| ACT I SCENE VI | The same. Another room in the palace. | |
| | Enter IMOGEN. | |
| IMOGEN | A father cruel, and a step-dame false; | |
| | A foolish suitor to a wedded lady, | |
| | That hath her husband banish'd;--O, that husband! | |
| | My supreme crown of grief! and those repeated | 5 |
| | Vexations of it! Had I been thief-stol'n, | |
| | As my two brothers, happy! but most miserable | |
| | Is the desire that's glorious: blest be those, | |
| | How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills, | |
| | Which seasons comfort. Who may this be? Fie! | 10 |
| | Enter PISANIO and IACHIMO. | |
| PISANIO | Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome, | |
| | Comes from my lord with letters. | |
| IACHIMO | Change you, madam? | |
| | The worthy Leonatus is in safety | |
| | And greets your highness dearly. | 15 |
| | Presents a letter. | |
| IMOGEN | Thanks, good sir: | |
| | You're kindly welcome. | |
| IACHIMO | Aside. All of her that is out of door most rich! | |
| | If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare, | |
| | She is alone the Arabian bird, and I | |
| | Have lost the wager. Boldness be my friend! | 20 |
| | Arm me, audacity, from head to foot! | |
| | Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight; | |
| | Rather directly fly. | |
| IMOGEN | Reads. 'He is one of the noblest note, to whose | |
| | kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon | |
| | him accordingly, as you value your trust-- | 25 |
| | LEONATUS.' | |
| | So far I read aloud: | |
| | But even the very middle of my heart | |
| | Is warm'd by the rest, and takes it thankfully. | |
| | You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I | 30 |
| | Have words to bid you, and shall find it so | |
| | In all that I can do. | |
| IACHIMO | Thanks, fairest lady. | |
| | What, are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes | |
| | To see this vaulted arch, and the rich crop | 35 |
| | Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt | |
| | The fiery orbs above and the twinn'd stones | |
| | Upon the number'd beach? and can we not | |
| | Partition make with spectacles so precious | |
| | 'Twixt fair and foul? | 40 |
| IMOGEN | What makes your admiration? | |
| IACHIMO | It cannot be i' the eye, for apes and monkeys | |
| | 'Twixt two such shes would chatter this way and | |
| | Contemn with mows the other; nor i' the judgment, | |
| | For idiots in this case of favour would | 45 |
| | Be wisely definite; nor i' the appetite; | |
| | Sluttery to such neat excellence opposed | |
| | Should make desire vomit emptiness, | |
| | Not so allured to feed. | |
| IMOGEN | What is the matter, trow? | 50 |
| IACHIMO | The cloyed will, | |
| | That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub | |
| | Both fill'd and running, ravening first the lamb | |
| | Longs after for the garbage. | |
| IMOGEN | What, dear sir, | 55 |
| | Thus raps you? Are you well? | |
| IACHIMO | Thanks, madam; well. | |
| | To PISANIO. | |
| | Beseech you, sir, desire | |
| | My man's abode where I did leave him: he | |
| | Is strange and peevish. | 60 |
| PISANIO | I was going, sir, | |
| | To give him welcome. | |
| | Exit | |
| IMOGEN | Continues well my lord? His health, beseech you? | |
| IACHIMO | Well, madam. | |
| IMOGEN | Is he disposed to mirth? I hope he is. | 65 |
| IACHIMO | Exceeding pleasant; none a stranger there | |
| | So merry and so gamesome: he is call'd | |
| | The Briton reveller. | |
| IMOGEN | When he was here, | |
| | He did incline to sadness, and oft-times | 70 |
| | Not knowing why. | |
| IACHIMO | I never saw him sad. | |
| | There is a Frenchman his companion, one | |
| | An eminent monsieur, that, it seems, much loves | |
| | A Gallian girl at home; he furnaces | 75 |
| | The thick sighs from him, whiles the jolly Briton-- | |
| | Your lord, I mean--laughs from's free lungs, cries 'O, | |
| | Can my sides hold, to think that man, who knows | |
| | By history, report, or his own proof, | |
| | What woman is, yea, what she cannot choose | 80 |
| | But must be, will his free hours languish for | |
| | Assured bondage?' | |
| IMOGEN | Will my lord say so? | |
| IACHIMO | Ay, madam, with his eyes in flood with laughter: | |
| | It is a recreation to be by | 85 |
| | And hear him mock the Frenchman. But, heavens know, | |
| | Some men are much to blame. | |
| IMOGEN | Not he, I hope. | |
| IACHIMO | Not he: but yet heaven's bounty towards him might | |
| | Be used more thankfully. In himself, 'tis much; | 90 |
| | In you, which I account his beyond all talents, | |
| | Whilst I am bound to wonder, I am bound | |
| | To pity too. | |
| IMOGEN | What do you pity, sir? | |
| IACHIMO | Two creatures heartily. | 95 |
| IMOGEN | Am I one, sir? | |
| | You look on me: what wreck discern you in me | |
| | Deserves your pity? | |
| IACHIMO | Lamentable! What, | |
| | To hide me from the radiant sun and solace | 100 |
| | I' the dungeon by a snuff? | |
| IMOGEN | I pray you, sir, | |
| | Deliver with more openness your answers | |
| | To my demands. Why do you pity me? | |
| IACHIMO | That others do-- | 105 |
| | I was about to say--enjoy your--But | |
| | It is an office of the gods to venge it, | |
| | Not mine to speak on 't. | |
| IMOGEN | You do seem to know | |
| | Something of me, or what concerns me: pray you,-- | 110 |
| | Since doubling things go ill often hurts more | |
| | Than to be sure they do; for certainties | |
| | Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing, | |
| | The remedy then born--discover to me | |
| | What both you spur and stop. | 115 |
