enjoy thy banish'd lord, and this great land!

SCENE II.

[Exit.

A Bed-chamber; in one Part of it a Trunk.

IMOGEN reading in her Bed; a Lady attending.

Imo. Who's there? my woman Helen?

Lady.

Imo. What hour is it?

Lady.

Please you, madam.

Almost midnight, madam.

Imo. I have read three hours then: mine eyes are

weak :

Fold down the leaf where I have left: To bed:

Take not away the taper, leave it burning;
And if thou canst awake by four o'the clock,
I pr'ythee, call me. Sleep hath seiz'd me wholly.
[Exit Lady.
To your protection I commend me, gods!
From fairies, and the tempters of the night,
Guard me, beseech ye!

[Sleeps. IACHIMO, from the Trunk. Iach. The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd

sense

Repairs itself by rest: Our Tarquin thus
Did softly press the rushes,' ere he waken'd

· press the rushes,] It was the custom in the time of our

The chastity he wounded.-Cytherea,

How bravely thou becom'st thy bed! fresh lily! And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch! But kiss; one kiss!-Rubies unparagon'd,

How dearly they do't!-'Tis her breathing that
Perfumes the chamber thus: The flame o'the taper
Bows toward her; and would under-peep her lids,
To see the enclosed lights, now canopied
Under these windows: White and azure, lac'd
With blue of heaven's own tinct.-But my design?
To note the chamber:-I will write all down:-
Such, and such, pictures:-There the window:-
Such

The adornment of her bed;-The arras, figures,
Why, such, and such:-And the contents o'the

story,

Ah, but some natural notes about her body,
Above ten thousand meaner moveables
Would testify, to enrich mine inventory:
O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her!
And be her sense but as a monument,
Thus in a chapel lying!-Come off, come off;-
[Taking off her Bracelet,
As slippery, as the Gordian knot was hard!-
'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly,
As strongly as the conscience does within,
To the madding of her lord. On her left breast
A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I'the bottom of a cowslip.3 Here's a voucher,
Stronger than ever law could make: this secret

author to strew chambers with rushes, as we now cover them with carpets.

2 Under these windows:] i. e. her eyelids,

3 like the crimson drops

I'the bottom of a cowslip:] This simile contains the smallest out of a thousand proofs that Shakspeare was an observer of nature, though, in this instance, no very accurate describer of it, for the drops alluded to are of a deep yellow. STEEVENS,

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