Cymbeline (10 page)

CLOTEN
    You have abused me:

His meanest garment?

INNOGEN
    Ay, I said so, sir:

If you will make’t an
action
¹⁶⁵
, call witness to’t.

CLOTEN
    I will inform your father.

INNOGEN
    Your mother too:

She’s my good lady, and will
conceive, I hope
¹⁶⁸
,

But the worst of me. So, I leave you, sir,

To th’worst of discontent.

CLOTEN
    I’ll be revenged:

His meanest garment? Well.

POSTHUMUS
    Fear it not, sir: I would I were so sure

To
win
the king as I am
bold
²
her honour

Will remain hers.

PHILARIO
    What
means
⁴
do you make to him?

POSTHUMUS
    Not any: but abide the change of time,

Quake in the present
winter’s state
⁶
and wish

That warmer days would come: in these
seared
⁷
hopes

I barely
gratify
your love;
they failing
⁸
,

I must die much your debtor.

PHILARIO
    Your very goodness and your company

O’erpays all I can do.
By this
¹¹
your king

Hath heard of
¹²
great Augustus: Caius Lucius

Will do’s commission
throughly.
¹³
And I think

He’ll
grant the tribute: send
th’arrearages
¹⁴
,

Or
look upon
our Romans,
whose remembrance
¹⁵

Is
yet
¹⁶
fresh in their grief.

POSTHUMUS
    I do believe —

Statist
¹⁸
though I am none, nor like to be —

That this will
prove
¹⁹
a war; and you shall hear

The legions now in Gallia sooner landed

In our not-fearing Britain than have tidings

Of any penny tribute paid. Our countrymen

Are men
more ordered
²³
than when Julius Caesar

Smiled at their lack of skill, but found their courage

Worthy his
frowning
²⁵
at. Their discipline,

Now mingled with their courages, will make known

To
their approvers
they are people
such
²⁷

That mend upon the world.

PHILARIO
    See Iachimo.

POSTHUMUS
    The swiftest
harts
have
posted
³⁰
you by land,

And winds
of all the corners
³¹
kissed your sails,

To make your vessel nimble.

PHILARIO
    Welcome, sir.

POSTHUMUS
    I hope the briefness of
your answer
made
³⁴

The speediness of your return.

IACHIMO
    Your lady

Is one of the fairest that I have looked upon—

POSTHUMUS
    And
therewithal
³⁸
the best, or let her beauty

Look through a
casement
³⁹
to allure false hearts,

And be false with them.

IACHIMO
    Here are letters for you.

POSTHUMUS
    Their
tenor
⁴²
good, I trust.

IACHIMO
    
’Tis very like.
⁴³

PHILARIO
    Was Caius Lucius in the Britain court

When you were there?

IACHIMO
    He was expected then,

But not
approached.
⁴⁷

POSTHUMUS
    All is well yet.

Sparkles this stone as it was wont
⁴⁹
, or is’t not

Too dull for your good wearing?

IACHIMO
    If I had lost it,

I should have lost the worth of it in gold.

I’ll make a journey twice as far t’enjoy

A second night of such sweet shortness which

Was mine in Britain, for the ring is won.

POSTHUMUS
    The stone’s too hard to come by.

IACHIMO
    
Not a whit
⁵⁷
,

Your lady being so easy.

POSTHUMUS
    Make not, sir,

Your loss your
sport
⁶⁰
: I hope you know that we

Must not continue friends.

IACHIMO
    Good sir, we must

If you
keep covenant.
⁶³
Had I not brought

The
knowledge
⁶⁴
of your mistress home, I grant

We were to
question further
⁶⁵
, but I now

Profess myself the winner of her honour,

Together with your ring, and not the wronger

Of her or you, having proceeded but

By both your
wills.
⁶⁹

POSTHUMUS
    If you can make’t apparent

That you have
tasted
her in bed,
my hand
⁷¹

And ring is yours. If not, the foul opinion

You had of her pure honour
gains or loses
⁷³

Your sword or mine,
or masterless leaves both
⁷⁴

To who shall find them.

IACHIMO
    Sir, my
circumstances
⁷⁶
,

Being so near the truth, as I will make them,

Must first induce you to believe: whose strength

I will confirm with oath, which I doubt not

You’ll give me leave to
spare
⁸⁰
, when you shall find

You need it not.

POSTHUMUS
    Proceed.

IACHIMO
    First, her bedchamber —

Where I confess I slept not, but profess

Had that was well worth
watching
⁸⁵
— it was hanged

With tapestry of silk and
silver
⁸⁶
, the story

Proud Cleopatra when she met her Roman

And
Cydnus
swelled above the banks,
or
⁸⁸
for

The
press
of boats, or
pride.
⁸⁹
A piece of work

So
bravely
⁹⁰
done, so rich, that it did strive

In workmanship and value, which I wondered

Could be so
rarely
⁹²
and exactly wrought,

Since the true life on’t was—

POSTHUMUS
    This is true:

And this you might have heard of here, by me,

Or by some other.

