Cymbeline (8 page)

INNOGEN
    What ho, Pisanio!

IACHIMO
    
Let me my service tender on your lips.
¹⁶²

INNOGEN
    Away, I do condemn mine ears that have

So long
attended
thee.
¹⁶⁴
If thou wert honourable

Thou wouldst have told this tale for virtue, not

For such an end thou seek’st, as base as strange.

Thou wrong’st a gentleman who is as far

From thy report as thou from honour, and

Solicit’st here a lady that disdains

Thee and the devil alike.— What ho, Pisanio!

The king my father shall be made acquainted

Of thy assault: if he shall think it fit,

A
saucy
stranger in his court to
mart
¹⁷³

As in a
Romish stew
¹⁷⁴
, and to expound

His beastly mind to
us
¹⁷⁵
, he hath a court

He little cares for, and a daughter who

He not respects at all.— What ho, Pisanio!

IACHIMO
    O happy Leonatus I may say,

The
credit
¹⁷⁹
that thy lady hath of thee

Deserves thy trust, and thy most perfect goodness

Her assured credit. Blessèd live you long,

A lady to the worthiest sir that ever

Country called his; and you his mistress, only

For the most worthiest fit. Give me your pardon.

I have spoke this to know if your
affiance
¹⁸⁵

Were deeply rooted, and shall make your lord

That which he is
new o’er
¹⁸⁷
: and he is one

The
truest mannered
, such a
holy witch
¹⁸⁸

That he enchants societies into him:

Half all men’s hearts are his.

INNOGEN
    You make amends.

IACHIMO
    He sits ’mongst men like a descended god;

He hath a kind of honour sets him off

More than a mortal seeming. Be not angry,

Most mighty princess, that I have adventured

To
try your taking
¹⁹⁶
of a false report, which hath

Honoured with confirmation your great judgement

In the election of a sir so rare
¹⁹⁸
,

Which you know cannot err. The love I bear him

Made me to
fan
²⁰⁰
you thus, but the gods made you,

Unlike all others,
chaffless.
²⁰¹
Pray your pardon.

INNOGEN
    All’s well, sir: take my power i’th’court for yours.

IACHIMO
    My humble thanks. I had almost forgot

T’entreat your grace
but
²⁰⁴
in a small request,

And yet of
moment
²⁰⁵
too, for it concerns

Your lord: myself and other noble friends

Are partners in the business.

INNOGEN
    Pray what is’t?

IACHIMO
    Some dozen Romans of us and your lord —

The
best feather of our wing
— have
mingled sums
²¹⁰

To buy a present for the emperor:

Which I, the
factor
²¹²
for the rest, have done

In France: ’tis
plate
of
rare device
²¹³
, and jewels

Of rich and exquisite form, their value’s great,

And I am
something curious
, being
strange
²¹⁵
,

To have them in safe stowage: may it please you

To take them in protection?

INNOGEN
    Willingly:

And
pawn
²¹⁹
mine honour for their safety, since

My lord hath
interest
²²⁰
in them. I will keep them

In my bedchamber.

IACHIMO
    They are in a trunk

Attended by my men: I will make bold

To send them to you, only for this night:

I must aboard tomorrow.

INNOGEN
    O, no, no.

IACHIMO
    Yes, I beseech: or I shall
short
²²⁷
my word

By length’ning my return. From
Gallia
²²⁸

I crossed the seas on purpose and on promise

To see your grace.

INNOGEN
    I thank you for your pains:

But not away tomorrow.

IACHIMO
    O, I must, madam.

Therefore I shall beseech you, if you please

To greet your lord with writing, do’t tonight.

I have
outstood
my time, which is
material
²³⁶

To th’
tender
²³⁷
of our present.

INNOGEN
    I will write:

Send your trunk to me, it shall safe be kept,

And truly yielded you. You’re very welcome.

CLOTEN
    Was there ever man had such luck? When I
kissed
¹

the jack
upon an upcast
²
, to be hit away! I had a hundred

pound on’t: and then a whoreson
jackanapes
must
take me
³

up for swearing, as if I borrowed mine
oaths
of
⁴
him, and

might not
spend them at my pleasure.
⁵

FIRST LORD
    What got he by that? You have broke his
pate
⁶
with

your bowl.

SECOND LORD
    
If his wit had been like him that broke it, it
⁸

would have run all out.

CLOTEN
    When a
gentleman
¹⁰
is disposed to swear, it is not for

any standers-by to
curtail
¹¹
his oaths. Ha?

SECOND LORD
    No my lord.—

Nor crop the ears of them.

