Cymbeline

Cymbeline

ACT IV SCENE II	Before the cave of Belarius.
	Enter, from the cave, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS,ARVIRAGUS, and IMOGEN
BELARIUS	To IMOGEN
	We'll come to you after hunting.
ARVIRAGUS	To IMOGEN
	Are we not brothers?
IMOGEN	So man and man should be;
	But clay and clay differs in dignity,	5
	Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
GUIDERIUS	Go you to hunting; I'll abide with him.
IMOGEN	So sick I am not, yet I am not well;
	But not so citizen a wanton as
	To seem to die ere sick: so please you, leave me;	10
	Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom
	Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me
	Cannot amend me; society is no comfort
	To one not sociable: I am not very sick,
	Since I can reason of it. Pray you, trust me here:	15
	I'll rob none but myself; and let me die,
	Stealing so poorly.
GUIDERIUS	I love thee; I have spoke it
	How much the quantity, the weight as much,
	As I do love my father.	20
BELARIUS	What! how! how!
ARVIRAGUS	If it be sin to say so, I yoke me
	In my good brother's fault: I know not why
	I love this youth; and I have heard you say,
	Love's reason's without reason: the bier at door,	25
	And a demand who is't shall die, I'd say
	'My father, not this youth.'
BELARIUS	Aside
	O worthiness of nature! breed of greatness!
	Cowards father cowards and base things sire base:
	Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace.	30
	I'm not their father; yet who this should be,
	Doth miracle itself, loved before me.
	'Tis the ninth hour o' the morn.
ARVIRAGUS	Brother, farewell.
IMOGEN	I wish ye sport.	35
ARVIRAGUS	You health. So please you, sir.
IMOGEN	Aside
	I have heard!
	Our courtiers say all's savage but at court:
	Experience, O, thou disprovest report!
	The imperious seas breed monsters, for the dish	40
	Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.
	I am sick still; heart-sick. Pisanio,
	I'll now taste of thy drug.
	Swallows some
GUIDERIUS	I could not stir him:
	He said he was gentle, but unfortunate;	45
	Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest.
ARVIRAGUS	Thus did he answer me: yet said, hereafter
	I might know more.
BELARIUS	To the field, to the field!
	We'll leave you for this time: go in and rest.	50
ARVIRAGUS	We'll not be long away.
BELARIUS	Pray, be not sick,
	For you must be our housewife.
IMOGEN	Well or ill,
	I am bound to you.	55
BELARIUS	And shalt be ever.
	Exit IMOGEN, to the cave
	This youth, how'er distress'd, appears he hath had
	Good ancestors.
ARVIRAGUS	How angel-like he sings!
GUIDERIUS	But his neat cookery! he cut our roots	60
	In characters,
	And sauced our broths, as Juno had been sick
	And he her dieter.
ARVIRAGUS	Nobly he yokes
	A smiling with a sigh, as if the sigh	65
	Was that it was, for not being such a smile;
	The smile mocking the sigh, that it would fly
	From so divine a temple, to commix
	With winds that sailors rail at.
GUIDERIUS	I do note	70
	That grief and patience, rooted in him both,
	Mingle their spurs together.
ARVIRAGUS	Grow, patience!
	And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine
	His perishing root with the increasing vine!	75
BELARIUS	It is great morning. Come, away!--
	Who's there?
	Enter CLOTEN
CLOTEN	I cannot find those runagates; that villain
	Hath mock'd me. I am faint.
BELARIUS	'Those runagates!'	80
	Means he not us? I partly know him: 'tis
	Cloten, the son o' the queen. I fear some ambush.
	I saw him not these many years, and yet
	I know 'tis he. We are held as outlaws: hence!
GUIDERIUS	He is but one: you and my brother search	85
	What companies are near: pray you, away;
	Let me alone with him.
	Exeunt BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS
CLOTEN	Soft! What are you
	That fly me thus? some villain mountaineers?
	I have heard of such. What slave art thou?	90
GUIDERIUS	A thing
	More slavish did I ne'er than answering
	A slave without a knock.
CLOTEN	Thou art a robber,
	A law-breaker, a villain: yield thee, thief.	95
GUIDERIUS	To who? to thee? What art thou? Have not I
	An arm as big as thine? a heart as big?
