Complete Plays, The

by William Shakespeare

  Is worse in kings than beggars. My dear lord!

  Thou art one o’ the false ones. Now I think on thee,

  My hunger’s gone; but even before, I was

  At point to sink for food. But what is this?

  Here is a path to’t: ’tis some savage hold:

  I were best not to 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 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!

  Exit, to the cave

  Enter Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus

  Belarius

  You, Polydote, have proved best woodman 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 keep’st thyself!

  Guiderius

  I am thoroughly weary.

  Arviragus

  I am weak with toil, yet strong in appetite.

  Guiderius

  There is cold meat i’ the cave; we’ll browse on that,

  Whilst what we have kill’d be cook’d.

  Belarius

  [Looking into the cave]

  Stay; come not in.

  But that it eats our victuals, I should think

  Here were a fairy.

  Guiderius

  What’s the matter, sir?

  Belarius

  By Jupiter, an angel! or, if not,

  An earthly paragon! Behold divineness

  No elder than a boy!

  Re-enter Imogen

  Imogen

  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: good troth,

  I have stol’n nought, nor would not, though I had found

  Gold strew’d i’ the floor. Here’s money for my meat:

  I would have left it on the board so soon

  As I had made my meal, and parted

  With prayers for the provider.

  Guiderius

  Money, youth?

  Arviragus

  All gold and silver rather turn to dirt!

  As ’tis no better reckon’d, but of those

  Who worship dirty gods.

  Imogen

  I see you’re angry:

  Know, if you kill me for my fault, I should

  Have died had I not made it.

  Belarius

  Whither bound?

  Imogen

  To Milford-Haven.

  Belarius

  What’s your name?

  Imogen

  Fidele, sir. I have a kinsman who

  Is bound for Italy; he embark’d at Milford;

  To whom being going, almost spent with hunger,

  I am fall’n in this offence.

  Belarius

  Prithee, fair youth,

  Think us no churls, nor measure our good minds

  By this rude place we live in. Well encounter’d!

  ’Tis almost night: you shall have better cheer

  Ere you depart: and thanks to stay and eat it.

  Boys, bid him welcome.

  Guiderius

  Were you a woman, youth,

  I should woo hard but be your groom. In honesty,

  I bid for you as I’d buy.

  Arviragus

  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 welcome!

  Be sprightly, for you fall ’mongst friends.

  Imogen

  ’Mongst friends,

  If brothers.

  Aside

  Would it had been so, that they

  Had been my father’s sons! then had my prize

  Been less, and so more equal ballasting

  To thee, Posthumus.

  Belarius

  He wrings at some distress.

  Guiderius

  Would I could free’t!

  Arviragus

  Or I, whate’er it be,

  What pain it cost, what danger. God’s!

  Belarius

  Hark, boys.

  Whispering

  Imogen

  Great men,

  That had a court no bigger than this cave,

  That did attend themselves and had the virtue

  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’s false.

  Belarius

  It shall be so.

  Boys, we’ll go dress our hunt. Fair youth, come in:

  Discourse is heavy, fasting; when we have supp’d,

  We’ll mannerly demand thee of thy story,

  So far as thou wilt speak it.

  Guiderius

  Pray, draw near.

  Arviragus

  The night to the owl and morn to the lark less welcome.

  Imogen

  Thanks, sir.

  Arviragus

  I pray, draw near.

  Exeunt

  SCENE VII. ROME. A PUBLIC PLACE.

  Enter two Senators and Tribunes

  First Senator

  This is the tenor of the emperor’s writ:

  That since the common men are now in action

  ’Gainst the Pannonians and Dalmatians,

  And that the legions now in Gallia are

  Full weak to undertake our wars against

  The fall’n-off Britons, that we do incite

  The gentry to this business. He creates

  Lucius preconsul: and to you the tribunes,

  For this immediate levy, he commends

  His absolute commission. Long live Caesar!

  First Tribune

  Is Lucius general of the forces?

  Second Senator

  Ay.

  First Tribune

  Remaining now in Gallia?

  First Senator

  With those legions

  Which I have spoke of, whereunto your levy

  Must be supplyant: the words of your commission

  Will tie you to the numbers and the time

  Of their dispatch.

  First Tribune

  We will discharge our duty.

  Exeunt

  ACT IV

  SCENE I. WALES: NEAR THE CAVE OF BELARIUS.

  Enter Cloten

  Cloten

  I am near to the place where they should meet, if Pisanio have mapped it truly. How fit his garments serve me! Why should his mistress, who was made by him that made the tailor, not be fit too? the rather — saving reverence of the word — for ’tis said a woman’s fitness comes by fits. Therein I must play the workman. I dare speak it to myself — for it 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 fortunes, beyond him in the advantage of the time, above him in birth, alike conversant in general services, and more remarkable in single oppositions: yet this imperceiverant thing loves him in my despite. What mortality is! Posthumus, thy head, which now is growing upon thy shoulders, shall within this hour be off; thy mistress enf
orced; 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 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 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