mean,

Foundations fly the wretched: such, I
Where they should be reliev'd. Two beggars
told me,

As I had made my meal; and parted
With prayers for the provider.
Guid. Money, youth?

Arv. All gold and silver rather turn to dirt!
5 As 'tis no better reckon'd, but of those
Who worship dirty gods.

I could not miss my way: Will poor folk lye,
That have afflictions on them; knowing 'tis
A punishment, or trial? Yes: no wonder,
Whenrich ones scarce tell true: To lapse in fullness
Is sorer', than to lye in need; and falsehood
Is worse in kings, than beggars.-My dear lord!
Thou art one of the false ones: Now I think on 10
thee,

15

Imo. I see, you are angry:

Know, if you kill me for my fault, I should
Have dy'd, had I not made it.
Bel. Whither bound?
Imo. To Milford-Haven.
Bel. What's your name?

My hunger's gone; but even before, I was
At point to sink for food:-But what is this?
Here is a path to it: 'Tis some savage hold:
I were best not call; I dare not call: yet famine,
Ere clean it o'erthrow nature, makes it valiant.
Plenty, and peace, breeds cowards; hardness ever
Of hardiness is mother.-Ho! who's here?
If any thing that's civil, speak; if savage;
Take, or lend'.-Ho!-No answer; then I'll 20' is almost night: you shall have better cheer

Imo. Fidele, sir: I have a kirisman, who
Is bound for Italy; he embark'd at Milford;
To whom being going, almost spent with hunger,
I am fallen in this offence.

enter.

Best draw my sword; and if mine enemy
But fear the sword like me, he'll scarcely look on't.
Such a foe, good heavens! [She goes into the cace.
Enter Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus.
Bel. You, Polydore, have prov'd best wood-
man, and

Are master of the feast: Cadwal, and I,
Will play the cook, and servant; 'tis our match:
The sweat of industry would dry, and die,
But for the end it works to. Come, our stomachs
Will make what's homely, savoury: Weariness
Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth
Finds the down pillow hard.-Now,peace be here,
Poor house, that keeps thyself!

Guid. I am thoroughly weary.

[tite.

Arv. I am weak with toit, yet strong in appe-
Guid. There is cold meat i' the cave; we'll

Imo. Good masters, harm me not:

Before I enter'd here, I call'd; and thought
To have begg'd, or bought, what I have took:
[had found

good troth,

I have stolen nought; nor would not, though I
Gold strew'd o' the floor. Here's money for my

meat :

I would have left it on the board, so soon

Bel. Pr'ythee, fair youth,

Think us no churls; nor measure our good minds
By this rude place we live in. Well encounter'd!

Ere you depart; and thanks, to stay and eat it.—
Boys, bid him welcome.

Guid. Were you a woman, youth,

[nesty

I should woo hard, but be your groom.-In ho25I bid for you, as I'd buy.

30

Arv. I'll make 't my comfort,

He is a man; I'll love him as my brother:
And such a welcome as I'd give to him,

After long absence, such is yours:-Most wel-
Be sprightly, for you fall 'mongst friends. [come!
Imo. Mongst friends!

If brothers? Would it had been so,that

they
[prize
Had been my father's sons! then had my
35 Been less; and so more equal ballasting
To thee, Posthumus.

40

Bel. He wrings at some distress.
Guid. 'Would, I could free't!
Arv. Or I; whate'er it be,

What pain it cost, what danger! Gods!
Bel. Hark, boys.

Imo. Great men,

4

Aside.

[Whispering.

That had a court no bigger than this cave,
That did attend themselves, and had the virtue
45 Which their own conscience seal'd them (laying by
That nothing gift of differing multitudes),
Could not out-peer these twain. Pardon me, gods!
I'd change my sex to be companion with them,
Since Leonatus false.

50

55

Bel. It shall be so :

[in!

Boys, we'll go dress our hunt.-Fair youth, come
Discourse is heavy, fasting: when we have supp'd,
We'll mannerly demand thee of thy story,
So far as thou wilt speak it.

