Cymbeline (14 page)

CYMBELINE
    Where is she, sir? How

Can her contempt be
answered?
⁵¹

MESSENGER
    Please you, sir,

Her chambers are all locked, and there’s no answer

That will be given to th’loud’st of noise we make.

QUEEN
    My lord, when last I went to visit her,

She prayed me to excuse her keeping
close
⁵⁶
,

Whereto constrained by her infirmity
⁵⁷
,

She should that duty leave unpaid to you

Which daily she was bound to
proffer
⁵⁹
: this

She wished me to make known, but our great court

Made me to blame in memory.

CYMBELINE
    Her doors locked?

Not seen of late? Grant heavens that which I fear

Prove false.

QUEEN
    Son, I say, follow the king.

CLOTEN
    That man of hers, Pisanio, her old servant

I have not seen these two days.

QUEEN
    Go, look after.—

Pisanio, thou that
stand’st so for
⁶⁹
Posthumus!

He hath a drug of mine: I pray his absence

Proceed by
⁷¹
swallowing that, for he believes

It is a thing most precious. But for her,

Where is she gone?
Haply
⁷³
despair hath seized her:

Or, winged with fervour of her love, she’s flown

To her desired Posthumus: gone she is

To death or to dishonour, and my
end
⁷⁶

Can make good use of either. She being down,

I have the
placing
⁷⁸
of the British crown.—

How now, my son?

CLOTEN
    ’Tis certain she is fled:

Go in and cheer the king, he rages, none

Dare come about him.

QUEEN
    All the better: may

This night
forestall him of the coming day.
⁸⁴

CLOTEN
    I love and hate
her
:
for
⁸⁵
she’s fair and royal,

And
that
she hath all courtly
parts
⁸⁶
more exquisite

Than lady, ladies, woman —
from every one
⁸⁷

The best she hath, and she, of all
compounded
⁸⁸
,

Outsells
⁸⁹
them all — I love her therefore: but

Disdaining me, and throwing favours on

The low Posthumus,
slanders
⁹¹
so her judgement

That what’s else
rare
⁹²
is choked: and in that point

I will conclude to hate her, nay, indeed,

To be revenged upon her. For when fools shall—

Who is here?— What, are you
packing
,
sirrah?
⁹⁵

Come hither: ah, you precious
pander!
⁹⁶
Villain,

Where is thy lady? In a word, or else

Thou art straightway with the fiends.
⁹⁸

PISANIO
    O, good my lord!

CLOTEN
    Where is thy lady? Or, by Jupiter,

I will not ask again.
Close
¹⁰¹
villain,

I’ll have this secret from thy heart, or rip

Thy heart to find it. Is she with Posthumus,

From whose so many
weights
¹⁰⁴
of baseness cannot

A
dram
¹⁰⁵
of worth be drawn?

PISANIO
    Alas, my lord,

How can she be with him? When was she missed?

He is in Rome.

CLOTEN
    Where is she, sir?
Come nearer
¹⁰⁹
:

No further
halting
: satisfy me
home
¹¹⁰
,

What is become of her?

PISANIO
    O my all-worthy lord!

CLOTEN
    All-worthy villain,

Discover
¹¹⁴
where thy mistress is at once,

At the next word: no more of ‘worthy lord!’

Speak, or thy silence on the instant is

Thy condemnation and thy death.

PISANIO
    Then, sir,

This paper is the history of my knowledge

Touching
¹²⁰
her flight.

CLOTEN
    Let’s see’t: I will pursue her

Even to Augustus’ throne.

PISANIO
    
Or this, or perish.
¹²³

She’s far enough, and what he learns by this

May prove his
travel
¹²⁵
, not her danger.

CLOTEN
    Hum!

PISANIO
    I’ll write to my lord she’s dead: O Innogen,

Safe mayst thou wander, safe return again!

CLOTEN
    Sirrah, is this letter true?

PISANIO
    Sir, as I think.

CLOTEN
    It is Posthumus’ hand, I know’t. Sirrah, if thou

wouldst not be a villain, but do me true service,
undergo
¹³²

those
employments
¹³³
wherein I should have cause to use thee

with a
serious
industry
¹³⁴
, that is, what villainy soe’er I bid thee

do, to perform it directly and truly, I would think thee an

honest man: thou shouldst neither
want
¹³⁶
my means for thy

relief
, nor my
voice for thy preferment.
¹³⁷

PISANIO
    Well, my good lord.

CLOTEN
    Wilt thou serve me? For since patiently and

constantly thou hast stuck to the bare fortune of that beggar

Posthumus, thou canst not in the
course
of gratitude
but
¹⁴¹
be

a diligent follower of mine. Wilt thou serve me?

PISANIO
    Sir, I will.

CLOTEN
    Give me thy hand, here’s my purse.
Hast
¹⁴⁴
any of thy

late
¹⁴⁵
master’s garments in thy possession?

