Cymbeline

1 Enter from the cave, Belarius, Guiderius, Arviragus and Imogen.
2 BELARIUS.
3 [_To Imogen._] You are not well. Remain here in the cave;
4 We’ll come to you after hunting.
5 ARVIRAGUS.
6 [_To Imogen._] Brother, stay here.
7 Are we not brothers?
8 IMOGEN.
9 So man and man should be;
10 But clay and clay differs in dignity,
11 Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
12 GUIDERIUS.
13 Go you to hunting; I’ll abide with him.
14 IMOGEN.
15 So sick I am not, yet I am not well;
16 But not so citizen a wanton as
17 To seem to die ere sick. So please you, leave me;
18 Stick to your journal course. The breach of custom
19 Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me
20 Cannot amend me; society is no comfort
21 To one not sociable. I am not very sick,
22 Since I can reason of it. Pray you trust me here.
23 I’ll rob none but myself; and let me die,
24 Stealing so poorly.
25 GUIDERIUS.
26 I love thee; I have spoke it.
27 How much the quantity, the weight as much
28 As I do love my father.
29 BELARIUS.
30 What? how? how?
31 ARVIRAGUS.
32 If it be sin to say so, sir, I yoke me
33 In my good brother’s fault. I know not why
34 I love this youth, and I have heard you say
35 Love’s reason’s without reason. The bier at door,
36 And a demand who is’t shall die, I’d say
37 ‘My father, not this youth.’
38 BELARIUS.
39 [_Aside._] O noble strain!
40 O worthiness of nature! breed of greatness!
41 Cowards father cowards and base things sire base.
42 Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace.
43 I’m not their father; yet who this should be
44 Doth miracle itself, lov’d before me.—
45 ’Tis the ninth hour o’ th’ morn.
46 ARVIRAGUS.
47 Brother, farewell.
48 IMOGEN.
49 I wish ye sport.
50 ARVIRAGUS.
51 Your health. [_To Belarius._] So please you, sir.
52 IMOGEN.
53 [_Aside._] These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies I
54 have heard!
55 Our courtiers say all’s savage but at court.
56 Experience, O, thou disprov’st report!
57 Th’ imperious seas breed monsters; for the dish,
58 Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.
59 I am sick still; heart-sick. Pisanio,
60 I’ll now taste of thy drug.
61 [_Swallows some._]
62 GUIDERIUS.
63 I could not stir him.
64 He said he was gentle, but unfortunate;
65 Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest.
66 ARVIRAGUS.
67 Thus did he answer me; yet said hereafter
68 I might know more.
69 BELARIUS.
70 To th’ field, to th’ field!
71 We’ll leave you for this time. Go in and rest.
72 ARVIRAGUS.
73 We’ll not be long away.
74 BELARIUS.
75 Pray be not sick,
76 For you must be our huswife.
77 IMOGEN.
78 Well, or ill,
79 I am bound to you.
80 BELARIUS.
81 And shalt be ever.
82 [_Exit Imogen into the cave._]
