: Deliver with more openness your answers I was about to say, enjoy your- -But Imo. Since doubting things go ill, often hurts more Iach. That's fed with stinking tallow; it were fit, Imo. Has forgot Britain. Tach. My lord, I fear, And himself. Not I, Inclin'd to this intelligence, pronounce The beggary of his change; but 'tis your graces 9 It seems probable that knowing is here an error of the press for known. 10 The information which you seem to press forward and yet withhold. The allusion is to horsemanship. So in Sidney's Arcadia:-'She was like a horse desirous to runne, and miserably spurred, but so short-reined, as he cannot stirre forward.' Hard with falsehood is hard by being often griped with frequent change of hands. That, from my mutest conscience, to my tongue, Imo. Let me hear no more. Iach. O dearest soul! your cause doth strike my heart With pity, that doth make me sick. A lady Would make the great'st king double! to be partner'd That play with all infirmities for gold Which rottenness can lend nature! such boil'd stuff14 9 As well might poison poison! Be reveng'd; Imo. Reveng❜d! (As I have such a heart, that both mine ears Iach. Should he make me Live like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets; In your despite, upon your purse? Revenge it. 12 Empery is a word signifying sovereign command, now obsolete. Shakspeare uses it in King Richard III. : Your right of birth, your empery your own. 13 We still call a forward or rude hoyden a tomboy. But our ancestors seem to have used the term for a wanton. 'What humourous tomboys be these? The only gallant Messalinas of our age." So in W. Warren's Nurcerie of Names, 1581 :- Gross strumpets, hired with the very pension which you allow your husband? 14 This allusion has been already explained. See Timon of Athens, Act ii. Sc. 2, p. 35. And will continue fast to your affection, Imo. What ho, Pisanio! Iach. Let me my service tender on your lips. From thy report, as thon from honour; and Thee and the devil alike.-What ho, Pisanio!— Country call'd his! and you his mistress, only 15 Romish for Roman was the phraseology of Shakspeare's age. Thus in Claudius Tiberius Nero. 1607: In the loathsome Romish stewes. Drant, in his translation of the first epistle of the second book of Horace, 1561, has The Romishe people wise in this, in this point only just.' And in other places we have the Romish cirque,' &. 46 --he did in the general bosom reign Of young and old, and sexes both enchanted- Imo. You make amends. Iach. He sits 'mongst men, like a descended god17: He hath a kind of honour sets him off, More than a mortal seeming. Be not angry, Most mighty princess, that I have adventur'd To try your taking of a false report; which hath Honour'd with confirmation your great judgment In the election of a sir so rare, Which you know, cannot err: The love I bear him Made me to fan you thus; but the gods made you, Unlike all others, chaffless, Pray your pardon. Imo. All's well, sir: Take my power i' the court for yours. Iach. My humble thanks. I had almost forgot To entreat your grace but in a small request, And yet of moment too, for it concerns Your lord; myself, and other noble friends, Imo. Pray, what is't? Iach. Some dozen Romans of us, and your lord (The best feather of our wing18), have mingled sums, To buy a present for the emperor; Which I, the factor for the rest, have done In France: "l'is plate, of rare device; and jewels, Imo. Willingly; And pawn mine honour for their safety: since 1 So in Chapman's version of the twenty-third book of the Odyssey: A god descended from the starry sphere. And in Hamlet: 18 a station like the herald Mercury You are so great you would faine march in fielde, Churchyard's Warning to Wanderers, 1593. 19 See note 6, p. 30 ante. My lord hath interest in them, I will keep them In my bed-chamber. Iach. They are in a trunk, To send them to you, only for this night; Imo. O, no, no. Iach. Yes, I beseech; or I shall short my word, By length'ning my return. From Gallia 1 cross'd the seas on purpose, and on promise To see your grace. Imo. I thank you for your pains; But not away to-morrow? Imo. ACT II. SCENE I. Court before Cymbeline's Palace. Enter CLOTEN, and Two Lords. Clo. Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the jack upon an upcast1, to be hit away! I had a hundred pound on't: And then a whoreson To He is describing his fate at bowls. The jack is the small bowl at which the others are aimed: he who is nearest to it wins. kiss the jack' is a state of great advantage. The expression is of frequent occurrence in the old comedies. The jack is also called the mistress. |