582 lines
25 KiB
Plaintext
582 lines
25 KiB
Plaintext
CYMBELINE. Stand by my side, you whom the gods have made
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Preservers of my throne. Woe is my heart
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That the poor soldier that so richly fought,
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Whose rags sham'd gilded arms, whose naked breast
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Stepp'd before targes of proof, cannot be found.
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He shall be happy that can find him, if
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Our grace can make him so.
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BELARIUS. I never saw
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Such noble fury in so poor a thing;
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Such precious deeds in one that promis'd nought
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But beggary and poor looks.
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CYMBELINE. No tidings of him?
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PISANIO. He hath been search'd among the dead and living,
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But no trace of him.
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CYMBELINE. To my grief, I am
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The heir of his reward; [To BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS]
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which I will add
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To you, the liver, heart, and brain, of Britain,
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By whom I grant she lives. 'Tis now the time
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To ask of whence you are. Report it.
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BELARIUS. Sir,
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In Cambria are we born, and gentlemen;
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Further to boast were neither true nor modest,
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Unless I add we are honest.
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CYMBELINE. Bow your knees.
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Arise my knights o' th' battle; I create you
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Companions to our person, and will fit you
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With dignities becoming your estates.
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Enter CORNELIUS and LADIES
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There's business in these faces. Why so sadly
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Greet you our victory? You look like Romans,
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And not o' th' court of Britain.
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CORNELIUS. Hail, great King!
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To sour your happiness I must report
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The Queen is dead.
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CYMBELINE. Who worse than a physician
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Would this report become? But I consider
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By med'cine'life may be prolong'd, yet death
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Will seize the doctor too. How ended she?
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CORNELIUS. With horror, madly dying, like her life;
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Which, being cruel to the world, concluded
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Most cruel to herself. What she confess'd
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I will report, so please you; these her women
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Can trip me if I err, who with wet cheeks
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Were present when she finish'd.
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CYMBELINE. Prithee say.
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CORNELIUS. First, she confess'd she never lov'd you; only
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Affected greatness got by you, not you;
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Married your royalty, was wife to your place;
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Abhorr'd your person.
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CYMBELINE. She alone knew this;
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And but she spoke it dying, I would not
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Believe her lips in opening it. Proceed.
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CORNELIUS. Your daughter, whom she bore in hand to love
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With such integrity, she did confess
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Was as a scorpion to her sight; whose life,
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But that her flight prevented it, she had
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Ta'en off by poison.
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CYMBELINE. O most delicate fiend!
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Who is't can read a woman? Is there more?
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CORNELIUS. More, sir, and worse. She did confess she had
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For you a mortal mineral, which, being took,
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Should by the minute feed on life, and ling'ring,
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By inches waste you. In which time she purpos'd,
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By watching, weeping, tendance, kissing, to
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O'ercome you with her show; and in time,
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When she had fitted you with her craft, to work
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Her son into th' adoption of the crown;
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But failing of her end by his strange absence,
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Grew shameless-desperate, open'd, in despite
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Of heaven and men, her purposes, repented
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The evils she hatch'd were not effected; so,
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Despairing, died.
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CYMBELINE. Heard you all this, her women?
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LADY. We did, so please your Highness.
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CYMBELINE. Mine eyes
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Were not in fault, for she was beautiful;
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Mine ears, that heard her flattery; nor my heart
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That thought her like her seeming. It had been vicious
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To have mistrusted her; yet, O my daughter!
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That it was folly in me thou mayst say,
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And prove it in thy feeling. Heaven mend all!
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Enter LUCIUS, IACHIMO, the SOOTHSAYER, and other
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Roman prisoners, guarded; POSTHUMUS behind, and IMOGEN
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Thou com'st not, Caius, now for tribute; that
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The Britons have raz'd out, though with the loss
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Of many a bold one, whose kinsmen have made suit
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That their good souls may be appeas'd with slaughter
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Of you their captives, which ourself have granted;
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So think of your estate.
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LUCIUS. Consider, sir, the chance of war. The day
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Was yours by accident; had it gone with us,
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We should not, when the blood was cool, have threaten'd
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Our prisoners with the sword. But since the gods
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Will have it thus, that nothing but our lives
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May be call'd ransom, let it come. Sufficeth
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A Roman with a Roman's heart can suffer.
