Cymbeline | Page 5

of this folly!
[Exeunt CYMBELINE and LORDS.]
[Enter PISANIO.]
QUEEN.
Fie! you must give way.
Here is your servant. How now,
sir! What news?
PISANIO.
My lord your son drew on my master.

QUEEN.
Ha! No harm, I trust, is done?
PISANIO.
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.
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 a while.
IMOGEN.
About some half-hour hence,
I Pray you, speak with me;
you shall at least
Go see my lord aboard. For this time leave me.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE II.
The same. 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' the backside 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.
A room in CYMBELINE'S palace.
[Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO.]
IMOGEN.
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?
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 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'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 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?
PISANIO.
Be assured, 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, 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.
IMOGEN.
Those things I bid you do, get them dispatch'd.
I will
attend the Queen.
PISANIO.
Madam, I shall.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE IV.
Rome. PHILARIO'S house.
[Enter PHILARIO, IACHIMO, a FRENCHMAN,