Cymbeline

1 Enter Belarius, Guiderius and Arviragus.
2 BELARIUS.
3 You, Polydore, have prov’d best woodman and
4 Are master of the feast. Cadwal and I
5 Will play the cook and servant; ’tis our match.
6 The sweat of industry would dry and die
7 But for the end it works to. Come, our stomachs
8 Will make what’s homely savoury; weariness
9 Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth
10 Finds the down pillow hard. Now, peace be here,
11 Poor house, that keep’st thyself!
12 GUIDERIUS.
13 I am thoroughly weary.
14 ARVIRAGUS.
15 I am weak with toil, yet strong in appetite.
16 GUIDERIUS.
17 There is cold meat i’ th’ cave; we’ll browse on that
18 Whilst what we have kill’d be cook’d.
19 BELARIUS.
20 [_Looking into the cave._] Stay, come not in.
21 But that it eats our victuals, I should think
22 Here were a fairy.
23 GUIDERIUS.
24 What’s the matter, sir?
25 BELARIUS.
26 By Jupiter, an angel! or, if not,
27 An earthly paragon! Behold divineness
28 No elder than a boy!
29 Enter Imogen.
30 IMOGEN.
31 Good masters, harm me not.
32 Before I enter’d here I call’d, and thought
33 To have begg’d or bought what I have took. Good troth,
34 I have stol’n nought; nor would not though I had found
35 Gold strew’d i’ th’ floor. Here’s money for my meat.
36 I would have left it on the board, so soon
37 As I had made my meal, and parted
38 With pray’rs for the provider.
39 GUIDERIUS.
40 Money, youth?
41 ARVIRAGUS.
42 All gold and silver rather turn to dirt,
43 As ’tis no better reckon’d but of those
44 Who worship dirty gods.
45 IMOGEN.
46 I see you’re angry.
47 Know, if you kill me for my fault, I should
48 Have died had I not made it.
49 BELARIUS.
50 Whither bound?
51 IMOGEN.
52 To Milford Haven.
53 BELARIUS.
54 What’s your name?
55 IMOGEN.
56 Fidele, sir. I have a kinsman who
57 Is bound for Italy; he embark’d at Milford;
58 To whom being going, almost spent with hunger,
59 I am fall’n in this offence.
60 BELARIUS.
61 Prithee, fair youth,
62 Think us no churls, nor measure our good minds
63 By this rude place we live in. Well encounter’d!
64 ’Tis almost night; you shall have better cheer
65 Ere you depart, and thanks to stay and eat it.
66 Boys, bid him welcome.
67 GUIDERIUS.
68 Were you a woman, youth,
69 I should woo hard but be your groom. In honesty
70 I bid for you as I’d buy.
71 ARVIRAGUS.
72 I’ll make’t my comfort
73 He is a man. I’ll love him as my brother;
74 And such a welcome as I’d give to him
75 After long absence, such is yours. Most welcome!
76 Be sprightly, for you fall ’mongst friends.
77 IMOGEN.
78 ’Mongst friends,
79 If brothers. [_Aside._] Would it had been so that they
80 Had been my father’s sons! Then had my prize
81 Been less, and so more equal ballasting
82 To thee, Posthumus.
83 BELARIUS.
84 He wrings at some distress.
85 GUIDERIUS.
86 Would I could free’t!
87 ARVIRAGUS.
88 Or I, whate’er it be,
89 What pain it cost, what danger! Gods!
90 BELARIUS.
91 [_Whispering._] Hark, boys.
92 IMOGEN.
93 [_Aside._] Great men,
94 That had a court no bigger than this cave,
95 That did attend themselves, and had the virtue
96 Which their own conscience seal’d them, laying by
97 That nothing-gift of differing multitudes,
98 Could not out-peer these twain. Pardon me, gods!
99 I’d change my sex to be companion with them,
100 Since Leonatus false.
101 BELARIUS.
102 It shall be so.
103 Boys, we’ll go dress our hunt. Fair youth, come in.
104 Discourse is heavy, fasting; when we have supp’d,
105 We’ll mannerly demand thee of thy story,
106 So far as thou wilt speak it.
107 GUIDERIUS.
108 Pray draw near.
109 ARVIRAGUS.
110 The night to th’ owl and morn to th’ lark less
111 welcome.
112 IMOGEN.
113 Thanks, sir.
114 ARVIRAGUS.
115 I pray draw near.
116 [_Exeunt._]