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Augustus lives to think on't; and so much
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For my peculiar care. This one thing only
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I will entreat: my boy, a Briton born,
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Let him be ransom'd. Never master had
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A page so kind, so duteous, diligent,
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So tender over his occasions, true,
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So feat, so nurse-like; let his virtue join
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With my request, which I'll make bold your Highness
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Cannot deny; he hath done no Briton harm
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Though he have serv'd a Roman. Save him, sir,
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And spare no blood beside.
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CYMBELINE. I have surely seen him;
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His favour is familiar to me. Boy,
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Thou hast look'd thyself into my grace,
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And art mine own. I know not why, wherefore
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To say 'Live, boy.' Ne'er thank thy master. Live;
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And ask of Cymbeline what boon thou wilt,
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Fitting my bounty and thy state, I'll give it;
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Yea, though thou do demand a prisoner,
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The noblest ta'en.
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IMOGEN. I humbly thank your Highness.
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LUCIUS. I do not bid thee beg my life, good lad,
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And yet I know thou wilt.
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IMOGEN. No, no! Alack,
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There's other work in hand. I see a thing
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Bitter to me as death; your life, good master,
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Must shuffle for itself.
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LUCIUS. The boy disdains me,
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He leaves me, scorns me. Briefly die their joys
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That place them on the truth of girls and boys.
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Why stands he so perplex'd?
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CYMBELINE. What wouldst thou, boy?
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I love thee more and more; think more and more
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What's best to ask. Know'st him thou look'st on? Speak,
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Wilt have him live? Is he thy kin? thy friend?
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IMOGEN. He is a Roman, no more kin to me
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Than I to your Highness; who, being born your vassal,
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Am something nearer.
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CYMBELINE. Wherefore ey'st him so?
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IMOGEN. I'll tell you, sir, in private, if you please
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To give me hearing.
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CYMBELINE. Ay, with all my heart,
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And lend my best attention. What's thy name?
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IMOGEN. Fidele, sir.
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CYMBELINE. Thou'rt my good youth, my page;
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I'll be thy master. Walk with me; speak freely.
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[CYMBELINE and IMOGEN converse apart]
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BELARIUS. Is not this boy reviv'd from death?
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ARVIRAGUS. One sand another
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Not more resembles- that sweet rosy lad
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Who died and was Fidele. What think you?
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GUIDERIUS. The same dead thing alive.
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BELARIUS. Peace, peace! see further. He eyes us not; forbear.
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Creatures may be alike; were't he, I am sure
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He would have spoke to us.
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GUIDERIUS. But we saw him dead.
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BELARIUS. Be silent; let's see further.
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PISANIO. [Aside] It is my mistress.
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Since she is living, let the time run on
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To good or bad. [CYMBELINE and IMOGEN advance]
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CYMBELINE. Come, stand thou by our side;
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Make thy demand aloud. [To IACHIMO] Sir, step you forth;
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Give answer to this boy, and do it freely,
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Or, by our greatness and the grace of it,
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Which is our honour, bitter torture shall
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Winnow the truth from falsehood. On, speak to him.
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IMOGEN. My boon is that this gentleman may render
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Of whom he had this ring.
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POSTHUMUS. [Aside] What's that to him?
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CYMBELINE. That diamond upon your finger, say
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How came it yours?
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IACHIMO. Thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that
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Which to be spoke would torture thee.
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CYMBELINE. How? me?
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IACHIMO. I am glad to be constrain'd to utter that
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Which torments me to conceal. By villainy
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I got this ring; 'twas Leonatus' jewel,
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Whom thou didst banish; and- which more may grieve thee,
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As it doth me- a nobler sir ne'er liv'd
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'Twixt sky and ground. Wilt thou hear more, my lord?
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CYMBELINE. All that belongs to this.
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IACHIMO. That paragon, thy daughter,
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For whom my heart drops blood and my false spirits
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Quail to remember- Give me leave, I faint.
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CYMBELINE. My daughter? What of her? Renew thy strength;
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I had rather thou shouldst live while nature will
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Than die ere I hear more. Strive, man, and speak.
