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
In my bed-chamber.
Iach.

They are in a trunk,
Attended by my men: I will make bold
To send them to you, 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.

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.

[Exeunt.

Imo.

7

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

VOL. VIII,

D

ACT II.

SCENE I.

Court before Cymbeline's Palace.

Enter CLOTEN, and Two Lords. 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 !

2 Lord. To have smelt like a fool. [ Aside.

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.

[ Aside.

8

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? i 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.

i 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. i 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?

i 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,

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!

[Exit.

SCENE II.

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.

Please
you,

madam. Imo. What hour is it? Lady.

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

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 l'the bottom of a cowslip. Here's a voucher, Stronger than ever law could make: this secret