Enter Queen, Ladies, and Cornelius. QUEEN
Whiles yet the dew’s on ground, gather those flowers.
Make haste. Who has the note of them? LADY I, madam. QUEEN Dispatch. Ladies exit.
Now, Master Doctor, have you brought those drugs? 5 CORNELIUS
Pleaseth your Highness, ay. Here they are, madam.
He hands her a small box.
But I beseech your Grace, without offense—
My conscience bids me ask—wherefore you have
Commanded of me these most poisonous
compounds, 10
Which are the movers of a languishing death,
But though slow, deadly. QUEEN I wonder, doctor,
Thou ask’st me such a question. Have I not been
Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learned me how 15
To make perfumes, distil, preserve—yea, so
That our great king himself doth woo me oft
For my confections? Having thus far proceeded,
Unless thou think’st me devilish, is ’t not meet
That I did amplify my judgment in 20
Other conclusions? I will try the forces
Of these thy compounds on such creatures as
We count not worth the hanging—but none human—
To try the vigor of them and apply
Allayments to their act, and by them gather 25
Their several virtues and effects. | The Queen shoos her ladies away so she can talk one-on-one with Dr. Cornelius. She's asked him to make a secret potion that will kill anyone who drinks it. Dun-dun-dun. She just wants it for scientific purposes, of course. |
CORNELIUS Your Highness
Shall from this practice but make hard your heart.
Besides, the seeing these effects will be
Both noisome and infectious. 30 QUEEN O, content thee. Enter Pisanio. Aside. Here comes a flattering rascal. Upon him
Will I first work. He’s for his master
And enemy to my son.—How now, Pisanio?—
Doctor, your service for this time is ended. 35
Take your own way. CORNELIUS, aside I do suspect you, madam,
But you shall do no harm. QUEEN, to Pisanio Hark thee, a word. CORNELIUS, aside
I do not like her. She doth think she has 40
Strange ling’ring poisons. I do know her spirit,
And will not trust one of her malice with
A drug of such damned nature. Those she has
Will stupefy and dull the sense awhile,
Which first perchance she’ll prove on cats and dogs, 45
Then afterward up higher. But there is
No danger in what show of death it makes,
More than the locking-up the spirits a time,
To be more fresh, reviving. She is fooled
With a most false effect, and I the truer 50
So to be false with her. QUEEN No further service, doctor,
Until I send for thee. CORNELIUS I humbly take my leave. He exits. | Cornelius is no fool. He doesn't trust the Queen to use the poison on animals like she claims. So, he's actually given her something that will make it look like someone is dead. Then, if the Queen gives it to someone, that person can be revived from a deep sleep. After Cornelius tells us this secret, he leaves. |
QUEEN
Weeps she still, sayst thou? Dost thou think in time 55
She will not quench and let instructions enter
Where folly now possesses? Do thou work.
When thou shalt bring me word she loves my son,
I’ll tell thee on the instant thou art then
As great as is thy master; greater, for 60
His fortunes all lie speechless, and his name
Is at last gasp. Return he cannot, nor
Continue where he is. To shift his being
Is to exchange one misery with another,
And every day that comes comes to decay 65
A day’s work in him. What shalt thou expect,
To be depender on a thing that leans,
Who cannot be new built, nor has no friends
So much as but to prop him? (She drops the box and Pisanio picks it up.) Thou tak’st up 70
Thou know’st not what. But take it for thy labor.
It is a thing I made which hath the King
Five times redeemed from death. I do not know
What is more cordial. Nay, I prithee, take it.
It is an earnest of a farther good 75
That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how
The case stands with her. Do ’t as from thyself.
Think what a chance thou changest on, but think
Thou hast thy mistress still; to boot, my son,
Who shall take notice of thee. I’ll move the King 80
To any shape of thy preferment such
As thou ’lt desire; and then myself, I chiefly,
That set thee on to this desert, am bound
To load thy merit richly. Call my women.
Think on my words. 85 Pisanio exits. A sly and constant knave,
Not to be shaked; the agent for his master
And the remembrancer of her to hold
The handfast to her lord. I have given him that
Which, if he take, shall quite unpeople her 90
Of liegers for her sweet, and which she after,
Except she bend her humor, shall be assured
To taste of too. Enter Pisanio and Ladies carrying flowers. To the Ladies. So, so. Well done, well done.
The violets, cowslips, and the primroses 95
Bear to my closet.—Fare thee well, Pisanio.
Think on my words. Queen and Ladies exit. | It turns out Cornelius's instincts were right, because just after he leaves, the Queen gives the potion to Pisanio. She tells him that it's an energy drink. After all, it's saved Cymbeline's life five times already. Why does the Queen want Pisanio dead? That's simple: he's always praising Posthumus to Imogen. He's all, "Posthumus can do this, and Posthumus can do that. Look how amazing Posthumus is." The Queen figures that if Pisanio's out of the picture, Imogen will forget all about Posthumus. Then Imogen might actually give the Queen's son Cloten a chance. Logic does not appear to be the Queen's strong point. As if giving Pisanio a poisonous drink weren't enough, the Queen also asks him to talk Cloten up to Imogen. |