Exit
CLOTEN Meet thee at Milford Haven! — I forgot to ask him
one thing, I’ll remember’t anon. — Even there, thou villain
Posthumus, will I kill thee. I would these garments were
come. She said upon a time154 — the bitterness of it I now belch
from my heart — that she held the very garment of
Posthumus in more respect than my noble and natural
person, together with the adornment of my qualities. With
that suit upon my back will I ravish her: first kill him, and in
her eyes159; there shall she see my valour, which will then be a
torment to her contempt. He on the ground, my speech of
insultment161 ended on his dead body, and when my lust hath
dined — which, as I say, to vex her I will execute in the
clothes that she so praised — to the court I’ll knock163 her back,
foot164 her home again. She hath despised me rejoicingly, and
I’ll be merry in my revenge.—
Enter Pisanio
With Posthumus’ clothes
Be those the garments?
PISANIO Ay, my noble lord.
CLOTEN How long is’t since she went to Milford Haven?
PISANIO She can scarce be there yet.
CLOTEN Bring this apparel to my chamber. That is the
second thing that I have commanded thee. The third is that
thou wilt be a voluntary mute172 to my design. Be but duteous,
and true preferment shall tender173 itself to thee. My revenge is
now at Milford: would I had wings to follow it. Come, and be
true.
Exit
PISANIO Thou bid’st me to my loss176: for true to thee
Were to prove false, which I will never be,
To him that is most true.178 To Milford go,
And find not her whom thou pursuest. Flow, flow,
You heavenly blessings, on her. This fool’s speed
Be crossed with slowness; labour be his meed.181
Exit
Act 3 Scene 6
running scene 11
Enter Innogen alone
In boy’s clothes
INNOGEN I see a man’s life is a tedious one:
I have tired2 myself, and for two nights together
Have made the ground my bed. I should be sick,
But that my resolution helps me. Milford,
When from the mountain-top Pisanio showed thee,
Thou wast within a ken.6 O Jove, I think
Foundations fly the wretched7: such, I mean,
Where they should be relieved. Two beggars told me
I could not miss my way. Will poor folks lie,
That have afflictions on them, knowing ’tis
A punishment or trial?11 Yes; no wonder,
When rich ones scarce tell true. To lapse in fullness12
Is sorer13 than to lie for need, and falsehood
Is worse in kings than beggars. My dear lord,
Thou art on15e o’th’false ones. Now I think on thee
My hunger’s gone; but even before16, I was
At point17 to sink for food. But what is this?
Here is a path to’t: ’tis some savage hold18:
I were best19 not call; I dare not call: yet famine,
Ere clean it o’erthrow nature20, makes it valiant.
Plenty and peace breeds cowards: hardness ever21
Of hardiness is mother. Ho! Who’s here?
If anything that’s civil, speak: if savage,
Take or lend.24 Ho! No answer? Then I’ll enter.
Best25 draw my sword; and if mine enemy
Draws
But fear the sword like me, he’ll scarcely look on’t.
Such a foe, good heavens!27
Exit [into the cave]
Enter Belarius, Guiderius and Arviragus
BELARIUS You, Polydore, have proved best woodman28 and
Are master of the feast: Cadwal and I
Will play the cook and servant: ’tis our match.30
The sweat of industry would dry and die31
But for the end it works to. Come, our stomachs
Will make what’s homely33 savoury: weariness
Can snore upon the flint when resty sloth34
Finds the down35 pillow hard. Now peace be here,
Poor house, that keep’st thyself.36
GUIDERIUS I am throughly37 weary.
ARVIRAGUS I am weak with toil, yet strong in appetite.
GUIDERIUS There is cold meat i’th’cave, we’ll browse39 on that
Whilst what we have killed be cooked.
Looks into the cave
BELARIUS Stay; come not in:
But that it eats our victuals42, I should think
Here were a fairy.
GUIDERIUS What’s the matter, sir?
BELARIUS By Jupiter, an angel! Or if not,
An earthly paragon.46 Behold divineness
No elder than a boy.