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IACHIMO. Upon a time- unhappy was the clock
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That struck the hour!- was in Rome- accurs'd
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The mansion where!- 'twas at a feast- O, would
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Our viands had been poison'd, or at least
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Those which I heav'd to head!- the good Posthumus-
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What should I say? he was too good to be
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Where ill men were, and was the best of all
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Amongst the rar'st of good ones- sitting sadly
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Hearing us praise our loves of Italy
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For beauty that made barren the swell'd boast
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Of him that best could speak; for feature, laming
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The shrine of Venus or straight-pight Minerva,
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Postures beyond brief nature; for condition,
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A shop of all the qualities that man
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Loves woman for; besides that hook of wiving,
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Fairness which strikes the eye-
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CYMBELINE. I stand on fire.
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Come to the matter.
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IACHIMO. All too soon I shall,
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Unless thou wouldst grieve quickly. This Posthumus,
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Most like a noble lord in love and one
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That had a royal lover, took his hint;
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And not dispraising whom we prais'd- therein
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He was as calm as virtue- he began
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His mistress' picture; which by his tongue being made,
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And then a mind put in't, either our brags
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Were crack'd of kitchen trulls, or his description
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Prov'd us unspeaking sots.
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CYMBELINE. Nay, nay, to th' purpose.
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IACHIMO. Your daughter's chastity- there it begins.
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He spake of her as Dian had hot dreams
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And she alone were cold; whereat I, wretch,
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Made scruple of his praise, and wager'd with him
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Pieces of gold 'gainst this which then he wore
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Upon his honour'd finger, to attain
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In suit the place of's bed, and win this ring
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By hers and mine adultery. He, true knight,
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No lesser of her honour confident
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Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring;
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And would so, had it been a carbuncle
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Of Phoebus' wheel; and might so safely, had it
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Been all the worth of's car. Away to Britain
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Post I in this design. Well may you, sir,
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Remember me at court, where I was taught
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Of your chaste daughter the wide difference
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'Twixt amorous and villainous. Being thus quench'd
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Of hope, not longing, mine Italian brain
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Gan in your duller Britain operate
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Most vilely; for my vantage, excellent;
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And, to be brief, my practice so prevail'd
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That I return'd with simular proof enough
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To make the noble Leonatus mad,
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By wounding his belief in her renown
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With tokens thus and thus; averring notes
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Of chamber-hanging, pictures, this her bracelet-
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O cunning, how I got it!- nay, some marks
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Of secret on her person, that he could not
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But think her bond of chastity quite crack'd,
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I having ta'en the forfeit. Whereupon-
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Methinks I see him now-
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POSTHUMUS. [Coming forward] Ay, so thou dost,
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Italian fiend! Ay me, most credulous fool,
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Egregious murderer, thief, anything
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That's due to all the villains past, in being,
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To come! O, give me cord, or knife, or poison,
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Some upright justicer! Thou, King, send out
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For torturers ingenious. It is I
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That all th' abhorred things o' th' earth amend
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By being worse than they. I am Posthumus,
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That kill'd thy daughter; villain-like, I lie-
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That caus'd a lesser villain than myself,
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A sacrilegious thief, to do't. The temple
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Of virtue was she; yea, and she herself.
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Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set
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The dogs o' th' street to bay me. Every villain
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Be call'd Posthumus Leonatus, and
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Be villainy less than 'twas! O Imogen!
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My queen, my life, my wife! O Imogen,
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Imogen, Imogen!
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IMOGEN. Peace, my lord. Hear, hear!
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POSTHUMUS. Shall's have a play of this? Thou scornful page,
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There lies thy part. [Strikes her. She falls]
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PISANIO. O gentlemen, help!
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Mine and your mistress! O, my lord Posthumus!
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You ne'er kill'd Imogen till now. Help, help!
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Mine honour'd lady!
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CYMBELINE. Does the world go round?
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POSTHUMUS. How comes these staggers on me?
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PISANIO. Wake, my mistress!
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CYMBELINE. If this be so, the gods do mean to strike me
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To death with mortal joy.
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PISANIO. How fares my mistress?
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IMOGEN. O, get thee from my sight;
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Thou gav'st me poison. Dangerous fellow, hence!
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Breathe not where princes are.
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CYMBELINE. The tune of Imogen!
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PISANIO. Lady,
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The gods throw stones of sulphur on me, if
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That box I gave you was not thought by me
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A precious thing! I had it from the Queen.
