| ACT II SCENE II | Imogen's bedchamber in Cymbeline's palace. | |
| | A trunk in one corner of the room. | |
| | IMOGEN in bed, reading; a Lady attending. | |
| IMOGEN | Who's there? my woman Helen? | |
| Lady | Please you, madam | |
| IMOGEN | What hour is it? | 5 |
| Lady | Almost midnight, madam. | |
| IMOGEN | I have read three hours then: mine eyes are weak: | |
| | Fold down the leaf where I have left: to bed: | |
| | Take not away the taper, leave it burning; | |
| | And if thou canst awake by four o' the clock, | 10 |
| | I prithee, call me. Sleep hath seized me wholly | |
| | Exit Lady. | |
| | To your protection I commend me, gods. | |
| | From fairies and the tempters of the night | |
| | Guard me, beseech ye. | |
| | Sleeps. IACHIMO comes from the trunk. | |
| IACHIMO | The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense | 15 |
| | Repairs itself by rest. Our Tarquin thus | |
| | Did softly press the rushes, ere he waken'd | |
| | The chastity he wounded. Cytherea, | |
| | How bravely thou becomest thy bed, fresh lily, | |
| | And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch! | 20 |
| | But kiss; one kiss! Rubies unparagon'd, | |
| | How dearly they do't! 'Tis her breathing that | |
| | Perfumes the chamber thus: the flame o' the taper | |
| | Bows toward her, and would under-peep her lids, | |
| | To see the enclosed lights, now canopied | 25 |
| | Under these windows, white and azure laced | |
| | With blue of heaven's own tinct. But my design, | |
| | To note the chamber: I will write all down: | |
| | Such and such pictures; there the window; such | |
| | The adornment of her bed; the arras; figures, | 30 |
| | Why, such and such; and the contents o' the story. | |
| | Ah, but some natural notes about her body, | |
| | Above ten thousand meaner moveables | |
| | Would testify, to enrich mine inventory. | |
| | O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her! | 35 |
| | And be her sense but as a monument, | |
| | Thus in a chapel lying! Come off, come off: | |
| | Taking off her bracelet. | |
| | As slippery as the Gordian knot was hard! | |
| | 'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly, | |
| | As strongly as the conscience does within, | 40 |
| | To the madding of her lord. On her left breast | |
| | A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops | |
| | I' the bottom of a cowslip: here's a voucher, | |
| | Stronger than ever law could make: this secret | |
| | Will force him think I have pick'd the lock and ta'en | 45 |
| | The treasure of her honour. No more. To what end? | |
| | Why should I write this down, that's riveted, | |
| | Screw'd to my memory? She hath been reading late | |
| | The tale of Tereus; here the leaf's turn'd down | |
| | Where Philomel gave up. I have enough: | 50 |
| | To the trunk again, and shut the spring of it. | |
| | Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning | |
| | May bare the raven's eye! I lodge in fear; | |
| | Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here. | |
| | Clock strikes. | |
| | One, two, three: time, time! | 55 |
| | Goes into the trunk. The scene closes. | |