Enter Innogen
INNOGEN Good masters, harm me not:
Before I entered here, I called, and thought
To have begged or bought what I have took: good troth50,
I have stol’n nought51, nor would not, though I had found
Gold strewed i’th’floor.52 Here’s money for my meat:
Offers money
I would have left it on the board so53 soon
As I had made my meal, and parted54
With prayers for the provider.
GUIDERIUS Money, youth?
ARVIRAGUS All gold and silver rather turn to dirt,
As ’tis no better reckoned but of58 those
Who worship dirty gods.
INNOGEN I see you’re angry:
Know, if you kill me for my fault, I should61
Have died had I not made62 it.
BELARIUS Whither bound?63
INNOGEN To Milford Haven.
BELARIUS What’s your name?
INNOGEN Fidele66, sir: I have a kinsman who
Is bound for Italy; he embarked at Milford,
To whom being going, almost spent68 with hunger,
I am fall’n in69 this offence.
BELARIUS Prithee, fair youth,
Think us no churls71: nor measure our good minds
By this rude72 place we live in. Well encountered!
’Tis almost night: you shall have better cheer73
Ere you depart, and thanks74 to stay and eat it.
Boys, bid him welcome.
GUIDERIUS Were you a woman, youth,
I should woo hard but be your groom in honesty77:
Ay, bid for you as I’d buy.78
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 sprightly83, for you fall ’mongst friends.
INNOGEN ’Mongst friends84
Aside
If brothers.— Would it had been so that they
Had been my father’s sons, then had my prize86
Been less, and so more equal ballasting
To thee, Posthumus.
BELARIUS He wrings89 at some distress.
GUIDERIUS Would I could free’t.90
ARVIRAGUS Or I, whate’er it be,
What pain it cost, what danger. Gods!
They whisper aside
BELARIUS Hark, boys.
To herself
INNOGEN Great men
That had a court no bigger than this cave,
That did attend
themselves96 and had the virtue
Which their own conscience sealed them — laying by97
That nothing-gift of differing multitudes98 —
Could not out-peer these twain.99 Pardon me, gods,
I’d change my sex to be companion with them,
Since Leonatus’101 false.
BELARIUS It shall be so:
Boys, we’ll go dress our hunt.103 Fair youth, come in:
Discourse is heavy, fasting104: when we have supped
We’ll mannerly demand105 thee of thy story,
So far as thou wilt speak it.
GUIDERIUS Pray draw near.
ARVIRAGUS The night to th’owl and morn to th’lark less welcome.108
INNOGEN Thanks, sir.
ARVIRAGUS I pray draw near.
Exeunt
Act 3 Scene 7
running scene 12
Enter two Roman Senators and Tribunes
FIRST SENATOR This is the tenor of the emperor’s writ1:
That since the common men2 are now in action
Gainst the Pannonians and Dalmatians3,
And that the legions now in Gallia are
Full5 weak to undertake our wars against
The fall’n-off Britons, that we do incite6
The gentry to this business. He creates
Lucius proconsul: and to you the tribunes,
For this immediate levy, he commands9
His absolute commission.10 Long live Caesar!
TRIBUNE Is Lucius general of the forces?
SECOND SENATOR Ay.
TRIBUNE Remaining now in Gallia?
FIRST SENATOR With those legions
Which I have spoke of, whereunto your levy
Must be supplyant16: the words of your commission
Will tie you to the numbers and the time
Of their dispatch.
TRIBUNE We will discharge our duty.
Exeunt
Act 4 Scene 1
running scene 13
Enter Cloten alone
CLOTEN I am near to th’place where they should meet, if
Pisanio have mapped it truly. How fit2 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 of4
the word — for ’tis said a woman’s fitness comes by fits.5
Therein I must play the workman.6 I dare speak it to myself,
for it is not vainglory for a man and his glass7 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 time10, above
him in birth, alike conversant in general services11, and more
remarkable in single oppositions; yet this imperceiverant12
thing loves him in my despite. What mortality13 is! Posthumus,
thy head, which now is growing upon thy shoulders, shall
within this hour be off, thy mistress enforced15, thy garments
cut to pieces before thy face: and all this done, spurn16 her
home to her father, who may haply17 be a little angry for my so
rough usage: but my mother, having power of his testiness18,
shall turn all into my commendations.19 My horse is tied up
Draws
safe. Out, sword, and to a sore purpose! Fortune20 put
them into my hand. This is the very description of their
meeting-place, and the fellow dares not deceive me.