	Thy words, I grant, are bigger, for I wear not
	My dagger in my mouth. Say what thou art,
	Why I should yield to thee?	100
CLOTEN	Thou villain base,
	Know'st me not by my clothes?
GUIDERIUS	No, nor thy tailor, rascal,
	Who is thy grandfather: he made those clothes,
	Which, as it seems, make thee.	105
CLOTEN	Thou precious varlet,
	My tailor made them not.
GUIDERIUS	Hence, then, and thank
	The man that gave them thee. Thou art some fool;
	I am loath to beat thee.	110
CLOTEN	Thou injurious thief,
	Hear but my name, and tremble.
GUIDERIUS	What's thy name?
CLOTEN	Cloten, thou villain.
GUIDERIUS	Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name,	115
	I cannot tremble at it: were it Toad, or
	Adder, Spider,
	'Twould move me sooner.
CLOTEN	To thy further fear,
	Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know	120
	I am son to the queen.
GUIDERIUS	I am sorry for 't; not seeming
	So worthy as thy birth.
CLOTEN	Art not afeard?
GUIDERIUS	Those that I reverence those I fear, the wise:	125
	At fools I laugh, not fear them.
CLOTEN	Die the death:
	When I have slain thee with my proper hand,
	I'll follow those that even now fled hence,
	And on the gates of Lud's-town set your heads:	130
	Yield, rustic mountaineer.
	Exeunt, fighting
	Re-enter BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS
BELARIUS	No companies abroad?
ARVIRAGUS	None in the world: you did mistake him, sure.
BELARIUS	I cannot tell: long is it since I saw him,
	But time hath nothing blurr'd those lines of favour	135
	Which then he wore; the snatches in his voice,
	And burst of speaking, were as his: I am absolute
	'Twas very Cloten.
ARVIRAGUS	In this place we left them:
	I wish my brother make good time with him,	140
	You say he is so fell.
BELARIUS	Being scarce made up,
	I mean, to man, he had not apprehension
	Of roaring terrors; for the effect of judgment
	Is oft the cause of fear. But, see, thy brother.	145
	Re-enter GUIDERIUS, with CLOTEN'S head
GUIDERIUS	This Cloten was a fool, an empty purse;
	There was no money in't: not Hercules
	Could have knock'd out his brains, for he had none:
	Yet I not doing this, the fool had borne
	My head as I do his.	150
BELARIUS	What hast thou done?
GUIDERIUS	I am perfect what: cut off one Cloten's head,
	Son to the queen, after his own report;
	Who call'd me traitor, mountaineer, and swore
	With his own single hand he'ld take us in	155
	Displace our heads where--thank the gods!--they grow,
	And set them on Lud's-town.
BELARIUS	We are all undone.
GUIDERIUS	Why, worthy father, what have we to lose,
	But that he swore to take, our lives? The law	160
	Protects not us: then why should we be tender
	To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us,
	Play judge and executioner all himself,
	For we do fear the law? What company
	Discover you abroad?	165
BELARIUS	No single soul
	Can we set eye on; but in all safe reason
	He must have some attendants. Though his humour
	Was nothing but mutation, ay, and that
	From one bad thing to worse; not frenzy, not	170
	Absolute madness could so far have raved
	To bring him here alone; although perhaps
	It may be heard at court that such as we
	Cave here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time
	May make some stronger head; the which he hearing--	175
	As it is like him--might break out, and swear
	He'ld fetch us in; yet is't not probable
	To come alone, either he so undertaking,
	Or they so suffering: then on good ground we fear,
	If we do fear this body hath a tail	180
	More perilous than the head.
ARVIRAGUS	Let ordinance
	Come as the gods foresay it: howsoe'er,
	My brother hath done well.
BELARIUS	I had no mind	185
	To hunt this day: the boy Fidele's sickness
	Did make my way long forth.
GUIDERIUS	With his own sword,
	Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en
	His head from him: I'll throw't into the creek	190
	Behind our rock; and let it to the sea,
	And tell the fishes he's the queen's son, Cloten:
	That's all I reck.
	Exit
BELARIUS	I fear 'twill be revenged:
	Would, Polydote, thou hadst not done't! though valour	195
	Becomes thee well enough.
