Cymbeline (13 page)

I draw the sword myself: take it, and hit

The innocent
mansion
⁶⁹
of my love, my heart.

Fear not, ’tis empty of all things but grief:

Thy master is not there, who was indeed

The riches of it. Do his bidding, strike.

Thou mayst be valiant in a better cause,

But now thou seem’st a coward.

PISANIO
    Hence,
vile instrument
⁷⁵
,

Thou shalt not damn my hand!

INNOGEN
    Why, I must die:

And if I do not by thy hand, thou art

No servant of thy master’s. Against
self-slaughter
⁷⁹

There is a prohibition so divine

That
cravens
⁸¹
my weak hand. Come, here’s my heart:

Something’s
afore’t
:
soft
, soft,
we’ll no defence
⁸²
,

Obedient as the scabbard.
⁸³
What is here?

The
scriptures of the loyal Leonatus
⁸⁴
,

All turned to heresy? Away, away,

Corrupters of my
faith
⁸⁶
, you shall no more

Be
stomachers
⁸⁷
to my heart! Thus may poor fools

Believe false teachers: though those that are betrayed

Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor

Stands in worse case of woe.
⁹⁰
And thou, Posthumus,

That didst
set up
⁹¹
my disobedience gainst the king

My father, and make me put into contempt the
suits
⁹²

Of
princely
⁹³
fellows, shalt hereafter find

It is no act of common passage, but
⁹⁴

A strain of rareness: and I grieve myself

To think, when thou shalt be
disedged
⁹⁶
by her

That now thou
tirest
⁹⁷
on, how thy memory

Will then be
panged
by me.
Prithee
dispatch
⁹⁸
,

The lamb entreats the butcher. Where’s thy knife?

Thou art too slow to do thy master’s bidding

When I desire it too.

PISANIO
    O gracious lady:

Since I received command to do this business

I have not slept one wink.

INNOGEN
    Do’t, and to bed then.

PISANIO
    I’ll
wake mine eyeballs out first.
¹⁰⁶

INNOGEN
    Wherefore then

Didst undertake it? Why hast thou
abused
¹⁰⁸

So many miles with a pretence? This place?

Mine action and thine own? Our horses’ labour?

The time
inviting thee?
¹¹¹
The perturbed court

For my being absent,
whereunto
¹¹²
I never

Purpose
¹¹³
return? Why hast thou gone so far

To
be unbent
when thou hast ta’en thy
stand
¹¹⁴
,

Th’elected
¹¹⁵
deer before thee?

PISANIO
    But to win time

To lose so bad employment, in the which

I have considered of a
course
¹¹⁸
: good lady,

Hear me with patience.

INNOGEN
    Talk thy tongue weary, speak:

I have heard I am a
strumpet
¹²¹
, and mine ear,

Therein false struck
, can
take
¹²²
no greater wound,

Nor
tent
to
bottom
¹²³
that. But speak.

PISANIO
    Then, madam,

I thought you would not
back
¹²⁵
again.

INNOGEN
    
Most like
¹²⁶
,

Bringing me here to kill me.

PISANIO
    Not so, neither:

But if I were as wise as honest, then

My
purpose would prove
¹³⁰
well: it cannot be

But that my master is
abused.
¹³¹
Some villain,

Ay, and
singular
¹³²
in his art, hath done you both

This cursèd injury.

INNOGEN
    Some Roman
courtesan.
¹³⁴

PISANIO
    No, on my life:

I’ll give but notice you are dead, and send him

Some bloody sign of it, for ’tis commanded

I should do so: you shall be missed at court,

And that will well confirm it.

INNOGEN
    Why, good fellow,

What shall I do the while? Where
bide?
¹⁴¹
How live?

Or in my life what comfort, when I am

Dead to my husband?

PISANIO
    If you’ll back to th’court—

INNOGEN
    No court, no father, nor no more ado

With that harsh, noble, simple nothing,

That Cloten, whose love-suit hath been to me

As fearful as a siege.

PISANIO
    If not at court,

Then not in Britain must you bide.

INNOGEN
    Where then?

Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day? Night?

Are they
not but
in Britain?
I’th’world’s volume
¹⁵³

Our Britain seems as of it, but not in’t:

In a great pool a
swan’s nest.
¹⁵⁵
Prithee, think

There’s
livers
¹⁵⁶
out of Britain.

PISANIO
    I am most glad

You think of other place: th’ambassador,

Lucius the Roman, comes to Milford Haven

Tomorrow. Now, if you could
wear a mind
¹⁶⁰

Dark as your fortune is, and but disguise

That
¹⁶²
which, t’appear itself, must not yet be

But by
self-danger
¹⁶³
, you should tread a course

Pretty and full of
view
: yea,
haply
¹⁶⁴
, near

The residence of Posthumus; so
nigh
¹⁶⁵
, at least,

That though his actions were not visible, yet

Report should
render
¹⁶⁷
him hourly to your ear

As truly as he moves.

