TPTT Cymbeline: ACT IV
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
SCENE I. Wales: near the cave of Belarius.
SCENE II. Before the cave of Belarius.
SCENE III. A room in Cymbeline's palace.
SCENE IV. Wales: before the cave of Belarius.
ACT V
About the Play
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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
5     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;
10    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
15    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
20    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
25    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!
30    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.
35    '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
40    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.
45    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
50    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
55    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

60    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,
65    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;
70    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,
75    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!--
80    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
85    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;
90    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
95    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
100   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,
105   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,
110   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,
115   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
120   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
125   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
130   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
135   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,
140   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
145   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;
150   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
155   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,
160   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
165   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
170   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
175   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
180   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
185   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
190   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,
195   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
200   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
205   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
210   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,
215   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,
220   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
225   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,
230   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
235   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
240   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.
245   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
250   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!
255   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
260   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:
265   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
270   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:
275   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,
280   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,
285   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
290   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
295   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,
300   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
305   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
310   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
315   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
320   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
325   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,
330   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;
335   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
340   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
345   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;
350   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.
355   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
360   (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.
365   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;
370   '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
375   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;
380   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,
385   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
390   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?
395   '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:
400   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,
405   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
410   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
415   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
420   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--
425   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
430   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
435   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
440   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,
445   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,
450   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
455   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
460   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,
465   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
470   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,
475   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
480   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
485   Some falls are means the happier to arise.
Exeunt
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