83 This youth, howe’er distress’d, appears he hath had
84 Good ancestors.
85 ARVIRAGUS.
86 How angel-like he sings!
87 GUIDERIUS.
88 But his neat cookery! He cut our roots in characters,
89 And sauc’d our broths as Juno had been sick,
90 And he her dieter.
91 ARVIRAGUS.
92 Nobly he yokes
93 A smiling with a sigh, as if the sigh
94 Was that it was for not being such a smile;
95 The smile mocking the sigh that it would fly
96 From so divine a temple to commix
97 With winds that sailors rail at.
98 GUIDERIUS.
99 I do note
100 That grief and patience, rooted in him both,
101 Mingle their spurs together.
102 ARVIRAGUS.
103 Grow patience!
104 And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine
105 His perishing root with the increasing vine!
106 BELARIUS.
107 It is great morning. Come, away! Who’s there?
108 Enter Cloten.
109 CLOTEN.
110 I cannot find those runagates; that villain
111 Hath mock’d me. I am faint.
112 BELARIUS.
113 Those runagates?
114 Means he not us? I partly know him; ’tis
115 Cloten, the son o’ th’ Queen. I fear some ambush.
116 I saw him not these many years, and yet
117 I know ’tis he. We are held as outlaws. Hence!
118 GUIDERIUS.
119 He is but one; you and my brother search
120 What companies are near. Pray you away;
121 Let me alone with him.
122 [_Exeunt Belarius and Arviragus._]
123 CLOTEN.
124 Soft! What are you
125 That fly me thus? Some villain mountaineers?
126 I have heard of such. What slave art thou?
127 GUIDERIUS.
128 A thing
129 More slavish did I ne’er than answering
130 A slave without a knock.
131 CLOTEN.
132 Thou art a robber,
133 A law-breaker, a villain. Yield thee, thief.
134 GUIDERIUS.
135 To who? To thee? What art thou? Have not I
136 An arm as big as thine, a heart as big?
137 Thy words, I grant, are bigger, for I wear not
138 My dagger in my mouth. Say what thou art;
139 Why I should yield to thee.
140 CLOTEN.
141 Thou villain base,
142 Know’st me not by my clothes?
143 GUIDERIUS.
144 No, nor thy tailor, rascal,
145 Who is thy grandfather; he made those clothes,
146 Which, as it seems, make thee.
147 CLOTEN.
148 Thou precious varlet,
149 My tailor made them not.
150 GUIDERIUS.
151 Hence, then, and thank
152 The man that gave them thee. Thou art some fool;
153 I am loath to beat thee.
154 CLOTEN.
155 Thou injurious thief,
156 Hear but my name, and tremble.
157 GUIDERIUS.
158 What’s thy name?
159 CLOTEN.
160 Cloten, thou villain.
161 GUIDERIUS.
162 Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name,
163 I cannot tremble at it. Were it Toad, or Adder, Spider,
164 ’Twould move me sooner.
165 CLOTEN.
166 To thy further fear,
167 Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know
168 I am son to th’ Queen.
169 GUIDERIUS.
170 I’m sorry for’t; not seeming
171 So worthy as thy birth.
172 CLOTEN.
173 Art not afeard?
174 GUIDERIUS.
175 Those that I reverence, those I fear—the wise;
176 At fools I laugh, not fear them.
177 CLOTEN.
178 Die the death.
179 When I have slain thee with my proper hand,
180 I’ll follow those that even now fled hence,
181 And on the gates of Lud’s Town set your heads.
182 Yield, rustic mountaineer.
183 [_Exeunt, fighting._]
184 Enter Belarius and Arviragus.
185 BELARIUS.
186 No company’s abroad?
187 ARVIRAGUS.
188 None in the world; you did mistake him, sure.
189 BELARIUS.
190 I cannot tell; long is it since I saw him,
191 But time hath nothing blurr’d those lines of favour
192 Which then he wore; the snatches in his voice,
193 And burst of speaking, were as his. I am absolute
194 ’Twas very Cloten.
