 |
 |
 |
Contents Page
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Dramatis Personae
|
 |
 |
/ Home / Library / Complete Shakespeare / Cymbeline / Act IV Scene II
Printable
version of this page
Cymbeline: Act 4 Scene 2
Scene II Before the cave of Belarius.
- [Enter, from the cave, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS,
- ARVIRAGUS, and IMOGEN]
- BELARIUS
- [To IMOGEN] You are not well: remain here in the cave;
- We'll come to you after hunting.
- ARVIRAGUS
- [To IMOGEN] Brother, stay here
- Are we not brothers?
- IMOGEN
- So man and man should be;
- But clay and clay differs in dignity,
- Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
- GUIDERIUS
- Go you to hunting; I'll abide with him.
- IMOGEN
- 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.
- GUIDERIUS
- I love thee; I have spoke it
- How much the quantity, the weight as much,
- As I do love my father.
- BELARIUS
- What! how! how!
- ARVIRAGUS
- If it be sin to say so, 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.'
- BELARIUS
- [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'm not their father; yet who this should be,
- Doth miracle itself, loved before me.
- 'Tis the ninth hour o' the morn.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Brother, farewell.
- IMOGEN
- I wish ye sport.
- ARVIRAGUS
- You health. So please you, sir.
- IMOGEN
- [Aside] These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies
- I have heard!
- Our courtiers say all's savage but at court:
- Experience, O, thou disprovest 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.
- [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 the field, to the 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 housewife.
- IMOGEN
- Well or ill,
- I am bound to you.
- BELARIUS
- And shalt be ever.
- [Exit IMOGEN, to the cave]
- This youth, how'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 sauced our broths, as Juno had been sick
- And he her dieter.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Nobly 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' 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!
- 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 the queen.
- GUIDERIUS
- I am 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 companies 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 snatches 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
- Of roaring terrors; for the effect of judgment
- Is oft the cause of fear. But, see, thy brother.
- [Re-enter GUIDERIUS, with CLOTEN'S head]
- 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'ld take us in
- Displace our heads where--thank the gods!--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 all 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 raved
- 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'ld 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 gods 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 revenged:
- Would, Polydote, thou hadst not done't! though valour
- Becomes thee well enough.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Would I had done't
- So the revenge alone pursued 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 Polydote return, and bring him
- To dinner presently.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Poor sick Fidele!
- I'll weringly to him: to gain his colour
- I'ld let a parish of such Clotens' blood,
- And praise myself for charity.
- [Exit]
- BELARIUS
- O thou goddess,
- Thou divine Nature, how 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 enchafed, as the rudest wind,
- That by the top doth take the mountain pine,
- And make him stoop to the 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 embassy 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?
- BELARIUS
- Look, here he comes,
- And brings the dire occasion in his arms
- Of what we blame him for.
- [Re-enter ARVIRAGUS, with IMOGEN, as dead,
- bearing her in his arms]
- ARVIRAGUS
- The bird is dead
- That we have made so much on. I had rather
- Have skipp'd from sixteen years of age to sixty,
- To have turn'd my leaping-time into a crutch,
- Than have seen this.
- GUIDERIUS
- O sweetest, fairest lily!
- My brother wears thee not the one half so well
- As when thou grew'st thyself.
- BELARIUS
- O melancholy!
- Who ever yet could sound thy bottom? find
- The ooze, to show what coast thy sluggish crare
- Might easiliest harbour in? Thou blessed thing!
- Jove knows what man thou mightst have made; but I,
- Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy.
- How found you him?
- ARVIRAGUS
- Stark, as you see:
- Thus smiling, as some fly hid tickled slumber,
- Not as death's dart, being laugh'd at; his
- right cheek
- Reposing on a cushion.
- GUIDERIUS
- Where?
- ARVIRAGUS
- O' the floor;
- His arms thus leagued: I thought he slept, and put
- My clouted brogues from off my feet, whose rudeness
- Answer'd my steps too loud.
- GUIDERIUS
- Why, he but sleeps:
- If he be gone, he'll make his grave a bed;
- With female fairies will his tomb be haunted,
- And worms will not come to thee.
- ARVIRAGUS
- With fairest flowers
- Whilst summer lasts and I live here, Fidele,
- I'll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack
- The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor
- The azured harebell, like thy veins, no, nor
- The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,
- Out-sweeten'd not thy breath: the ruddock would,
- With charitable bill,--O bill, sore-shaming
- Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie
- Without a monument!--bring thee all this;
- Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none,
- To winter-ground thy corse.