IACHIMO
    More particulars

Must justify my knowledge.

POSTHUMUS
    So they must,

Or do your honour injury.

IACHIMO
    The chimney

Is south the chamber, and the
chimney-piece
¹⁰²

Chaste Dian bathing
¹⁰³
: never saw I figures

So likely to
report themselves
; the
cutter
¹⁰⁴

Was as another nature dumb,
outwent her
¹⁰⁵
,

Motion and breath left out.
¹⁰⁶

POSTHUMUS
    This is a thing

Which you might from
relation likewise reap
¹⁰⁸
,

Being, as it is, much spoke of.

IACHIMO
    The roof o’th’chamber

With golden cherubins is
fretted.
Her
andirons
¹¹¹
—

I had forgot them — were two
winking
Cupids
¹¹²

Of silver, each on one foot standing,
nicely
¹¹³

Depending on their brands.
¹¹⁴

POSTHUMUS
    This is her honour!

Let it be granted you have seen all this — and praise

Be given to your
remembrance
¹¹⁷
— the description

Of what is in her chamber
nothing saves
¹¹⁸

The wager you have laid.

IACHIMO
    Then if you can

Be pale, I beg but
leave
to
air
¹²¹
this jewel: see,

And now ’tis
up
¹²²
again: it must be married

To that your diamond, I’ll keep them.

POSTHUMUS
    Jove!

Once more let me behold it: is it that

Which I left with her?

IACHIMO
    Sir — I thank her — that.

She stripped it from her arm:
I see her yet
¹²⁸
:

Her pretty action did
outsell
¹²⁹
her gift,

And yet enriched it too: she gave it me, and said

She
prized
it
once.
¹³¹

POSTHUMUS
    Maybe she plucked it off

To send it me.

IACHIMO
    She writes so to you, doth she?

POSTHUMUS
    O no, no, no, ’tis true. Here, take this too,

It is a
basilisk
¹³⁶
unto mine eye,

Kills me to look on’t. Let there be no honour

Where there is beauty: truth, where
semblance
¹³⁸
: love,

Where there’s another man. The vows of women

Of no more
bondage
¹⁴⁰
be to where they are made

Than they are to their virtues, which is nothing.

O, above measure false!

PHILARIO
    Have patience, sir,

And take your ring again, ’tis not yet won:

It may be
probable
¹⁴⁵
she lost it: or

Who knows if one of her women, being
corrupted
¹⁴⁶
,

Hath stol’n it from her?

POSTHUMUS
    Very true,

And
so
I hope he came by’t.
Back
¹⁴⁹
my ring,

Render to me some
corporal sign
¹⁵⁰
about her

More
evident
¹⁵¹
than this: for this was stol’n.

IACHIMO
    By Jupiter, I had it from her arm.

POSTHUMUS
    Hark you, he swears: by Jupiter he swears.

’Tis true, nay, keep the ring, ’tis true: I am sure

She would not lose it: her attendants are

All
sworn
¹⁵⁶
and honourable: they induced to steal it?

And by a stranger? No, he hath
enjoyed her
¹⁵⁷
:

The
cognizance
of her
incontinency
¹⁵⁸

Is this:
she hath bought the name of whore thus dearly.
¹⁵⁹

There, take thy
hire
¹⁶⁰
, and all the fiends of hell

Divide themselves between
you!
¹⁶¹

PHILARIO
    Sir, be patient:

This is not strong enough to be believed

Of one
persuaded
¹⁶⁴
well of.

POSTHUMUS
    Never talk on’t:

She hath been
colted
¹⁶⁶
by him.

IACHIMO
    If you seek

For further satisfying, under her breast —

Worthy the pressing — lies a mole, right proud

Of that most delicate lodging. By my life,

I kissed it, and it gave me
present
¹⁷¹
hunger

To feed again, though full. You do remember

This
stain
¹⁷³
upon her?

POSTHUMUS
    Ay, and it doth confirm

Another stain, as big as hell can hold,

Were there no more but it.

IACHIMO
    Will you hear more?

POSTHUMUS
    Spare your arithmetic, never count the
turns
¹⁷⁸
:

Once, and a million!
¹⁷⁹

IACHIMO
    I’ll be sworn.

POSTHUMUS
    No swearing.

If you will swear you have not done’t, you lie,

And I will kill thee if thou dost deny

Thou’st
made me
cuckold.
¹⁸⁴

IACHIMO
    I’ll deny nothing.

POSTHUMUS
    O, that I had her here, to tear her
limb-meal!
¹⁸⁶

I will go there and do’t, i’th’court, before

Her father. I’ll do something.