Exit
Act 4 Scene 2
running scene 14
Enter Belarius, Guiderius, Arviragus and Innogen from the cave
Innogen disguised as Fidele
To Innogen
BELARIUS You are not well: remain here in the cave,
We’ll come to you after hunting.
To Innogen
ARVIRAGUS Brother, stay here:
Are we not brothers?
INNOGEN 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.
INNOGEN So sick I am not, yet I am not well:
But not so citizen a wanton10 as
To seem to die ere11 sick: so please you, leave me,
Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom12
Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me
Cannot amend me. Society14 is no comfort
To one not sociable: I am not very sick,
Since I can reason of16 it: pray you trust me here,
I’ll rob none17 but myself, and let me die,
Stealing so poorly.18
GUIDERIUS I love thee: I have spoke it,
How much the quantity, the weight20 as much,
As I do love my father.
BELARIUS What? How? How?
ARVIRAGUS If it be sin to say so, sir, I yoke me23
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 door26,
And a demand who is’t shall die, I’d say
‘My father, not this youth.’
Aside
BELARIUS O noble strain!29
O worthiness of nature, breed30 of greatness!
Cowards father cowards, and base things sire base:
Nature hath meal and bran32, contempt and grace.
I’m not their father, yet who this should be33
Doth miracle itself, loved before me.—
Aloud
’Tis the ninth hour o’th’morn.
ARVIRAGUS Brother, farewell.
INNOGEN I wish ye sport.
ARVIRAGUS You health.— So please you, sir.38
INNOGEN These are kind creatures.
Gods, what lies I have heard!
Our courtiers say all’s savage but41 at court;
Experience, O, thou disprov’st report!
Th’imperious seas breeds monsters; for the dish
Poor tributary44 rivers as sweet fish:
I am sick still, heart-sick. Pisanio,
I’ll now taste of thy drug.
Drinks
GUIDERIUS I could not stir47 him:
He said he was gentle48, but unfortunate;
Dishonestly afflicted49, but yet honest.
ARVIRAGUS Thus did he answer me, yet said hereafter
I might know more.
BELARIUS To th’field52, to th’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.
INNOGEN Well or ill,
I am bound58 to you.
Exit [into the cave]
BELARIUS And shalt be ever.
This youth, howe’er distressed60, appears he hath had
Good ancestors.
ARVIRAGUS How angel-like he sings!
GUIDERIUS But his neat cookery! He cut our roots in characters63,
And sauced our broths as Juno64 had been sick
And he her dieter.65
ARVIRAGUS Nobly he yokes66
A smiling with a sigh, as if the sigh
Was that68 it was for not being such a smile:
The smile mocking the sigh, that it would fly
From so divine a temple, to commix70
With winds that sailors rail71 at.
GUIDERIUS �
�� I do note
That grief and patience, rooted in him both,
Mingle their spurs74 together.
ARVIRAGUS Grow patience75,
And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine
His perishing root with77 the increasing vine.
BELARIUS It is great morning.78 Come away.— Who’s there?
Enter Cloten
CLOTEN I cannot find those runagates79, that villain
Hath mocked80 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 held85 as outlaws: hence!
GUIDERIUS He is but86 one: you and my brother search
What companies87 are near: pray you away,
Let me alone with him.
[Exeunt Belarius and Arviragus]
CLOTEN Soft89, what are you
That fly90 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 not99
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 varlet107,
My tailor made them not.
GUIDERIUS Hence, then, and thank
The man that gave them thee. Thou art some fool,
I am loath111 to beat thee.
CLOTEN Thou injurious112 thief,
Hear but my name, and tremble.
GUIDERIUS What’s thy name?
CLOTEN Cloten, thou villain.
GUIDERIUS Cloten, thou double villain be thy name,