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To th' tender of our present.

Imo. I will write :

Send your trunk to me, it fhall fafe be kept,
And truly yielded you:
you: You're very welcome.

[Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

CYMBELINE's Palace.

Enter Cloten, and two Lords.

CLOTEN.

AS there ever man had fuch luck! when I

W kifs'd the Jack upon an up-caft, to be hit

away! I had an hundred pound on't; and then a whorefon jack-an-apes muft take me up for fwearing, as if I borrowed mine oaths of him, and might not spend them at my pleasure.

1 Lord. What got he by that? you have broke his pate with your bowl.

2 Lord. if his wit had been like him that broke it, it would have run all out.

[Afide. Clot. When a gentleman is difpos'd to fwear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths. Ha? 2 Lord. No, my lord; nor crop the ears of them. [Afide. Clot. Whorfon dog! I give him fatisfaction ? 'would, he had been one of my rank.

[Afide.

2 Lord. To have smelt like a fool. Clot. I am not vext more at any thing in the earth,-a pox on't! I had rather not be fo noble as I am; they dare not fight with me, because of the Queen my mother; every Jack-flave hath his belly full of fighting, and I muft go up and down like a cock that no body can match.

S 2

2 Lord.

2 Lord. You are a cock and a capon too; and you crow, cock, with your comb on.

Clot. Say'ft thou?

[Afide.

2 Lord. It is not fit your lordship should undertake every companion, that you give offence to.

Clot. No, I know that; but it is fit I fhould commit offence to my inferiors.

2 Lord. Ay, it is fit for your lordship only.Clot. Why, fo I fay.

I Lord. Did you hear of a stranger that's come to court to night?

Clot. A ftranger, and I not know on't?

2 Lord. He's a ftrange fellow himself, and knows it not.

[Afide. 1 Lord. There's an Italian come, and, 'tis thought, one of Leonatus's friends.

Clot. Leonatus! a banifh'd rafcal; and he's another, whatsoever he be. Who told you of this stranger? 1 Lord. One of your lordship's pages.

Clot. Is it fit I went to look upon him? is there no derogation in't?

2 Lord. You cannot derogate, my lord.

Clot. Not easily, I think.

2 Lord. You are a fool granted, therefore your iffues being foolish do not derogate.

[Afide. Clot. Come, I'll go fee this Italian: what I have loft to day at bowls, I'll win to night of him. Come; go.

2 Lord. I'll attend your lordship.

That fuch a crafty devil as his mother,

[Exit Clot.

Should yield the world this afs!-a woman, that
Bears all down with her brain; and this her fon
Cannot take two from twenty for his heart,
And leave eighteen. Alas, Poor Princefs,
Thou divine Imogen, what thou endur'st!
Betwixt a father by thy ftep-dame govern'd,
A mother hourly coining plots; a wooer,

More

More hateful than the foul expulfion is
Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act

Of the divorce (a) Hell-made. The heav'ns hold firm
The walls of thy dear Honour; keep unshak'd
That Temple, thy fair Mind; that thou may'ft ftand
T'enjoy thy banish'd lord, and this great land!

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Changes to a magnificent Bed-chamber; in one part of it a large trunk.

Imogen is difcover'd reading in her bed, a Lady attending.

Imo. WHO's there? my woman Helen?

Lady. Please you, Madam

Imo. What hour is it?

Lady. Almoft midnight, Madam.

Imo. I have read three hours then, mine eyes are weak,

Fold down the leaf where I have left; to bed-
Take not away the caper, leave it burning:
And if thou canft awake by four o'th' clock,

I pr'y thee, call me-- fleep hath feiz'd me wholly.

[Exit Lady.

To your protection I commend me, Gods;
From Fairies, and the Tempters of the night,
Guard me, 'befeech ye.

[Sleeps.

[lachimo rifes from the trunk. Iach. The crickets fing, and man's o'er-labour'd

fense

Repairs itself by reft: our Tarquin thus

Did foftly prefs the rushes, ere he waken'd

(a) of the divorce Hell-made. Oxford Editor.-Vulg. of the divorce be'ld make.]

S

3

The

The chastity he wounded. Cytherea,

How bravely thou becom❜ft thy bed! fresh lilly,
And whiter than the fheets! that I might touch,
But kifs, one kiss-rubies unparagon'd,

How dearly they do't!-'tis her breathing, that
Perfumes the chamber thus: the flame o'th' taper
Bows tow❜rd her, and would under-peep her lids,
To fee th' inclosed light, now canopy'd

Under these windows: white with azure lac'd,
The blue of heav'n's own tinct-But my defign's
To note the chamber-I will write all down,
Such, and fuch, pictures-there, the window,-such
Th' adornment of her bed-the arras, figures-
Why, fuch, and fuch-and the contents o'th' ftory-
Ah, but fome natʼral notes about her body,
Above ten thousand meaner moveables,
Would teftify, t'enrich my inventory.

O Sleep, thou ape of Death, lye dull upon her!
And be her fenfe but as a monument,

Thus in a chappel lying!Come off, come off.[Taking off her bracelet.

As flipp'ry, as the Gordian knot was hard
'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly,
As ftrongly as the confcience do's within,
To th' madding of her lord. On her left breast
A mole cinque-fpotted, like the crimson drops
I'th' bottom of a cowflip. Here's a voucher,
Stronger than ever law could make this fecret
Will force him think, I've pick'd the lock; and ta'en
The treasure of her honour. No more-to what end?
Why fhould I write this down, that's rivetted,
Screw'd to my mem'ry? She hath been reading, late,

white AND azure, lac'd

WITH blue of heav'n's own tint.] We should read,
-white with azure lac'd,

THE blue of heav'n's own tinct,

3.4. the white skin laced with blue veins.

The

The tale of Tereus; here the leaf's turn'd down,
Where Philomele gave up I have enough.
To th' trunk again, and fhut the spring of it.
Swift, fwift, you Dragons of the night! that dawning
May bear the raven's eye: I lodge in fear,

2

Though this a heav'nly angel, hell is here. [Clock ftrikes. One, two, three: time, time!

[Goes into the trunk, the Scene clofes.

[blocks in formation]

Changes to another part of the Palace, facing Imogen's Apartments.

Enter Cloten, and Lords.

1 Lord. Y lols, the coldeft that ever turn'd up ace.

OUR lordship is the moft patient man in

Clot. It would make any man cold to lose.

1 Lord. But not every man patient, after the noble temper of your lordship; you are most hot, and furious, when you win.

Clot. Winning will put any man into courage: If I could get this foolish Imogen, I fhould have gold enough: It's almoft morning, is't not?

2

that dawning

May bear the raven's eye:- -] Some copies read bare or make bare; others, ope. But the true reading is bear, a term taken from heraldry, and very fublimely applied. The meaning is, that morning may affume the colour of the raven's eye, which is grey. Hence it is fo commonly called the grey-ey'd morning. And Romeo and Juliet,

I'll fay yon grey is not the morning's eye. Had Shakespear meant to bare or open the eye, that is, to awake, he had inftanced rather in the lark than raven, as the earlier rifer. Befides, whether the morning bared or opened the raven's eye was of no advantage to the speaker, but it was of much advantage that it fhould bear it, that is, become light. Yet the Oxford Editor judiciously alters it to,

May bare its raven-eye.
S 4

1 Lord,

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