195 ARVIRAGUS.
196 In this place we left them.
197 I wish my brother make good time with him,
198 You say he is so fell.
199 BELARIUS.
200 Being scarce made up,
201 I mean to man, he had not apprehension
202 Or roaring terrors; for defect of judgement
203 Is oft the cease of fear.
204 Enter Guiderius with Cloten’s head.
205 But, see, thy brother.
206 GUIDERIUS.
207 This Cloten was a fool, an empty purse;
208 There was no money in’t. Not Hercules
209 Could have knock’d out his brains, for he had none;
210 Yet I not doing this, the fool had borne
211 My head as I do his.
212 BELARIUS.
213 What hast thou done?
214 GUIDERIUS.
215 I am perfect what: cut off one Cloten’s head,
216 Son to the Queen, after his own report;
217 Who call’d me traitor, mountaineer, and swore
218 With his own single hand he’d take us in,
219 Displace our heads where, thank the gods, they grow,
220 And set them on Lud’s Town.
221 BELARIUS.
222 We are all undone.
223 GUIDERIUS.
224 Why, worthy father, what have we to lose
225 But that he swore to take, our lives? The law
226 Protects not us; then why should we be tender
227 To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us,
228 Play judge and executioner all himself,
229 For we do fear the law? What company
230 Discover you abroad?
231 BELARIUS.
232 No single soul
233 Can we set eye on, but in all safe reason
234 He must have some attendants. Though his humour
235 Was nothing but mutation, ay, and that
236 From one bad thing to worse, not frenzy, not
237 Absolute madness could so far have rav’d,
238 To bring him here alone. Although perhaps
239 It may be heard at court that such as we
240 Cave here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time
241 May make some stronger head, the which he hearing,
242 As it is like him, might break out and swear
243 He’d fetch us in; yet is’t not probable
244 To come alone, either he so undertaking
245 Or they so suffering. Then on good ground we fear,
246 If we do fear this body hath a tail
247 More perilous than the head.
248 ARVIRAGUS.
249 Let ordinance
250 Come as the gods foresay it. Howsoe’er,
251 My brother hath done well.
252 BELARIUS.
253 I had no mind
254 To hunt this day; the boy Fidele’s sickness
255 Did make my way long forth.
256 GUIDERIUS.
257 With his own sword,
258 Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta’en
259 His head from him. I’ll throw’t into the creek
260 Behind our rock, and let it to the sea
261 And tell the fishes he’s the Queen’s son, Cloten.
262 That’s all I reck.
263 [_Exit._]
264 BELARIUS.
265 I fear ’twill be reveng’d.
266 Would, Polydore, thou hadst not done’t! though valour
267 Becomes thee well enough.
268 ARVIRAGUS.
269 Would I had done’t,
270 So the revenge alone pursu’d me! Polydore,
271 I love thee brotherly, but envy much
272 Thou hast robb’d me of this deed. I would revenges,
273 That possible strength might meet, would seek us through,
274 And put us to our answer.
275 BELARIUS.
276 Well, ’tis done.
277 We’ll hunt no more today, nor seek for danger
278 Where there’s no profit. I prithee to our rock.
279 You and Fidele play the cooks; I’ll stay
280 Till hasty Polydore return, and bring him
281 To dinner presently.
282 ARVIRAGUS.
283 Poor sick Fidele!
284 I’ll willingly to him; to gain his colour
285 I’d let a parish of such Cloten’s blood,
286 And praise myself for charity.
287 [_Exit._]
288 BELARIUS.
289 O thou goddess,
290 Thou divine Nature, thou thyself thou blazon’st
291 In these two princely boys! They are as gentle
292 As zephyrs blowing below the violet,
293 Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough,
294 Their royal blood enchaf’d, as the rud’st wind
295 That by the top doth take the mountain pine
296 And make him stoop to th’ vale. ’Tis wonder
297 That an invisible instinct should frame them
298 To royalty unlearn’d, honour untaught,
299 Civility not seen from other, valour
300 That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop
301 As if it had been sow’d. Yet still it’s strange
302 What Cloten’s being here to us portends,
303 Or what his death will bring us.
304 Enter Guiderius.
305 GUIDERIUS.
306 Where’s my brother?
307 I have sent Cloten’s clotpoll down the stream,
308 In embassy to his mother; his body’s hostage
309 For his return.
310 [_Solemn music._]
311 BELARIUS.
312 My ingenious instrument!
313 Hark, Polydore, it sounds. But what occasion
314 Hath Cadwal now to give it motion? Hark!
315 GUIDERIUS.
316 Is he at home?
317 BELARIUS.
318 He went hence even now.
319 GUIDERIUS.
320 What does he mean? Since death of my dear’st mother
321 It did not speak before. All solemn things
322 Should answer solemn accidents. The matter?
323 Triumphs for nothing and lamenting toys
324 Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.
