Cymbeline (16 page)

CLOTEN
    I cannot find those
runagates
⁷⁹
, that villain

Hath
mocked
⁸⁰
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
⁸⁵
as outlaws: hence!

GUIDERIUS
    He is
but
⁸⁶
one: you and my brother search

What
companies
⁸⁷
are near: pray you away,

Let me alone with him.

CLOTEN
    
Soft
⁸⁹
, what are you

That
fly
⁹⁰
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.
⁹⁴

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
⁹⁹

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?
¹⁰³

GUIDERIUS
    No, nor thy tailor, rascal,

Who is thy grandfather: he made those clothes,

Which, as it seems, make thee.

CLOTEN
    Thou precious
varlet
¹⁰⁷
,

My tailor made them not.

GUIDERIUS
    Hence, then, and thank

The man that gave them thee. Thou art some fool,

I am
loath
¹¹¹
to beat thee.

CLOTEN
    Thou
injurious
¹¹²
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
¹²⁰
, thou shalt know

I am son to th’queen.

GUIDERIUS
    I am sorry for’t:
not seeming
¹²²

So
¹²³
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
¹²⁸
hand,

I’ll follow those that even now fled hence,

And
on the gates of Lud’s town set your heads
¹³⁰
:

Yield, rustic mountaineer.

BELARIUS
    No company’s
abroad?
¹³²

ARVIRAGUS
    None in the world: you did mistake him,
sure.
¹³³

BELARIUS
    I cannot tell: long is it since I saw him,

But time hath nothing blurred those
lines of favour
¹³⁵

Which then he wore: the
snatches
¹³⁶
in his voice

And burst of speaking were as his: I am
absolute
¹³⁷

’Twas
very
¹³⁸
Cloten.

ARVIRAGUS
    In this place we left them.

I wish my brother
make good time with
¹⁴⁰
him,

You say he is so
fell.
¹⁴¹

BELARIUS
    
Being scarce made up
¹⁴²
,

I mean to man, he had not
apprehension
¹⁴³

Of roaring terrors: for defect of
judgement
¹⁴⁴

Is oft the cause of fear.

But see thy brother.

GUIDERIUS
    This Cloten was a fool, an empty purse,

There was no money in’t: not
Hercules
¹⁴⁸

Could have knocked out his brains, for he had none:

Yet
I not doing this
¹⁵⁰
, the fool had borne

My head, as I do his.

BELARIUS
    What hast thou done?

GUIDERIUS
    I am
perfect
¹⁵³
what: cut off one Cloten’s head,

Son to the queen,
after
¹⁵⁴
his own report,

Who called me traitor, mountaineer, and swore

With his own single hand he’d
take us in
¹⁵⁶
,

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
¹⁶¹

Protects not us, then why should we be
tender
¹⁶²

To let an arrogant piece of flesh
threat
¹⁶³
us,

Play judge and executioner all himself,

For
¹⁶⁵
we do fear the law? What company

Discover you abroad?

BELARIUS
    No single soul

Can we set eye on, but in all
safe
¹⁶⁸
reason

He must have some attendants. Though his
humour
¹⁶⁹

Was nothing but
mutation
¹⁷⁰
, 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
¹⁷⁵
here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time

May
make some stronger head
¹⁷⁶
, the which he hearing —

As it is
like him
—
might break out
¹⁷⁷
and swear

He’d
fetch us in
¹⁷⁸
, yet is’t not probable

To come
¹⁷⁹
alone, either he so undertaking,

Or they so
suffering
¹⁸⁰
: then on good ground we fear,

If we do fear this body hath a
tail
¹⁸¹

More perilous than the head.

ARVIRAGUS
    Let
ord’nance
¹⁸³

Come as the gods
foresay
it:
howsoe’er
¹⁸⁴
,

My brother hath done well.

BELARIUS
    I had no
mind
¹⁸⁶

To hunt this day: the boy Fidele’s sickness

Did make my
way long forth.
¹⁸⁸

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
¹⁹²
the sea

And tell the fishes he’s the queen’s son, Cloten:

That’s all I
reck.
¹⁹⁴

BELARIUS
    I fear ’twill be revenged:

Would, Polydore, thou hadst not done’t, though valour

Becomes thee well enough.

ARVIRAGUS
    Would I had done’t,

So
¹⁹⁹
the revenge alone pursued me! Polydore,

I love thee brotherly, but envy much

Thou hast robbed me of this deed:
I would
²⁰¹
revenges

That
possible strength
might
meet
²⁰²
would seek us through

And
put us to our answer.
²⁰³

BELARIUS
    Well, ’tis done:

We’ll hunt no more today, 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
²⁰⁸
Polydore return, and bring him

To dinner presently.

