Cymbeline (7 page)

QUEEN
    
Whiles yet the dew’s on ground
¹
, gather those flowers.

Make haste. Who has the
note
²
of them?

LADY
    I, madam.

QUEEN
    
Dispatch.
⁴

Now, master doctor, have you brought those drugs?

CORNELIUS
    Pleaseth your highness, ay: here they are, madam:

But I beseech your grace,
without offence
⁷
—

My conscience bids me ask —
wherefore
⁸
you have

Commanded of me these most poisonous
compounds
⁹
,

Which
are the movers of
a
languishing
¹⁰
death:

But though slow, deadly?
¹¹

QUEEN
    I wonder, doctor,

Thou ask’st me such a question: have I not been

Thy pupil long? Hast thou not
learned
¹⁴
me how

To make perfumes?
Distil? Preserve?
Yea so
¹⁵
,

That our great king himself doth woo me oft

For my
confections?
¹⁷
Having thus far proceeded —

Unless thou think’st me devilish — is’t not
meet
¹⁸

That I did
amplify my judgement in
¹⁹

Other conclusions? I will
try
the
forces
²⁰

Of these thy compounds on such creatures as

We count not worth the hanging, but none human,

To try the
vigour
²³
of them, and apply

Allayments
to their
act
²⁴
, and by them gather

Their
several
²⁵
virtues and effects.

CORNELIUS
    Your highness

Shall from this practice but make hard your heart:

Besides, the seeing these effects will be

Both
noisome and infectious.
²⁹

QUEEN
    O,
content thee.
³⁰
—

Here comes a flattering rascal, upon him

Will I first work: he’s for his master,

And enemy to my son.— How now, Pisanio?—

Doctor, your service for this time is ended,

Take your own way.

CORNELIUS
    I do suspect you, madam,

But you shall do no harm.

QUEEN
    Hark thee, a word.

CORNELIUS
    I do not like her. She doth think she has

Strange
ling’ring poisons
⁴⁰
: I do know her spirit,

And will not trust one of her malice with

A drug of such damned nature. Those she has

Will stupefy and dull the sense awhile,

Which first, perchance, she’ll
prove
⁴⁴
on cats and dogs,

Then afterward up
higher
⁴⁵
: but there is

No danger in what
show
⁴⁶
of death it makes,

More than the
locking-up the spirits a time
⁴⁷
,

To be more fresh,
reviving.
⁴⁸
She is fooled

With a most false effect: and I the truer

So to be false with her.

QUEEN
    No further service, doctor,

Until I send for thee.

CORNELIUS
    I humbly take my leave.

QUEEN
    Weeps she still, say’st thou? Dost thou think in time

She will not
quench
, and let
instructions
⁵⁵
enter

Where folly now possesses?
Do thou work
⁵⁶
:

When thou shalt bring me word she loves my son,

I’ll tell thee on the instant thou art then

As great as is thy master: greater, for

His
fortunes all lie speechless, and his name
⁶⁰

Is at last gasp. Return he cannot, nor

Continue where he is: to
shift his being
⁶²

Is to exchange one misery with another,

And
every day that comes comes to decay
⁶⁴

A day’s work in him. What shalt thou expect

To be
depender
on a thing that
leans?
⁶⁶

Who cannot be new built, nor has no friends

So much as but to prop him?

Thou takest up

Thou know’st not what: but take it for thy labour,

It is a thing I made, which hath the king

Five times redeemed from death. I do not know

What is more cordial.
⁷³
Nay, I prithee, take it,

It is an
earnest
⁷⁴
of a farther good

That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how

The case stands with her: do’t,
as from thyself
⁷⁶
;

Think what a chance thou changest on
⁷⁷
, but think

Thou hast thy mistress still
,
to boot
⁷⁸
, my son,

Who shall
take notice of thee.
I’ll move the king
⁷⁹

To any shape of thy preferment, such

As thou’lt desire: and then myself, I chiefly,

That
set thee on to this desert
⁸²
, am bound

To
load
⁸³
thy merit richly. Call my women.

