done, spurn her home to her father; who may, haply, be a little angry for my so rough usage: but my mother, having power of his testiness, shall turn all into my commendations. My horse is tied up safe: Out, sword, and to a sore purpose! Fortune, put them into my hand! This is the very description of their meeting-place; and the fellow dares not deceive me. [Exit.

SCENE II.

Before the Cave.

Enter, from the Cave, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS,
ARVIRAGUS, and IMOGEN.

Bel. You are not well: [to Imo.] remain here in the

So man and man should be;

But clay and clay differs in dignity,

Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
Gui. Go you to hunting, I'll abide with him.
Imo. 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;
Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom
Is breach of all.3 I am ill; but your being by me
Cannot amend me: Society is no comfort

To one not sociable: I'm not very sick,

Shakspeare, who in The Winter's Tale, makes a Clown say: "If thou 'It see a thing to talk on after thou art dead," would not scruple to give the expression in the text to so fantastick a character as Cloten. The garments of Posthumus might indeed be cut to pieces before his face, though his head were off; no one, however, but Cloten, would consider this circumstance as any aggravation of the insult. Malone.

2

spurn her home to her father;] Cloten seems to delight in rehearsing to himself his brutal intentions; for all this he has already said in a former scene: "—and when my lust hath dined, -to the court I'll knock her back, foot her home again." Steevens. 3 Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom

Is breach of all.] Keep your daily course uninterrupted; if the stated plan of life is once broken, nothing follows but confusion.

Johnson.

Since I can reason of it. Pray you, trust me here:
I'll rob none but myself; and let me die,

Stealing so poorly.

Gui.

I love thee; I have spoke it:
How much the quantity, the weight as much,
As I do love my father.

Bel.

What? how? how?
Arv. If it be sin to say so, sir, 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,
And a demand who is 't shall die, I 'd say,
My father, not this youth.

Bel.

[Aside.

O noble strain!
O worthiness of nature! breed of greatness!
Cowards father cowards, and base things sire base:
Nature hath meal, and bran; contempt, and grace.
I am not their father; yet who this should be,
Doth miracle itself, lov'd before me.-

'Tis the ninth hour o' the morn.

Arv.

Imo. I wish ye sport.

Arv.

Brother, farewel.

You health. So please you, sir.5

Imo. [aside] These are kind creatures. Gods, what

lies I have heard!

Our courtiers say, all 's savage, but at court:

Experience, O, thou disprov'st report!

The imperious seas breed monsters; for the dish,
Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.

I am sick still; heart-sick:-Pisanio,
I'll now taste of thy drug.

4 How much the quantity,] I read-As much the quantity.

Johnson. Surely the present reading has exactly the same meaning. How much soever the mass of my affection to my father may be, so much precisely is my love for thee: and as much as my filial love weighs, so much also weighs my affection for thee. Malone.

5

So please you, sir.] I cannot relish this courtly phrase from the mouth of Arviragus. It should rather, I think, begin Imogen's speech. Tyrwhitt.

6 The imperious seas-] Imperious was used by Shakspeare for imperial. Malone.

Gui.

I could not stir him:7

He said, he was gentle, but unfortunate;
Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest.

Arv. Thus did he answer me: yet said, hereafter

I might know more.

Bel.
To the field, to the field:-
We'll leave you for this time; go in, and rest.
Arv. We'll not be long away.

Bel.

For you must be our housewife.

Imo.

I am bound to you.

Bel.

Pray, be not sick,

Well, or ill,

And so shalt be ever." [Exit Imo. This youth, howe'er distress'd,1 appears, he hath had Good ancestors.

Arv.

How angel-like he sings!

Gui. But his neat cookery! He cut our roots in

characters ;3

7 I could not stir him:] Not move him to tell his story.

8

Johnson.

gentle, but unfortunate;] Gentle, is well-born, of birth above the vulgar. Johnson.

Rather, of rank above the vulgar. So, in King Henry V: be he ne'er so vile,

66

"This day shall gentle his condition." Steevens.