ARVIRAGUS
    Poor sick Fidele!

I’ll willingly to him: to
gain
²¹¹
his colour

I’d
let a parish of such Clotens’ blood
²¹²
,

And praise myself for charity.

BELARIUS
    O thou goddess,

Thou divine Nature, thou thyself thou
blazon’st
²¹⁵

In these two princely boys! They are as gentle

As
zephyrs
²¹⁷
blowing below the violet,

Not
wagging
²¹⁸
his sweet head; and yet as rough,

Their royal blood
enchafed
, as the
rud’st
²¹⁹
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
²²²
them

To royalty unlearned, honour untaught,

Civility not
seen from other
²²⁴
, valour

That
wildly
²²⁵
grows in them, but yields a crop

As if it had been sowed. Yet still it’s strange

What Cloten’s being here to us portends,

Or what his death will bring us.

GUIDERIUS
    Where’s my brother?

I have sent Cloten’s
clotpoll
²³⁰
down the stream

In embassy to his mother; his body’s hostage

For his return.

BELARIUS
    My
ingenious
²³³
instrument!

Hark, Polydore, it sounds: but what
occasion
²³⁴

Hath Cadwal now to
give it motion?
²³⁵
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
²³⁹
before. All solemn things

Should
answer
solemn
accidents.
²⁴⁰
The matter?

Triumphs
for nothing and
lamenting toys
²⁴¹

Is
jollity for apes
and
grief for boys.
²⁴²

Is Cadwal mad?

BELARIUS
    Look, here he comes,

And brings the dire occasion in his arms

Of what we blame him for.

ARVIRAGUS
    The bird is dead

That we have made so much
on.
²⁴⁸
I had rather

Have skipped from sixteen years of age to sixty,

To have
turned my leaping time into a crutch
²⁵⁰
,

Than have seen this.

GUIDERIUS
    O sweetest, fairest lily!

My brother wears thee not
the one half so well
²⁵³

As when thou grew’st thyself.

BELARIUS
    O melancholy,

Who ever yet could
sound thy bottom?
Find
²⁵⁶

The
ooze
to show what coast thy
sluggish
crare
²⁵⁷

Might
easiliest
harbour in?
²⁵⁸
Thou blessèd thing,

Jove knows what man thou mightst have made: but, ay,

Thou died’st a most
rare
²⁶⁰
boy, of melancholy.

How found you him?

ARVIRAGUS
    
Stark
²⁶²
, as you see:

Thus smiling,
as some fly had tickled slumber
²⁶³
,

Not as death’s dart being laughed at
²⁶⁴
: his right cheek

Reposing on a cushion.

GUIDERIUS
    Where?

ARVIRAGUS
    O’th’floor:

His arms thus
leagued
²⁶⁸
, I thought he slept, and put

My
clouted brogues
from off my feet, whose
rudeness
²⁶⁹

Answered my steps too loud.
²⁷⁰

GUIDERIUS
    Why, he
but
²⁷¹
sleeps:

If he be gone,
he’ll make his grave a bed
²⁷²
:

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
²⁷⁹
, like thy veins: no, nor

The leaf of
eglantine
²⁸⁰
, whom not to slander,

Out-sweetened not thy breath: the
ruddock
²⁸¹
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 furred moss besides, when flowers are none,

To
winter-ground
²⁸⁶
thy corpse—

GUIDERIUS
    Prithee, have done,

And do not play in
wench-like
²⁸⁸
words with that

Which is so serious. Let us bury him,

And not protract with
admiration
²⁹⁰
what

Is now
due debt.
²⁹¹
To th’grave.

ARVIRAGUS
    Say, where
shall’s
²⁹²
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
²⁹⁶
, sing him to th’ground

As
once
our mother: use
like
²⁹⁷
note and words,

Save
²⁹⁸
that Euriphile must be Fidele.

GUIDERIUS
    Cadwal,

I cannot sing: I’ll weep, and
word
³⁰⁰
it with thee,

For notes of sorrow out of tune are worse

Than priests and
fanes
³⁰²
that lie.

ARVIRAGUS
    We’ll speak it, then.

BELARIUS
    Great griefs, I see,
med’cine the less
³⁰⁴
, for Cloten

Is quite forgot. He was a queen’s son, boys,

And though he
came
³⁰⁶
our enemy, remember

He was
paid
for that: though
mean and mighty rotting
³⁰⁷

Together have one dust, yet
reverence
³⁰⁸
,

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’
³¹⁴

When neither are alive.

ARVIRAGUS
    If you’ll go fetch him,

We’ll say our song
the whilst.
³¹⁷
Brother, begin.