Think on my words.—

                       A sly and
constant
⁸⁴
knave,

Not to be
shaked
⁸⁵
: the agent for his master,

And the
remembrancer
⁸⁶
of her to hold

The
handfast
⁸⁷
to her lord. I have given him that,

Which if he take, shall quite
unpeople her
⁸⁸

Of
liegers
⁸⁹
for her sweet: and which she after,

Except she bend her humour
⁹⁰
, shall be assured

To taste of too.—

                       So, so: well done, well done:

The violets, cowslips and the primroses

Bear to my
closet.
⁹³
— Fare thee well, Pisanio.

Think on my words.

PISANIO
    And shall do:

But when to my good lord I prove untrue,

I’ll choke myself: there’s all I’ll do for you.

INNOGEN
    A father cruel and a
stepdame
¹
false,

A foolish suitor to a wedded lady,

That hath her
husband banished
³
: O, that husband,

My supreme crown of grief, and those repeated

Vexations of it! Had I been
thief-stol’n
⁵
,

As my two brothers, happy: but most miserable

Is the desire that’s
glorious.
⁷
Blest be those,

How
mean
soe’er, that have their honest
wills
⁸
,

Which
seasons
comfort. Who may this be?
Fie!
⁹

PISANIO
    Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome,

Comes from my lord with letters.

IACHIMO
    
Change you
¹²
, madam:

The worthy Leonatus is in safety

And greets your highness dearly.

INNOGEN
    Thanks good sir,

You’re kindly welcome.

IACHIMO
    All of her that is
out of door
¹⁷
most rich!

If she be
furnished
with a mind so
rare
¹⁸
,

She is alone
th’Arabian bird
¹⁹
, and I

Have lost the wager.
Boldness
²¹
be my friend:

Arm me audacity
²¹
from head to foot,

Or like the
Parthian I shall flying fight
²²
,

Rather, directly fly.
²³

INNOGEN
    
Reads
‘He is one of the noblest
note
²⁴
, to whose

kindnesses I am most infinitely tied.
Reflect
²⁵
upon him

accordingly,
as you value your trust.
²⁶
Leonatus.’

So far
²⁷
I read aloud.

But even the very middle of my heart

Is warmed by th’rest, and takes it thankfully.

You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I

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
³⁵
and the rich crop

Of sea and land,
which
³⁶
can distinguish ’twixt

The
fiery orbs
above and the
twinned
³⁷
stones

Upon
th’unnumbered
³⁸
beach, and can we not

Partition
make with
spectacles so precious
³⁹

’Twixt fair and foul?

INNOGEN
    What
makes your admiration?
⁴¹

IACHIMO
    It cannot be i’th’eye: for apes and monkeys,

’Twixt two such
shes
, would
chatter this way
⁴³
and

Contemn
with
mows
⁴⁴
the other. Nor i’th’judgement:

For
idiots in this case of favour would
⁴⁵

Be wisely definite. Nor i’th’
appetite
⁴⁶
:

Sluttery
, to such
neat
⁴⁷
excellence opposed,

Should make desire
vomit emptiness
⁴⁸
,

Not so
allured
to
feed.
⁴⁹

INNOGEN
    What is the matter,
trow?
⁵⁰

IACHIMO
    The
cloyèd
will
⁵¹
,

That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub

Both filled and
running
,
ravening
⁵³
first the lamb,

Longs after for the
garbage.
⁵⁴

INNOGEN
    What, dear sir,

Thus
raps
⁵⁶
you? Are you well?

To Pisanio

IACHIMO
    Thanks, madam, well.— Beseech you, sir,

Desire my man’s abode
⁵⁸
where I did leave him:

He’s
strange
and
peevish.
⁵⁹

PISANIO
    I was going, sir,

To give him welcome.

INNOGEN
    Continues well my lord? His health, beseech you?

IACHIMO
    Well, madam.

INNOGEN
    Is he disposed to mirth? I hope he is.

IACHIMO
    Exceeding pleasant: none a stranger there

So merry and so
gamesome
⁶⁶
: he is called

The Briton reveller.

INNOGEN
    When he was here

He did incline to
sadness
⁶⁹
, and oft-times

Not knowing why.