ARVIRAGUS	Would I had done't
	So the revenge alone pursued me! Polydore,
	I love thee brotherly, but envy much
	Thou hast robb'd me of this deed: I would revenges,	200
	That possible strength might meet, would seek us through
	And put us to our answer.
BELARIUS	Well, 'tis done:
	We'll hunt no more to-day, nor seek for danger
	Where there's no profit. I prithee, to our rock;	205
	You and Fidele play the cooks: I'll stay
	Till hasty Polydote return, and bring him
	To dinner presently.
ARVIRAGUS	Poor sick Fidele!
	I'll weringly to him: to gain his colour	210
	I'ld let a parish of such Clotens' blood,
	And praise myself for charity.
	Exit
BELARIUS	O thou goddess,
	Thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon'st
	In these two princely boys! They are as gentle	215
	As zephyrs blowing below the violet,
	Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough,
	Their royal blood enchafed, as the rudest wind,
	That by the top doth take the mountain pine,
	And make him stoop to the vale. 'Tis wonder	220
	That an invisible instinct should frame them
	To royalty unlearn'd, honour untaught,
	Civility not seen from other, valour
	That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop
	As if it had been sow'd. Yet still it's strange	225
	What Cloten's being here to us portends,
	Or what his death will bring us.
	Re-enter GUIDERIUS
GUIDERIUS	Where's my brother?
	I have sent Cloten's clotpoll down the stream,
	In embassy to his mother: his body's hostage	230
	For his return.
	Solemn music
BELARIUS	My ingenious instrument!
	Hark, Polydore, it sounds! But what occasion
	Hath Cadwal now to give it motion? Hark!
GUIDERIUS	Is he at home?	235
BELARIUS	He went hence even now.
GUIDERIUS	What does he mean? since death of my dear'st mother
	it did not speak before. All solemn things
	Should answer solemn accidents. The matter?
	Triumphs for nothing and lamenting toys	240
	Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.
	Is Cadwal mad?
BELARIUS	Look, here he comes,
	And brings the dire occasion in his arms
	Of what we blame him for.	245
	Re-enter ARVIRAGUS, with IMOGEN, as dead,bearing her in his arms
ARVIRAGUS	The bird is dead
	That we have made so much on. I had rather
	Have skipp'd from sixteen years of age to sixty,
	To have turn'd my leaping-time into a crutch,
	Than have seen this.	250
GUIDERIUS	O sweetest, fairest lily!
	My brother wears thee not the one half so well
	As when thou grew'st thyself.
BELARIUS	O melancholy!
	Who ever yet could sound thy bottom? find	255
	The ooze, to show what coast thy sluggish crare
	Might easiliest harbour in? Thou blessed thing!
	Jove knows what man thou mightst have made; but I,
	Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy.
	How found you him?	260
ARVIRAGUS	Stark, as you see:
	Thus smiling, as some fly hid tickled slumber,
	Not as death's dart, being laugh'd at; his
	right cheek
	Reposing on a cushion.	265
GUIDERIUS	Where?
ARVIRAGUS	O' the floor;
	His arms thus leagued: I thought he slept, and put
	My clouted brogues from off my feet, whose rudeness
	Answer'd my steps too loud.	270
GUIDERIUS	Why, he but sleeps:
	If he be gone, he'll make his grave a bed;
	With female fairies will his tomb be haunted,
	And worms will not come to thee.
ARVIRAGUS	With fairest flowers	275
	Whilst summer lasts and I live here, Fidele,
	I'll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack
	The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor
	The azured harebell, like thy veins, no, nor
	The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,	280
	Out-sweeten'd not thy breath: the ruddock would,
	With charitable bill,--O bill, sore-shaming
	Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie
	Without a monument!--bring thee all this;
	Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none,	285
	To winter-ground thy corse.
GUIDERIUS	Prithee, have done;
	And do not play in wench-like words with that
	Which is so serious. Let us bury him,
	And not protract with admiration what	290
	Is now due debt. To the grave!
ARVIRAGUS	Say, where shall's lay him?
GUIDERIUS	By good Euriphile, our mother.
ARVIRAGUS	Be't so:
	And let us, Polydore, though now our voices	295
	Have got the mannish crack, sing him to the ground,
	As once our mother; use like note and words,
	Save that Euriphile must be Fidele.
GUIDERIUS	Cadwal,
	I cannot sing: I'll weep, and word it with thee;	300
	For notes of sorrow out of tune are worse
	Than priests and fanes that lie.