INNOGEN
    O, for such means,

Though peril to my
modesty
, not
death on’t
¹⁷⁰
,

I would
adventure.
¹⁷¹

PISANIO
    Well then, here’s the point:

You must forget to be a woman: change

Command into obedience
, fear and
niceness
¹⁷⁴
—

The
handmaids
¹⁷⁵
of all women, or more truly

Woman
it
pretty self — into a
waggish
¹⁷⁶
courage,

Ready in gibes
,
quick-answered
¹⁷⁷
, saucy and

As
quarrellous
¹⁷⁸
as the weasel: nay, you must

Forget
that
rarest treasure of your cheek
¹⁷⁹
,

Exposing it — but O, the harder heart!

Alack, no remedy — to the greedy touch

Of
common-kissing Titan
¹⁸²
, and forget

Your
laboursome and dainty trims
¹⁸³
, wherein

You made great
Juno
¹⁸⁴
angry.

INNOGEN
    Nay, be brief.

I see into thy
end
¹⁸⁶
, and am almost

A man already.

PISANIO
    First, make yourself but like one.

Forethinking
this, I have already
fit
¹⁸⁹
—

’Tis in my cloak-bag —
doublet
, hat,
hose
¹⁹⁰
, all

That
answer to
them: would you
in their serving
¹⁹¹
,

And with what imitation you can borrow

From youth of such a
season
¹⁹³
, ’fore noble Lucius

Present yourself, desire
his service
¹⁹⁴
: tell him

Wherein you’re happy
— which will
make him know
¹⁹⁵
,

If that his head have ear in music
¹⁹⁶
— doubtless

With joy he will embrace you, for he’s honourable,

And, doubling that, most holy. Your
means abroad
¹⁹⁸
:

You have me rich, and I will never fail

Beginning nor supplyment.
²⁰⁰

INNOGEN
    Thou art all the comfort

The gods will
diet
²⁰²
me with. Prithee away,

There’s more to be considered: but we’ll
even
²⁰³

All that good time will give us. This attempt

I am
soldier to
, and will
abide
²⁰⁵
it with

A prince’s courage. Away, I prithee.

PISANIO
    Well, madam, we must take a
short
²⁰⁷
farewell,

Lest being missed, I be suspected of

Your carriage
²⁰⁹
from the court. My noble mistress,

Here is a box, I had it from the queen,

What’s in’t is precious: if you are sick at sea,

Or stomach-qualmed at land, a dram of this

Will drive away
distemper.
To some
shade
²¹³
,

And
fit you
²¹⁴
to your manhood: may the gods

Direct you to the best.

INNOGEN
    Amen: I thank thee.

CYMBELINE
    
Thus far
¹
, and so farewell.

LUCIUS
    Thanks, royal sir:

My emperor hath wrote, I must from hence,

And am right sorry that I must report ye

My master’s enemy.

CYMBELINE
    Our subjects, sir,

Will not endure his yoke; and for
ourself
⁷

To show less sovereignty than they,
must needs
⁸

Appear unkinglike.

LUCIUS
    
So
¹⁰
, sir: I desire of you

A
conduct
¹¹
over land, to Milford Haven.

Madam, all joy
befall
¹²
your grace, and you.

CYMBELINE
    My lords, you are appointed for that
office
¹³
:

The due of
honour
in no
point
¹⁴
omit.

So farewell, noble Lucius.

LUCIUS
    Your hand, my lord.

CLOTEN
    Receive it friendly: but from this time forth

I wear it as your enemy.

LUCIUS
    Sir, the
event
¹⁹

Is yet to name the winner. Fare you well.

CYMBELINE
    Leave not the worthy Lucius, good my lords,

Till he have crossed the
Severn.
²²
Happiness.

QUEEN
    He goes hence frowning: but
it honours us
²³

That we have given him
cause.
²⁴

CLOTEN
    ’Tis all the better,

Your valiant Britons have their wishes in it.

CYMBELINE
    Lucius hath wrote already to the emperor

How it goes here. It
fits us
therefore
ripely
²⁸

Our chariots and our horsemen be in readiness:

The powers that he already hath in Gallia

Will soon be
drawn to head
³¹
, from whence he moves

His war for Britain.

QUEEN
    ’Tis not sleepy business,

But must be looked to speedily and strongly.

CYMBELINE
    Our expectation that it would be thus

Hath made us
forward.
³⁶
But, my gentle queen,

Where is our daughter? She hath not appeared

Before the Roman, nor to us hath tendered

The
duty of the day.
She
looks us
³⁹
like

A thing more made of malice than of duty,

We have noted it. Call her before us, for

We have been too
slight in sufferance.
⁴²

QUEEN
    Royal sir,

Since the exile of Posthumus, most
retired
⁴⁴

Hath her life been: the cure whereof, my lord,

’Tis time must do. Beseech your majesty,

Forbear
⁴⁷
sharp speeches to her. She’s a lady

So
tender of
⁴⁸
rebukes that words are strokes,

And strokes death to her.