OTHE

SCENE II.

A bed-chamber; in one part of it a trunk.

IMOGEN reading in her bed; a LADY attending. Imo. Who's there? my woman Helen?

Lady.

Imo. What hour is it?

Lady.

Please you, madam.

Almost midnight, madam.

Imo. I have read three hours then: mine eyes

are weak.

Fold down the leaf where I have left: to bed:
Take not away the taper; leave it burning;
And if thou canst awake by four o' the clock,
I pr'ythee, call me. Sleep hath seised me wholly.

[Exit Lady.

To your protection I commend me, gods!
From fairies, and the tempters of the night,
Guard me, beseech ye!

IACHIMO, from the trunk.

[sleeps.

Ia. The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labor'd

sense

Repairs itself by rest. Our Tarquin thus
Did softly press the rushes,1 ere he waken'd
The chastity he wounded.-Cytherea,

How bravely thou becomest thy bed! fresh lily!

It was anciently the custom to strew chambers with rushes.

And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch! But kiss; one kiss!-Rubies unparagon'd,

How dearly they do 't!-'Tis her breathing that
Perfumes the chamber thus: the flame o' the taper
Bows toward her, and would underpeep her lids,
To see the enclosed lights, now canopied

Under these windows; white and azure, laced
With blue of heaven's own tinct.1-But my design!
To note the chamber; I will write all down :
Such and such pictures;-there the window;

such

The adornment of her bed ;—the arras, figures,
Why, such, and such:- -and the contents o' the

story :

Ah, but some natural notes about her body,
Above ten thousand meaner moveables,
Would testify, to enrich mine inventory.
O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her,
And be her sense but as a monument,
Thus in a chapel lying!-Come off, come off;-
[taking off her bracelet.
As slippery, as the Gordian knot was hard!—
'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly,
As strongly as the conscience does within,
To the madding of her lord. On her left breast,
A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I' the bottom of a cowslip. Here's a voucher,
Stronger than ever law could make this secret

:

1 i. e. the white skin laced with blue veins.

Will force him think I have pick'd the lock, and

ta'en

The treasure of her honor. No more.-To what

end?

Why should I write this down, that's riveted, Screw'd to my memory? She hath been reading

late

The tale of Tereus; here the leaf 's turn'd down,
Where Philomel gave up :-
:—I have enough:

To the trunk again, and shut the spring of it.
Swift, swift, you dragons of the night! that dawn-

ing

May bare the raven's eye: I lodge in fear;

Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here.

[clock strikes.

One, two, three !-time, time!

[goes into the trunk.

The scene closes.

SCENE III.

An antechamber adjoining Imogen's apartment.

Enter CLOTEN and LORDS.

1 Lord. Your lordship is the most patient man in loss; the most coldest that ever turned up ace.

Clo. It would make any man cold to lose.

1 Lord. But not every man patient after the noble temper of your lordship. You are most hot and furious when you win.

Clo. Winning would put any man into courage.