ARVIRAGUS	We'll speak it, then.
BELARIUS	Great griefs, I see, medicine the less; for Cloten
	Is quite forgot. He was a queen's son, boys;	305
	And though he came our enemy, remember
	He was paid for that: though mean and
	mighty, rotting
	Together, have one dust, yet reverence,
	That angel of the world, doth make distinction	310
	Of place 'tween high and low. Our foe was princely
	And though you took his life, as being our foe,
	Yet bury him as a prince.
GUIDERIUS	Pray You, fetch him hither.
	Thersites' body is as good as Ajax',	315
	When neither are alive.
ARVIRAGUS	If you'll go fetch him,
	We'll say our song the whilst. Brother, begin.
	Exit BELARIUS
GUIDERIUS	Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to the east;
	My father hath a reason for't.	320
ARVIRAGUS	'Tis true.
GUIDERIUS	Come on then, and remove him.
ARVIRAGUS	So. Begin.
	SONG
GUIDERIUS	Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
	Nor the furious winter's rages;	325
	Thou thy worldly task hast done,
	Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages:
	Golden lads and girls all must,
	As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
ARVIRAGUS	Fear no more the frown o' the great;	330
	Thou art past the tyrant's stroke;
	Care no more to clothe and eat;
	To thee the reed is as the oak:
	The sceptre, learning, physic, must
	All follow this, and come to dust.	335
GUIDERIUS	Fear no more the lightning flash,
ARVIRAGUS	Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
GUIDERIUS	Fear not slander, censure rash;
ARVIRAGUS	Thou hast finish'd joy and moan:
GUIDERIUS	\|	340
	\| All lovers young, all lovers must
ARVIRAGUS	\| Consign to thee, and come to dust.
GUIDERIUS	No exorciser harm thee!
ARVIRAGUS	Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
GUIDERIUS	Ghost unlaid forbear thee!	345
ARVIRAGUS	Nothing ill come near thee!
GUIDERIUS	\|
	\| Quiet consummation have;
ARVIRAGUS	\| And renowned be thy grave!
	Re-enter BELARIUS, with the body of CLOTEN
GUIDERIUS	We have done our obsequies: come, lay him down.	350
BELARIUS	Here's a few flowers; but 'bout midnight, more:
	The herbs that have on them cold dew o' the night
	Are strewings fitt'st for graves. Upon their faces.
	You were as flowers, now wither'd: even so
	These herblets shall, which we upon you strew.	355
	Come on, away: apart upon our knees.
	The ground that gave them first has them again:
	Their pleasures here are past, so is their pain.
	Exeunt BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS
IMOGEN	Awaking
	the way?--
	I thank you.--By yond bush?--Pray, how far thither?	360
	'Ods pittikins! can it be six mile yet?--
	I have gone all night. 'Faith, I'll lie down and sleep.
	But, soft! no bedfellow!--O gods and goddesses!
	Seeing the body of CLOTEN
	These flowers are like the pleasures of the world;
	This bloody man, the care on't. I hope I dream;	365
	For so I thought I was a cave-keeper,
	And cook to honest creatures: but 'tis not so;
	'Twas but a bolt of nothing, shot at nothing,
	Which the brain makes of fumes: our very eyes
	Are sometimes like our judgments, blind. Good faith,	370
	I tremble stiff with fear: but if there be
	Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity
	As a wren's eye, fear'd gods, a part of it!
	The dream's here still: even when I wake, it is
	Without me, as within me; not imagined, felt.	375
	A headless man! The garments of Posthumus!
	I know the shape of's leg: this is his hand;
	His foot Mercurial; his Martial thigh;
	The brawns of Hercules: but his Jovial face
	Murder in heaven?--How!--'Tis gone. Pisanio,	380
	All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks,
	And mine to boot, be darted on thee! Thou,
	Conspired with that irregulous devil, Cloten,
	Hast here cut off my lord. To write and read
	Be henceforth treacherous! Damn'd Pisanio	385
	Hath with his forged letters,--damn'd Pisanio--
	From this most bravest vessel of the world
	Struck the main-top! O Posthumus! alas,
	Where is thy head? where's that? Ay me!
	where's that?	390
	Pisanio might have kill'd thee at the heart,
	And left this head on. How should this be? Pisanio?