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CYMBELINE. New matter still?
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IMOGEN. It poison'd me.
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CORNELIUS. O gods!
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I left out one thing which the Queen confess'd,
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Which must approve thee honest. 'If Pisanio
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Have' said she 'given his mistress that confection
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Which I gave him for cordial, she is serv'd
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As I would serve a rat.'
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CYMBELINE. What's this, Cornelius?
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CORNELIUS. The Queen, sir, very oft importun'd me
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To temper poisons for her; still pretending
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The satisfaction of her knowledge only
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In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs,
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Of no esteem. I, dreading that her purpose
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Was of more danger, did compound for her
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A certain stuff, which, being ta'en would cease
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The present pow'r of life, but in short time
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All offices of nature should again
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Do their due functions. Have you ta'en of it?
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IMOGEN. Most like I did, for I was dead.
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BELARIUS. My boys,
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There was our error.
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GUIDERIUS. This is sure Fidele.
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IMOGEN. Why did you throw your wedded lady from you?
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Think that you are upon a rock, and now
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Throw me again. [Embracing him]
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POSTHUMUS. Hang there like fruit, my soul,
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Till the tree die!
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CYMBELINE. How now, my flesh? my child?
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What, mak'st thou me a dullard in this act?
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Wilt thou not speak to me?
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IMOGEN. [Kneeling] Your blessing, sir.
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BELARIUS. [To GUIDERIUS and ARVIRAGUS] Though you did love this
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youth, I blame ye not;
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You had a motive for't.
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CYMBELINE. My tears that fall
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Prove holy water on thee! Imogen,
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Thy mother's dead.
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IMOGEN. I am sorry for't, my lord.
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CYMBELINE. O, she was naught, and long of her it was
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That we meet here so strangely; but her son
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Is gone, we know not how nor where.
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PISANIO. My lord,
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Now fear is from me, I'll speak troth. Lord Cloten,
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Upon my lady's missing, came to me
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With his sword drawn, foam'd at the mouth, and swore,
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If I discover'd not which way she was gone,
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It was my instant death. By accident
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I had a feigned letter of my master's
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Then in my pocket, which directed him
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To seek her on the mountains near to Milford;
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Where, in a frenzy, in my master's garments,
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Which he enforc'd from me, away he posts
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With unchaste purpose, and with oath to violate
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My lady's honour. What became of him
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I further know not.
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GUIDERIUS. Let me end the story:
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I slew him there.
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CYMBELINE. Marry, the gods forfend!
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I would not thy good deeds should from my lips
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Pluck a hard sentence. Prithee, valiant youth,
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Deny't again.
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GUIDERIUS. I have spoke it, and I did it.
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CYMBELINE. He was a prince.
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GUIDERIUS. A most incivil one. The wrongs he did me
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Were nothing prince-like; for he did provoke me
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With language that would make me spurn the sea,
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If it could so roar to me. I cut off's head,
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And am right glad he is not standing here
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To tell this tale of mine.
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CYMBELINE. I am sorry for thee.
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By thine own tongue thou art condemn'd, and must
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Endure our law. Thou'rt dead.
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IMOGEN. That headless man
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I thought had been my lord.
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CYMBELINE. Bind the offender,
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And take him from our presence.
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BELARIUS. Stay, sir King.
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This man is better than the man he slew,
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As well descended as thyself, and hath
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More of thee merited than a band of Clotens
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Had ever scar for. [To the guard] Let his arms alone;
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They were not born for bondage.
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CYMBELINE. Why, old soldier,
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Wilt thou undo the worth thou art unpaid for
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By tasting of our wrath? How of descent
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As good as we?
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ARVIRAGUS. In that he spake too far.
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CYMBELINE. And thou shalt die for't.
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BELARIUS. We will die all three;
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But I will prove that two on's are as good
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As I have given out him. My sons, I must
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For mine own part unfold a dangerous speech,
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Though haply well for you.
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ARVIRAGUS. Your danger's ours.
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GUIDERIUS. And our good his.
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BELARIUS. Have at it then by leave!
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Thou hadst, great King, a subject who
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Was call'd Belarius.
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CYMBELINE. What of him? He is
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A banish'd traitor.
