Imo. So man and man should be; But clay and clay differs in dignity, But not so citizen a wanton, as To seem to die, ere sick: So please you leave me; Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom Is breach of all1. I am ill; but your being by me Cannot amend me: Society is no comfort To one not sociable: I'm not very sick, Since I can reason of it. Pray you, trust me here: and let me die, Gui. I love thee; I have spoke it; In Bel. What? how? how? Arv. If it be sin to say so, sir, I yoke me 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, And a demand who is't shall die, I'd say, My father, not this youth. Bel. O noble strain! [Aside. O worthiness of nature! breed of greatness! Cowards father cowards, and base things sire base: Nature hath meal, and bran; contempt, and grace. I am not their father: yet who this should be, Doth miracle itself, lov'd before me. "Tis the ninth hour o'the morn. Arv. Imo. I wish ye sport. Arv. Brother, farewell. You health. So please you, sir. Keep your daily course uninterrupted; if the stated plan of life is once broken, nothing follows but confusion,-Johnson. Imo. [Aside.] These are kind creatures. 'Gods, what lies I have heard! Our courtiers say, all's savage, but at court: The imperious seas breed monsters; for the dish, I am sick still; heart-sick:-Pisanio, Gui. I could not stir him; He said, he was gentle3, but unfortunate; Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest. Arv. Thus did he answer me: yet said, hereafter I might know more. Bel. To the field, to the field: Pray, be not sick, Well, or ill, And shalt be ever. [Exit IMOGEN. This youth, howe'er distress'd, appears, he hath had Good ancestors. Arv. How angel-like he sings! Gui. But his neat cookery! He cut our roots in characters; And sauc'd our broths, as Juno had been sick, 2 Here again Malone asserts that imperious was used by Shakspeare for imperial.' This is absurd enough when we look at the context: what has imperial to do with seas? Imperious has here its usual meaning of proud, haughty. See Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 5, note 27, p. 425. 31 could not move him to tell his story.' gentle race or rank, well born. Gentle is of a A smiling with a sigh: as if the sigh Was that it was, for not being such a smile; With winds that sailors rail at. Gui. I do note, That grief and patience, rooted in him both, Arv. 4 Grow, patience! And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine His perishing root, with the increasing vine 5 ! Bel. It is great morning. Come; away.-Who's there? Enter CLOTEn. Clo. I cannot find those runagates; that villain Hath mock'd me: I am faint. Bel. Those runagates! Means he not us? I partly know him; 'tis I know 'tis he:-We are held as outlaws:-Hence. [Exeunt BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS. 4 Spurs are the longest and largest leading roots of trees. We have the word again in The Tempest: the strong bas'd promontory Have I made shake, and by the spurs Pluck'd up the pine and cedar.' 5 How much difficulty has been made to appear in this simple figurative passage! which to me appears sufficiently intelligible without a note. 'Let patience grow, and let the stinking elder, grief, untwine his perishing root from those of the increasing vine, patience.' I have already observed, that with, from, and by, are almost always convertible words. 6 The same phrase occurs in Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 3, p. 410. It is a Gallicism:- Il est grand matin.' Thou art a robber, More slavish did I ne'er, than answering Clo.. A law-breaker, a villain: Yield thee, thief. Gui. To who? to thee? What art thou? Have not I An arm as big as thine? a heart as big? Thy words, I grant, are bigger; for I wear not Who is thy grandfather; he made those clothes, Which, as it seems, make thee9. Clo. My tailor made them not. Gui. Thou precious varlet, Hence then, and thank The man that gave them thee. Thou art some fool; I am loath to beat thee. Clo. Thou injurious thief, What's thy name? Hear but my name, and tremble. Gui. Clo. Cloten, thou villain. Gui. Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name, 7.i.e. than answering that abusive word slave. 8 So in Solyman and Perseda, 1599: 'I fight not with my tongue: this is my oratrix.' Macduff says to Macbeth: I have no words; My voice is in my sword.' 9 See a note on a similar passage in a former scene, p. 72, Act iii. Sc. 4, note 4. I cannot tremble at it; were't toad, or adder, spider, "Twould move me sooner. To thy further fear, Clo. I'm son to the queen. Gui. So worthy as thy birth. Clo. I'm sorry for❜t; not seeming Art not afeard? Gui. Those that I reverence, those I fear; the wise: At fools I laugh, not fear them. Clo. Die the death: When I have slain thee with my proper hand, I'll follow those that even now fled hence, And on the gates of Lud's town set your heads: Yield, rustick mountaineer. [Exeunt, fighting. Enter BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS. Bel. No company's abroad. Arv. None in the world: You did mistake him, sure. Bel. I cannot tell: Long is it since I saw him, But time hath nothing blurr'd those lines of favour Which then he wore; the snatches in his voice, And burst of speaking, were as his : I am absolute, "Twas very Cloten. Arv. In this place we left them: I wish my brother make good time with him, You say he is so fell. Bel. Of roaring terrors; for defect of judgment 10 The old copy reads, 'Is oft the cause of fear;' but this cannot be right: Belarius is assigning a reason for Cloten's foolhardy desperation, not accounting for his cowardice. The emendation adopted is Hanmer's, VOL. IX. K |