SCENE III. A room in Cymbeline's palace. Cymbeline  Shakespeare homepage  |  Cymbeline  | Act 1, Scene 3 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE III. A room in Cymbeline's palace. 

 Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO  IMOGEN  I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' the haven, 

 And question'dst every sail: if he should write 

 And not have it, 'twere a paper lost, 

 As offer'd mercy is. What was the last 

 That he spake to thee? 

 PISANIO  It was his queen, his queen! 

 IMOGEN  Then waved his handkerchief? 

 PISANIO  And kiss'd it, madam. 

 IMOGEN  Senseless Linen! happier therein than I! 

 And that was all? 

 PISANIO  No, madam; for so long 

 As he could make me with this eye or ear 

 Distinguish him from others, he did keep 

 The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief, 

 Still waving, as the fits and stirs of 's mind 

 Could best express how slow his soul sail'd on, 

 How swift his ship. 

 IMOGEN  Thou shouldst have made him 

 As little as a crow, or less, ere left 

 To after-eye him. 

 PISANIO  Madam, so I did. 

 IMOGEN  I would have broke mine eye-strings; crack'd them, but 

 To look upon him, till the diminution 

 Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle, 

 Nay, follow'd him, till he had melted from 

 The smallness of a gnat to air, and then 

 Have turn'd mine eye and wept. But, good Pisanio, 

 When shall we hear from him? 

 PISANIO  Be assured, madam, 

 With his next vantage. 

 IMOGEN  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 honour, or have charged him, 

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

 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. 



 Enter a Lady  Lady  The queen, madam, 

 Desires your highness' company. 

 IMOGEN  Those things I bid you do, get them dispatch'd. 

 I will attend the queen. 

 PISANIO  Madam, I shall. 



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