Cymbeline (15 page)

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Authors: William Shakespeare

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Offers money

I would have left it on the
board
so
53
soon

As I had made my meal, and
parted
54

With prayers for the provider.

GUIDERIUS
    Money, youth?

ARVIRAGUS
    All gold and silver rather turn to dirt,

As ’tis no better
reckoned
but of
58
those

Who worship dirty gods.

INNOGEN
    I see you’re angry:

Know, if you kill me for my fault, I
should
61

Have died had I not
made
62
it.

BELARIUS
    
Whither bound?
63

INNOGEN
    To Milford Haven.

BELARIUS
    What’s your name?

INNOGEN
    
Fidele
66
, sir: I have a kinsman who

Is bound for Italy; he embarked at Milford,

To whom being going, almost
spent
68
with hunger,

I am fall’n
in
69
this offence.

BELARIUS
    Prithee, fair youth,

Think us no
churls
71
: nor measure our good minds

By this
rude
72
place we live in. Well encountered!

’Tis almost night: you shall have better
cheer
73

Ere you depart, and
thanks
74
to stay and eat it.

Boys, bid him welcome.

GUIDERIUS
    Were you a woman, youth,

I should woo
hard
but be
your groom
in honesty
77
:

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
sprightly
83
, for you fall ’mongst friends.

INNOGEN
    
’Mongst friends
84

Aside

If brothers.— Would it had been so that they

Had been my father’s sons, then had my
prize
86

Been less, and so more equal ballasting

To thee, Posthumus.

BELARIUS
    He
wrings
89
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 themselves
96
and had the virtue

Which their own conscience
sealed them

laying by
97

That
nothing-gift
of
differing multitudes
98

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, fasting
104
: when we have supped

We’ll
mannerly
demand
105
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
writ
1
:

That since the common
men
2
are now in action

Gainst the
Pannonians and Dalmatians
3
,

And that the legions now in Gallia are

Full
5
weak to undertake our wars against

The
fall’n-off
Britons, that we do
incite
6

The gentry to this business. He creates

Lucius proconsul: and to you the tribunes,

For this immediate levy, he
commands
9

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
supplyant
16
: 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
fit
2
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
4

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
glass
7
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
10
, above

him in birth,
alike conversant
in
general services
11
, and more

remarkable in
single oppositions
; yet this
imperceiverant
12

thing loves him
in my despite.
What
mortality
13
is! Posthumus,

thy head, which now is growing upon thy shoulders, shall

within this hour be off, thy mistress
enforced
15
, thy garments

cut to pieces before thy face: and all this done,
spurn
16
her

home to her father, who may
haply
17
be a little angry for my so

rough
usage
: but my mother, having
power of
his
testiness
18
,

shall turn all into my
commendations.
19
My horse is tied up

Draws

safe. Out, sword, and to a
sore
purpose!
Fortune
20
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
wanton
10
as

To seem to die
ere
11
sick: so please you, leave me,

Stick to your
journal
course: the
breach of custom
12

Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me

Cannot
amend me.
Society
14
is no comfort

To one not sociable: I am not very sick,

Since I can
reason of
16
it: pray you trust me here,

I’ll rob
none
17
but myself, and let me die,

Stealing so poorly.
18

GUIDERIUS
    I love thee: I have spoke it,

How much the quantity, the
weight
20
as much,

As I do love my father.

BELARIUS
    What? How? How?

ARVIRAGUS
    If it be sin to say so, sir, I
yoke me
23

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
26
,

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,
breed
30
of greatness!

Cowards father cowards, and base things sire base:

Nature hath
meal and bran
32
, contempt and grace.

I’m not their father,
yet who this should be
33

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

Aside

INNOGEN
    These are kind creatures.

Gods, what lies I have heard!

Our courtiers say all’s savage
but
41
at court;

Experience, O, thou disprov’st report!

Th’imperious seas breeds monsters; for the dish

Poor
tributary
44
rivers as sweet fish:

I am sick still, heart-sick. Pisanio,

I’ll now taste of thy drug.

Drinks

GUIDERIUS
    I could not
stir
47
him:

He said he was
gentle
48
, but unfortunate;

Dishonestly afflicted
49
, but yet honest.

ARVIRAGUS
    Thus did he answer me, yet said hereafter

I might know more.

BELARIUS
    
To th’field
52
, 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
bound
58
to you.

Exit
[
into the cave
]

BELARIUS
    And shalt be ever.

This youth, howe’er
distressed
60
, appears he hath had

Good ancestors.

ARVIRAGUS
    How angel-like he sings!

GUIDERIUS
    But his neat cookery! He cut our
roots
in
characters
63
,

And sauced our broths
as
Juno
64
had been sick

And he her
dieter.
65

ARVIRAGUS
    Nobly he
yokes
66

A smiling with a sigh, as if the sigh

Was
that
68
it was for not being such a smile:

The smile mocking the sigh, that it would fly

From so divine a temple, to
commix
70

With winds that sailors
rail
71
at.

GUIDERIUS
    I do note

That grief and patience, rooted in him both,

Mingle their
spurs
74
together.

ARVIRAGUS
    
Grow patience
75
,

And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine

His perishing root
with
77
the increasing vine.

BELARIUS
    It is
great morning.
78
Come away.— Who’s there?

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