1    How? of adultery? Wherefore write you not
2    What monster's her accuser? Leonatus,
3    O master! what a strange infection
4    Is fall'n into thy ear! What false Italian,
5    As poisonous-tongued as handed, hath prevail'd
6    On thy too ready hearing? Disloyal! No:
7    She's punish'd for her truth, and undergoes,
8    More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults
9    As would take in some virtue. O my master!
10   Thy mind to her is now as low as were
11   Thy fortunes. How! that I should murder her?
12   Upon the love and truth and vows which I
13   Have made to thy command? I, her? her blood?
14   If it be so to do good service, never
15   Let me be counted serviceable. How look I,
16   That I should seem to lack humanity
17   so much as this fact comes to?
Reading
18   'Do't: the letter
19   that I have sent her, by her own command
20   Shall give thee opportunity.' O damn'd paper!
21   Black as the ink that's on thee! Senseless bauble,
22   Art thou a feodary for this act, and look'st
23   So virgin-like without? Lo, here she comes.
24   I am ignorant in what I am commanded.

25   How now, Pisanio!

26   Madam, here is a letter from my lord.

27   Who? thy lord? that is my lord, Leonatus!
28   O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer
29   That knew the stars as I his characters;
30   He'ld lay the future open. You good gods,
31   Let what is here contain'd relish of love,
32   Of my lord's health, of his content, yet not
33   That we two are asunder; let that grieve him:
34   Some griefs are med'cinable; that is one of them,
35   For it doth physic love: of his content,
36   All but in that! Good wax, thy leave. Blest be
37   You bees that make these locks of counsel! Lovers
38   And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike:
39   Though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet
40   You clasp young Cupid's tables. Good news, gods!
Reads
41   'Justice, and your father's wrath, should he take me
42   in his dominion, could not be so cruel to me, as
43   you, O the dearest of creatures, would even renew me
44   with your eyes. Take notice that I am in Cambria,
45   at Milford-Haven: what your own love will out of
46   this advise you, follow. So he wishes you all
47   happiness, that remains loyal to his vow, and your,
48   increasing in love,
49   LEONATUS POSTHUMUS.'
50   O, for a horse with wings! Hear'st thou, Pisanio?
51   He is at Milford-Haven: read, and tell me
52   How far 'tis thither. If one of mean affairs
53   May plod it in a week, why may not I
54   Glide thither in a day? Then, true Pisanio,--
55   Who long'st, like me, to see thy lord; who long'st,--
56   let me bate,-but not like me--yet long'st,
57   But in a fainter kind:--O, not like me;
58   For mine's beyond beyond--say, and speak thick;
59   Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing,
60   To the smothering of the sense--how far it is
61   To this same blessed Milford: and by the way
62   Tell me how Wales was made so happy as
63   To inherit such a haven: but first of all,
64   How we may steal from hence, and for the gap
65   That we shall make in time, from our hence-going
66   And our return, to excuse: but first, how get hence:
67   Why should excuse be born or e'er begot?
68   We'll talk of that hereafter. Prithee, speak,
69   How many score of miles may we well ride
70   'Twixt hour and hour?

71   One score 'twixt sun and sun,
72   Madam, 's enough for you:
Aside
73   and too much too.

74   Why, one that rode to's execution, man,
75   Could never go so slow: I have heard of
76   riding wagers,
77   Where horses have been nimbler than the sands
78   That run i' the clock's behalf. But this is foolery:
79   Go bid my woman feign a sickness; say
80   She'll home to her father: and provide me presently
81   A riding-suit, no costlier than would fit
82   A franklin's housewife.

83   Madam, you're best consider.

84   I see before me, man: nor here, nor here,
85   Nor what ensues, but have a fog in them,
86   That I cannot look through. Away, I prithee;
87   Do as I bid thee: there's no more to say,
88   Accessible is none but Milford way.