lest the bargain should catch cold and starve. I will fetch

my gold, and have our two wagers recorded.

Post. Agreed.

[Exeunt POSTHUMUS and IACHIMO.

French. Will this hold, think you?

Phi. Signior Iachimo will not from it. Pray, let us follow 'em. [Exeunt.

SCENE V.- Britain. A Room in CYMBELINE'S Palace.

Enter the Queen, Ladies, and Cornelius.

Queen. Whiles yet the dew's on ground, gather those flow

ers;

Make haste: who has the note of them?

1 Lady.

Queen. Dispatch.

I, madam.

[Exeunt Ladies.

Now, master doctor, have you brought those drugs? Cor. Pleaseth your Highness, ay; here they are, madam : [Presenting a small box.

But, I beseech your Grace, without offence,

My conscience bids me ask,

wherefore have

you

Commanded of me these most poisonous compounds,
Which are the movers of a languishing death;

But, though slow, deadly?

Queen.

I do wonder, doctor,

Thou ask'st me such a question. Have I not been
Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learn'd me how
To make perfumes? distil? preserve? yea, so
That our great King himself doth woo me oft

For my confections? Having thus far proceeded,-
Unless thou think'st me devilish, -is't not meet
That I did amplify my judgment in

Other conclusions ?1 I will try the forces

1 Conclusions in the old sense of experiments. "I commend," says Wal

Of these thy compounds on such creatures as

We count not worth the hanging,

but none human,

To test the vigour of them, and apply
Allayments to their act;2 and by them gather
Their several virtues and effects.

Cor.

Your Highness

Shall from this practice but make hard your heart:
Besides, the seeing these effects will be

Both noisome and infectious.

O, content thee.

Queen. [Aside.] Here comes a flattering rascal; upon him Will I first work: he's factor for his master,

Doctor, your service for this time is ended;

Take your own way.

Cor. [Aside.]

But

I do suspect you, madam;

you shall do no harm.

Queen. [To PISANIO.] Hark thee, a word.

Cor. [Aside.] I do not like her. She doth think she has

Strange lingering poisons: I do know her spirit,

And will not trust one of her malice with

A drug of such damn'd nature. Those she has

Will stupefy and dull the sense awhile;

Which first, perchance, she'll prove on cats and dogs,
Then afterward up higher: but there is

No danger in what show of death it makes,

More than the locking-up the spirits a time,

To be more fresh, reviving. She is fool'd

ton,

an angler that trieth conclusions, and improves his art." See vol. xvi. page 161, note 41.

2 Act here means action, operation, or effect.

With a most false effect; and I the truer,

So to be false with her.3

Queen. Weeps she still, say'st thou? Dost thou think in

time

She will not quench, and let instructions enter

Where folly now possesses? Do thou work :
When thou shalt bring me word she loves my son,

I'll tell thee on the instant thou art then

As great as is thy master; greater; for
His fortunes all lie speechless, and his name
Is at last gasp: return he cannot, nor
Continue where he is: to shift his being 5
Is to exchange one misery with another;
And every day that comes comes to decay
A day's work in him. What shalt thou expect,
To be depender on a thing that leans;
Who cannot be new built, nor has no friends,

[The Queen drops the box; PISANIO takes it up. So much as but to prop him? Thou takest up

8 This speech might be cited as proving that Shakespeare preferred expectation to surprise as an element of dramatic interest. Johnson thought it "very inartificial" that Cornelius should thus "make a long speech to tell himself what he already knows." And the speech seems fairly open to some such reproof. But it prepares, and was doubtless meant to prepare, us for the seeming death and revival of Imogen; and without some such preparation those incidents would be open to the much graver censure of clap-trap. The expectancy thus started is at all events better than attempting to spring a vulgar sensation upon the audience.

4 To quench must here mean to grow cool; an odd use of the word. 5" To shift his being," is to change his dwelling or his place of abode. 6 The infinitive used gerundively. So that the meaning is, " by being depender," &c., or from being. And so before, in scene iii.: "I would have broke mine eye-strings, crack'd the balis, to look upon him;" that is, by looking.

Thou know'st not what; but take it for thy labour:
It is a thing I made, which hath the King

Five times redeem'd from death: I do not know
What is more cordial. Nay, I pr'ythee, take it;
It is an earnest of a further good

That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how
The case stands with her; do't as from thyself.
Think what a chance thou chancest on; but think
Thou hast thy mistress still; to boot, my son,
Who shall take notice of thee. I'll move the King
To any shape of thy preferment, such

As thou'lt desire; and then myself, I chiefly,
That set thee on to this desert, am bound
To load thy merit richly. Call my women:
Think on my words.

[Exit PISANIO.

A sly and constant knave ;
Not to be shaked; the agent for his master;
And the remembrancer of her to hold
The hand-fast to her lord. I've given him that
Which, if he take, shall quite unpeople her

Of liegers for her sweet; and which she after,
Except she bend her humour, shall be assured
To taste of too.

Re-enter PISANIO and Ladies.

So, so; well done, well done :

The violets, cowslips, and the primroses,

Bear to my closet. - Fare thee well, Pisanio;

Think on my words.

Pis.

[Exeunt Queen and Ladies.

And shall do:

[Exit.

But when to my good lord I prove untrue,

I'll choke myself; there's all I'll do for you.

Hand-fast is the same as troth-plight, or marriage.

8 A lieger is an ambassador; one that resides in a foreign Court to promote his master's interest. See vol. vi. page 181, note 8.

SCENE VI.- The Same. Another Room in the Palace.

Enter IMOGEN.

Imo. A father cruel, and a step-dame false;

A foolish suitor to a wedded lady,

That hath her husband banish'd ; —O, that husband!

My supreme crown of grief! and those repeated
Vexations of it! Had I been thief-stol'n,

As my two brothers, happy! Blest be those,
How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills;
Which seasons comfort:1 but most miserable
Is the desire that's glorious. Who may this be? Fie!

Enter PISANIO and IACHIMO.

Pis. Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome

Comes from my lord with letters.

Iach.

The worthy Leonatus is in safety,
And greets your Highness dearly.
Imo.

You're kindly welcome.

Change you, madam?

[Presents a letter.

Thanks, good sir:

Iach. [Aside.] All of her that is out of door most rich! If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare,

She is alone th' Arabian bird; 2 and I

Have lost the wager. Boldness be my friend!

Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!

1 To season a thing is to give it a relish: the word is constantly so used in cookery. The meaning of the passage is, the homely freedom of those who dwell in the poorest cottages, those who are left to the enjoyment of their honest wills, is what puts a relish into the comforts of life, and makes them blessings indeed.

2 The Arabian bird is the Phoenix, of which there could be but one living at once; and so it had no equal. The Poet uses it repeatedly in comparisons. See vol. xvi. page 72, note I.