SCENE II.
A Bed-chamber; in one Part of it a Trunk.
Imogen reading in her Bed; a Lady attending.
Imo.
Who's there? my woman Helen?
Lady.
Please you, madam.
Imo.
What hour is it?
Lady.
Almost midnight, madam.
Imo.
I have read three hours then: mine eyes are weak:
Fold down the leaf where I have left: To bed:
Take not away the taper, leave it burning;
And if thou canst awake by four o' the clock,
I pr'ythee, call me. Sleep hath seiz'd me wholly.
[Exit Lady.
To your protection I commend me, gods!
From fairies, and the tempters of the night6 note
,
Guard me, beseech ye!
[Sleeps. Iachimo, from the Trunk.
-- 63 --
Iach.
The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense
Repairs itself by rest: Our Tarquin7 note thus
Did softly press the rushes8 note
, ere he waken'd
The chastity he wounded.—Cytherea,
How bravely thou becom'st thy bed! fresh lily9 note
!
-- 64 --
And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch!
But kiss; one kiss!—Rubies unparagon'd,
How dearly they do't!—'Tis her breathing that
Perfumes the chamber thus1 note
: The flame o' the taper
Bows toward her; and would under-peep her lids,
To see the enclosed lights, now canopied2 note
Under these windows3 note
: White and azure, lac'd
With blue of heaven's own tinct4 note
.—But my design.
-- 65 --
To note the chamber, I will write all down:—
Such, and such, pictures:—There the window:—Such
The adornment of her bed;—The arras, figures,
Why, such, and such5 note
:—And the contents o' the story,—
-- 66 --
Ah, but some natural notes about her body,
Above ten thousand meaner moveables
Would testify, to enrich mine inventory:
O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her!
And be her sense but as a monument,
Thus in a chapel lying6 note
!—Come off, come off;—
[Taking off her Bracelet.
As slippery, as the Gordian knot was hard!—
'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly,
As strongly as the conscience does within,
To the madding of her lord. On her left breast
A mole cinque-spotted7 note
, like the crimson drops
-- 67 --
I' the bottom of a cowslip8 note
: Here's a voucher,
Stronger than ever law could make: this secret
Will force him think I have pick'd the lock, and ta'en
The treasure of her honour. No more.—To what end?
Why should I write this down, that's rivetted,
Screw'd to my memory? She hath been reading late
The tale of Tereus9 note
; here the leaf's turn'd down,
Where Philomel gave up;—I have enough:
To the trunk again, and shut the spring of it.
Swift, swift, you dragons of the night1 note
!—that dawning
May bare the raven's eye2 note
: I lodge in fear;
-- 68 --
Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here.
[Clock strikes.
One, two, three3 note,—Time, time!
[Goes into the Trunk. The Scene closes.
James Boswell [1821], The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators: comprehending A Life of the Poet, and an enlarged history of the stage, by the late Edmond Malone. With a new glossarial index (J. Deighton and Sons, Cambridge) [word count] [S10201].