| IACHIMO | Had I this cheek | |
| | To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch, | |
| | Whose every touch, would force the feeler's soul | |
| | To the oath of loyalty; this object, which | |
| | Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye, | 120 |
| | Fixing it only here; should I, damn'd then, | |
| | Slaver with lips as common as the stairs | |
| | That mount the Capitol; join gripes with hands | |
| | Made hard with hourly falsehood--falsehood, as | |
| | With labour; then by-peeping in an eye | 125 |
| | Base and unlustrous as the smoky light | |
| | That's fed with stinking tallow; it were fit | |
| | That all the plagues of hell should at one time | |
| | Encounter such revolt. | |
| IMOGEN | My lord, I fear, | 130 |
| | Has forgot Britain. | |
| IACHIMO | And himself. Not I, | |
| | Inclined to this intelligence, pronounce | |
| | The beggary of his change; but 'tis your graces | |
| | That from pay mutest conscience to my tongue | 135 |
| | Charms this report out. | |
| IMOGEN | Let me hear no more. | |
| IACHIMO | O dearest soul! your cause doth strike my heart | |
| | With pity, that doth make me sick. A lady | |
| | So fair, and fasten'd to an empery, | 140 |
| | Would make the great'st king double,--to be partner'd | |
| | With tomboys hired with that self-exhibition | |
| | Which your own coffers yield! with diseased ventures | |
| | That play with all infirmities for gold | |
| | Which rottenness can lend nature! such boil'd stuff | 145 |
| | As well might poison poison! Be revenged; | |
| | Or she that bore you was no queen, and you | |
| | Recoil from your great stock. | |
| IMOGEN | Revenged! | |
| | How should I be revenged? If this be true,-- | 150 |
| | As I have such a heart that both mine ears | |
| | Must not in haste abuse--if it be true, | |
| | How should I be revenged? | |
| IACHIMO | Should he make me | |
| | Live, like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets, | 155 |
| | Whiles he is vaulting variable ramps, | |
| | In your despite, upon your purse? Revenge it. | |
| | I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure, | |
| | More noble than that runagate to your bed, | |
| | And will continue fast to your affection, | 160 |
| | Still close as sure. | |
| IMOGEN | What, ho, Pisanio! | |
| IACHIMO | Let me my service tender on your lips. | |
| IMOGEN | Away! I do condemn mine ears that have | |
| | So long attended thee. If thou wert honourable, | 165 |
| | 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 | 170 |
| | 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 | |
| | As in a Romish stew and to expound | 175 |
| | His beastly mind to us, 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 that thy lady hath of thee | 180 |
| | Deserves thy trust, and thy most perfect goodness | |
| | Her assured credit. Blessed live you long! | |
| | A lady to the worthiest sir that ever | |
| | Country call'd his! and you his mistress, only | |
| | For the most worthiest fit! Give me your pardon. | 185 |
| | I have spoke this, to know if your affiance | |
| | Were deeply rooted; and shall make your lord, | |
| | That which he is, new o'er: and he is one | |
| | The truest manner'd; such a holy witch | |
| | That he enchants societies into him; | 190 |
| | Half all men's hearts are his. | |
| IMOGEN | 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, | 195 |
| | Most mighty princess, that I have adventured | |
| | To try your taking a false report; which hath | |
| | Honour'd with confirmation your great judgment | |
| | In the election of a sir so rare, | |
| | Which you know cannot err: the love I bear him | 200 |
| | Made me to fan you thus, but the gods made you, | |
| | Unlike all others, chaffless. Pray, your pardon. | |
| IMOGEN | All's well, sir: take my power i' the court | |
| | for yours. | |
| IACHIMO | My humble thanks. I had almost forgot | 205 |
| | To entreat your grace but in a small request, | |
| | And yet of moment to, for it concerns | |
| | Your lord; myself and other noble friends, | |
| | Are partners in the business. | |
| IMOGEN | Pray, what is't? | 210 |
| IACHIMO | Some dozen Romans of us and your lord-- | |
| | The best feather of our wing--have mingled sums | |
| | To buy a present for the emperor | |
| | Which I, the factor for the rest, have done | |
| | In France: 'tis plate of rare device, and jewels | 215 |
| | Of rich and exquisite form; their values great; | |
| | And I am something curious, being strange, | |
| | To have them in safe stowage: may it please you | |
| | To take them in protection? | |
| IMOGEN | Willingly; | 220 |
| | And pawn mine honour for their safety: since | |
| | My lord hath interest in them, I will keep them | |
| | In my bedchamber. | |
| IACHIMO | They are in a trunk, | |
| | Attended by my men: I will make bold | 225 |
| | To send them to you, only for this night; | |
| | I must aboard to-morrow. | |
| IMOGEN | O, no, no. | |
| IACHIMO | Yes, I beseech; or I shall short my word | |
| | By lengthening my return. From Gallia | 230 |
| | I cross'd the seas on purpose and on promise | |
| | To see your grace. | |
| IMOGEN | I thank you for your pains: | |
| | But not away to-morrow! | |
| IACHIMO | O, I must, madam: | 235 |
| | Therefore I shall beseech you, if you please | |
| | To greet your lord with writing, do't to-night: | |
| | I have outstood my time; which is material | |
| | To the tender of our present. | |
| IMOGEN | I will write. | 240 |
| | Send your trunk to me; it shall safe be kept, | |
| | And truly yielded you. You're very welcome. | |
| | Exeunt | |