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BELARIUS. He it is that hath
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Assum'd this age; indeed a banish'd man;
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I know not how a traitor.
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CYMBELINE. Take him hence,
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The whole world shall not save him.
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BELARIUS. Not too hot.
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First pay me for the nursing of thy sons,
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And let it be confiscate all, so soon
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As I have receiv'd it.
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CYMBELINE. Nursing of my sons?
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BELARIUS. I am too blunt and saucy: here's my knee.
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Ere I arise I will prefer my sons;
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Then spare not the old father. Mighty sir,
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These two young gentlemen that call me father,
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And think they are my sons, are none of mine;
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They are the issue of your loins, my liege,
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And blood of your begetting.
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CYMBELINE. How? my issue?
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BELARIUS. So sure as you your father's. I, old Morgan,
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Am that Belarius whom you sometime banish'd.
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Your pleasure was my mere offence, my punishment
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Itself, and all my treason; that I suffer'd
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Was all the harm I did. These gentle princes-
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For such and so they are- these twenty years
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Have I train'd up; those arts they have as
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Could put into them. My breeding was, sir, as
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Your Highness knows. Their nurse, Euriphile,
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Whom for the theft I wedded, stole these children
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Upon my banishment; I mov'd her to't,
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Having receiv'd the punishment before
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For that which I did then. Beaten for loyalty
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Excited me to treason. Their dear loss,
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The more of you 'twas felt, the more it shap'd
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Unto my end of stealing them. But, gracious sir,
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Here are your sons again, and I must lose
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Two of the sweet'st companions in the world.
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The benediction of these covering heavens
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Fall on their heads like dew! for they are worthy
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To inlay heaven with stars.
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CYMBELINE. Thou weep'st and speak'st.
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The service that you three have done is more
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Unlike than this thou tell'st. I lost my children.
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If these be they, I know not how to wish
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A pair of worthier sons.
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BELARIUS. Be pleas'd awhile.
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This gentleman, whom I call Polydore,
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Most worthy prince, as yours, is true Guiderius;
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This gentleman, my Cadwal, Arviragus,
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Your younger princely son; he, sir, was lapp'd
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In a most curious mantle, wrought by th' hand
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Of his queen mother, which for more probation
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I can with ease produce.
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CYMBELINE. Guiderius had
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Upon his neck a mole, a sanguine star;
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It was a mark of wonder.
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BELARIUS. This is he,
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Who hath upon him still that natural stamp.
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It was wise nature's end in the donation,
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To be his evidence now.
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CYMBELINE. O, what am I?
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A mother to the birth of three? Ne'er mother
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Rejoic'd deliverance more. Blest pray you be,
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That, after this strange starting from your orbs,
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You may reign in them now! O Imogen,
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Thou hast lost by this a kingdom.
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IMOGEN. No, my lord;
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I have got two worlds by't. O my gentle brothers,
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Have we thus met? O, never say hereafter
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But I am truest speaker! You call'd me brother,
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When I was but your sister: I you brothers,
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When we were so indeed.
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CYMBELINE. Did you e'er meet?
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ARVIRAGUS. Ay, my good lord.
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GUIDERIUS. And at first meeting lov'd,
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Continu'd so until we thought he died.
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CORNELIUS. By the Queen's dram she swallow'd.
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CYMBELINE. O rare instinct!
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When shall I hear all through? This fierce abridgment
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Hath to it circumstantial branches, which
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Distinction should be rich in. Where? how liv'd you?
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And when came you to serve our Roman captive?
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How parted with your brothers? how first met them?
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Why fled you from the court? and whither? These,
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And your three motives to the battle, with
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I know not how much more, should be demanded,
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And all the other by-dependences,
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From chance to chance; but nor the time nor place
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Will serve our long interrogatories. See,
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Posthumus anchors upon Imogen;
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And she, like harmless lightning, throws her eye
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On him, her brothers, me, her master, hitting
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Each object with a joy; the counterchange
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Is severally in all. Let's quit this ground,
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And smoke the temple with our sacrifices.
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[To BELARIUS] Thou art my brother; so we'll hold thee ever.
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IMOGEN. You are my father too, and did relieve me
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To see this gracious season.
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CYMBELINE. All o'erjoy'd
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Save these in bonds. Let them be joyful too,
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For they shall taste our comfort.
