SCENE V-Before the Walls of Athens.
Trumpets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES, and Forces.
Alcib. Sound to this coward and lascivious town
Our terrible approach.

[A parley sounded.

Enter SENATORS on the Walls.
Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of justice; till now, myself, and such
As slept within the shadow of your power,

Have wander'd with our traversed arms,* and breathed
Our sufferance vainly: Now the time is flush,†
When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong,
Cries, of itself, No more: now breathless wrong,,
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease;
And pursy insolence shall break his wind,
With fear and horrid flight.

1 Sen. Noble and young,

When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear,
We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm,
To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.

2 Sen. So did we woo

Transformed Timon to our city's love,

By humble message, and by promised means;
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
The common stroke of war.

1 Sen. These walls of ours

Were not erected by their hands, from whom

You have received your griefs: nor are they such,

Than these great towers, trophies, and schools should fall
For private faults in them.

2 Sen. Nor are they living,

Who were the motives that you first went out;

Shame that they wanted cunning, in excess

Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,

Into our city with thy banners spread :

By decimation, and a tithed death

(If thy revenges hunger for that food,

Which nature loathes), take thou the destined tenth;
And by the hazard of the spotted die,

Let die the spotted.

1 Sen. All have not offended;

For those that were, it is not square, ‡ to take,
On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin,
Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall,
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,

*Arms across.

† Mature.

+ Equitable.

Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth,
But kill not all together.

2 Sen. What thou wilt,

Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile,
Than hew to't with thy sword.

1 Sen. Set but thy foot

Against our rampired gates, and they shall ope;

So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,
To say, thou❜lt enter friendly.

2 Sen. Throw thy glove;

Or any token of thine honour else,

That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress,
And not as our confusion, all thy powers
Shall make their harbour in our town, till we
Have seal'd thy full desire.

Alcib. Then there's my glove;

Descend, and open your uncharged ports;
Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own,
Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof,
Fall, and no more: and,-to atone † your fears
With my more noble meaning, not a man
Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream
Of regular justice in your city's bounds,
But shall be render'd to your public laws
At heaviest answer.

Both. 'Tis most nobly spoken.

Alcib. Descend, and keep your words.

The SENATORS descend, and open the Gates.
Enter a SOLDIER.

Sol. My noble general, Timon is dead;

Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea:

And on his grave-stone, this insculpture; which

With wax I brought away, whose soft impression

Interprets for my poor ignorance.

Alcib. [reads]. Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft:

Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiffs left! Here lie I, Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate:

Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait.

These well express in thee thy latter spirits:

Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs,

Scorn'dst our brain's flow, ‡ and those our droplets which

From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit

Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye

On thy low grave, on faults forgiven

Is noble Timon; of whose memory

Dead

Hereafter more.-Bring me into your city

And I will use the olive with my sword:

Make war breed peace; make peace stint § war; make each
Prescribe to other, as each other's leech. ||

Let our drums strike.

* Unattacked gates.

+ Reconcile.

§ Stop.

Physician.

[Exeunt.

I. e. our tears.

Ab 31

CYMBELINE.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

CYMBELINE, King of Britain. CLOTEN, Son to the Queen by a former husband.

LEONATUS POSTHUMUS, a Gentleman, Husband to Imogen. BELARIUS, a banished Lord, disguised under the name of Morgan. GUIDERIUS Sons to Cymbeline, ARVIRAGUS, disguised under the names of POLYDORE and CADWAL, supposed sons to Belarius. PHILARIO, Friend to

Posthumus, IACHIMO, Friend to Philario,

Italians.

A FRENCH GENTLEMAN, Friend
to Philario.

CAIUS LUCIUS, General of the
Roman Forces.

A ROMAN CAPTAIN.

Two BRITISH CAPTAINS.
PISANIO, Servant to Posthumus.
CORNELIUS, a Physician.
Two GENTLEMEN.
Two JAILERS.

QUEEN, Wife to Cymbeline. IMOGEN, Daughter to Cymbeline, by a former Queen.

HELEN, Woman to Imogen.

LORDS, LADIES, Roman SENATORS, TRIBUNES, APPARITIONS, a SOOTHSAYER, a Dutch GENTLEMAN, a Spanish GENTLEMAN, MUSICIANS, OFFICERS, CAPTAINS, SOLDIERS, MESSENGERS, and other ATTENDANTS.

SCENE.-Sometimes in Britain; sometimes in Italy.

ACT I.

SCENE I-Britain. The Garden behind CYMBELINE'S

Palace.

Enter two GENTLEMEN.

