Yet I not doing this, the fool had borne My head as I do his. BELARIUS What hast thou done? GUIDERIUS I am perfect what: cut off one Cloten's head, Son to the queen, after his own report;Who call'd me traitor, mountaineer, and swore With his own single hand he'ld take us in 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 Protects not us: then why should we be tender To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us, Play judge and executioner all himself, For we do fear the law? What company Discover you abroad? BELARIUS No single soul Can we set eye on; but in all safe reason He must have some attendants. Though his humour Was nothing but mutation, 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 here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time May make some stronger head; the which he hearing--As it is like him--might break out, and swear He'ld fetch us in; yet is't not probable To come alone, either he so undertaking, Or they so suffering: then on good ground we fear, If we do fear this body hath a tail More perilous than the head. ARVIRAGUS Let ordinance Come as the gods foresay it: howsoe'er, My brother hath done well. BELARIUS I had no mind To hunt this day: the boy Fidele's sickness Did make my way long forth. 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 the sea, And tell the fishes he's the queen's son, Cloten:
That's all I reck.
Exit BELARIUS I fear 'twill be revenged:
Would, Polydote, thou hadst not done't! though valour Becomes thee well enough. ARVIRAGUS Would I had done't So the revenge alone pursued me! Polydore, I love thee brotherly, but envy much Thou hast robb'd me of this deed: I would revenges, That possible strength might meet, would seek us through And put us to our answer. BELARIUS Well, 'tis done:
We'll hunt no more to-day, 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 Polydote return, and bring him To dinner presently. ARVIRAGUS Poor sick Fidele!
I'll weringly to him: to gain his colour I'ld let a parish of such Clotens' blood, And praise myself for charity.
Exit BELARIUS O thou goddess, Thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon'st In these two princely boys! They are as gentle As zephyrs blowing below the violet, Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough, Their royal blood enchafed, as the rudest wind, That by the top doth take the mountain pine, And make him stoop to the vale. 'Tis wonder That an invisible instinct should frame them To royalty unlearn'd, honour untaught, Civility not seen from other, valour That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop As if it had been sow'd. Yet still it's strange What Cloten's being here to us portends, Or what his death will bring us.
Re-enter GUIDERIUS GUIDERIUS Where's my brother?
I have sent Cloten's clotpoll down the stream, In embassy to his mother: his body's hostage For his return.
Solemn music BELARIUS My ingenious instrument!
Hark, Polydore, it sounds! But what occasion Hath Cadwal now to give it motion? 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 before. All solemn things Should answer solemn accidents. The matter?
Triumphs for nothing and lamenting toys Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.
Is Cadwal mad? BELARIUS Look, here he comes, And brings the dire occasion in his arms Of what we blame him for.
Re-enter ARVIRAGUS, with IMOGEN, as dead, bearing her in his arms ARVIRAGUS The bird is dead That we have made so much on. I had rather Have skipp'd from sixteen years of age to sixty, To have turn'd my leaping-time into a crutch, Than have seen this. GUIDERIUS O sweetest, fairest lily!
My brother wears thee not the one half so well As when thou grew'st thyself. BELARIUS O melancholy!
Who ever yet could sound thy bottom? find The ooze, to show what coast thy sluggish crare Might easiliest harbour in? Thou blessed thing!
Jove knows what man thou mightst have made; but I, Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy.
How found you him? ARVIRAGUS Stark, as you see:
Thus smiling, as some fly hid tickled slumber, Not as death's dart, being laugh'd at; his right cheek Reposing on a cushion. GUIDERIUS Where? ARVIRAGUS O' the floor;His arms thus leagued: I thought he slept, and put My clouted brogues from off my feet, whose rudeness Answer'd my steps too loud. GUIDERIUS Why, he but sleeps:
If he be gone, he'll make his grave a bed;
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, like thy veins, no, nor The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, Out-sweeten'd not thy breath: the ruddock 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 furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, To winter-ground thy corse. GUIDERIUS Prithee, have done;And do not play in wench-like words with that Which is so serious. Let us bury him, And not protract with admiration what Is now due debt. To the grave! ARVIRAGUS Say, where shall's lay him? GUIDERIUS By good Euriphile, our mother. ARVIRAGUS Be't so:
