The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Part 99

Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace.

I'm not their father; yet who this should be Doth miracle itself, lov'd before me.- 'Tis the ninth hour o' th' morn.

ARVIRAGUS. Brother, farewell.

IMOGEN. I wish ye sport.

ARVIRAGUS. Your health. [To BELARIUS] So please you, sir.

IMOGEN. [Aside] These are kind creatures. G.o.ds, what lies I have heard!

Our courtiers say all's savage but at court.

Experience, O, thou disprov'st report!

Th' 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. [Swallows some]

GUIDERIUS. I could not stir him.

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

ARVIRAGUS. Thus did he answer me; yet said hereafter I might know more.

BELARIUS. To th' field, to th' field!

We'll leave you for this time. Go in and rest.

ARVIRAGUS. We'll not be long away.

BELARIUS. Pray be not sick, For you must be our huswife.

IMOGEN. Well, or ill, I am bound to you.

BELARIUS. And shalt be ever. Exit IMOGEN into the cave This youth, howe'er distress'd, appears he hath had Good ancestors.

ARVIRAGUS. How angel-like he sings!

GUIDERIUS. But his neat cookery! He cut our roots in characters, And sauc'd our broths as Juno had been sick, And he her dieter.

ARVIRAGUS. n.o.bly he yokes 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.

GUIDERIUS. I do note 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!

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?

Means he not us? I partly know him; 'tis Cloten, the son o' th' 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 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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, 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 I am son to th' Queen.

GUIDERIUS. I'm sorry for't; not seeming So worthy as thy birth.

CLOTEN. Art not afeard?

GUIDERIUS. Those that I reverence, those I fear- the wise: 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.

Yield, rustic mountaineer. Exeunt, fighting

Re-enter BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS

BELARIUS. No company's 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 Which then he wore; the s.n.a.t.c.hes 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, You say he is so fell.

BELARIUS. Being scarce made up, I mean to man, he had not apprehension Or roaring terrors; for defect of judgment Is oft the cease of fear.

Re-enter GUIDERIUS with CLOTEN'S head

But, see, thy brother.

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.

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'd take us in, Displace our heads where- thank the G.o.ds!- 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 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?

BELARIUS. No single soul Can we set eye on, but in an 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 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 outlaws, and in time May make some stronger head- the which he 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.

ARVIRAGUS. Let ordinance Come as the G.o.ds foresay it. Howsoe'er, My brother hath done well.

BELARIUS. I had no mind 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 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 reveng'd.

Would, Polydore, thou hadst not done't! though valour Becomes thee well enough.

ARVIRAGUS. Would I had done't, So the revenge alone pursu'd me! Polydore, I love thee brotherly, but envy much Thou hast robb'd me of this deed. I would revenges, 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.

You and Fidele play the cooks; I'll stay Till hasty Polydore return, and bring him To dinner presently.

ARVIRAGUS. Poor sick Fidele!

I'll willingly to him; to gain his colour I'd let a parish of such Cloten's blood, And praise myself for charity. Exit BELARIUS. O thou G.o.ddess, Thou divine Nature, thou thyself thou blazon'st 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 rud'st wind That by the top doth take the mountain pine And make him stoop to th' vale. 'Tis wonder 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 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 emba.s.sy to his mother; his body's hostage 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?

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 Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.

Is Cadwal mad?

Re-enter ARVIRAGUS, with IMOGEN as dead, bearing her in his arms

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