PISANIO
    I have, my lord, at my lodging, the same suit he wore

when he took leave of my lady and mistress.

CLOTEN
    The first service thou dost me, fetch that suit hither:

let it be thy first service, go.

PISANIO
    I shall, my lord.

CLOTEN
    Meet thee at Milford Haven! — I forgot to ask him

one thing, I’ll remember’t anon. — Even there, thou villain

Posthumus, will I kill thee. I would these garments were

come. She said
upon a time
¹⁵⁴
— the bitterness of it I now belch

from my heart — that she held the very garment of

Posthumus in more respect than my noble and natural

person, together with the adornment of my qualities. With

that suit upon my back will I ravish her: first kill him, and in

her eyes
¹⁵⁹
; there shall she see my valour, which will then be a

torment to her contempt. He on the ground, my speech of

insultment
¹⁶¹
ended on his dead body, and when my lust hath

dined — which, as I say, to vex her I will execute in the

clothes that she so praised — to the court I’ll
knock
¹⁶³
her back,

foot
¹⁶⁴
her home again. She hath despised me rejoicingly, and

I’ll be merry in my revenge.—

Enter Pisanio

Be those the garments?

PISANIO
    Ay, my noble lord.

CLOTEN
    How long is’t since she went to Milford Haven?

PISANIO
    She can scarce be there yet.

CLOTEN
    Bring this apparel to my chamber. That is the

second thing that I have commanded thee. The third is that

thou wilt be a
voluntary mute
¹⁷²
to my design. Be but duteous,

and true preferment shall
tender
¹⁷³
itself to thee. My revenge is

now at Milford: would I had wings to follow it. Come, and be

true.

PISANIO
    Thou bid’st me
to my loss
¹⁷⁶
: for true to thee

Were to prove false, which I will never be,

To
him that is most true.
¹⁷⁸
To Milford go,

And find not her whom thou pursuest. Flow, flow,

You heavenly blessings, on her. This fool’s speed

Be
crossed
with slowness; labour be his
meed.
¹⁸¹

Exit

INNOGEN
    I see a man’s life is a tedious one:

I have
tired
²
myself, and for two nights together

Have made the ground my bed. I should be sick,

But that my resolution helps me. Milford,

When from the mountain-top Pisanio showed thee,

Thou wast within a
ken.
⁶
O Jove, I think

Foundations fly the wretched
⁷
: such, I mean,

Where they should be relieved. Two beggars told me

I could not miss my way. Will poor folks lie,

That have afflictions on them, knowing ’tis

A punishment or
trial?
¹¹
Yes; no wonder,

When rich ones
scarce
tell true. To
lapse in fullness
¹²

Is
sorer
¹³
than to lie for need, and falsehood

Is worse in kings than beggars. My dear lord,

Thou art
on
¹⁵
e o’th’false ones. Now I think on thee

My hunger’s gone; but
even before
¹⁶
, I was

At point
¹⁷
to sink for food. But what is this?

Here is a path to’t: ’tis some savage
hold
¹⁸
:

I
were best
¹⁹
not call; I dare not call: yet famine,

Ere clean it o’erthrow nature
²⁰
, makes it valiant.

Plenty and peace breeds cowards:
hardness ever
²¹

Of hardiness is mother. Ho! Who’s here?

If anything that’s civil, speak: if savage,

Take or lend.
²⁴
Ho! No answer? Then I’ll enter.

Best
²⁵
draw my sword; and if mine enemy

But fear the sword like me, he’ll scarcely look on’t.

Such a foe, good heavens!
²⁷

BELARIUS
    You, Polydore, have proved best
woodman
²⁸
and

Are master of the feast: Cadwal and I

Will play the cook and servant: ’tis our
match.
³⁰

The sweat of industry would dry and die
³¹

But for the end it works to. Come, our stomachs

Will make what’s
homely
³³
savoury: weariness

Can snore upon the
flint
when
resty sloth
³⁴

Finds the
down
³⁵
pillow hard. Now peace be here,

Poor house, that
keep’st thyself.
³⁶

GUIDERIUS
    I am
throughly
³⁷
weary.

ARVIRAGUS
    I am weak with toil, yet strong in appetite.

GUIDERIUS
    There is cold meat i’th’cave, we’ll
browse
³⁹
on that

Whilst what we have killed be cooked.

BELARIUS
    Stay; come not in:

But that
it eats our
victuals
⁴²
, I should think

Here were a fairy.

GUIDERIUS
    What’s the matter, sir?

BELARIUS
    By Jupiter, an angel! Or if not,

An earthly
paragon.
⁴⁶
Behold divineness

No elder than a boy.

INNOGEN
    Good masters, harm me not:

Before I entered here, I called, and thought

To have begged or bought what I have took:
good troth
⁵⁰
,

I have stol’n
nought
⁵¹
, nor would not, though I had found

Gold strewed
i’th’floor.
⁵²
Here’s money for my meat: