Cymbeline, King of Britain: Act 2, Scene 4 Translation

Enter Posthumus and Philario.

POSTHUMUS
Fear it not, sir. I would I were so sure
To win the King as I am bold her honor
Will remain hers.

PHILARIO What means do you make to him?

POSTHUMUS
Not any, but abide the change of time, 5
Quake in the present winter’s state, and wish
That warmer days would come. In these feared
hopes
I barely gratify your love; they failing,
I must die much your debtor. 10

PHILARIO
Your very goodness and your company
O’erpays all I can do. By this, your king
Hath heard of great Augustus. Caius Lucius
Will do ’s commission throughly. And I think
He’ll grant the tribute, send th’ arrearages, 15
Or look upon our Romans, whose remembrance
Is yet fresh in their grief.

POSTHUMUS I do believe,
Statist though I am none nor like to be,
That this will prove a war; and you shall hear 20
The legion now in Gallia sooner landed
In our not-fearing Britain than have tidings
Of any penny tribute paid. Our countrymen
Are men more ordered than when Julius Caesar
Smiled at their lack of skill but found their courage 25
Worthy his frowning at. Their discipline,
Now wingèd with their courages, will make known
To their approvers they are people such
That mend upon the world.

Enter Iachimo.

PHILARIO See, Iachimo! 30

POSTHUMUS
The swiftest harts have posted you by land,
And winds of all the corners kissed your sails
To make your vessel nimble.

PHILARIO Welcome, sir.

POSTHUMUS
I hope the briefness of your answer made 35
The speediness of your return.

IACHIMO Your lady
Is one of the fairest that I have looked upon.

POSTHUMUS
And therewithal the best, or let her beauty
Look thorough a casement to allure false hearts 40
And be false with them.

IACHIMO, handing him a paper Here are letters for you.

POSTHUMUS
Their tenor good, I trust.

IACHIMO ’Tis very like.
Posthumus reads the letter.

PHILARIO
Was Caius Lucius in the Briton court 45
When you were there?

IACHIMO
He was expected then, but not approached.

POSTHUMUS All is well yet.
Sparkles this stone as it was wont, or is ’t not
Too dull for your good wearing? 50
He indicates his ring.

IACHIMO If I have lost it,
I should have lost the worth of it in gold.
I’ll make a journey twice as far t’ enjoy
A second night of such sweet shortness which
Was mine in Britain, for the ring is won. 55

POSTHUMUS
The stone’s too hard to come by.

IACHIMO Not a whit,
Your lady being so easy.

POSTHUMUS Make not, sir,
Your loss your sport. I hope you know that we 60
Must not continue friends.

IACHIMO Good sir, we must,
If you keep covenant. Had I not brought
The knowledge of your mistress home, I grant
We were to question farther; but I now 65
Profess myself the winner of her honor,
Together with your ring, and not the wronger
Of her or you, having proceeded but
By both your wills.

POSTHUMUS If you can make ’t apparent 70
That you have tasted her in bed, my hand
And ring is yours. If not, the foul opinion
You had of her pure honor gains or loses
Your sword or mine, or masterless leave both
To who shall find them. 75

IACHIMO Sir, my circumstances,
Being so near the truth as I will make them,
Must first induce you to believe; whose strength
I will confirm with oath, which I doubt not
You’ll give me leave to spare when you shall find 80
You need it not.

POSTHUMUS Proceed.

IACHIMO First, her bedchamber—
Where I confess I slept not, but profess
Had that was well worth watching—it was hanged 85
With tapestry of silk and silver, the story
Proud Cleopatra when she met her Roman
And Cydnus swelled above the banks, or for
The press of boats or pride. A piece of work
So bravely done, so rich, that it did strive 90
In workmanship and value, which I wondered
Could be so rarely and exactly wrought
Since the true life on ’t was—

POSTHUMUS This is true,
And this you might have heard of here, by me 95
Or by some other.

IACHIMO More particulars
Must justify my knowledge.

POSTHUMUS So they must,
Or do your honor injury. 100

IACHIMO The chimney
Is south the chamber, and the chimney-piece
Chaste Dian bathing. Never saw I figures
So likely to report themselves; the cutter
Was as another Nature, dumb, outwent her, 105
Motion and breath left out.

POSTHUMUS This is a thing
Which you might from relation likewise reap,
Being, as it is, much spoke of.

IACHIMO The roof o’ th’ chamber 110
With golden cherubins is fretted. Her andirons—
I had forgot them—were two winking Cupids
Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely
Depending on their brands.

POSTHUMUS This is her honor? 115
Let it be granted you have seen all this—and praise
Be given to your remembrance—the description
Of what is in her chamber nothing saves
The wager you have laid.

