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Though he have serv'd a Roman: save him, sir,
And spare no blood beside.

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,
To say, live, boy8: ne'er thank thy master; live:
And ask of Cymbeline what boon thou wilt,
Fitting my bounty, and thy state, I'll give it;
Yea, though thou do demand a prisoner,
The noblest ta'en.

Imo.

I humbly thank your highness. Luc. I do not bid thee beg my life, good lad; And yet, I know, thou wilt.

Imo.
No, no: alack,
There's other work in hand: I see a thing

Bitter to me as death: your life, good master,
Must shuffle for itself.

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.
Not more resembles: That sweet rosy lad,
Who died, and was Fidele: -What think you?
Gui. The same dead thing alive.

Bel. Peace, peace! see further; he eyes us not;

forbear;

Creatures may be alike: were't he, I am sure
He would have spoke to us.

Gui.

But we saw him dead.

It is my mistress: [Aside.

Bel. Be silent; let's see further.
Pis.
Since she is living, let the time run on,
To good, or bad.

[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;
Or, by our greatness, and the grace of it,
Which is our honour, bitter torture shall
Winnow the truth from falsehood.-On, speak to him.
Imo. My boon is, that this gentleman may render
Of whom he had this ring.

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,
Than die ere I hear more: strive man, and speak.
Iach. Upon a time (unhappy was the clock
That struck the hour!) it was in Rome (accurs'd
The mansion where!) 'twas at a feast, (Ō 'would
Our viands had been poison'd! or, at least,
Those which I heav'd to head!) the good Posthúmus,
(What should I say? he was too good, to be
Where ill men were; and was the best of all
Amongst the rar'st of good ones), sitting sadly,
Hearing us praise our loves of Italy

For beauty that made barren the swell'd boast
Of him that best could speak: for feature10, laming
The shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva,
Postures beyond brief nature; for condition,
A shop of all the qualities that man

Loves woman for; besides, that hook of wiving,
Fairness which strikes the eye:--

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,
Postures beyond brief nature.'

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
He was as calm as virtue), he began

His mistress' picture; which by his tongue being made,

And then a mind put in't, either our brags
Were crack'd of kitchen trulls, or his description
Prov'd us unspeaking sots.

Cym.

Nay, nay, to the purpose.
Iach. Your daughter's chastity-there it begins.
He spake of her as11 Dian had hot dreams,
And she alone were cold: Whereat, I, wretch!
Made scruple of his praise; and wager'd with him
Pieces of gold, 'gainst this which then he wore
Upon his honour'd finger, to attain

In suit the place of his bed, and win this ring
By hers and mine adultery: he, true knight,
No lesser of her honour confident

Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring;
And would so, had it been a carbuncle

Of Phoebus' wheel; and might so safely, had it
Been all the worth of his car12. Away to Britain
Post I in this design: Well may you, sir,
Remember me at court, where I was taught
Of your chaste daughter the wide difference
'Twixt amorous and villanous. Being thus quench'd
Of hope, not longing, mine Italian brain
'Gan in your duller Britain operate
Most vilely; for my vantage, excellent;
And, to be brief, my practice so prevail'd,

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
To make the noble Leonatus mad,
By wounding his belief in her renown
With tokens thus, and thus; averring notes13
Of chamber-hanging, pictures, this her bracelet,
(0, cunning, how I got it!) nay, some marks
Of secret on her person, that he could not
But think her bond of chastity quite crack'd,
I having ta'en the forfeit. Whereupon,-
Methinks, I see him now,-

Post.

Ay, so thou dost,

Coming forward.

Italian fiend!-Ah me, most credulous fool,
Egregious murderer, thief, any thing

That's due to all the villains past, in being,
To come!-0, give me cord, or knife, or poison,
Some upright justicer14! Thou, king, send out
For torturers ingenious: it is I

That all the abhorred things o'the earth amend,
By being worse than they. I am Posthumus,

That kill'd thy daughter:-villain like, I lie;
That caus'd a lesser villain than myself,
A sacrilegious thief, to do't:-the temple
Of virtue was she; yea, and she herself15.
Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set
The dogs o'the street to bay me: every villain
Be call'd Posthumus Leonatus; and

Be villany less than 'twas!--O Imogen!
My queen. my life, my wife! O Imogen,
Imogen, 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."

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