325 Is Cadwal mad?
326 Enter Arviragus with Imogen as dead, bearing her in his arms.
327 BELARIUS.
328 Look, here he comes,
329 And brings the dire occasion in his arms
330 Of what we blame him for!
331 ARVIRAGUS.
332 The bird is dead
333 That we have made so much on. I had rather
334 Have skipp’d from sixteen years of age to sixty,
335 To have turn’d my leaping time into a crutch,
336 Than have seen this.
337 GUIDERIUS.
338 O sweetest, fairest lily!
339 My brother wears thee not the one half so well
340 As when thou grew’st thyself.
341 BELARIUS.
342 O melancholy!
343 Who ever yet could sound thy bottom? find
344 The ooze to show what coast thy sluggish crare
345 Might’st easiliest harbour in? Thou blessed thing!
346 Jove knows what man thou mightst have made; but I,
347 Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy.
348 How found you him?
349 ARVIRAGUS.
350 Stark, as you see;
351 Thus smiling, as some fly had tickled slumber,
352 Not as death’s dart, being laugh’d at; his right cheek
353 Reposing on a cushion.
354 GUIDERIUS.
355 Where?
356 ARVIRAGUS.
357 O’ th’ floor;
358 His arms thus leagu’d. I thought he slept, and put
359 My clouted brogues from off my feet, whose rudeness
360 Answer’d my steps too loud.
361 GUIDERIUS.
362 Why, he but sleeps.
363 If he be gone he’ll make his grave a bed;
364 With female fairies will his tomb be haunted,
365 And worms will not come to thee.
366 ARVIRAGUS.
367 With fairest flowers,
368 Whilst summer lasts and I live here, Fidele,
369 I’ll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack
370 The flower that’s like thy face, pale primrose; nor
371 The azur’d hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor
372 The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,
373 Out-sweet’ned not thy breath. The ruddock would,
374 With charitable bill (O bill, sore shaming
375 Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie
376 Without a monument!) bring thee all this;
377 Yea, and furr’d moss besides, when flow’rs are none,
378 To winter-ground thy corse—
379 GUIDERIUS.
380 Prithee have done,
381 And do not play in wench-like words with that
382 Which is so serious. Let us bury him,
383 And not protract with admiration what
384 Is now due debt. To th’ grave.
385 ARVIRAGUS.
386 Say, where shall’s lay him?
387 GUIDERIUS.
388 By good Euriphile, our mother.
389 ARVIRAGUS.
390 Be’t so;
391 And let us, Polydore, though now our voices
392 Have got the mannish crack, sing him to th’ ground,
393 As once to our mother; use like note and words,
394 Save that Euriphile must be Fidele.
395 GUIDERIUS.
396 Cadwal,
397 I cannot sing. I’ll weep, and word it with thee;
398 For notes of sorrow out of tune are worse
399 Than priests and fanes that lie.
400 ARVIRAGUS.
401 We’ll speak it, then.
402 BELARIUS.
403 Great griefs, I see, med’cine the less, for Cloten
404 Is quite forgot. He was a queen’s son, boys;
405 And though he came our enemy, remember
406 He was paid for that. Though mean and mighty rotting
407 Together have one dust, yet reverence,
408 That angel of the world, doth make distinction
409 Of place ’tween high and low. Our foe was princely;
410 And though you took his life, as being our foe,
411 Yet bury him as a prince.
412 GUIDERIUS.
413 Pray you fetch him hither.
414 Thersites’ body is as good as Ajax’,
415 When neither are alive.
416 ARVIRAGUS.
417 If you’ll go fetch him,
418 We’ll say our song the whilst. Brother, begin.
419 [_Exit Belarius._]
420 GUIDERIUS.
421 Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to th’ East;
422 My father hath a reason for’t.
423 ARVIRAGUS.
424 ’Tis true.
425 GUIDERIUS.
426 Come on, then, and remove him.
427 ARVIRAGUS.
428 So. Begin.
429 SONG
430 GUIDERIUS.
431 _ Fear no more the heat o’ th’ sun,
432 Nor the furious winter’s rages;
433 Thou thy worldly task hast done,
434 Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages.
435 Golden lads and girls all must,
436 As chimney-sweepers, come to dust._
437 ARVIRAGUS.
438 _ Fear no more the frown o’ th’ great;
439 Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke.
