MADAN. (aside) If it be a sin to make a true election, she is damned.

CLOTEN. Come, I'll to my chamber. 'Would there had been some hurt done!

MADAN. I wish not so; unless it had been the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt. (aside) CLOTEN. You'll go with us?

LOCRINE. I'll attend your lordship.
CLOTEN. Nay, come, let's go together.

MADAN. Well, my lord.

Exeunt, L.

SCENE THIRD.-A Room in Cymbeline's Palace.

Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO, L.

IMOGEN. I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' the haven,
And question'dst every sail: if he should write,
And I not have it, 'twere a paper lost,

As offer'd mercy is. What was the last

That he spake to thee?

PISAN.

It was "His queen, his queen!"

IMOGEN. Then wav'd his handkerchief?

PISAN.

And kiss'd it, madam.

IMOGEN. Senseless linen! happier therein than I!
And that was all?

PISAN.

No, madam; for so long
As he could make me with his eye or ear
Distinguish him from others, he did keep
The deck, with glove or hat or handkerchief
Still waving, as the fits and stirs of his mind
Could best express how slow his soul sail'd on,
How swift his ship.

IMOGEN.

Thou shouldst have made him As little as a crow, or less, ere left

To after-eye him.

PISAN.

Madam, so I did.

IMOGEN. I would have broke mine eye-strings; crack'd them, but

To look upon him; till the diminution

Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle:
Nay, follow'd him, till he had melted from
The smallness of a gnat to air; and then

Have turn'd mine eye, and wept.-But, good Pisanio,
When shall we hear from him?

PISAN.

With his next vantage.

Be assur'd, madam,

IMOGEN. I did not take my leave of him, but had
Most pretty things to say: ere I could tell him
How I would think on him, at certain hours,

Such thoughts, and such; or I could make him swear
The shes of Italy should not betray

Mine interest and his honour; or have charg'd him,
At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight,
To encounter me with orisons, for then

I am in heaven for him; or ere I could
Give him that parting kiss, which I had set
Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father,
And like the tyrannous breathing of the North,
Shakes all our buds from growing.

HELEN.

Enter HELEN, R.

The queen, madam.

Desires your highness' company.

IMOGEN. Those things I bid you do, get them despatch’d— I will attend the queen.

PISAN.

Madam, I shall.

Exeunt IMOGEN and HELEN, R., PISANIO, L.

SCENE FOURTH.-Rome. An Apartment in Philario's House. PHILARIO, IACHIMO, and LEWIS, a Frenchman, discovered lying on couches at a banquet.

IACH. (R.) Believe it, sir. I have seen him in Britain. He was then of a crescent note; expected to prove so worthy as since he hath been allowed the name of; but I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his side, and I to peruse him by items.

PHILAR. You speak of him when he was less furnished than now he is, with that which makes him both without and within.

LEWIS. I have seen him in France: we had very many there could behold the sun with as firm eyes as he. IACH This matter of marrying his king's daughter,

(wherein he must be weighed rather by her value than his own,) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the

matter.

LEWIS. And then his banishment

IACH. Ay, and the approbation of those that weep this lamented divorce, under her colours, are wonderfully to extend him; be it but to fortify her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beggar without less quality. But how comes it he is to sojourn with you? How creeps acquaintance?

PHILAR. His father and I were soldiers together; to whom I have been often bound for no less than my life: Here comes the Briton. Let him be so entertained amongst you as suits with gentlemen of your knowing, te a stranger of his quality.

Enter POSTHUMUS, L.

I beseech you all, be better known to this gentleman, whom I commend to you as a noble friend of mine. How worthy he is I will leave to appear hereafter, rather than story him in his own hearing.

Lewis. (c.) Sir, we have known together in Orleans.

POST. (L.) Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies, which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still.

LEWIS. Sir, you o'er-rate my poor kindness. I was glad I did atone my countryman and you; it had been pity you should have been put together with so mortal a purpose as then each bore, upon importance of so slight and trivial a nature.

