Authors: William Shakespeare
Enter Cloten
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.
[
Exeunt Belarius and Arviragus
]
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.
Fight and exeunt
Enter Belarius and Arviragus
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
Enter Guiderius
With Cloten’s head
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
Exit
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
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.
Exit
[
into the cave
]
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.
Enter Guiderius
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.
Solemn music
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?
Enter Arviragus, with Innogen dead, bearing her in his arms
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.