Re-enter GUIDERIUS, with CLOTEN'S Head. Gui. This Cloten was a fool: an empty purse, There was no money in't: not Hercules Could have knock'd out his brains, for he had none : Yet I not doing this, the fool had borne My head, as I do his. Bel. What hast thou done? Gui. I am perfect11, what: cut off one Cloten's head. Son to the queen, after his own report; Who call'd me traitor, mountaineer; and swore, Displace our heads, where (thank the gods!) they grow, And set them on Lud's town. Bel. We are all undone. Gui. 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 13 we do fear the law? What company Discover you abroad? Bel. No single soul Can we set eye on, but, in all safe reason, He must have some attendants. Though his humour 14 11 I am well informed what.' 12 i. e. conquer, subdue us. 13 For again in the sense of cause. See note on Act iv. Sc. 1, p. 91. 14 The old copy reads, 'his honour.' The emendation is Theobald's. Malone has shown that the honour and humour have been erroneously printed for each other in other passages of the old editions. 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'd 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. Arv. Let ordinance Come as the gods foresay it: howsoe'er, I had no mind Bel. Did make my way long forth 15. Gui. 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. Bel. [Exit. I fear, 'twill be reveng'd: 'Would, Polydore, thou had'st not done't! though valour Becomes thee well enough. 'Would, I had done't, Arv. Thou hast robb'd me of this deed: I would, revenges, That possible strength might meet 16, would seek us through, And put us to our answer. 15 Fidele's sickness made my walk forth from the cave tedious.' So in King Richard III.: our crosses on the way Have made it tedious,' &c. 16 Such pursuit of vengeance as fell within any possibility of opposition.' Bel. : Well, 'tis done: We'll hunt no more to-day, nor seek for danger Arv. Poor sick Fidele! I'll willingly to him: To gain his colour, [Exit. Bel. Not wagging his sweet head: and yet as rough, That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop Gui. Re-enter GUIDERIUS. Where's my brother? I have sent Cloten's clotpoll down the stream, 17 To restore Fidele to the bloom of health, to recall the colour into his cheeks, I would let out the blood of a whole parish, or any number of such fellows as Cloten.' A parish is a common phrase for a great number. 'Heaven give you joy, sweet master Palatine. And to you, sir, a whole parish of children.' The Wits, by Davenant, p. 222. 18 See a passage from Shakspeare's Lover's Complaint, cited in vol. v. p. 349, note 3. In embassy to his mother; his body's hostage For his return. Bel. [Solemn Musick. My ingenious instrument! Hark, Polydore, it sounds! But what occasion Bel. He went hence even now. Gui. What does he mean? since death of my dear'st mother It did not speak before. All solemn things Is Cadwal mad? Re-enter ARVIRAGUS, bearing IMOGEN, as dead, Bel. in his Arms. Look, here he comes, And brings the dire occasion in his arms, The bird is dead, Arv. 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. Gui. O sweetest, fairest lily! My brother wears thee not the one half so well, As when thou grew'st thyself. Bel. 20 O, melancholy! Who ever yet could sound thy bottom? find The ooze, to show what coast thy sluggish crare 19 Toys are trifles. 20 A crare was a small vessel of burthen, sometimes spelled craer, crayer, and even craye. The old copy reads, erroneously, thy sluggish care.' The emendation was suggested by Sympson in a note on The Captain of Beaumont and Fletcher: let him venture In some decayed crare of his own.' The word frequently occurs in Holinshed; as twice, p. 906, Might easiliest harbour in ?—Thou blessed thing! Jove knows what man thou might'st have made? but I 21, Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy !– How found you him? Stark 22 9 as you see: Arv. Thus smiling, as some fly had tickled slumber, Not as death's dart, being laugh'd at: his right cheek Reposing on a cushion. Gui. Arv. Where? O' the floor; His arms thus leagu'd: I thought, he slept: and put My clouted brogues 23 from off my feet, whose rude ness Answer'd my steps too loud. Gui. Why, he but sleeps 24: vol. ii. And in Sir T. North's Plutarch, fol. 295, b. :- Sending them corne from Catana, in little fisher boates and small crayers.' So T. Watson in Amintas for his Phillis, printed in England's Helicon: Till thus my soul doth passe in Charon's crare.' 21 We should most probably read, but ah!' Ay is always printed ah! in the first folio, and other books of the time. Hence, perhaps, I, which was used for the affirmative particle ay, crept into the text. 'Heaven knows (says Belarius) what a man thou wouldst have been hadst thou lived; but, alas! thou died'st of melancholy, while yet only a most accomplished boy.' 22 Stark means entirely cold and stiff. 23 And many a nobleman lies stark- King Henry IV. Part I. Clouted brogues' are coarse wooden shoes, strengthened with clout or hob-nails. In some parts of England thin plates of iron, called clouts, are fixed to the shoes of rustics. 24 I cannot forbear (says Steevens) to introduce a passage somewhat like this from Webster's White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona [1612], on account of its singular beauty: 'Oh, thou soft natural death! thou art joint twin To sweetest slumber! no rough-bearded comet |