Act 3, Scene 2

Another room in the palace.

[Enter PISANIO, with a letter]
Pisanio
1425 How? of adultery? Wherefore write you not
1426 What monster's her accuser? Leonatus,
1427 O master! what a strange infection
1428 Is fall'n into thy ear! What false Italian,
1429 As poisonous-tongued as handed, hath prevail'd
1430 On thy too ready hearing? Disloyal! No:
1431 She's punish'd for her truth, and undergoes,
1432 More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults
1433 As would take in some virtue. O my master!
1434 Thy mind to her is now as low as were
1435 Thy fortunes. How! that I should murder her?
1436 Upon the love and truth and vows which I
1437 Have made to thy command? I, her? her blood?
1438 If it be so to do good service, never
1439 Let me be counted serviceable. How look I,
1440 That I should seem to lack humanity
1441 so much as this fact comes to?
[Reading]
Pisanio
1442 'Do't: the letter
1443 that I have sent her, by her own command
1444 Shall give thee opportunity.' O damn'd paper!
1445 Black as the ink that's on thee! Senseless bauble,
1446 Art thou a feodary for this act, and look'st
1447 So virgin-like without? Lo, here she comes.
1448 I am ignorant in what I am commanded.
[Enter IMOGEN]
Imogen
1449 How now, Pisanio!
Pisanio
1450 Madam, here is a letter from my lord.
Imogen
1451 Who? thy lord? that is my lord, Leonatus!
1452 O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer
1453 That knew the stars as I his characters;
1454 He'ld lay the future open. You good gods,
1455 Let what is here contain'd relish of love,
1456 Of my lord's health, of his content, yet not
1457 That we two are asunder; let that grieve him:
1458 Some griefs are med'cinable; that is one of them,
1459 For it doth physic love: of his content,
1460 All but in that! Good wax, thy leave. Blest be
1461 You bees that make these locks of counsel! Lovers
1462 And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike:
1463 Though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet
1464 You clasp young Cupid's tables. Good news, gods!
[Reads]
Imogen
1465 'Justice, and your father's wrath, should he take me
1466 in his dominion, could not be so cruel to me, as
1467 you, O the dearest of creatures, would even renew me
1468 with your eyes. Take notice that I am in Cambria,
1469 at Milford-Haven: what your own love will out of
1470 this advise you, follow. So he wishes you all
1471 happiness, that remains loyal to his vow, and your,
1472 increasing in love,
1473 LEONATUS POSTHUMUS.'
1474 O, for a horse with wings! Hear'st thou, Pisanio?
1475 He is at Milford-Haven: read, and tell me
1476 How far 'tis thither. If one of mean affairs
1477 May plod it in a week, why may not I
1478 Glide thither in a day? Then, true Pisanio,—
1479 Who long'st, like me, to see thy lord; who long'st,—
1480 let me bate,-but not like me—yet long'st,
1481 But in a fainter kind:—O, not like me;
1482 For mine's beyond beyond—say, and speak thick;
1483 Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing,
1484 To the smothering of the sense—how far it is
1485 To this same blessed Milford: and by the way
1486 Tell me how Wales was made so happy as
1487 To inherit such a haven: but first of all,
1488 How we may steal from hence, and for the gap
1489 That we shall make in time, from our hence-going
1490 And our return, to excuse: but first, how get hence:
1491 Why should excuse be born or e'er begot?
1492 We'll talk of that hereafter. Prithee, speak,
1493 How many score of miles may we well ride
1494 'Twixt hour and hour?
Pisanio
1495 One score 'twixt sun and sun,
1496 Madam, 's enough for you:
[Aside]
Pisanio
1497 and too much too.