Guid. Pray, draw near. [lark, less welcome.
Aro. The night to the owl, and morn to the
3 Dr. Johnson suspects

1i. e. is a greater or heavier crime. 2 Civil, for human creature. that, after the words, if savage, a line is lost, and proposes to read the passage thus

If you are civilised and peaceable, take a price for what I want, or lend it for a future recompence; if you are rough inhospitable inhabitants of the mountain, speak, that I may know my state.

fering may here be applied in a sense equivalent to the many-headed rabble.

SCENE

A C T

IV.

The Forest near the Cace.

Enter Cloten.

ΙΑ
AM near to the place where they should meet, 25
if Pisanio have mapp'd it truly. How fit his
garments serve me! Why should his mistress, who
was made by him that made the taylor, not be fit
too? the rather (saving reverence of the word)
for, 'tis said, a woman's fitness comes by fits. 30
Therein I must play the workman. I dare speak
it to myself, (forit is not vain-glory for a man and his
glass to confer; in his own chamber, I mean) the
lines of my body are as well drawn as his; no
less young, more strong, not beneath him in for-35
tunes, beyond him in the advantage of the time,
above him in birth, alike conversant in general
services, and more remarkable in single opposi-
tions: yet this imperseverant thing loves him
in my despight. What mortality is! Posthumus, 40
thy head, which is now growing upon thy shoul-|
ders, shall within this hour be off; thy mistress
enforced; thy garments cut to pieces before thy
face and all this done, spurn her home to her
father; who may, haply, be a little angry for my 45
so rough usage: but my mother, having power of
his testiness, shall turn all into my commenda-
tions. My horse is ty'd up safe: Out, sword, and
to a sore purpose! Fortune, put them into my
hand! This is the very description of their meet-50
ing-place; and the fellow dares not deceive me.

Imo. So man and man should be;
But clay and clay differs in dignity,,
Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
Guid. 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. 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
I'll rob none but myself; and let me die,
Stealing so poorly.

Guid. 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. 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. Brother, farewell.

Imo. I wish you sport.

Art. You health.So please you, sir.
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,
|60|Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.

1i.e. he commands the commission to be given to you. perseverant.

2

Imperseverant means no more than That is, keep your daily course uninterrupted: if the stated plan of life is once broken, nothing follows but confusion.

My dagger in my mouth. Say, what thou art;
Why I should yield to thee?

Clot. Thou villain base,

Know'st me not by my clothes?

Guid. No, nor thy taylor, rascal,

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

Clot. Thou precious varlet,

My taylor made them not.

Guid. Hence then, and thank

[fool;

The man that gave them thee. Thou art some
I am loath to beat thec.

Clot. Thou injurious thief,

Hear but my name, and tremble.
Guid. What's thy name?

Clot. Cloten, thou villain.

Guid. Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name,

I cannot tremble at it; were it toad, adder, spider,
Twould move me sooner.

Clot. To thy further fear,

Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know
I am son to the queen.

Guid. I am sorry for 't; not seeming

So worthy as thy birth.

Clot. Art not afeard?

Guid. Those that I reverence, those I fear the
wise:

At fools I laugh, not fear them.
Clot. Die the death:

30 When I have slain thee with my proper hind,
I'll follow those that even now fled hence,
And on the gates of Lud's town set your heads:
Yield, rustic mountaineer. [Fight, and exeunt.
Enter Belarius, and Arviragus.

Bel. It is great morning. Come; away.-35
Who's there?

'Stir for move.

Bel. No company's abroad.

Arv. None in the world: You did mistake him, sure.

Bel. I cannot tell: Long is it since I saw him, But time hath nothing blurr'd those lines of favour 40 Which then he wore; the snatches in his voice, And burst of speaking, were as his: I am absolute, 'Twas very Cloten.

45

50

Aro. In this place we left them:

I wish my brother make good time with him,
You say he is so fell.

Bel. Being scarce made up,

I mean, to man, he had not apprehension
Of roaring terrors: For the effect of judgement
Is oft the cause of fear.-But see, thy brother.
Re-enter Guiderius, with Cloten's head.
Guid. 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

55 My head, as I do his.

Bel. What hast thou done?

