A man, worth any woman; overbuys me 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 ! Re-enter Queen. Cym. Thou foolish thing! They were again together: you have done Not after our command. Away with her, Queen. 'Beseech your patience :—Peace, [To the queen. Dear lady daughter, peace.-Sweet sovereign, 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, Queen. I am very glad on't. [Exit 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 Africk both together; Myself by with a needle, that I might prick The goer back.-Why came you from your master? To bring him to the haven; left these notes Queen. This hath been Your faithful servant: I dare lay mine honour, Pis. I humbly thank your highness. Queen. Pray, walk a while. Imo. About some half hour hence, I pray you, speak with me: you shall, at least. SCENE III. [Exeunt A public Place. Enter CLOTEN, and two Lords. 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 have 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! 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. [2] I believe the lord means to speak a sentence; "Sir, as I told you always, beauty and brain go not together." JOHNSON. [3] I believe the poet means by sign---fair outward show. JOHNSON. 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. [Exeunt. 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 As offer'd mercy is. What was the last That he spake to thee? Pis. 'Twas, His queen, his queen! Imo. Then wav'd 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 The deck, with glove, or hat, or handherchief, 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 : The smallness of a gnat to air; and then [4] I believe the poet's meaning is, that the loss of that paper would prove as fatal to her, as the loss of a pardon to a condemned criminal. STEEVENS. [5] The diminution of space---is the diminution of which space is the cause. Trees are killed by a blast of lightning, that is, by blasting, not blasted lightning. JOHNSON. Have turn'd mine eye, and wept.-But, good Pisanio, Pis. Be assur'd, madam, With his next vantage. Imo. I did not take my leave of him, but had Such thoughts, and such; or I could make him swear Mine interest, and his honour; or have charg'd him, I am in heaven for him; or ere I could 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. SCENE V. [Exeunt. Rome. An Apartment in PHILARIO's house. Enter PHILARIO, IACIMO, a Frenchman, a Dutchman, and a Spaniard. Iach. Believe it, sir: I have seen him in Britain: he was then of a crescent note; expected to prove so worthy, as since he hath been allowed the name of: but I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration; though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his side, and I to peruse him by items. Phi. You speak of him when he was less furnished, than now he is, with that which makes him both without and within. French. I have seen him in France: we had very many there, could behold the sun with as firm eyes as he. Next opportunity. JOHNSON. 7 A bud, without any distinct idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural representation of any thing incipient or immature; and the buds of flowers, if flowers, are meant, grow to flowers, as the buds of fruits grow to fruits. [8] In the sense in which we say, This will make or mar you. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. Iach. This matter of marrying his king's daughter, (wherein he must be weighed rather by her value, than his own,) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter.9 French. And then his banishment : Iach. Ay, and the approbation of those, that weep this lamentable divorce, under her colours,' are wonderfully to extend him; be it but to fortify her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beggar without more quality. But how comes it, he is to sojourn with you? How creeps acquaintance? Phi. His father and I were soldiers together; to whom. I have been often bound for no less than my life : Enter POSTHUMUS. Here comes the Briton: Let him be so entertained amongst you, as suits, with gentlemen of your knowing, to a stranger of his quality.--I beseech you all, be better known to this gentleman; whom I commend to you, as a noble friend of mine: How worthy he is, I will leave to appear hereafter, rather than story him in his own hearing. French. Sir, we have known together in Orleans. Post. Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies, which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still. French. Sir, you o'er-rate my poor kindness: I was glad I did atone my countrymen and you; it had been pity, you should have been put together with so mortal a purpose, as then each bore, upon importance of so slight and trivial a nature. Post. By your pardon, sir, I was then a young traveller; rather shunned to go even with what I heard, than in my every action to be guided by others' experiences :* but, upon my mended judgment, (if I offend not to say it is mended,) my quarrel was not altogether slight. French. 'Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrement of swords; and by such two, that would, by all likelihood, have confounded one the other, or have fallen both. [9] Makes the description of him very distant from the truth. [1] Under ber banner; by her influence. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. [2] To atone-signifies, in this place, to reconcile. STEEVENS. MALONE. [4] Posthumus is describing a presumptuous young man, and means to say, that he rather studied to avoid conducting himself by the opinions of other people, than to be guided by their experience. M. MASON. |