Iach.

She writes so to you, doth she?

Post. O, no, no, no! 'tis true. Here, take this too;

It is a basilisk 8 unto mine eye,

Kills me to look on't.

[Gives the ring.

Let there be no honour

Where there is beauty; truth, where semblance; love,
Where there's another man: the vows of women

Of no more bondage 9 be, to where they're made,
Than they are to their virtues; which is nothing.
O, above measure false !

Phi.

Have patience, sir,

And take your ring again; 'tis not yet won:

It may be probable she lost it; or

Who knows if one o' her women, being corrupted,
Hath stol'n it from her?

And so, I hope, he came by't. — Back my ring :
Render to me some corporal sign about her,

More evident than this; for this was stol'n.

Iach. By Jupiter, I had it from her arm.

Post. Hark you, he swears; by Jupiter he swears. 'Tis true,nay, keep the ring, 'tis true.

She would not lose it: her attendants are

All sworn

I'm sure

10 and honourable. They induced to steal it? And by a stranger? No! he hath enjoy'd her : The cognizance of her incontinency

Is this: 11 she hath bought the name of whore thus dearly.

8 The basilisk was an imaginary reptile strange powers, to which the

Poet has many allusions. See vol. ix. page 154, note 15.

9 Bondage for binding force or efficacy. An dd use of the word.

10 It was anciently the custom for the servants of great families (as it is now for the servants of the King) to take an oath of fidelity on their entrance into office.

11 This fact of Iachimo's having the bracelet is the token or acknowledg ment of her incontinency.

There, take thy hire; and all the fiends of Hell
Divide themselves between you!

Phi.

Sir, be patient :

This is not strong enough to be believed

Of one persuaded well of

Post.

She hath been colted by him.

Iach.

Never talk on't;

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 kiss'd it; and it gave me present hunger
To feed again, though full. You do remember
This stain upon her?

Post.

Ay; and it doth confirm Another stain, as big as Hell can hold,

Were there no more but it.

Iach.

Will you

hear more?

Post. Spare your arithmetic: never count the turns; Once, and a million!

Iach.

Post.

I'll be sworn

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.

Iach.

I'll deny nothing.

Post. O, that I had her here, to tear her limb-meal!

I will go there and do't; i' the Court; before

Her father. I'll do something

Phi.

The government of patience! You have won :
Let's follow him, and pervert 12 the present wrath

[Exit.

12 Avert. To pervert a thing means properly to turn or wrest it utterly

He hath against himself.

Iach.

With all my heart.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. The Same. Another Room in PHILARIO'S House.

Enter POSTHUMUS.

Post. Is there no way for men to be, but women

Must be half-workers? We are bastards all;
And that most venerable man which I

Did call my father was I know not where
When I was stamp'd; some coiner with his tools
Made me a counterfeit : yet my mother seem'd
The Dian of that time; so doth my wife
The nonpareil of this. O, vengeance, vengeance!
Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain'd,

And pray'd me oft forbearance; did it with
A pudency so rosy, the sweet view on't

Might well have warm'd old Saturn; that I thought her
As chaste as unsunn'd snow. O, all the devils!

This yellow Iachimo, in an hour, was't not?

Or less, at first; - perchance he spoke not, but,
Like a full-acorn'd boar, a German one,

Cried O and mounted; found no opposition
But what he look'd for should oppose, and she
Should from encounter guard. Could I find out
The woman's part in me! For there's no motion
That tends to vice in man, but I affirm

It is the woman's part: be't lying, note it,

The woman's; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers;
Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers ;
Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,

away from its appointed end or purpose; the per having merely an intensive force.

Nice longing, slanders, mutability,

All faults that may be named, nay, that Hell knows,
Why, hers, in part or all; but rather, all :

For even to vice

They are not constant, but are changing still
One vice, but of a minute old, for one

Not half so old as that. I'll write against them,
Detest them, curse them: yet 'tis greater skill
In a true hate, to pray they have their will;
very devils cannot plague them better.

The

[Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I.-Britain. A Room of State in CYMBELINE's Palace.
Enter, from one side, CYMBELINE, the Queen, CLOTEN, and
Lords; from the other, CAIUS LUCIUS and Attendants.

Cym. Now say, what would Augustus Caesar with us?
Luc. When Julius Cæsar · whose remembrance yet
Lives in men's eyes, and will to ears and tongues
Be theme and hearing ever- was in this Britain
And conquer'd it, Cassibelan, thine uncle,
Famous in Cæsar's praises, no whit less

Than in his feats deserving it, - for him

And his succession granted Rome a tribute,

Yearly three thousand pounds; which by thee lately
Is left untender'd.

Queen.

Shall be so ever.

Clo.

And, to kill the marvel,

There be many Cæsars,

Ere such another Julius. Britain is

A world by itself; and we will nothing pay

For wearing our own noses.

Queen.

That opportunity,

Which then they had to take from's, to resume
We have again. Remember, sir, my liege,
The Kings your ancestors; together with
The natural bravery of your isle, which stands
As Neptune's park, ribbed and palèd in 1
With rocks unscaleable and roaring waters;

With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats,

But suck them up to th' topmast. A kind of conquest
Cæsar made here; but made not here his brag

Of Came, and saw, and overcame with shame

:

The first that ever touch'd him — he was carried

From off our coast, twice beaten; and his shipping —
Poor ignorant baubles ! on our terrible seas,
Like egg-shells moved upon their surges, crack'd
As easily 'gainst our rocks: for joy whereof
The famed Cassibelan, who was once at point
O giglot 2 Fortune ! - to master Cæsar's sword,
Made Lud's-town with rejoicing fires bright,
And Britons strut with courage.

Clo. Come, there's no more tribute to be paid: our kingdom is stronger than it was at that time; and, as I said, there is no more such Cæsars: other of them may have crooked noses; but to owe such straight arms, none.3

Cym. Son, let your mother end.

Clo. We have yet many among us can gripe as hard as Cassibelan: I do not say I am one; but I have a hand. Why tribute? why should we pay tribute? If Cæsar can

1 Ribbed is enclosed or fenced-in, as paled is surrounded with palings. 2 Giglot, adjective, is false, or inconstant. The word was also used substantively, in a similar sense. See vol. vi. page 235, note 30.

8 The pith and shrewdness of this ungeared and loose-screwed genius here go right to the mark, although they go off out of time. Of course, to owe means to own, as usual.