Pisa. 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, A riding suit; no costlier than would fit A franklin's* housewife. Pisa. 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. SCENE. Wales. A mountainous Country, with a Cave. Enter BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS. Bel. A goodly day not to keep house, with such Whose roof's as low as ours! Stoop, boys: This gate Instructs you how to adore the heavens; and bows you To morning's holy office: The gates of monarchs Gui. * A freeholder. Hail, heaven! Hail, heaven! + Strut, walk proudly. Bel. Now, for our mountain sport: Up to yon hill, Your legs are young; I'll tread these flats. Consider, When you above perceive me like a crow, Have never wing'd from view o'the nest; nor know not What air's from home. Haply, this life is best, That have a sharper known; well corresponding Arv. * Scaly-winged. +i. e. Compared with ours. The freezing hours away? We have seen nothing: Bel. Did you How you speak! but know the city's usuries, The fear's as bad as falling: the toil of the war, I' the name of fame, and honour; which dies i' the search; And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph, As record of fair act; nay, many times, Gui. Uncertain favour! Bel. My fault being nothing (as I have told you oft), But that two villains, whose false oaths prevail'd Before my perfect honour, swore to Cymbeline, I was confederate with the Romans; so, Follow'd my banishment; and, this twenty years, This rock, and these demesnes, have been my world: Where I have liv'd at honest freedom; paid More pious debts to heaven, than in all The fore-end of my time.-But, up to the mountains; This is not hunter's language:-He, that strikes And we will fear no poison, which attends How hard it is, to hide the sparks of nature! These boys know little, they are sons to the king; Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive. They think they are mine: and, though train'd up thus meanly I'the cave, wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit ture That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal (Once Arviragus), in as like a figure, Strikes life into my speech, and shows much more His own conceiving. SLANDER. No, 'tis slander; Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath A WIFE'S INNOCENCY. False to his bed! What is it, to be false? To break it with a fearful dream of him, WOMAN IN MAN'S APPAREL. You must forget to be a woman; change Command into obedience; fear, and niceness, (The handmaids of all women, or, more truly, Woman its pretty self), to a waggish courage; Ready in gibes, quick-answer'd, saucy, and As quarrellous as the weasel: nay, you must Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek, Exposing it (but, O, the harder heart! Alack no remedy!) to the greedy touch Of common-kissing Titan*; and forget Your laboursome and dainty trims, wherein You made great Juno angry. *The sun. |