- GUIDERIUS
- Prithee, have done;
- And do not play in wench-like words with that
- Which is so serious. Let us bury him,
- And not protract with admiration what
- Is now due debt. To the grave!
- ARVIRAGUS
- Say, where shall's lay him?
- GUIDERIUS
- By good Euriphile, our mother.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Be't so:
- And let us, Polydore, though now our voices
- Have got the mannish crack, sing him to the ground,
- As once our mother; use like note and words,
- Save that Euriphile must be Fidele.
- GUIDERIUS
- Cadwal,
- I cannot sing: I'll weep, and word it with thee;
- For notes of sorrow out of tune are worse
- Than priests and fanes that lie.
- ARVIRAGUS
- We'll speak it, then.
- BELARIUS
- Great griefs, I see, medicine the less; for Cloten
- Is quite forgot. He was a queen's son, boys;
- And though he came our enemy, remember
- He was paid for that: though mean and
- mighty, rotting
- Together, have one dust, yet reverence,
- That angel of the world, doth make distinction
- Of place 'tween high and low. Our foe was princely
- And though you took his life, as being our foe,
- Yet bury him as a prince.
- GUIDERIUS
- Pray You, fetch him hither.
- Thersites' body is as good as Ajax',
- When neither are alive.
- ARVIRAGUS
- If you'll go fetch him,
- We'll say our song the whilst. Brother, begin.
- [Exit BELARIUS]
- GUIDERIUS
- Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to the east;
- My father hath a reason for't.
- ARVIRAGUS
- 'Tis true.
- GUIDERIUS
- Come on then, and remove him.
- ARVIRAGUS
- So. Begin.
- [SONG]
- GUIDERIUS
- Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
- Nor the furious winter's rages;
- Thou thy worldly task hast done,
- Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages:
- Golden lads and girls all must,
- As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
- ARVIRAGUS
- Fear no more the frown o' the great;
- Thou art past the tyrant's stroke;
- Care no more to clothe and eat;
- To thee the reed is as the oak:
- The sceptre, learning, physic, must
- All follow this, and come to dust.
- GUIDERIUS
- Fear no more the lightning flash,
- ARVIRAGUS
- Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
- GUIDERIUS
- Fear not slander, censure rash;
- ARVIRAGUS
- Thou hast finish'd joy and moan:
- GUIDERIUS / ARVIRAGUS
- All lovers young, all lovers must
- Consign to thee, and come to dust.
- GUIDERIUS
- No exorciser harm thee!
- ARVIRAGUS
- Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
- GUIDERIUS
- Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
- ARVIRAGUS
- Nothing ill come near thee!
- GUIDERIUS / ARVIRAGUS
- Quiet consummation have;
- And renowned be thy grave!
- [Re-enter BELARIUS, with the body of CLOTEN]
- GUIDERIUS
- We have done our obsequies: come, lay him down.
- BELARIUS
- Here's a few flowers; but 'bout midnight, more:
- The herbs that have on them cold dew o' the night
- Are strewings fitt'st for graves. Upon their faces.
- You were as flowers, now wither'd: even so
- These herblets shall, which we upon you strew.
- Come on, away: apart upon our knees.
- The ground that gave them first has them again:
- Their pleasures here are past, so is their pain.
- [Exeunt BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS]
- IMOGEN
- [Awaking] Yes, sir, to Milford-Haven; which is
- the way?--
- I thank you.--By yond bush?--Pray, how far thither?
- 'Ods pittikins! can it be six mile yet?--
- I have gone all night. 'Faith, I'll lie down and sleep.
- But, soft! no bedfellow!--O gods and goddesses!
- [Seeing the body of CLOTEN]
- These flowers are like the pleasures of the world;
- This bloody man, the care on't. I hope I dream;
- For so I thought I was a cave-keeper,
- And cook to honest creatures: but 'tis not so;
- 'Twas but a bolt of nothing, shot at nothing,
- Which the brain makes of fumes: our very eyes
- Are sometimes like our judgments, blind. Good faith,
- I tremble stiff with fear: but if there be
- Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity
- As a wren's eye, fear'd gods, a part of it!
- The dream's here still: even when I wake, it is
- Without me, as within me; not imagined, felt.
- A headless man! The garments of Posthumus!