1 Gent. You do not meet a man, but frowns: our bloods No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers;

Still seem, as does the king's. *

2 Gent. But what's the matter?

1 Gent. His daughter, and the heir of his kingdom, whom He purposed to his wife's sole son (a widow,

That late he married), hath referr'd herself

Unto a poor but worthy gentleman: She's wedded;
Her husband banish'd; she imprison'd: all

Is outward sorrow; though I think, the king

Be touch'd at very heart.

2 Gent. None but the king?

1 Gent. He, that hath lost her, too: so is the queen, That most desired the match: But not a courtier,

* This difficult passage should, I think, be construed thus: our countenances, regulated by the blood, do not obey natural impulses, but, as courtiers, imitate that of the king.

Although they wear their faces to the bent
Of the king's looks, hath a heart that is not
Glad at the thing they scowl at.

2 Gent. And why so?

1 Gent. He that hath miss'd the princess, is a thing
Too bad for bad report: and he that hath her
(I mean, that married her,-alack, good man !—
And therefore banish'd) is a creature such
As, to seek through the regions of the earth
For one his like, there would be something failing
In him that should compare. I do not think,
So fair an outward, and such stuff within,
Endows a man but he.

2 Gent. You speak him far. *

1 Gent. I do extend him, Sir, within himself; Crush him together, rather than unfold

His measure duly.f

2 Gent. What's his name and birth?

1 Gent. I cannot delve him to the root: His father

Was call'd Sicilius, who did join his honour,

Against the Romans, with Cassibelan;

But had his titles by Tenantius, whom
He served with glory and admired success:
So gain'd the sur-addition, Leonatus :

And had, besides this gentleman in question,
Two other sons, who, in the wars o' the time,

Died with their swords in hand; for which their father
(Then old and fond of issue) took such sorrow,
That he quit being; and this gentle lady,
Big of this gentleman, our theme, deceased
As he was born. The king, he takes the babe
To his protection; calls him Posthumus;
Breeds him, and makes him of his bed-chamber:
Puts him to all the learnings that his time
Could make him the receiver of; which he took,
As we do air, fast as 'twas minister'd; and
In his spring became a harvest: Lived in court
(Which rare it is to do), most praised, most loved:
A sample to the youngest; to the more mature,
A glass that feated § them; and to the graver,
A child that guided dotards: to his mistress,
For whom he now is banish'd,-her own price
Proclaims how she esteem'd him and his virtue;
By her election may be truly read,

What kind of man he is.

2 Gent. I honour him

Even out of your report. But, 'pray you, tell me,
Is she sole child to the king?

1 Gent. His only child.

He had two sons (if this be worth your hearing,

* Praise him extensively.

The father of Cymbeline.

† My praise is within his merit.

§ I. e. a model that formed their manners.

As to.

Mark it), the eldest of them at three years old,

I' the swathing clothes the other, from their nursery
Were stolen: and to this hour, no guess in knowledge
Which way they went.

2 Gent. How long is this ago?

1 Gent. Some twenty years.

2 Gent. That a king's children should be so convey'd! So slackly guarded! And the search so slow,

That could not trace them!

1 Gent. Howsoe'er 'tis strange,

Or that the negligence may well be laugh'd at,

Yet is it true, Sir.

2 Gent. I do well believe you.

1 Gent. We must forbear: Here comes the gentleman, The queen and princess.

SCENE II-The same.

Enter the QUEEN, POSTHUMUS, and IMOGEN.

[Exeunt.

Queen. No, be assured, you shall not find me, daughter,

After the slander of most step-mothers,

Evil-eyed unto you: you are my prisoner, but

Your jailer shall deliver you the keys

That lock up your restraint. For you, Posthúmus,

So soon as I can win the offended king,

I will be known your advocate: marry, yet

The fire of rage is in him; and 'twere good,

You lean'd unto his sentence, with what patience
Your wisdom may inform you.

Post. Please your highness,

I will from hence to-day.

Queen. You know the peril :

I'll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying

The pangs of barr'd affections; though the king
Hath charged you should not speak together.

Imo. O

Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant

[Exit QUEEN.

Can tickle where she wounds!-My dearest husband,
I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing

(Always reserved my holy duty) what

His rage can do on me: You must be gone;
And I shall here abide the hourly shot
Of angry eyes; nor comforted to live,
But that there is this jewel in this world,
That I may see again.

Post. My queen! my mistress!

O, lady, weep no more; lest I give cause

To be suspected of more tenderness

Than doth become a man! I will remain

The loyal'st husband that did e'er plight troth.
My residence in Rome at one Philario's;
Who to my father was a friend, to me
Known but by letter: thither write, my queen,