440 Care no more to clothe and eat;
441 To thee the reed is as the oak.
442 The sceptre, learning, physic, must
443 All follow this and come to dust._
444 GUIDERIUS.
445 _ Fear no more the lightning flash._
446 ARVIRAGUS.
447 _ Nor th’ all-dreaded thunder-stone._
448 GUIDERIUS.
449 _ Fear not slander, censure rash;_
450 ARVIRAGUS.
451 _ Thou hast finish’d joy and moan._
452 BOTH.
453 _ All lovers young, all lovers must
454 Consign to thee and come to dust._
455 GUIDERIUS.
456 _ No exorciser harm thee!_
457 ARVIRAGUS.
458 _ Nor no witchcraft charm thee!_
459 GUIDERIUS.
460 _ Ghost unlaid forbear thee!_
461 ARVIRAGUS.
462 _ Nothing ill come near thee!_
463 BOTH.
464 _ Quiet consummation have,
465 And renowned be thy grave!_
466 Enter Belarius with the body of Cloten.
467 GUIDERIUS.
468 We have done our obsequies. Come, lay him down.
469 BELARIUS.
470 Here’s a few flowers; but ’bout midnight, more.
471 The herbs that have on them cold dew o’ th’ night
472 Are strewings fit’st for graves. Upon their faces.
473 You were as flow’rs, now wither’d. Even so
474 These herblets shall which we upon you strew.
475 Come on, away. Apart upon our knees.
476 The ground that gave them first has them again.
477 Their pleasures here are past, so is their pain.
478 [_Exeunt all but Imogen._]
479 IMOGEN.
480 [_Awaking._] Yes, sir, to Milford Haven. Which is the way?
481 I thank you. By yond bush? Pray, how far thither?
482 ’Ods pittikins! can it be six mile yet?
483 I have gone all night. Faith, I’ll lie down and sleep.
484 But, soft! no bedfellow. O gods and goddesses!
485 [_Seeing the body._]
486 These flow’rs are like the pleasures of the world;
487 This bloody man, the care on’t. I hope I dream;
488 For so I thought I was a cave-keeper,
489 And cook to honest creatures. But ’tis not so;
490 ’Twas but a bolt of nothing, shot at nothing,
491 Which the brain makes of fumes. Our very eyes
492 Are sometimes, like our judgements, blind. Good faith,
493 I tremble still with fear; but if there be
494 Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity
495 As a wren’s eye, fear’d gods, a part of it!
496 The dream’s here still. Even when I wake it is
497 Without me, as within me; not imagin’d, felt.
498 A headless man? The garments of Posthumus?
499 I know the shape of’s leg; this is his hand,
500 His foot Mercurial, his Martial thigh,
501 The brawns of Hercules; but his Jovial face—
502 Murder in heaven! How! ’Tis gone. Pisanio,
503 All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks,
504 And mine to boot, be darted on thee! Thou,
505 Conspir’d with that irregulous devil, Cloten,
506 Hath here cut off my lord. To write and read
507 Be henceforth treacherous! Damn’d Pisanio
508 Hath with his forged letters (damn’d Pisanio)
509 From this most bravest vessel of the world
510 Struck the main-top. O Posthumus! alas,
511 Where is thy head? Where’s that? Ay me! where’s that?
512 Pisanio might have kill’d thee at the heart,
513 And left this head on. How should this be? Pisanio?
514 ’Tis he and Cloten; malice and lucre in them
515 Have laid this woe here. O, ’tis pregnant, pregnant!
516 The drug he gave me, which he said was precious
517 And cordial to me, have I not found it
518 Murd’rous to th’ senses? That confirms it home.
519 This is Pisanio’s deed, and Cloten. O!
520 Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood,
521 That we the horrider may seem to those
522 Which chance to find us. O, my lord, my lord!
523 [_Falls fainting on the body._]