- I know the shape of's leg: this is his hand;
- His foot Mercurial; his Martial thigh;
- The brawns of Hercules: but his Jovial face
- Murder in heaven?--How!--'Tis gone. Pisanio,
- All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks,
- And mine to boot, be darted on thee! Thou,
- Conspired with that irregulous devil, Cloten,
- Hast here cut off my lord. To write and read
- Be henceforth treacherous! Damn'd Pisanio
- Hath with his forged letters,--damn'd Pisanio--
- From this most bravest vessel of the world
- Struck the main-top! O Posthumus! alas,
- Where is thy head? where's that? Ay me!
- where's that?
- Pisanio might have kill'd thee at the heart,
- And left this head on. How should this be? Pisanio?
- 'Tis he and Cloten: malice and lucre in them
- Have laid this woe here. O, 'tis pregnant, pregnant!
- The drug he gave me, which he said was precious
- And cordial to me, have I not found it
- Murderous to the senses? That confirms it home:
- This is Pisanio's deed, and Cloten's: O!
- Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood,
- That we the horrider may seem to those
- Which chance to find us: O, my lord, my lord!
- [Falls on the body]
- [Enter LUCIUS, a Captain and other Officers,
- and a Soothsayer]
- CAPTAIN
- To them the legions garrison'd in Gailia,
- After your will, have cross'd the sea, attending
- You here at Milford-Haven with your ships:
- They are in readiness.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- But what from Rome?
- CAPTAIN
- The senate hath stirr'd up the confiners
- And gentlemen of Italy, most willing spirits,
- That promise noble service: and they come
- Under the conduct of bold Iachimo,
- Syenna's brother.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- When expect you them?
- CAPTAIN
- With the next benefit o' the wind.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- This forwardness
- Makes our hopes fair. Command our present numbers
- Be muster'd; bid the captains look to't. Now, sir,
- What have you dream'd of late of this war's purpose?
- SOOTHSAYER
- Last night the very gods show'd me a vision--
- I fast and pray'd for their intelligence--thus:
- I saw Jove's bird, the Roman eagle, wing'd
- From the spongy south to this part of the west,
- There vanish'd in the sunbeams: which portends--
- Unless my sins abuse my divination--
- Success to the Roman host.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Dream often so,
- And never false. Soft, ho! what trunk is here
- Without his top? The ruin speaks that sometime
- It was a worthy building. How! a page!
- Or dead, or sleeping on him? But dead rather;
- For nature doth abhor to make his bed
- With the defunct, or sleep upon the dead.
- Let's see the boy's face.
- CAPTAIN
- He's alive, my lord.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- He'll then instruct us of this body. Young one,
- Inform us of thy fortunes, for it seems
- They crave to be demanded. Who is this
- Thou makest thy bloody pillow? Or who was he
- That, otherwise than noble nature did,
- Hath alter'd that good picture? What's thy interest
- In this sad wreck? How came it? Who is it?
- What art thou?
- IMOGEN
- I am nothing: or if not,
- Nothing to be were better. This was my master,
- A very valiant Briton and a good,
- That here by mountaineers lies slain. Alas!
- There is no more such masters: I may wander
- From east to occident, cry out for service,
- Try many, all good, serve truly, never
- Find such another master.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- 'Lack, good youth!
- Thou movest no less with thy complaining than
- Thy master in bleeding: say his name, good friend.
- IMOGEN
- Richard du Champ.
- [Aside]
- If I do lie and do
- No harm by it, though the gods hear, I hope
- They'll pardon it.--Say you, sir?
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Thy name?
- IMOGEN
- Fidele, sir.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Thou dost approve thyself the very same:
- Thy name well fits thy faith, thy faith thy name.
- Wilt take thy chance with me? I will not say
- Thou shalt be so well master'd, but, be sure,
- No less beloved. The Roman emperor's letters,
- Sent by a consul to me, should not sooner
- Than thine own worth prefer thee: go with me.
- IMOGEN
- I'll follow, sir. But first, an't please the gods,
- I'll hide my master from the flies, as deep
- As these poor pickaxes can dig; and when
- With wild wood-leaves and weeds I ha' strew'd his grave,
- And on it said a century of prayers,
- Such as I can, twice o'er, I'll weep and sigh;
- And leaving so his service, follow you,
- So please you entertain me.
- CAIUS LUCIUS
- Ay, good youth!
- And rather father thee than master thee.
- My friends,
- The boy hath taught us manly duties: let us
- Find out the prettiest daisied plot we can,
- And make him with our pikes and partisans
- A grave: come, arm him. Boy, he is preferr'd
- By thee to us, and he shall be interr'd
- As soldiers can. Be cheerful; wipe thine eyes
- Some falls are means the happier to arise.
- [Exeunt]
|
 |
|
 |