• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

IMOGEN.

Your son's my father's friend; he takes his part

To draw upon an exile! O brave sir!

I would they were in Afric both together;

Myself by with a needle, that I might prick

The goer-back. Why came you from your master?

PISANIO.

On his command. He would not suffer me

To bring him to the haven; left these notes

Of what commands I should be subject to,

When't pleas'd you to employ me.

QUEEN.

This hath been

Your faithful servant. I dare lay mine honour

He will remain so.

PISANIO.

I humbly thank your Highness.

QUEEN.

Pray walk awhile.

IMOGEN.

About some half-hour hence,

Pray you speak with me. You shall at least

Go see my lord aboard. For this time leave me. Exeunt

SCENE II. Britain. A public place

Enter CLOTEN and two LORDS

FIRST 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.

CLOTEN.

If my shirt were bloody, then to shift it. Have I hurt him?

SECOND LORD.

[Aside] No, faith; not so much as his patience.

FIRST LORD.

Hurt him! His body's a passable carcass if he be not

hurt. It is a throughfare for steel if it be not hurt.

SECOND LORD.

[Aside] His steel was in debt; it went o' th' back side the town.

CLOTEN.

The villain would not stand me.

SECOND LORD.

[Aside] No; but he fled forward still, toward your face.

FIRST LORD.

Stand you? You have land enough of your own; but he

added to your having, gave you some ground.

SECOND LORD.

[Aside] As many inches as you have oceans.

Puppies!

CLOTEN.

I would they had not come between us.

SECOND LORD.

[Aside] So would I, till you had measur'd how long a

fool you were upon the ground.

CLOTEN.

And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me!

SECOND LORD.

[Aside] If it be a sin to make a true election,

she is damn'd.

FIRST 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.

SECOND LORD.

[Aside] She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection should hurt her.

CLOTEN.

Come, I'll to my chamber. Would there had been some hurt done!

SECOND LORD.

[Aside] I wish not so; unless it had been the fall of

an ass, which is no great hurt.

CLOTEN.

You'll go with us?

FIRST LORD.

I'll attend your lordship.

CLOTEN.

Nay, come, let's go together.

SECOND LORD.

Well, my lord. Exeunt

SCENE III. Britain. CYMBELINE'S palace

Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO

IMOGEN.

I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' th' haven,

And questioned'st 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?

PISANIO.

It was: his queen, his queen!

IMOGEN.

Then wav'd his handkerchief?

PISANIO.

And kiss'd it, madam.

IMOGEN.

Senseless linen, happier therein than I!

And that was all?

PISANIO.

No, madam; for so long

As he could make me with his eye, or care

Distinguish him from others, he did keep

The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief,

Still waving, as the fits and stirs of's mind

Could best express how slow his soul sail'd on,

How swift his ship.

IMOGEN.

Thou shouldst have made him

As little as a crow, or less, ere left

To after-eye him.

PISANIO.

Madam, so I did.

IMOGEN.

I would have broke mine eyestrings, crack'd them but

To look upon him, till the diminution

Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle;

Nay, followed him till he had melted from

The smallness of a gnat to air, and then

Have turn'd mine eye and wept. But, good Pisanio,

When shall we hear from him?

PISANIO.

Be assur'd, madam,

With his next vantage.

IMOGEN.

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,