Cloten, the son o' the queen. I fear some ambush.
I saw him not these many years, and yet

I know 'tis he:-We are held as outlaws:-Hence.
Gui. He is but one: You and my brother search
What companies are near: pray you, away;
Let me alone with him.

[Exeunt BEL. and ARV. Soft! What are you

Clo.
That fly me thus? some villain mountaineers?
I have heard of such.-What slave art thou?

Gui.

More slavish did I ne'er, than answering
A slave without a knock.

Clo.

A thing

Thou art a robber,

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
My dagger in my mouth. Say, what thou art;
Why I should yield to thee?

Clo.

Know'st me not by my clothes?

Gui.

Thou villain base,

No, nor thy tailor, rascal,

Thou precious varlet,

Hence then, and thank

Who is thy grandfather; he made those clothes,
Which, as it seems, make thee.

Clo.

My tailor made them not.

Gui.

The man that gave them thee. Thou art some fool;
I am loth 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,

I cannot tremble at it; were 't toad, or adder, spider,

'Twould move me sooner.

Clo.

Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know

I'm son to the queen.

Gui.

To thy further fear,

I'm sorry for 't; not seeming

So worthy as thy birth.

Clo.

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.
Being scarce made up,
I mean, to man, he had not apprehension
Of roaring terrors; for the effect of judgment
Is oft the cause of fear: But see, thy brother.

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 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'd take us in,

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 we do fear the law? What company
Discover you abroad?

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 couid so far have rav'd,
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'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,
My brother hath done well.

Bel.

I had no mind

To hunt this day: the boy Fidele's sickness

Did make my way long forth.

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.

I fear, 'twill be reveng'd:

[Exit.

'Would, Polydore, thou had'st not done 't! though valour Becomes thee well enough.

'Would I had done 't,

Arv.
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.

Bel.
Well, 'tis done :-
We'll hunt no more to-day, nor seek for danger
Where there's no profit. I pr'ythee, to our rock;
You and Fidele play the cooks: I'll stay

Till hasty Polydore return, and bring him
To dinner presently.

Arv.

Poor sick Fidele!

I'll willingly to him: To gain his colour,
I'd let a parish of such Clotens blood,
And praise myself for charity.

Bel.
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 enchaf'd, as the rud'st wind,
That by the top doth take the mountain pine,
And make him stoop to the vale. 'Tis wonderful,
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.

Gui.

[Exit.

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 Musick.

Bel.
My ingenious instrument!
Hark, Polydore, it sounds! But what occasion
Hath Cadwal now to give it motion! Hark!
Gui. Is he at home?

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
Should answer solemn accidents. The matter?
Triumphs for nothing, and lamenting toys,
Is jollity for apes, and grief for boys,

Is Cadwal mad?

Re-enter ARVIRAGUS, bearing IMOGEN as dead,
in his Arms.

Bel.

Look, here he comes,

And brings the dire occasion in his arms,
Of what we blame him for!

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.

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 might'st have made; but I,
Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy!-

How found you him?

Arv.

Stark, as you see:

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 from off my feet, whose rudeness Answer'd my steps too loud.

Gui.

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.

Arv.

With fairest flowers,

Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,