326

Cym. Our subjects, sir,

Will not endure his yoke: and for ourself
To show less sovereignty than they, must needs
Appear unkinglike.

So, sir, I desire of you
A conduct over land, to Milford Haven.-
Madam, all joy befall your grace, and you!1
Cym. My lords, you are appointed for that office:
The due of honour in no point omit :-
So, farewell, noble Lucius.

Luc.

Your hand, my

"Tis certain, she is fled;
Go in, and cheer the king; he rages; none
Dare come about him.
lord.
Queen.
All the better; May
This night forestall him of the coming day !3
Erit QUEEN.

Clo. Receive it friendly: but from this time forth
I wear it as your enemy.
Luc.

Sir, the event

Is yet to name the winner; Fare you well.
Cym. Leave not the worthy Lucius, good my
lords,

Till he have cross'd the Severn.-Happiness!
[Exeunt LUCIUS, and Lords.
Queen. He goes hence frowning: but it honours us,
That we have given him cause.
Clo.
"Tis all the better;
Your valiant Britons have their wishes in it.

Cym. Lucius hath wrote already to the emperor
How it goes here. It fits us, therefore, ripely,
Our chariots and our horsemen be in readiness:
The powers that he already hath in Gallia
Will soon be drawn to head, from whence he moves
His war for Britain.

Queen.
'Tis not sleepy business;
But must be look'd to speedily, and strongly.
Cym. Our expectation that it would be thus,
Hath made us forward. But, my gentle queen,
Where is our daughter? She hath not appear'd
Before the Roman, nor to us hath tender'd
The duty of the day: She looks us like
A thing more made of malice, than of duty:
We have noted it.-Call her before us; for
We have been too slight in sufferance.
[Exit an Attendant.
Queen.
Royal sir,
Since the exile of Posthumus, most retir'd
Hath her life been; the cure whereof, my lord,
'Tis time must do. 'Beseech your majesty,
Forbear sharp speeches to her she's a lady
So tender of rebukes, that words are strokes,
And strokes death to her.

Re-enter an Attendant.

Cym.
Where is she, sir? How
Can her contempt be answer'd?
Please you, sir,
Atten.
Her chambers are all lock'd; and there's no answer
That will be given to loud'st of noise we make.

Queen. My lord, when last I went to visit her,
She pray'd me to excuse her keeping close;
Whereto constrain'd by her infirmity,
She should that duty leave unpaid to you,
Which daily she was bound to proffer: this
She wish'd me to make known; but our great court
Made me to blame in memory.
Cym.

Her doors lock'd?
Not seen of late? Grant, heavens, that which I
Fear prove false !
[Exit.
Queen.
Son, I say, follow the king.
Clo. That man of hers, Pisanio, her old servant,
I have not seen these two days.

Queen.
Go, look after.-
[Exit CLOTEN.
Pisanio, thou that stand'st so for Posthumus!-
He hath a drug of mine: I pray, his absence
Proceed by swallowing that; for he believes
- It is a thing most precious. But for her,
Where is she gone? Haply, despair hath seized her;

1 We should apparently read his grace and you,' or your grace and yours."

2 Fear must be pronounced as a dissyllable to complete the measure.

3 i. e. may his grief this night prevent him from ever seeing another day, by anticipated and premature destruction. Thus in Milton's Comus:

'Perhaps forestalling night prevented them.'

Clo. I love and hate her; for she's fair and royal;
And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite
Than lady, ladies, woman;4 from every one
The best she hath, and she, of all compounded,
Outsells them all: I love her therefore; But,
Disdaining me, and throwing favours on
The low Posthumus, slanders so her judgment,
That what's else rare, is chok'd; and, in that point,
I will conclude to hate her, nay, indeed,
To be reveng'd upon her. For, when fools
Enter PISANIO.

Shall-Who is here? What are you packing,
sirrah ?

Come hither: Ah, you precious pander! Villain,
Where is thy lady? In a word ; or else
Thou art straightway with the fiends.
Pis.

O, good my lord!
Clo. Where is thy lady? or, by Jupiter
I will not ask again. Close villain,

I'll have this secret from thy heart, or rip
Thy heart to find it. Is she with Posthumus?
From whose so many weights of baseness cannot
A dram of worth be drawn.
Pis.

Alas, my lord,

How can she be with him? When was she miss'd?