Post. By your pardon, sir, I was then a young traveller; rather shunned to go even with what I heard, than in my every action to be guided by others' experiences; but, upon my mended judgment, (if I offend not to say it is mended,) my quarrel was not altogether slight.

LEWIS. 'Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrement of swords; and by such two that would, by all likelihood, have confounded one the other, or have fallen both.

IACH. Can we with manners, ask what was the difference. LEWIS. Safely, I think: 't was a contention in public, which may without contradiction, suffer the report. was much like an argument that fell out last night, where

each of us fell in praise of our country mistresses; this gentleman at that time vouching, (and upon warrant of bloody affirmation,) his to be more fair, virtuous, wise, chaste, constant-qualified, and less attemptible, than any the rarest of our ladies in France.

IACH. That lady is not now living; or this gentleman's opinion, by this, worn out.

POST. She holds her virtue still, and I my mind.

IACH. You must not so far prefer her 'fore ours of Italy. POST. Being so far provoked as I was in France, I would abate her nothing; though I profess myself her adorer, not her friend.

IACH. (R. C.) As fair, and as good, (a kind of hand-inhand comparison) had been something too fair, and too good for any lady in Britany. If she went before others I have seen, as that diamond of yours outlustres many I have beheld, I could not but believe she excelled many; but I have not seen the most precious diamond that is, nor you the lady.

POST. I praised her as I rated her: so do I my stone. IACH. What do you esteem it at?

POST. More than the world enjoys.

IACH. Either your unparagoned mistress is dead, or she's outprized by a trifle.

POST. You are mistaken: the one may be sold, or given, if there were wealth enough for the purchase, or merit for the gift: the other is not a thing for sale, and only the gift of the gods.

JACH. Which the gods have given you?

POST. Which, by their graces, I will keep.

IACH. You may wear her in title yours: but you know how strange fowl light upon neighbouring ponds. Your ring may be stolen too: so, your brace of unprizable estimations, the one is but frail, and the other casual; a cunning thief, or a that-way accomplished courtier, would hazard the winning both of first and last.

POST. (crosses, c.) Your Italy contains none so accomplished a courtier to convince the honour of my mistress ; if, in the holding or the loss of that, you term her frail. I do nothing doubt you have store of thieves; notwith standing, I fear not my ring.

PHILAR. Let us leave here, gentlemen.

Post. Sir, with all my heart. This worthy signior, I thank him, makes no stranger of me; we are familiar at first.

IACH. With five times so much conversation I should get ground of your fair mistress; make her go back, even to the yielding: had I admittance and opportunity to friend. POST. No, no.

IACH. I dare, thereupon, pawn the moiety of my estate to your ring; which, in my opinion, o'ervalues it something; but I make my wager rather against your confidence than her reputation; and, to bar your offence herein too, I durst attempt it against any lady in the world.

POST. You are a great deal abused in too bold a persuasion; and I doubt not you sustain what you're worthy of by your attempt.

IACH. What's that?

POST. A repulse; though your attempt, as you call it, deserve more—a punishment too. (places his hand on his sword)

PHILAR. Gentlemen, enough of this: it came in too suddenly; let it die as it was born, and, I pray you, be better acquainted.

IACH. Would I had put my estate, and my neighbour's, on the approbation of what I have spoke.

POST. What lady would you choose to assail?

IACH. Yours; whom in constancy you think stands so safe. I will lay you ten thousand ducats to your ring, that, commend me to the Court where your lady is, with no more advantage than the opportunity of a second conference, and I will bring from thence that honour of hers which you imagine so reserved.

POST. I will wager against your gold, gold to it: my ring I hold dear as my finger; 'tis part of it.

IACH. You are afraid, and therein the wiser. If you buy ladies' flesh ́at million a dram, you cannot preserve it from tainting; but I see, you have some religion in you, that you fear.

POST, This is but a custom in your tongue; you bear 2 graver purpose, I hope.

IACH. I am the master of my speeches; and would undergo what's spoken, I swear.