524 Enter Lucius, Captains and a Soothsayer.
525 CAPTAIN.
526 To them the legions garrison’d in Gallia,
527 After your will, have cross’d the sea, attending
528 You here at Milford Haven; with your ships,
529 They are in readiness.
530 LUCIUS.
531 But what from Rome?
532 CAPTAIN.
533 The Senate hath stirr’d up the confiners
534 And gentlemen of Italy, most willing spirits,
535 That promise noble service; and they come
536 Under the conduct of bold Iachimo,
537 Sienna’s brother.
538 LUCIUS.
539 When expect you them?
540 CAPTAIN.
541 With the next benefit o’ th’ wind.
542 LUCIUS.
543 This forwardness
544 Makes our hopes fair. Command our present numbers
545 Be muster’d; bid the captains look to’t. Now, sir,
546 What have you dream’d of late of this war’s purpose?
547 SOOTHSAYER.
548 Last night the very gods show’d me a vision
549 (I fast and pray’d for their intelligence) thus:
550 I saw Jove’s bird, the Roman eagle, wing’d
551 From the spongy south to this part of the west,
552 There vanish’d in the sunbeams; which portends,
553 Unless my sins abuse my divination,
554 Success to th’ Roman host.
555 LUCIUS.
556 Dream often so,
557 And never false. Soft, ho! what trunk is here
558 Without his top? The ruin speaks that sometime
559 It was a worthy building. How? a page?
560 Or dead or sleeping on him? But dead, rather;
561 For nature doth abhor to make his bed
562 With the defunct, or sleep upon the dead.
563 Let’s see the boy’s face.
564 CAPTAIN.
565 He’s alive, my lord.
566 LUCIUS.
567 He’ll then instruct us of this body. Young one,
568 Inform us of thy fortunes; for it seems
569 They crave to be demanded. Who is this
570 Thou mak’st thy bloody pillow? Or who was he
571 That, otherwise than noble nature did,
572 Hath alter’d that good picture? What’s thy interest
573 In this sad wreck? How came’t? Who is’t?
574 What art thou?
575 IMOGEN.
576 I am nothing; or if not,
577 Nothing to be were better. This was my master,
578 A very valiant Briton and a good,
579 That here by mountaineers lies slain. Alas!
580 There is no more such masters. I may wander
581 From east to occident; cry out for service;
582 Try many, all good; serve truly; never
583 Find such another master.
584 LUCIUS.
585 ’Lack, good youth!
586 Thou mov’st no less with thy complaining than
587 Thy master in bleeding. Say his name, good friend.
588 IMOGEN.
589 Richard du Champ. [_Aside._] If I do lie, and do
590 No harm by it, though the gods hear, I hope
591 They’ll pardon it.—Say you, sir?
592 LUCIUS.
593 Thy name?
594 IMOGEN.
595 Fidele, sir.
596 LUCIUS.
597 Thou dost approve thyself the very same;
598 Thy name well fits thy faith, thy faith thy name.
599 Wilt take thy chance with me? I will not say
600 Thou shalt be so well master’d; but, be sure,
601 No less belov’d. The Roman Emperor’s letters,
602 Sent by a consul to me, should not sooner
603 Than thine own worth prefer thee. Go with me.
604 IMOGEN.
605 I’ll follow, sir. But first, an’t please the gods,
606 I’ll hide my master from the flies, as deep
607 As these poor pickaxes can dig; and when
608 With wild wood-leaves and weeds I ha’ strew’d his grave,
609 And on it said a century of prayers,
610 Such as I can, twice o’er, I’ll weep and sigh;
611 And leaving so his service, follow you,
612 So please you entertain me.
613 LUCIUS.
614 Ay, good youth;
615 And rather father thee than master thee.
616 My friends,
617 The boy hath taught us manly duties; let us
618 Find out the prettiest daisied plot we can,
619 And make him with our pikes and partisans
620 A grave. Come, arm him. Boy, he is preferr’d
621 By thee to us; and he shall be interr’d
622 As soldiers can. Be cheerful; wipe thine eyes.
623 Some falls are means the happier to arise.
624 [_Exeunt._]