The smile mocking the sigh, that it would fly
From so divine a temple, to commix

With winds that sailors rail at.

Gui.

I do note,

That grief and patience, rooted in him both,
Mingle their spurs together. 7

Arv.

Grow, patience!

And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine

His perishing root, with the increasing vine!

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

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.

Clo.

[Exeunt BELARIUS and ARVIragus.
Soft! What are you

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 law-breaker, a villain:

A thing

Thou art a robber,

Yield thee, thief.

What art thou? Have

Gui. To who? to thee?

not I

1 Mingle their spurs together.] Spurs are the longest and largest leading roots of trees.

8 It is great morning.] A Gallicism. Grand jour.

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,

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

Clo.

My tailor made them not.

Gui.

No, nor thy tailor, rascal,

Thou precious varlet,

Hence then, and thank

The man that them thee. Thou art some fool;

gave

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,

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.

So worthy as thy birth.

Clo.

To thy further fear,

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.

Die the death:
Clo.
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
Yield, rustick mountaineer. 9

heads: [Exeunt, fighting.

9 Yield, rustick mountaineer.] I believe, upon examination, the Act I. character of Cloten will not prove a very consistent one. sc. iv. the lords who are conversing with him on the subject of his

Enter BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS.

Bel. No company's abroad.

Aro. 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

rencontre with Posthumus, represent the latter as having neither put forth his strength or courage, but still advancing forwards to the prince, who retired before him; yet at this his last appearance, we see him fighting gallantly, and falling by the hand of Guiderius. The same persons afterwards speak of him as of a mere ass or ideot; and yet, Act III. sc. i. he returns one of the noblest and most reasonable answers to the Roman envoy: and the rest of his conversation on the same occasion, though it may lack form a little, by no means resembles the language of folly. He behaves with proper dignity and civility at parting with Lucius, and yet is ridiculous and brutal in his treatment of Imogen. Belarius describes him as not having sense enough to know what fear is (which he defines as being sometimes the effect of judgment;) and yet he forms very artful schemes for gaining the affection of his mistress, by means of her attendants; to get her person into his power afterwards; and seems to be no less acquainted with the character of his father, and the ascendancy the queen maintained over his uxorious weakness. We find Cloten, in short, represented at once as brave and dastardly, civil and brutish, sagacious and foolish, without that subtilty of distinction, and those shades of gradation between sense and folly, virtue and vice, which constitute the excellence of such mixed characters as Polonius in Hamlet, and the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet. STEEVENS.

the snatches in his voice,

And burst of speaking,] This is one of our author's strokes of observation. An abrupt and tumultuous utterance very frequently accompanies a confused and cloudy understanding.

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 2: 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,3

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 4? 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

Was nothing but mutation; ay, and that

From one bad thing to worse; not frenzy, not
Absolute madness could so far have rav'd,
To bring him here alone: Although, perhaps,
It may be heard at court, that such as we

+"the cure of fear:" - MALone.

2 I am perfect, what:] I am well informed, what. 3 take us in,] i. e. conquer, or subdue us.

4 For we do fear the law? For is here used in the sense of because.

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.

I had no mind

Bel.
To hunt this day: the boy Fidele's sickness

Did make my way long forth."

With his own sword,

Gui.
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.

Aro.

'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.

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

5 Did make my way long forth.] Fidele's sickness made my walk forth from the cave tedious.