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IMOGEN. My good master,
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I will yet do you service.
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LUCIUS. Happy be you!
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CYMBELINE. The forlorn soldier, that so nobly fought,
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He would have well becom'd this place and grac'd
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The thankings of a king.
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POSTHUMUS. I am, sir,
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The soldier that did company these three
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In poor beseeming; 'twas a fitment for
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The purpose I then follow'd. That I was he,
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Speak, Iachimo. I had you down, and might
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Have made you finish.
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IACHIMO. [Kneeling] I am down again;
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But now my heavy conscience sinks my knee,
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As then your force did. Take that life, beseech you,
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Which I so often owe; but your ring first,
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And here the bracelet of the truest princess
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That ever swore her faith.
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POSTHUMUS. Kneel not to me.
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The pow'r that I have on you is to spare you;
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The malice towards you to forgive you. Live,
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And deal with others better.
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CYMBELINE. Nobly doom'd!
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We'll learn our freeness of a son-in-law;
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Pardon's the word to all.
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ARVIRAGUS. You holp us, sir,
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As you did mean indeed to be our brother;
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Joy'd are we that you are.
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POSTHUMUS. Your servant, Princes. Good my lord of Rome,
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Call forth your soothsayer. As I slept, methought
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Great Jupiter, upon his eagle back'd,
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Appear'd to me, with other spritely shows
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Of mine own kindred. When I wak'd, I found
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This label on my bosom; whose containing
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Is so from sense in hardness that I can
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Make no collection of it. Let him show
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His skill in the construction.
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LUCIUS. Philarmonus!
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SOOTHSAYER. Here, my good lord.
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LUCIUS. Read, and declare the meaning.
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SOOTHSAYER. [Reads] 'When as a lion's whelp shall, to himself
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unknown, without seeking find, and be embrac'd by
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a piece of tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall
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be lopp'd branches which, being dead many years, shall
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after revive, be jointed to the old stock, and freshly grow;
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then shall Posthumus end his miseries, Britain be fortunate
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and flourish in peace and plenty.'
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Thou, Leonatus, art the lion's whelp;
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The fit and apt construction of thy name,
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Being Leo-natus, doth import so much.
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[To CYMBELINE] The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daughter,
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Which we call 'mollis aer,' and 'mollis aer'
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We term it 'mulier'; which 'mulier' I divine
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Is this most constant wife, who even now
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Answering the letter of the oracle,
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Unknown to you, unsought, were clipp'd about
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With this most tender air.
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CYMBELINE. This hath some seeming.
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SOOTHSAYER. The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline,
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Personates thee; and thy lopp'd branches point
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Thy two sons forth, who, by Belarius stol'n,
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For many years thought dead, are now reviv'd,
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To the majestic cedar join'd, whose issue
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Promises Britain peace and plenty.
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CYMBELINE. Well,
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My peace we will begin. And, Caius Lucius,
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|
Although the victor, we submit to Caesar
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|
And to the Roman empire, promising
|
|
To pay our wonted tribute, from the which
|
|
We were dissuaded by our wicked queen,
|
|
Whom heavens in justice, both on her and hers,
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|
Have laid most heavy hand.
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SOOTHSAYER. The fingers of the pow'rs above do tune
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The harmony of this peace. The vision
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Which I made known to Lucius ere the stroke
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Of yet this scarce-cold battle, at this instant
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|
Is full accomplish'd; for the Roman eagle,
|
|
From south to west on wing soaring aloft,
|
|
Lessen'd herself and in the beams o' th' sun
|
|
So vanish'd; which foreshow'd our princely eagle,
|
|
Th'imperial Caesar, Caesar, should again unite
|
|
His favour with the radiant Cymbeline,
|
|
Which shines here in the west.
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CYMBELINE. Laud we the gods;
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|
And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils
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|
From our bless'd altars. Publish we this peace
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|
To all our subjects. Set we forward; let
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|
A Roman and a British ensign wave
|
|
Friendly together. So through Lud's Town march;
|
|
And in the temple of great Jupiter
|
|
Our peace we'll ratify; seal it with feasts.
|
|
Set on there! Never was a war did cease,
|
|
Ere bloody hands were wash'd, with such a peace. |