He is in Rome.

Clo.

Where is she, sir? Come nearer;
No further halting: satisfy me home,
What is become of her?

Pis. O, my all-worthy lord!

Clo.

All-worthy villain!

Discover where thy mistress is, at once,
At the next word,-No more of worthy lord,-
Speak, or thy silence on the instant is
Thy condemnation and thy death.
Pis.
Then, sir,
This paper is the history of my knowledge
Touching her flight.
Clo.

[Presenting a Letter, Let's see't-I will pursue her

Even to Augustus' throne.

Or this, or perish.

Pis.
She's far enough; and what he learns by this, Aside.
May prove his travel, not her danger.

Clo.
Humph!
Pis. I'll write to my lord she's dead. O, Imogen,
Safe may'st thou wander, safe return again!

[Aside.

Clo. Sirrah, is this letter true? Pis. Sir, as I think. Clo. It is Posthumus' hand; I know't,-Sirrah, if thou would'st not be a villain, but do me true service; undergo those employments, wherein I should have cause to use thee, with a serious industry, that is, what villany soe'er I bid thee do, to perform it directly and truly,-I would think thee an honest man: thou shouldest neither want my means for thy relief, nor my voice for thy preferment. Pis. Well, my good lord.

Clo. Wilt thou serve me? For since patiently

and constantly thou hast stuck to the bare fortune

4 Than any lady, than all ladies, than all roman kind. There is a similar passage in All's Well that Ends Well, Act ii. Sc. 3:

To any count; to all counts; to what is man.' 5 By these words it is probable Pisanio means 'I must either practise this deceit upon Cloten or perish by his fury. Dr. Johnson thought the words should be given to Cloten.

of that beggar Posthumus, thou canst not in the Is worse in kings, than beggars.-My dear lord! course of gratitude but be a diligent follower of Thou art one of the false ones: Now I think on thee, mine. Wilt thou serve me?

Clo. How long is't since she went to Milford But that it eats our victuals, I should think
Here were a fairy.

What is your name?
Imo. 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 fallen in this offence.

Bel.
Pr'ythee, fair youth,
Think us no churls; nor measure our good minds
By this rude place we live in. Well encounter'd!
restive, signifies here dull, heavy, as it is explained in
Bullokar's Expositor, 1616. So Milton uses it in his
Eiconoclastes, sec. 24, The master is too resty, or too
rich, to say his own prayers, or to bless his own table."
What between Malone's resty, rank, mouldy,' and
Steevens's restive, stubborn, refractory,' the reader
is misled and the passage left unexplained; or what is
worse, explained erroneously in all the variorum edi-

"Tis almost night: you shall have better cheer
Ere you depart; and thanks, to stay and eat it.
Boys, bid him welcome.

Gui..
Were you a woman, youth,
I should woo hard, but be your groom.-In honesty,
I bid for you, as I'd buy.
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 welcome!
Be sprightly, for you fall 'mongst friends.
Imo.

'Mongst friends,

If brothers!-'Would, it had been so, that they

Had been my father's sons! then had my

prize1

Been less; and so more equal ballasting
To thee, Posthumus.

Bel.

Aside.

He wrings at some distress.

Gui. 'Would, I could free't!
Arv.

Or I; whate'er it be,

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

Imo. Great men,

Hark, boys. [Whispering.

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 false.4

Bel.

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.

Gui.
Pray draw near.
Arv. The night to the owl, the morn to the lark,
less welcome.

Imo. Thanks, sir.
Arv.
I pray, draw near. [Exeunt.
SCENE VII. Rome. Enter Two Senators and
Tribunes.

1 Sen. 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 fallen off Britons; that we do incite
The gentry to this business: He creates
Lucius pro-consul: and to you, the tribunes,
For this immediate levy, he commands
His absolute commission. Long live Cæsar!
Tri. Is Lucius general of the forces?
2 Sen.

Tri. Remaining now in Gallia?
Sen.

Ay.

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 despatch.
Tri.

We will discharge our duty.

[Exeunt.

1 I have elsewhere observed that prize, prise, and price were confounded, or used indiscriminately by our ancestors. Indeed it is not now uncommon at this day, as Malone observes, to hear persons above the vulgar confound the words, and talk of high-priz'd and lowpriz'd goods. Prize here is evidently used for value, estimation. The reader who wishes to see how the words were formerly confounded, may consult Baret's Alvearie, in v. price.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. The Forest, near the Cave. Enter
CLOTEN.

