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Cymbeline - Act 1, scene 3
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Cymbeline - Act 1, scene 3Act 1, scene 3
Scene ⌜3⌝
Synopsis:
Posthumus’s servant, Pisanio, describes to the grieving Imogen the departure of Posthumus toward Rome.
Enter Imogen and Pisanio.IMOGEN
0263 I would thou grew’st unto the shores o’ th’ haven
0264 And questionedst every sail. If he should write
0265 And I not have it, ’twere a paper lost
0266 As offered mercy is. What was the last
0267 5 That he spake to thee?
PISANIO 0268 It was his queen, his queen!
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25
IMOGEN 0269 Then waved his handkerchief?
PISANIO 0270 And kissed it, madam.
IMOGEN
0271 Senseless linen, happier therein than I.
0272 10 And that was all?
PISANIO 0273 No, madam. For so long
0274 As he could make me with ⌜this⌝ eye or ear
0275 Distinguish him from others, he did keep
0276 The deck, with glove or hat or handkerchief
0277 15 Still waving, as the fits and stirs of ’s mind
0278 Could best express how slow his soul sailed on,
0279 How swift his ship.
IMOGEN 0280 Thou shouldst have made him
0281 As little as a crow, or less, ere left
0282 20 To after-eye him.
PISANIO 0283 Madam, so I did.
IMOGEN
0284 I would have broke mine eyestrings, cracked them,
0285 but
0286 To look upon him till the diminution
0287 25 Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle;
0288 Nay, followed him till he had melted from
0289 The smallness of a gnat to air; and then
0290 Have turned mine eye and wept. But, good Pisanio,
0291 When shall we hear from him?
PISANIO 0292 30 Be assured, madam,
0293 With his next vantage.
IMOGEN
0294 I did not take my leave of him, but had
0295 Most pretty things to say. Ere I could tell him
0296 How I would think on him at certain hours
0297 35 Such thoughts and such; or I could make him swear
0298 The shes of Italy should not betray
0299 Mine interest and his honor; or have charged him
0300 At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight
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27
0301
T’ encounter me with orisons, for then0302 40 I am in heaven for him; or ere I could
0303 Give him that parting kiss which I had set
0304 Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father,
0305 And like the tyrannous breathing of the north
0306 Shakes all our buds from growing.
Enter a Lady.
LADY 0307 45 The Queen, madam,
0308 Desires your Highness’ company.
IMOGEN, ⌜to Pisanio⌝
0309 Those things I bid you do, get them dispatched.
0310 I will attend the Queen.
PISANIO 0311 Madam, I shall.
They exit.