Imogen
1498 Why, one that rode to's execution, man,
1499 Could never go so slow: I have heard of
1500 riding wagers,
1501 Where horses have been nimbler than the sands
1502 That run i' the clock's behalf. But this is foolery:
1503 Go bid my woman feign a sickness; say
1504 She'll home to her father: and provide me presently
1505 A riding-suit, no costlier than would fit
1506 A franklin's housewife.
Pisanio
1507 Madam, you're best consider.
Imogen
1508 I see before me, man: nor here, nor here,
1509 Nor what ensues, but have a fog in them,
1510 That I cannot look through. Away, I prithee;
1511 Do as I bid thee: there's no more to say,
1512 Accessible is none but Milford way.
[Exeunt]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1428cultural context
“What false Italian, As poisonous-tongued as handed”
Pisanio brands the unknown slanderer as a 'false Italian' — invoking the Elizabethan stock figure of the Italian as charming, eloquent, but treacherous and skilled with poison. 'Poisonous-tongued as handed' means equally dangerous with words and with actual poison (Italy being associated with poisoning).
TLN 1432rhetorical device
“More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults As would take in some virtue”
Pisanio says Imogen endures Posthumus's false accusation 'more goddess-like than wife-like' — a hyperbole that elevates her constancy above ordinary human steadfastness. 'Such assaults as would take in some virtue' means attacks powerful enough to overwhelm even a genuinely virtuous person.
TLN 1446archaic vocab
“Art thou a feodary for this act”
A 'feodary' (also 'feodary') was a feudal vassal — someone who held land in exchange for service and loyalty to a lord. Here Pisanio asks the letter scornfully whether it is a willing accomplice, a dependent conspirator, in Posthumus's plan to murder Imogen.
TLN 1452archaic vocab
“O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer That knew the stars as I his characters”
In Elizabethan English 'astronomer' often meant an astrologer — someone who read the stars to predict the future. 'Characters' here means handwriting, specifically the letters of Posthumus's script. Imogen says: a stargazer who could read the heavens as well as she can read Posthumus's handwriting would be able to foretell the future.
TLN 1460wordplay
“Good wax, thy leave. Blest be You bees that make these locks of counsel! Lovers And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike”
Imogen breaks the wax seal on Posthumus's letter with a small ceremony. 'Locks of counsel' plays on wax seals locking in secrets. 'Bonds' carries a double meaning: a legal bond (a sealed document, an obligation, a debt-instrument) and the bond of love. She contrasts debtors who dread their bonds with lovers who clasp 'young Cupid's tables' — their love-letters — with joy.
TLN 1468historical topical
“I am in Cambria, at Milford-Haven”
Cambria is the Latin name for Wales. Milford Haven is a deep-water harbour on the Pembrokeshire coast in southwest Wales, and it becomes the convergence point of the entire plot: Posthumus names it as his location, Imogen races toward it, Pisanio reveals the murder plot there, and the Roman army later lands there.
historical Milford Haven
TLN 1474classical allusion
“O, for a horse with wings!”
A horse with wings is the winged horse Pegasus from Greek myth. Imogen's cry is an impulsive wish to fly instantly to Milford Haven rather than endure the slow days of travel. The image measures the force of her longing: only a supernatural horse could move fast enough.
TLN 1480rhetorical device
“let me bate,—but not like me—yet long'st, But in a fainter kind:—O, not like me; For mine's beyond beyond”
The doubled 'beyond beyond' is Imogen's way of saying her longing exceeds any expression — it is past the limit of 'beyond' itself, beyond beyondness. The rhetorical device (repeating a word to multiply its force past its ordinary meaning) is a form of occupatio: she cannot say how great her longing is, so she compounds the word for 'too great to say' to push further still.
TLN 1495archaic vocab
“One score 'twixt sun and sun”
'Score' means twenty; 'twixt sun and sun' means from sunrise to sunset — one day's journey. Pisanio is saying a reasonable traveller can manage twenty miles a day on horseback. 'Madam, 's enough for you' suggests the distance is about right for a woman of rank, though he mutters aside that it is in fact too far.
TLN 1505archaic vocab
“A riding-suit, no costlier than would fit A franklin's housewife”
A 'franklin' was a free landowner of the middling sort — above a yeoman but below a gentleman — roughly what we would call a prosperous farmer or country squire. Imogen asks for travel clothes plain enough for a franklin's wife so that she can pass unnoticed on the road. The detail signals the start of her disguise: she needs to stop looking like a princess.