SCENE II.
Another Room in the same.
Enter Pisanio.
Pis.
How! of adultery? Wherefore write you not
What monster's her accuser? note—Leonatus!
O, master! what a strange infection
Is faln into thy ear? What false Italian
(As pois'nous tongu'd, as handed) hath prevail'd
On thy too ready hearing?—Disloyal? No:
She's punish'd for her truth; and undergoes,
More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults
As would take-in some virtue.—O my master,
Thy mind to her is now as low, as were
Thy fortunes.—How! that I should murther her?
Upon the love, and truth, and vows, which I
Have made to thy command? I, her? her blood?
If it be so to do good service, never
-- 51 --
Let me be counted serviceable. How look I,
That I should seem to lack humanity,
So much as this fact comes to? Do't: The letter
That I have sent her, by her own command,
Shall give thee opportunity:—O damn'd paper,
Black as the ink that's on thee! Senseless bauble,
Art thou a feodary for this act, and look'st
So virgin-like without?—Lo, here she comes:
Enter Imogen.
I am ignorant in what I am commanded.
Imo.
How now, Pisanio?
Pis.
Madam, here &dagger2; is a letter from my lord.
Imo.
Who? thy lord? that is my lord? Leonatus?
O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer,
That knew the stars, as I his characters;
He'd lay the future open.—You good gods,14Q1269
Let what is here contain'd relish of love,
Of my lord's health, of his content,—yet not
That we two are asunder, let that grieve him,—
(Some griefs are med'cinable; that is one of them,
For it doth physick love) of his content,
All but in that!—Good wax, thy leave:—Blest be note,
You bees, that make these locks of counsel! Lovers,
And men in dangerous bonds, pray not alike;
Though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet
You clasp young Cupid's tables.—Good news, gods!
[reads.
Justice, and your father's wrath, should he take me in
his dominion, could not be so cruel to me, as you, o the
dearest of creatures, would not even renew me with your
eyes. Take notice that I am in Cambria, at Milford-Haven:
What your own love will, out of this, advise
-- 52 --
you, follow. So, he wishes you all happiness, that remains
loyal to his vow, and your encreasing in love
Leonatus Posthumus.
O, for a horse with wings!—Hear'st thou, Pisanio?
He is at Milford-Haven: Read, and tell me
How far 'tis thither.—If one of mean affairs
May plod it in a week, why may not I
Glide thither in a day?—Then, true Pisanio,14Q1270
(Who long'st, like me, to see thy lord: who long'st,—
O, let me bate,—but not like me: yet long'st;
But in a fainter kind: o, not like me;
For mine's beyond, beyond,) say, and speak thick,
(Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing,
To the smothering of the sense) how far it is
To this same blessed Milford: And, by the way,
Tell me how Wales was made so happy, as
To inherit such a haven: But, first of all,
How we may steal from hence; and, for the gap
That we shall make in time, from our hence-going
To our note return, to excuse: but, first, how get hence:
Why should excuse be born or e'er begot?
We'll talk of that hereafter. Pr'ythee, speak,
How many score of note miles may we well ride
'Twixt hour and hour?
Pis.
One score, 'twixt sun and sun,
Madam, 's enough for you; and too much too.
Imo.
Why, one that rode to his execution, man,
Could never go so slow: I have heard of riding wagers,
Where horses have been nimbler than the sands
That run i'the clock's behalf:—But this is foolery:—
Go, bid my woman feign a sickness; say
She'll home to her father: and provide me, presently,
-- 53 --
A riding suit; no costlier than would fit
A franklin's housewife.
Pis.
Madam, you're best consider.
Imo.
I see before me, man: nor here, nor here,
Nor what ensues; but have a fog in them,
That I cannot look through. Away, I pr'ythee;
Do as I bid thee: There's no more to say;
Accessible is none but Milford way.
[Exeunt.
Edward Capell [1767], Mr William Shakespeare his comedies, histories, and tragedies, set out by himself in quarto, or by the Players his Fellows in folio, and now faithfully republish'd from those Editions in ten Volumes octavo; with an introduction: Whereunto will be added, in some other Volumes, notes, critical and explanatory, and a Body of Various Readings entire (Printed by Dryden Leach, for J. and R. Tonson [etc.], London) [word count] [S10601].
