O the dearest of creatures, would even renew me with
your eyes. Take notice that I am in Cambria, at
Milford-Haven: what your own love will out of this
advise you, follow. So, he wishes you all happiness,
that remains loyal to his vow and your increasing
in love,
LEONATUS POSTHUMUS.
O, for a horse with wings! Hear'st thou, Pisanio?
He is at Milford-Haven: read, and tell me
How far 'tis thither. If one of mean affairs
May plod it in a week, why may not I
Glide thither in a day? Then, true Pisanio
(Who long'st, like me, to see thy Lord; who long'stO, let me bate-but not like me;-yet long'st
But in a fainter kind;-O, not like me;
For mine's beyond beyond) say, and speak thick
(Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing,
To the smothering of the sense) how far it is
To this same blessed Milford: and, by the way,
Tell me how Wales was made so happy as
To inherit such a haven: but, first of all,
How we may steal from hence; and for the gap
That we shall make in time, from our hence-going
And our return, to excuse : but first, how get hence:
Why should excuse be born or e'er begot?
We'll talk of that hereafter. Pr'ythee, speak :
How many score of miles may we well ride
"Twixt hour and hour?
PIS.
One score 'twixt sun and sun,
Madam, 's enough for you: [aside.] and too much too. IMO. Why, one that rode to 's execution, Man,
Could never go so slow: I have heard of riding
wagers,
Where horses have been nimbler than the sands
That run i' the clock's behalf: but this is foolery.
Go bid my woman feign a sickness; say
She'll home to her father: and provide me presently
A riding-suit, no costlier than would fit
Madam, you're best consider.
IMO. I see before me, Man: nor here, nor here,
Nor what ensues, but have a fog in them,
That I cannot look through. Away, I pr'ythee!
Do as I bid thee: there's no more to say;
Accessible is none but Milford way.
Wales: a mountainous Country
with a Cave.
Enter, from the Cave, BELARIUS; GUIDERIUS and
ARVIRAGUS following.
BEL. A goodly day not to keep house, with such
Whose roof's as low as our's! Stoop, Boys: this gate
Instructs you how to adore the Heavens and bows you
To a Morning's holy office: the gates of Monarchs
Are arch'd so high, that Giants may jet through
And keep their impious turbans on, without
Good morrow to the Sun. Hail, thou fair Heaven!
We house i' the rock, yet use thee not so hardly
As prouder livers do.
BEL. Now for our mountain sport: up to yond hill,
Your legs are young; I'll tread these flats. Consider,
When you above perceive me like a crow,
That it is place which lessens and sets off;
And you may then revolve what tales I have told you
Of Courts, of Princes, of the tricks in war;
This service is not service, so being done,
But being so allow'd: to apprehend thus,
Draws us a profit from all things we see;
And often, to our comfort, shall we find
The sharded beetle in a safer hold
Than is the full-wing'd eagle. O, this life
Is nobler than attending for a check,
Richer than doing nothing for a babe,1
Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk:
Such gain the cap of him that makes 'em fine,
Yet keeps his book uncross'd:2 no life to our's.
1 i.e. being attendant on a young Prince.
2 i.e. keeps them in his debt.
ACT III Gui. Out of your proof you speak: we, poor unfledg'd,
Have never wing'd from view o' the nest, nor know
not
What air's from home. Haply this life is best,
If quiet life be best; sweeter to you
That have a sharper known; well corresponding
With your stiff age: but unto us it is
A cell of ignorance; travelling a-bed;
A prison for a debtor, that not dares
To stride a limit.
ARV.
What should we speak of
When we are old as you? when we shall hear
The rain and wind beat dark December, how,
In this our pinching cave, shall we discourse
The freezing hours away? We have seen nothing:
We are beastly; subtle as the fox for prey;
Like warlike as the wolf for what we eat :
Our valour is to chase what flies; our cage
We make a quire, as doth the prison'd bird,
And sing our bondage freely.
How you speak!
Did you but know the City's usuries,
And felt them knowingly! the art o' the Court,
As hard to leave as keep; whose top to climb
Is certain falling; or so slippery that
The fear's as bad as falling; the toil o' the war,
A pain that only seems to seek out danger
I' the name of fame and honour; which dies i' the
And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph
As record of fair act; nay, many times
Doth ill deserve by doing well; what's worse,
Must court'sy at the censure. O Boys, this story
The world may read in me: my body's mark'd
With Roman swords; and my report was once
First with the best of note: Cymbeline lov'd me;
And, when a soldier was the theme, my name
Was not far off. Then was I as a tree
Whose boughs did bend with fruit; but, in one night,
A storm or robbery, call it what you will,
Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves,
And left me bare to weather.
BEL. My fault being nothing (as I have told you oft)
But that two villains, whose false oaths prevail'd
Before my perfect honour, swore to Cymbeline
I was confederate with the Romans: so
Follow'd my banishment; and, this twenty years,
This rock and these demesnes have been my World; 70
Where I have liv'd at honest freedom; paid
More pious debts to Heaven than in all
The fore-end of my time. But, up to the mountains!
This is not hunters' language: he that strikes
The venison first shall be the Lord o' the feast;
To him the other two shall minister;
And we will fear no poison, which attends
In place of greater state. I'll meet you in the valleys. [Exeunt GUIDERIUS and ARVIRAGUS.
How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature!
These boys know little they are sons to the King;
Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive.
They think they are mine; and, though train'd up thus
meanly,
I' the cave wherein they bow their thoughts do hit
The roofs of palaces; and nature prompts them,
In simple and low things, to prince it much
Beyond the trick of others. This Polydore,
The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, who
The King his father call'd Guiderius—Jove!
When on my three-foot stool I sit, and tell
The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out
Into my story: say Thus mine enemy fell,
And thus I set my foot on's neck; even then
The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats,
Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in posture
That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal,
Once Arviragus, in as like a figure,
Strikes life into my speech, and shews much more
His own conceiving.-Hark, the game is rous'd!—
O Cymbeline! Heaven and my conscience knows
Thou didst unjustly banish me; whereon,
At three and two years old, I stole these babes ;
Thinking to bar thee of succession, as
Thou reft'st me of my lands. Euriphile,
Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for their mother,
And every day do honour to her grave:
Myself, Belarius, that am Morgan call'd,
They take for natural father. The game is up. [exit.
SCENE IV. The Same. Country near Milford-Haven.
Enter PISANIO and IMOGEN.
IMO. Thou told'st me, when we came from horse, the
place
Was near at hand: ne'er long'd my mother so
To see me first, as I have now. Pisanio! Man!
Where is Posthumus? What is in thy mind,
That makes thee stare thus? Wherefore breaks that
sigh
From the inward of thee? One but painted thus
Would be interpreted a thing perplex'd
Beyond self-explication: put thyself
Into a haviour of less fear, ere wildness
Vanquish my staider senses. What's the matter? ΤΟ
Why tender'st thou that paper to me, with
A look untender? If't be summer news,
Smile to 't before; if winterly, thou need'st
But keep that countenance still. My husband's hand!
That drug-damn'd Italy hath out-craftied him,
And he's at some hard point.
May take off some extremity,
Would be even mortal to me.
PIS.
Speak, Man: thy tongue which to read
And you shall find me, wretched man, a thing
The most disdain'd of Fortune.
IMO. [reads.] Thy mistress, Pisanio, hath play'd the strumpet in my bed; the testimonies whereof lie bleeding I speak not out of weak surmises; but from
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