Mark it), the eldest of them at three years old,

I' the swathing clothes the other, from their nursery
Were stolen and to this hour, no guess in knowledge
Which way they went.

2 Gent. How long is this ago?

1 Gent. Some twenty years.

2 Gent. That a king's children should be so convey'd! So slackly guarded! And the search so slow,

That could not trace them!

1 Gent. Howsoe'er 'tis strange,

Or that the negligence may well be laugh'd at,

Yet is it true, Sir.

2 Gent. I do well believe you.

1 Gent. We must forbear: Here comes the gentleman, The queen and princess.

[Exeunt.

Queen. No, be assured, you shall not find me, daughter, After the slander of most step-mothers,

Evil-eyed unto you: you are my prisoner, but

Your jailer shall deliver you the keys

That lock up your restraint. For you, Posthúmus,

So soon as I can win the offended king,

I will be known your advocate: marry, yet

The fire of rage is in him; and 'twere good,

You lean'd unto his sentence, with what patience
Your wisdom may inform you.

Post. Please your highness,

I will from hence to-day.

Queen. You know the peril

:

I'll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying

The pangs of barr'd affections; though the king
Hath charged you should not speak together.

Imo. O

Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant

[Exit QUEEN.

Can tickle where she wounds!-My dearest husband,
I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing
(Always reserved my holy duty) what

His rage can do on me: You must be gone;
And I shall here abide the hourly shot
Of angry eyes; nor comforted to live,
But that there is this jewel in this world,
That I may see again.

Post. My queen! my mistress!

O, lady, weep no more; lest I give cause

To be suspected of more tenderness

Than doth become a man! I will remain

The loyal'st husband that did e'er plight troth.
My residence in Rome at one Philario's;
Who to my father was a friend, to me

Known but by letter: thither write, my queen,

And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send,
Though ink be made of gall.

Re-enter QUEEN.

Queen. Be brief, I pray you:

If the king come, I shall incur I know not
How much of his displeasure:-Yet

I'll move him

[Aside.

[Exit.

To walk this way: I never do him wrong,
But he does buy my injuries, to be friends;
Pays dear for my offences.

Post. Should we be taking leave

As long a term as yet we have to live,

The loathness to depart would grow: Adieu !
Imo. Nay, stay a little:

Were you but riding forth to air yourself,
Such parting were too petty. Look here, love;
This diamond was my mother's: take it, heart;
But keep it till you woo another wife,

When Imogen is dead.

Post. How! how! another ?

You gentle gods, give me but this I have,

And sear up my embracements from a next

With bonds of death!-Remain thou here [Putting on the ring.

While sense can keep it on! And sweetest, fairest,

As I my poor self did exchange for you,

To your so infinite loss; so, in our trifles

I still win of you: For my sake, wear this;

It is a manacle of love; I'll place it
Upon this fairest prisoner.

Imo. O, the gods!

When shall we see again?

[Putting a bracelet on her arm.

Enter CYMBELINE and LORDS.

Post. Alack, the king!

Cym. Thou basest thing, avoid! hence, from my sight! If, after this command, thou fraught* the court

With thy unworthiness, thou diest: Away!

Thou art poison to my blood.

Post. The gods protect you!

And bless the good remainders of the court!

I am gone.

Imo. There cannot be a pinch in death

More sharp than this is.

Cym. O disloyal thing,

That shouldst repair my youth; thou heapest

A year's age on me!

Imo. I beseech you, Sir,

Harm not yourself with your vexation; I

Am senseless of your wrath; a touch more raret
Subdues all pangs, all fears.

Cym. Past grace? obedience?

Imo. Past hope, and in despair; that way, past grace.

* Fill.

+ A more exquisite feeling.

[Exit.

Cym. That mightst have had the sole son of my queen!
Imo. O bless'd, that I might not! I chose an eagle,

And did avoid a puttock.*

Cym. Thou took'st a beggar; wouldst have made my throne

A seat for baseness.

Imo. No; I rather added

A lustre to it.

Cym. O thou vile one!

Imo. Sir,

It is your fault that I have loved Posthumus:
You bred him as my playfellow; and he is

A man worth any woman; overbuys me

Almost the sum he

pays.

Cym. What!-art thou mad?

Imo. Almost, Sir: Heaven restore me!-'Would I were A neat-herd's daughter! and my Leonatus

Our neighbour shepherd's son !

They were again together: you have aone
Not after our command. Away with her,
And pen her up.

Queen. 'Beseech your patience :-Peace,

Dear lady daughter, peace;-Sweet sovereign,

[To the QUEEN.

Leave us to ourselves; and make yourself some comfort
Out of your best advice.†

Cym. Nay, let her languish

A drop of blood a day; and, being aged,

Die of this folly!

Enter PISANIO.

Queen. Fie!-you must give way:

Here is your servant.-How now, Sir? What news?

Pis. My lord your son drew on my master.

Queen. Ha!

No harm, I trust, is done?

Pis. There might have been,

But that my master rather play'd than fought,

And had no help of anger: they were parted

By gentlemen at hand.

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!

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?

Pis. 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 it pleased you to employ me."

Queen. This hath been

[Exit.

Your faithful servant: I dare lay mine honour,
He will remain so.

Pis. I humbly thank your highness.
Queen. Pray, walk a while.

Imo. About some half-hour hence,

1 pray you, speak with me: you shall, at least, Go see my lord aboard: for this time, leave me.

SCENE III-A public place.

Enter CLOTEN and two LORDS.

[Exeunt.

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 it-Have 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. [Aside.

Clo. The villain would not stand me.

2 Lord. No; but he fled forward still, toward your face. [Aside. 1 Lord. Stand you! You had 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.

Clo. 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. 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.

[Aside.

[Excunt.

SCENE IV-A Room in CYMBELINE's Palace.

Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO.

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

And question'dst every sail: if he should write,

And I not have it, 'twere a paper lost

*Anciently almost every sign had a motto, or some attempt at a witti

cism underneath it.

As offer'd mercy is.*
*What was the last
That he spake to thee?

Pis. "Twas, His queen, his queen!

Imo. Then waved his handkerchief?

Pis. And kiss'd it, madam.

Imo. Senseless linen! happier therein than I And that was all?

Pis. No, madam; for so long

As he could make me with this eye or ear
Distinguish him from others, he did keep
The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief,
Still waving, as the fits and stirs of his mind
Could best express how slow his soul sail'd on,
How swift his ship.

Imo. Thou shouldst 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:

Nay, follow'd 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?

Pis. Be assured, madam,

With his next vantage.t

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 charged 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.

Enter a LADY.

Lady. The queen, madam,

Desires your highness' company;

Imo. Those things I bid you do, get them despatch'd.—

I will attend the queen.

Pis. Madam, I shall.

[Exeunt

* 'Twere as great a loss as that of a pardon transmitted to a criminal. † Opportunity.

+ Meet me with reciprocal prayer.