CLOTEN
    Whoreson dog! I give him satisfaction? Would he

had been one of my
rank.
¹⁵

SECOND LORD
    To have smelled like a fool.

CLOTEN
    I am not vexed more at anything in th’earth:
a
pox
¹⁷

on’t! I had rather not be
so
¹⁸
noble as I am: they dare not fight

with me, because of the queen my mother: every
jack-slave
¹⁹

hath his bellyful of fighting, and I must go up and down like

a
cock
²¹
that nobody can match.

SECOND LORD
    You are cock and
capon
²²
too, and you crow,

cock, with your
comb
²³
on.

CLOTEN
    
Sayest thou?
²⁴

SECOND LORD
    It is not fit your lordship should
undertake
²⁵
every

companion
²⁶
that you give offence to.

CLOTEN
    No, I know that: but it is fit I should
commit offence
²⁷

to my inferiors.

SECOND LORD
    Ay, it is
fit for your lordship only.
²⁹

CLOTEN
    Why, so I say.

FIRST LORD
    Did you hear of a stranger that’s come to court

tonight?

CLOTEN
    A stranger, and I not know on’t?

SECOND LORD
    He’s a strange fellow himself, and knows

it not.

FIRST LORD
    There’s an Italian come, and ’tis thought one of

Leonatus’ friends.

CLOTEN
    Leonatus? A banished rascal; and he’s another,

whatsoever
³⁹
he be. Who told you of this stranger?

FIRST LORD
    One of your lordship’s pages.

CLOTEN
    Is it fit I went to look upon him? Is there no

derogation
⁴²
in’t?

SECOND LORD
    
You cannot derogate
⁴³
, my lord.

CLOTEN
    Not easily, I think.

SECOND LORD
    You are a fool granted, therefore your
issues
⁴⁵
,

being foolish, do not derogate.

CLOTEN
    Come, I’ll go see this Italian: what I have lost today

at bowls I’ll win tonight of him. Come, go.

SECOND LORD
    I’ll attend your lordship.—

That such a crafty devil as is his mother

Should yield the world this ass: a woman that

Bears all down
⁵²
with her brain, and this her son

Cannot take two from twenty,
for his heart
⁵³
,

And leave eighteen. Alas, poor princess,

Thou divine Innogen, what thou endur’st,

Betwixt
⁵⁶
a father by thy stepdame governed,

A
mother
hourly
coining
⁵⁷
plots, a wooer

More hateful than the foul
expulsion
⁵⁸
is

Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act

Of the divorce
he’d make!
⁶⁰
The heavens hold firm

The walls of thy dear honour, keep unshaked

That temple, thy fair mind, that thou mayst stand,

T’enjoy thy banished lord and this great land.

INNOGEN
    Who’s there? My woman Helen?

LADY
    Please you, madam.

INNOGEN
    What hour is it?

LADY
    Almost midnight, madam.

INNOGEN
    I have read three hours then: mine eyes are
weak.
⁵

Fold down the
leaf
where I have
left
⁶
: to bed.

Take not away the
taper
⁷
, leave it burning:

And if thou canst awake by four o’th’clock,

I prithee call me.— Sleep hath seized me wholly.

To your protection I commend me, gods,

From
fairies
and the
tempters of the night.
¹¹

Guard me, beseech ye.

IACHIMO
    The
crickets sing
, and man’s
o’er-laboured sense
¹³

Repairs itself by rest.
Our Tarquin
¹⁴
thus

Did softly press the
rushes
,
ere
¹⁵
he wakened

The chastity he wounded.
Cytherea
¹⁶
,

How
bravely thou becom’st
thy bed; fresh
lily
¹⁷
,

And whiter than the sheets: that I might touch,

But kiss, one kiss!
Rubies
unparagoned
¹⁹
,

How
dearly
they
do’t!
²⁰
’Tis her breathing that

Perfumes the chamber thus: the flame o’th’taper

Bows toward her, and would
underpeep her lids
²²

To see th’enclosèd
lights
, now
canopied
²³

Under these
windows
, white and
azure
laced
²⁴

With blue of heaven’s own
tinct.
But my design
²⁵
:

To note the chamber. I will write all down.

Such and such pictures, there the window, such

Th’adornment
of her bed; the
arras
,
figures
²⁸
,

Why, such and such: and the
contents
²⁹
o’th’story.

Ah, but some natural
notes
about
³⁰
her body,

Above
ten thousand
meaner
movables
³¹

Would
testify t’enrich mine inventory.
³²

O sleep, thou
ape
of death, lie
dull
³³
upon her,

And be her
sense
but as a
monument
³⁴

Thus in a chapel lying. Come off, come off;