Guid. I am perfect, what: cut off one Cloten's head,

Son to the queen, after his own report;

60 Who call'd me traitor, mountaineer; and swore, With his own single hand he'd take us in,

i. e. well-informed, what.

2 Gentle implies well-born, of birth above the vulgar. word for the fibres of a tree. A Gallicism. Grand-jour. To take in means, here, to conquer, to subdue.

3 N 2

Displace

Can we set eye on, but, in all safe reason,

[Exit.

I'd let a parish of such Cloten's blood,
And praise myself for charity.

Bel. O thou goddess,

Thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon'st
5 In these two princely boys! They are as gentle
As zephyrs, blowing below the violet,
Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough,
Their royal blood enchaf'd, as the rudest wind,
That by the top doth take the mountain pine,
10 And make him stoop to the vale. "Tis wonderful,
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
15 As if it had been sow'd! Yet still it's strange,
What Cloten's being here to us portends;
Or what his death will bring us.

He must have some attendants. Tho' his honour
Was nothing but mutation2; ay, and that
From one bad thing to worse; not frenzy, not
Absolute madness could so far have rav'd,
To bring him here alone: Although, perhaps,
It may be heard at court, that such as we
Cave here, hunt here, are out-laws, and in time
May make some stronger head; the which he 20
hearing,

(As it is like him) might break out, and swear
He'd 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

More perilous than the head.

Arv. Let ordinance

Come as the gods foresay it: howsoe'er,

My brother hath done well.

Bel. I had no mind

To hunt this day: the boy Fidele's sickness
Did make my way long forth 3.

Guid. With his own sword,

Re-enter Guiderius.

Guid. Where's my brother?

I have sent Cloten's clot-pole down the stream,
In embassy to his mother; his body's hostage
For his return.
[Solemn musick.

Bel. My ingenious instrument!

25 Hark, Polydore, it sounds! But what occasion Hath Cadwal now to give it motion? Hark! Guid. Is he at home?

30

Art. Poor sick Fidele!

I'll willingly to him: To gain his colour,

1 For is here used in the sense of because.

the fashion, which was perpetually changing.
the cave tedious.
i. e. such pursuit of

Re-enter Arviragus, with Imogen as dead, bearing
her in his arms.

Bel. Look, here he comes,
And brings the dire occasion in his arms,
40 Of what we blame him for!

Art. The bird is dead,

That we have made so much on. I had rather
Have skipp'd from sixteen years of age to sixty,
And turn'd my leaping time into a crutch,
45 Than have seen this.

Guid. O sweetest, fairest lily!

My brother wears thee not the one half so well,
As when thou grew'st thyself.

Bel. O, melancholy!

50 Who ever yet could sound thy bottom? find The ooze, to shew what coast thy sluggish crare' Might easiliest harbour in?-Thou blessed thing! Jove knows what man thou might'st have made; but I',

55 Thou dy'dst, a most rare boy, of melancholy!How found you him?

Art. Stark, as you sce;

Thus smiling, as some fly had tickled slumber,

2 That is, The only notion he had of honour was 1i. e. Fidele's sickness made my walk forth from vengeance as fell within any possibility of opposition. A crare is a small trading vessel, called in the Latin of the middle ages crayera. The word often The meaning is," Jove knows what man thou might'st have made,

occurs in Holinshed.

but I know thou dy'dst.'

Nor

And though you took his life, as being our foe, 50I thank you.- By yon bush-Pray, how far

Clouted brogues are shoes strengthened with clout or hob-nails. In some parts of England, thin plates of iron called clouts are likewise fixed to the shoes of ploughmen. The ruddock is the redbreast, to which bird the office of covering the dead is ascribed. Paid is here used for punished. *Meaning, that reverence, or due regard to subordination, is the power which keeps peace and order in the world. To consign to thee, is to seal the same contract with thee, i. e. add their names to thine upon the register of death, This diminutive adjuration is derived from God's my pity.