Act I · Scene V
Britain. A room in Cymbeline's palace.
Hover a speech to translate it — or press play to hear it performed.
Enter QUEEN, Ladies, and CORNELIUS
QUEEN
Whiles yet the dew's on ground, gather those flowers;Make haste: who has the note of them?
First Lady
I, madam.
QUEEN
Dispatch.
Exeunt Ladies
QUEEN
Now, master doctor, have you brought those drugs?
CORNELIUS
Pleaseth your highness, ay: here they are, madam:
Presenting a small box
CORNELIUS
But I beseech your grace, without offence,--My conscience bids me ask--wherefore you haveCommanded of me those most poisonous compounds,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 beenThy pupil long? Hast thou not learn'd me howTo make perfumes? distil? preserve? yea, soThat our great king himself doth woo me oftFor my confections? Having thus far proceeded,--Unless thou think'st me devilish--is't not meetThat I did amplify my judgment inOther conclusions? I will try the forcesOf these thy compounds on such creatures asWe count not worth the hanging, but none human,To try the vigour of them and applyAllayments to their act, and by them gatherTheir several virtues and effects.
CORNELIUS
Your highnessShall from this practise but make hard your heart:Besides, the seeing these effects will beBoth noisome and infectious.
QUEEN
O, content thee.
Enter PISANIO
Aside
QUEEN
Here comes a flattering rascal; upon himWill I first work: he's for his master,An enemy to my son. How now, Pisanio!Doctor, your service for this time is ended;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 hasStrange lingering poisons: I do know her spirit,And will not trust one of her malice withA drug of such damn'd nature. Those she hasWill stupefy and dull the sense awhile;Which first, perchance, she'll prove oncats and dogs,Then afterward up higher: but there isNo danger in what show of death it makes,More than the locking-up the spirits a time,To be more fresh, reviving. She is fool'dWith a most false effect; and I the truer,So to be false with her.
QUEEN
No further service, doctor,Until I send for thee.
CORNELIUS
I humbly take my leave.
Exit
QUEEN
Weeps she still, say'st thou? Dost thou think in timeShe will not quench and let instructions enterWhere 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 thenAs great as is thy master, greater, forHis fortunes all lie speechless and his nameIs at last gasp: return he cannot, norContinue where he is: to shift his beingIs to exchange one misery with another,And every day that comes comes to decayA 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?
The QUEEN drops the box: PISANIO takes it up
QUEEN
Thou takest upThou know'st not what; but take it for thy labour:It is a thing I made, which hath the kingFive times redeem'd from death: I do not knowWhat is more cordial. Nay, I prethee, take it;It is an earnest of a further goodThat I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress howThe case stands with her; do't as from thyself.Think what a chance thou changest on, but thinkThou hast thy mistress still, to boot, my son,Who shall take notice of thee: I'll move the kingTo any shape of thy preferment suchAs thou'lt desire; and then myself, I chiefly,That set thee on to this desert, am boundTo load thy merit richly. Call my women:Think on my words.
Exit PISANIO
QUEEN
A sly and constant knave,Not to be shaked; the agent for his masterAnd the remembrancer of her to holdThe hand-fast to her lord. I have given him thatWhich, if he take, shall quite unpeople herOf liegers for her sweet, and which she after,Except she bend her humour, shall be assuredTo taste of too.
Re-enter PISANIO and Ladies
QUEEN
So, so: well done, well done:The violets, cowslips, and the primroses,Bear to my closet. Fare thee well, Pisanio;Think on my words.
Exeunt QUEEN and Ladies
PISANIO
And shall do:But when to my good lord I prove untrue,I'll choke myself: there's all I'll do for you.
Exit