IACHIMO
    I never saw him sad.

There is a Frenchman his companion,
one
⁷²

An eminent monsieur, that it seems much loves

A
Gallian
girl at home. He
furnaces
⁷⁴

The thick sighs from him, whiles the jolly Briton —

Your lord, I mean — laughs
from’s free lungs
⁷⁶
: cries ‘O,

Can my sides hold, to think that man, who knows

By history, report or his own
proof
⁷⁸
,

What woman is, yea, what she cannot choose

But must be, will’s free hours languish

For assurèd bondage?’

INNOGEN
    Will my lord say so?

IACHIMO
    Ay, madam, with his eyes in flood with laughter:

It is a recreation to be by

And hear him mock the Frenchman. But, heavens know,

Some men are much to blame.

INNOGEN
    Not he, I hope.

IACHIMO
    Not he:
but yet heaven’s bounty towards him might
⁸⁸

Be used more thankfully. In himself
’tis
⁸⁹
much;

In you, which I
account
his, beyond all
talents.
⁹⁰

Whilst I am bound to wonder, I am bound

To pity too.

INNOGEN
    What do you pity, sir?

IACHIMO
    Two creatures heartily.

INNOGEN
    Am I one, sir?

You look on me: what wreck discern you in me

Deserves your pity?

IACHIMO
    Lamentable! What,

To
hide me
⁹⁹
from the radiant sun, and solace

I’th’dungeon by a
snuff?
¹⁰⁰

INNOGEN
    I pray you, sir,

Deliver with more openness your answers

To my demands. Why do you pity me?

IACHIMO
    That others do —

I was about to say,
enjoy
¹⁰⁵
your — but

It is an
office
of the gods to
venge
¹⁰⁶
it,

Not mine to speak on’t.

INNOGEN
    You do seem to know

Something of me, or what concerns me; pray you,

Since
doubting things go ill
¹¹⁰
often hurts more

Than to be sure they do — for certainties

Either are past remedies, or,
timely knowing
¹¹²
,

The remedy then
born
—
discover to me
¹¹³

What both you spur and stop.

IACHIMO
    
Had I
¹¹⁵
this cheek

To bathe my lips upon: this hand, whose touch,

Whose every touch, would force the
feeler’s
¹¹⁷
soul

To th’oath of loyalty:
this object
¹¹⁸
, which

Takes prisoner the wild motion
¹¹⁹
of mine eye,

Firing
¹²⁰
it only here: should I, damned then,

Slaver
with lips as
common as the stairs
¹²¹

That mount the
Capitol
¹²²
: join grips with hands

Made hard with hourly falsehood —
falsehood, as
¹²³

With labour — then
by-peeping
¹²⁴
in an eye

Base and
illustrous
¹²⁵
as the smoky light

That’s
fed with
stinking
tallow
: it were
fit
¹²⁶

That all the plagues of hell should at one time

Encounter such revolt.
¹²⁸

INNOGEN
    My lord, I fear,

Has forgot Britain.

IACHIMO
    And himself.
Not I
¹³¹

Inclined to this intelligence pronounce

The beggary of his change: but ’tis your graces

That from my mutest conscience to my tongue

Charms this report out.

INNOGEN
    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 fastened to an
empery
¹³⁹

Would make the great’st king double
, to be
partnered
¹⁴⁰

With
tomboys
hired with that
self-exhibition
¹⁴¹

Which your own coffers yield: with diseased
ventures
¹⁴²

That
play
with all
infirmities
¹⁴³
for gold

Which rottenness can lend nature: such
boiled stuff
¹⁴⁴

As well might poison poison. Be revenged,

Or she that bore you was no queen, and you

Recoil from your great stock.
¹⁴⁷

INNOGEN
    Revenged?

How should I be revenged? If this be true —

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
¹⁵⁴
sheets,

Whiles he is
vaulting
variable
ramps
¹⁵⁵
,

In your despite
,
upon your purse
¹⁵⁶
— revenge it.

I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure,

More noble than that
runagate
¹⁵⁸
to your bed,

And will continue
fast
¹⁵⁹
to your affection,

Still close as sure.