Authors: William Shakespeare
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
:
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
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
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
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:
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,
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?