Though he have serv'd a Roman: save him, sir, Cym. I have surely seen him: His favour is familiar to me. Boy, thou hast look'd thyself into my grace, And art mine own.-I know not why, nor wherefore, Imo. I humbly thank your highness. Luc. I do not bid thee beg my life, good lad; And yet, I know, thou wilt. Imo. Bitter to me as death: your life, good master, Luc. The boy disdains me, He leaves me, scorns me: Briefly die their joys, That place them on the truth of girls and boys.Why stands he so perplex'd? Cym. What would'st thou, boy? I love thee more and more; think more and more What's best to ask. Know'st him thou look'st on? speak, Wilt have him live? Is he thy kin? thy friend? Imo. He is a Roman; no more kin to me, Than I to your highness; who, being born your vassal, Am something nearer. Cym. Wherefore ey'st him so? Imo. I'll tell you, sir, in private, if you please To give me hearing. Cym. Ay, with all my heart, And lend my best attention. What's thy name? Countenance. 8I know not what should induce me to say, live, boy. word nor was inserted by Rowe. The Imo. Fidele, sir. Cym. Thou art my good youth, my page; I'll be thy master: Walk with me; speak freely. [CYMBELINE and IMOGEN converse apart. Bel. Is not this boy reviv'd from death? One sand another Arv. Bel. Peace, peace! see further; he eyes us not; forbear; Creatures may be alike: were't he, I am sure Gui. But we saw him dead. It is my mistress: [Aside. Bel. Be silent; let's see further. [CYMBELINE and IMOGEN come forward. Come, stand thou by our side; Make thy demand aloud.-Sir, [To IACH.] step you Cym. forth; Give answer to this boy, and do it freely; Post. What's that to him? Cym. That diamond upon your finger, say, How came it yours? [Aside. Iach. Thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that Which, to be spoke, would torture thee. Cym. How! me? Iach. I am glad to be constrain'd to utter that which Torments me to conceal. By villany I got this ring; 'twas Leonatus' jewel: Whom thou didst banish; and (which more may grieve thee, As it doth me), a nobler sir ne'er liv'd "Twixt sky and ground. Wilt thou hear more, my lord? Cym. All that belongs to this. Iach. That paragon, thy daughter,— For whom my heart drops blood, and my false spirits Quail to remember,-Give me leave; 1 faint. Cym. My daughter! what of her? Renew thy strength: I had rather thou should'st live while nature will, For beauty that made barren the swell'd boast Loves woman for; besides, that hook of wiving, 9 To quail is to faint, or sink into dejection. See vol. vi. p. 284. note 5. 10 Feature is here used for proportion. See vol. i. p. 118, note 4; and Sc. 1, note 7, p. 9, ante : for feature laming The shrine of Venus or straight-pight Minerva, i. e. the ancient statues of Venus and Minerva, which exceeded in beauty of exact proportion any living bodies, the work of brief, i. e. of hasty and unelaborate nature. So in Antony and Cleopatra : 'O'er picturing that Venus, where we see The fancy out-work nature.' Pight is set, compact: as in the phrase, a quarry and wellpight man. Сут. I stand on fire: Come to the matter. Iach. All too soon I shall, Unless thou would'st grieve quickly.-This Posthúmus (Most like a noble lord in love, and one That had a royal lover), took his hint; And, not dispraising whom we prais'd (therein His mistress' picture; which by his tongue being made, And then a mind put in't, either our brags Cym. Nay, nay, to the purpose. In suit the place of his bed, and win this ring Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring; Of Phoebus' wheel; and might so safely, had it 11 As for as if. So in The Winter's Tale. 12 111 he utters them as he had eaten ballads." He had deserved it, were it carbuncled Like Phoebus' car. Antony and Cleopatra. That I return'd with similar proof enough Post. Ay, so thou dost, Coming forward. Italian fiend!-Ah me, most credulous fool, That's due to all the villains past, in being, That all the abhorred things o'the earth amend, That kill'd thy daughter:-villain like, I lie; Be villany less than 'twas!--O Imogen! Imo. Peace, my ford; hear, hear Post. Shall's have a play of this? Thou scornful page, There lie thy part. [Striking her; she falls. 13 i. e. such marks of the chamber and pictures, as averred or confirmed my report. 14 Justicer was anciently used instead of justice. Shakspeare_has the word thrice in King Lear. And Warner, in his Albion's England, 1602, b. x ch. 45: Precelling his progenitors, a justicer upright. 15 Not only the temple of virtue, but virtue herself." |