	'Tis he and Cloten: malice and lucre in them
	Have laid this woe here. O, 'tis pregnant, pregnant!
	The drug he gave me, which he said was precious	395
	And cordial to me, have I not found it
	Murderous to the senses? That confirms it home:
	This is Pisanio's deed, and Cloten's: O!
	Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood,
	That we the horrider may seem to those	400
	Which chance to find us: O, my lord, my lord!
	Falls on the body
	Enter LUCIUS, a Captain and other Officers,and a Soothsayer
Captain	To them the legions garrison'd in Gailia,
	After your will, have cross'd the sea, attending
	You here at Milford-Haven with your ships:
	They are in readiness.	405
CAIUS LUCIUS	But what from Rome?
Captain	The senate hath stirr'd up the confiners
	And gentlemen of Italy, most willing spirits,
	That promise noble service: and they come
	Under the conduct of bold Iachimo,	410
	Syenna's brother.
CAIUS LUCIUS	When expect you them?
Captain	With the next benefit o' the wind.
CAIUS LUCIUS	This forwardness
	Makes our hopes fair. Command our present numbers	415
	Be muster'd; bid the captains look to't. Now, sir,
	What have you dream'd of late of this war's purpose?
Soothsayer	Last night the very gods show'd me a vision--
	I fast and pray'd for their intelligence--thus:
	I saw Jove's bird, the Roman eagle, wing'd	420
	From the spongy south to this part of the west,
	There vanish'd in the sunbeams: which portends--
	Unless my sins abuse my divination--
	Success to the Roman host.
CAIUS LUCIUS	Dream often so,	425
	And never false. Soft, ho! what trunk is here
	Without his top? The ruin speaks that sometime
	It was a worthy building. How! a page!
	Or dead, or sleeping on him? But dead rather;
	For nature doth abhor to make his bed	430
	With the defunct, or sleep upon the dead.
	Let's see the boy's face.
Captain	He's alive, my lord.
CAIUS LUCIUS	He'll then instruct us of this body. Young one,
	Inform us of thy fortunes, for it seems	435
	They crave to be demanded. Who is this
	Thou makest thy bloody pillow? Or who was he
	That, otherwise than noble nature did,
	Hath alter'd that good picture? What's thy interest
	In this sad wreck? How came it? Who is it?	440
	What art thou?
IMOGEN	I am nothing: or if not,
	Nothing to be were better. This was my master,
	A very valiant Briton and a good,
	That here by mountaineers lies slain. Alas!	445
	There is no more such masters: I may wander
	From east to occident, cry out for service,
	Try many, all good, serve truly, never
	Find such another master.
CAIUS LUCIUS	'Lack, good youth!	450
	Thou movest no less with thy complaining than
	Thy master in bleeding: say his name, good friend.
IMOGEN	Richard du Champ.
	Aside
	If I do lie and do
	No harm by it, though the gods hear, I hope	455
	They'll pardon it.--Say you, sir?
CAIUS LUCIUS	Thy name?
IMOGEN	Fidele, sir.
CAIUS LUCIUS	Thou dost approve thyself the very same:
	Thy name well fits thy faith, thy faith thy name.	460
	Wilt take thy chance with me? I will not say
	Thou shalt be so well master'd, but, be sure,
	No less beloved. The Roman emperor's letters,
	Sent by a consul to me, should not sooner
	Than thine own worth prefer thee: go with me.	465
IMOGEN	I'll follow, sir. But first, an't please the gods,
	I'll hide my master from the flies, as deep
	As these poor pickaxes can dig; and when
	With wild wood-leaves and weeds I ha' strew'd his grave,
	And on it said a century of prayers,	470
	Such as I can, twice o'er, I'll weep and sigh;
	And leaving so his service, follow you,
	So please you entertain me.
CAIUS LUCIUS	Ay, good youth!
	And rather father thee than master thee.	475
	My friends,
	The boy hath taught us manly duties: let us
	Find out the prettiest daisied plot we can,
	And make him with our pikes and partisans
	A grave: come, arm him. Boy, he is preferr'd	480
	By thee to us, and he shall be interr'd
	As soldiers can. Be cheerful; wipe thine eyes
	Some falls are means the happier to arise.
	Exeunt