Clo. 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 imperseverant 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 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 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

2 To wring is to writhe. So in Much Ado about Nothing, Act v. Sc. 1:

To those that wring under the load of sorrow.' 3 Differing multitudes are varying or wavering multitudes. So in the Induction to the Second Part of King Henry VI. :

The still discordant wavering multitude.'

So man and man should be;
But clay and clay differs in dignity,
Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
Gui. 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'm 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.

Gui.
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

that he used since Leonatus' false' for 'since Leonatus is false. Steevens doubts this, and says that the poet may have written 'Since Leonate is false,' as he calls Enobarbus, Enobarbe; and Prospero, Prosper, in other places.

5 He commands the commission to be given you. So, we say, I ordered the materials to the workmen. 6 i. e. cause.

7 In single combat. So in King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3:

In single opposition, hand to hand,

He did confound the best part of an hour
In changing hardiment with great Glendower.'
An opposite, in the language of Shakspeare's age, was
the common phrase for an antagonist.

Imperseverant probably means no more than perseverant, like imbosomed, impassioned, immasked.

8 Warburton thought we should read, before her face. Malone says, that Shakspeare may have intell tionally given this absurd and brutal language to Cloten. The Clown in The Winter's Tale says, 'If thou'lt see a thing to talk of after thou art dead."

9 Keep your daily course uninterrupted; if the stated plan of life is once broken, nothing follows but confu

4 Malone says, 'As Shakspeare has used in other places Menelaus' tent, and thy mistress' ear for Mene. lauses tent,' and 'thy mistresses ear: it is probablesion.'-Johnson.

CYMBELINE.

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, worthiness of nature! breed of greatness!
O, noble strain! [Aside.
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.

Imo. I wish ye sport.
Arv.

Brother, farewell.

You health. So please you, sir. Imo. [Aside.] These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies I have heard!

but at court:

329 Gui. He is but one: You and my What companies are near: pray you away; brother search Let me alone with him.

Clo.

[Exeunt BELARIUS and ARVIRACTS. Soft! What are you

A thing

That fly me thus? some villain mountaineers?
I have heard of such. What slave art thou?
More slavish did I ne'er, than answering
Gui.
A slave, without a knock."
Clo.
A law-breaker, a villain: Yield thee, thief.
Thou art a robber,
Gui. 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."
Why I should yield to thee?
Say, what thou art;
Clo.

Our courtiers say, all's savage,
Experience, O, thou disprov'st report!
The imperious seas breed monsters; for the dish, Know'st me not by my clothes?
Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.
I am sick still; heart-sick :-Pisanio,
I'll now taste of thy drug.

Gui.

I could not stir him;
He said, he was gentle, but unfortunate;
Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest.
Arv. Thus did he answer me: yet said, hereafter
I might know more.
Bel.
We'll leave you for this time; go in, and rest.
To the field, to the field:
Arv. We'll not be long away.
Bel.

For you must be our housewife.
Imo.

I am bound to you.
Bel.

:

Pray, be not sick,

Well, or ill,

And shalt be ever.

This youth, howe'er distress'd, appears, he hath had
[Exit IMOGEN.
Good ancestors.
Arv.

How angel-like he sings!

Gui. But his neat cookery! He cut our roots in

characters;

And sauc'd our broths, as Juno had been sick,
And he her dieter.

Arv.

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.

Gui.

I do note,

That grief and patience, rooted in him both,
Mingle their spurs together.

Arv.

And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine
Grow, patience!
His perishing root, with the increasing vine!*
Bel. It is great morning. Come; away.-Who's
there?

Enter CLOTEN.

Clo. I cannot find those runagates; that villain Hath mock'd me: I am faint.

Bel.

So worthy as thy birth.

Clo.

Art not afeard?

Gui. Those that I reverence, those I fear; the

wise:

At fools I laugh, not fear them.

Clo.
When I have slain thee with my proper hand,
Die the death:
I'll follow those that even now fled hence,
Aud on the gates of Lud's town set your heads:
Yield, rustic mountaineer. [Exeunt, fighting.

Enter BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS.
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, Which then he wore; the snatches in his voice, But time hath nothing blurr'd those lines of favour And burst of speaking, were as his: I am absolute, 'Twas very Cloten.