IACHIMO Then if you can 120
Be pale, I beg but leave to air this jewel. See—
He shows the bracelet.
And now ’tis up again. It must be married
To that your diamond. I’ll keep them.

POSTHUMUS Jove!
Once more let me behold it. Is it that 125
Which I left with her?

IACHIMO Sir, I thank her, that.
She stripped it from her arm. I see her yet.
Her pretty action did outsell her gift
And yet enriched it too. She gave it me 130
And said she prized it once.

POSTHUMUS Maybe she plucked it off
To send it me.

IACHIMO She writes so to you, doth she?

POSTHUMUS
O, no, no, no, ’tis true. Here, take this too. 135
He gives Iachimo the ring.It is a basilisk unto mine eye,
Kills me to look on ’t. Let there be no honor
Where there is beauty, truth where semblance, love
Where there’s another man. The vows of women
Of no more bondage be to where they are made 140
Than they are to their virtues, which is nothing.
O, above measure false!

PHILARIO Have patience, sir,
And take your ring again. ’Tis not yet won.
It may be probable she lost it; or 145
Who knows if one her women, being corrupted,
Hath stol’n it from her.

POSTHUMUS Very true,
And so I hope he came by ’t.—Back, my ring!
He takes back the ring.
Render to me some corporal sign about her 150
More evident than this, for this was stol’n.

IACHIMO
By Jupiter, I had it from her arm.

POSTHUMUS
Hark you, he swears! By Jupiter he swears.
’Tis true—nay, keep the ring—’tis true.
He holds out the ring.
I am sure 155
She would not lose it. Her attendants are
All sworn and honorable. They induced to steal it?
And by a stranger? No, he hath enjoyed her.
The cognizance of her incontinency
Is this. She hath bought the name of whore thus 160
dearly.
There, take thy hire, and all the fiends of hell
Divide themselves between you!
He gives the ring to Iachimo.

PHILARIO Sir, be patient.
This is not strong enough to be believed 165
Of one persuaded well of.

POSTHUMUS Never talk on ’t.
She hath been colted by him.

IACHIMO If you seek
For further satisfying, under her breast, 170
Worthy the pressing, lies a mole, right proud
Of that most delicate lodging. By my life,
I kissed it, and it gave me present hunger
To feed again, though full. You do remember
This stain upon her? 175

POSTHUMUS Ay, and it doth confirm
Another stain as big as hell can hold,
Were there no more but it.

IACHIMO Will you hear more?

POSTHUMUS Spare your arithmetic; 180
Never count the turns. Once, and a million!

IACHIMO I’ll be sworn—

POSTHUMUS No swearing.
If you will swear you have not done ’t, you lie,
And I will kill thee if thou dost deny 185
Thou ’st made me cuckold.

IACHIMO I’ll deny nothing.

POSTHUMUS
O, that I had her here, to tear her limb-meal!
I will go there and do ’t i’ th’ court, before
Her father. I’ll do something. He exits. 190

PHILARIO Quite beside
The government of patience. You have won.
Let’s follow him and pervert the present wrath
He hath against himself.

IACHIMO With all my heart. 195
They exit.

Scene 5

Enter Posthumus.

POSTHUMUS
Is there no way for men to be, but women
Must be half-workers? We are all bastards,
And that most venerable man which I
Did call my father was I know not where
When I was stamped. Some coiner with his tools 5
Made me a counterfeit; yet my mother seemed
The Dian of that time; so doth my wife
The nonpareil of this. O, vengeance, vengeance!
Me of my lawful pleasure she restrained
And prayed me oft forbearance; did it with 10
A pudency so rosy the sweet view on ’t
Might well have warmed old Saturn, that I thought
her
As chaste as unsunned snow. O, all the devils!
This yellow Iachimo in an hour, was ’t not? 15
Or less? At first? Perchance he spoke not, but,
Like a full-acorned boar, a German one,
Cried “O!” and mounted; found no opposition
But what he looked for should oppose and she
Should from encounter guard. Could I find out 20
The woman’s part in me—for there’s no motion
That tends to vice in man but I affirm
It is the woman’s part: be it lying, note it,
The woman’s; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers;
Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers; 25
Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,
Nice longing, slanders, mutability,
All faults that have a name, nay, that hell knows,
Why, hers, in part or all, but rather all.
For even to vice 30
They are not constant, but are changing still
One vice but of a minute old for one
Not half so old as that. I’ll write against them,
Detest them, curse them. Yet ’tis greater skill
In a true hate to pray they have their will; 35
The very devils cannot plague them better.
He exits.