9 And so shall be ever.] The adverb-so, was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer for the sake of metre. Steevens.

1 Imo. Well, or ill.

I am bound to you.

Bel. And so shalt be ever.

This youth, howe'er distress'd, &c.] These speeches are improperly distributed between Imogen and Belarius; and I flatter myself that every reader of attention will approve of my amending the passage, and dividing them in the following manner:

Imo. Well, or ill,

I am bound to you; and shall be ever.

Bel. This youth, howe'er distress'd, &c. M. Mason. And shalt be ever.] That is, you shall ever receive from me the same kindness that you do at present: you shall thus only be bound to me for ever. Malone.

2 Gui. But his neat cookery! &c.] Only the first four words of this speech are given in the old copy to Guiderius: The name of Arviragus is prefixed to the remainder, as well as to the next speech. The correction was made by Mr. Steevens. Malone.

And sauc'd our broths, as Juno had been sick,
And he her dieter.

A smiling with a sigh: as if the sigh

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.

I do note,

Gui.
That grief and patience, rooted in him both,
Mingle their spurs together.

Arv.

4

Grow, patience!

And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine

His perishing root, with the increasing vine!"

Bel. It is great morning. Come; away.-Who's there?

3

He cut our roots in characters;] So, in Fletcher's Elder Brother, Act IV:

"And how to cut his meat in characters."

Steevens.

rooted in him both,] Old copy-in them. Corrected by Mr.

Pope. Malone.

5 Mingle their spurs together.] Spurs, an old word for the fibres of a tree. Pope.

Spurs are the longest and largest leading roots of trees. Our poet has again used the same word in The Tempest:

66

the strong bas'd promontory

"Have I made shake, and by the spurs

"Pluck'd up the pine and cedar."

Hence probably the spur of a post; the short wooden buttress affixed to it, to keep it firm in the ground. Malone.

6 And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine

His perishing root, with the increasing vine!] Shakspeare had only seen English vines which grow against walls, and therefore may be sometimes entangled with the elder. Perhaps we should read-untwine-from the vine. Johnson.

Surely this is the meaning of the words without any change. May patience increase, and may the stinking elder, grief, no longer twine his decaying [or destructive, if perishing is used actively,] root with the vine, patience, thus increasing!— As to unwine is here used for to cease to twine, so, in King Henry VIII, theword uncontemned having been used, the poet has constructed the remainder of the sentence as if he had written not contemned. See Vol. XI, p. 279, n. 4. Malone.

7 It is great morning ] A Gallicism. Grand jour. Steevens.

Enter CLOTEN.

Clo. I cannot find those runagates; that villain Hath mock'd me:-I am faint.

Bel.

Those runagates!

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.
Gui. He is but one: You and my brother search
What companies are near: pray you, away;
Let me alone with him.

[Exeunt BEL. and ARV. Clo. Soft! What are you That fly me thus? some villain mountaineers? I have heard of such.-What slave art thou?

Gui.

A thing

Thou art a robber,

More slavish did I ne'er, than answering
A slave without a knock. 8

Clo.

A law-breaker, a villain: Yield thee, thief.

Gui. 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?

Clo.

Know'st me not by my clothes?

Gui.

Thou villain base,

No, nor thy tailor, rascal,

Who is thy grandfather; he made those clothes,
Which, as it seems, make thee."

8

than answering

A slave without a knock] Than answering that abusive word slave. Slave should be printed in Italicks. M Mason.

Mr. M Mason's interpretation is supported by a passage in Romeo and Juliet:

9

"Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again."

-for I wear not

Malone.

My dagger in my mouth.] So, in Solyman and Perseda, 1599: "I fight not with my tongue: this is my oratrix." Malone. 1 No,] This negation is at once superfluous and injurious to the Steevens.

metre.

2 No, nor thy tailor, rascal,

Who is thy grandfather; he made those clothes,

Which, as it seems, make thee.] See a note on a similar passage in a former scene, p. 92, n. 9. Steevens.