Aro.

I wish my brother make good time with him,
In this place we left them:
You say he is so fell.

Those runagates!
'tis

I

I fear some ambush.

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

I saw him not these many years, and yet
I know 'tis he :-We are held as outlaws:-Hence.

Bel.

Being scarce made up,
mean, to man, he had not apprehension
Of roaring terrors; for defect of judgment

Is oft the cure of fear: But see, thy brother.

1 Here again Malone asserts that imperious was perishing root from those of the increasing vine, pa used by Shakspeare for imperiul? This is absurd Bence, enough when we look at the context: what has impe-by, are almost always convertible words. rial to do with seas? Imperious has here its ustal I have already observed, that with, from, and

5 The same phrase occurs in Troilus and Cressida,

meaning of proud, haughty. See Troilus and Cres-Activ. Sc. 3. It is a Gallicism:- Il est grand matin.' sida, Act iv. Sc. 5.

6 i. e. than answering that abusive word slave.

7 So in Solyman and Perseda, 1599:-

Macduff says to Macbeth :-
I fight not with my tongue: this is my oratrix,'

I have no words:
My voice is in my sword.'

8 See a note on a similar passage in a former scene,
p. 324, Act . Sc. 4.

this cannot be right: Belarius is assigning a reason for
9 The old copy reads, Is oft the cause of fear; but
cowardice. The emendation adopted is Hanmer's.
Cloten's fool-hardy desperation, not accounting for his

What hast thou done?

Poor sick Fidele!

Gui. I am perfect,' what: cut off one Cloten's I'll willingly to him: To gain his colour,
I'd let a parish of such Clotens blood,"
And praise myself for charity.

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,2
Displace our heads, where, (thank the gods!) they
grow,

And set them on Lud's town.
Bel.

We are all undone.
Gui. 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?

Bel.

[mour4

No single soul
Can we set eye on, but, in all safe reason,
He must have some attendants. Though his hu-
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,

(Erit.
Bel.
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 enchaf'd, as the rud'st wind,
That by the top doth take the mountain pine,
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
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.

Gui.

Re-enter GUIDERIUS.

[Solemn music.

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.
Bel.
My ingenious instrument!
Hark, Polydore, it sounds! But what occasion
Hath Cadwal now to give it motion! Hark!
Gui. Is he at home?
Bel.

He went hence even now, Gui. What does he mean? since death of my dear'st mother

Or they so suffering: then on good ground we fear, It did not speak before. All solemn things
If we do fear this body hath a tail

More perilous than the head.

Arv.

Come as the gods foresay it: howsoe'er,

My brother hath done well.

Let ordinance

I had no mind

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

Bel.
I fear, 'twill be reveng'd:
'Would, Polydore, thou had'st not done't! though
valour

Becomes thee well enough.

Arv.
'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,
[through,
That possible strength might meet, would seek us
And put us to our answer.

revenges,

4 The old copy reads, his honour. The emendation is Theobald's. Malone has shown that the words honour and humour have been erroneously printed for each other in other passages of the old editions.

5 Fidele's sickness made my walk forth from the cave tedious.' So in King Richard III. :

our crosses on the way Have made it tedious,' &c. 6Such pursuit of vengeance as fell within any possibility of opposition."

7 To restore Fidele to the bloom of health, to recall the colour into his cheeks, I would let out the blood of a whole parish, or any number of such fellows as Cloton. A parish is a common phrase for a great number. 'Heaven give you joy, sweet master Palatine. And to you, sir, a whole parish of children.' The Wits, by Davenant, p. 222.

8 Toys are trifles. 9 A crare was a small vessel of burthen, sometimes spelled craer, crayer, and even craye. The old copy reads, erroneously, thy sluggish care.' The emendation was suggested by Sympson in a note on The Captain of Beaumont and Fletcher :let him venture

In some decayed crare of his own.
10 We should most probably read, but ah Ay is
always printed ah! in the first folio, and other books of
the time. Hence, perhaps, I, which was used for the
affirmative particle ay, crept into the text. 'Heaven
knows (says Belarius) what a man thou wouldst have
been hadst thou lived; but, alas! thou died'st of melan-
choly, while yet only a most accomplished boy.'
11 Stark means entirely cold and stiff.

And many a nobleman lies stark-
Under the hoofs of vaulting enemies."
King Henry IV Part L