With his next vantage.

Imo. I did not take my leave of him, but had Most pretty things to say: ere I could tell him How I would think on him at certain hours, Such thoughts and such; or I could make him

swear

The shes of Italy should not betray

Mine interest and his honor; or have charged him,

30

At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at mid

night,

To encounter me with orisons, for then

I am in heaven for him; or ere I could
Give him that parting kiss which I had set
Betwixt two charming words, comes in my
father,

And, like the tyrannous breathing of the north,
Shakes all our buds from growing.

Lady.

Enter a Lady.

The queen, madam,

Desires your highness' company.

Imo. Those things I bid you do, get them dis

Pis.

patch'd.

I will attend the queen.

Madam, I shall. [Exeunt. 40

SCENE IV

Rome. Philario's house.

Enter Philario, Iachimo, a Frenchman, a Dutchman, and a Spaniard.

Iach. Believe it, sir, I have seen him in Britain: he was then of a crescent note; expected to prove so worthy as since he hath been allowed the name of: but I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration, though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his side and I to peruse him by items.

Phi. You speak of him when he was less furnished than now he is with that which makes 10 him both without and within.

French. I have seen him in France: we had very many there could behold the sun with as firm eyes as he.

Iach. This matter of marrying his king's
daughter, wherein he must be weighed
rather by her value than his own, words
him, I doubt not, a great deal from the
matter.

French. And then his banishment.
Iach. Aye, and the approbation of those that
weep this lamentable divorce under her

17. "words him

20

from the matter"; that is, makes the description of him very distant from the truth.-H. N. H.

colors are wonderfully to extend him; be
it but to fortify her judgment, which else
an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a
beggar without less quality. But how
comes it he is to sojourn with you? how
creeps acquaintance?

Phi. His father and I were soldiers together; to
whom I have been often bound for no less 30
than my life. Here comes the Briton: let
him be so entertained amongst you as suits,
with gentlemen of your knowing, to a
stranger of his quality.

Enter Posthumus.

I beseech you all, be better known to this
gentleman; whom I commend to you as a
noble friend of mine: how worthy he is I
will leave to appear hereafter, rather than
story him in his own hearing.

French. Sir, we have known together in Or- 40 leans.

Post. Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies, which I will be ever to pay and yet pay still.

French. Sir, you o'er-rate my poor kindness: I was glad I did atone my countryman and you; it had been pity you should have been

23. "are wonderfully to"; Warburton conj. "aids wonderfully to"; Capell conj. "are wonderful to"; Eccles, "and wonderfully do."I. G.

28. "How creeps acquaintance?"; how have you stolen into acquaintance? Creeps hints at the stealthy process implied in the unexpected result.-C. H. H.

50

put together with so mortal a purpose as then each bore, upon importance of so slight and trivial a nature. Post. By your pardon, sir, I was then a young traveler; rather shunned to go even with what I heard than in my every action to be guided by other's experiences: but upon my mended judgment-if I offend not to say it is mended-my quarrel was not altogether slight. French. Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrement of swords, and by such two that would, by all likelihood, have confounded one the 60 other, or have fallen both.

Iach. Can we with manners ask what was the difference?

French. Safely, I think: 'twas a contention in public, which may without contradiction suffer the report. It was much like an argument that fell out last night, where each of us fell in praise of our country mistresses; this gentleman at that time vouching and upon warrant of bloody af- 70 firmation-his to be more fair, virtuous, wise, chaste, constant-qualified and less attemptable than any the rarest of our ladies in France.

52. "shunned to go even with what I heard"; rather studied to avoid conducting himself by the opinions of others, than to be guided by their experience.-H. N. H.

63. “difference"; ground of quarrel.-C. H. H.

68. "our country mistresses"; the ladies of our nation.-C. H. H.

Iach. That lady is not now living, or this tleman's opinion, by this, worn out.

gen

Post. She holds her virtue still and I my mind.
Iach. You must not so far prefer her 'fore ours

of Italy.

Post. Being so far provoked as I was in 80 France, I would abate her nothing, though

I profess myself her adorer, not her friend. Iach. As fair and as good-a kind of hand-inhand comparison-had been something too fair and too good for any lady in Britany. If she went before others I have seen, as that diamond of yours outlusters many I have beheld, I could not but believe she excelled many: but I have not seen the most precious diamond that is, nor you the lady.

Post. I praised her as I rated her: so do I my

stone.

Iach. What do you esteem it at?

Post. More than the world enjoys.

Iach. Either your unparagoned mistress is dead, or she's outprized by a trifle.

90

Post. You are mistaken: the one may be sold or given, if there were wealth enough for the purchase or merit for the gift: the other is not a thing for sale, and only the gift of the 100 gods.

Iach. Which the gods have given you?

Post. Which, by their graces, I will keep.

83. "hand-in-hand"; balanced.-C. H. H.

88. "could not but"; Malone's emendation of Ff., "could not.”— I. G.