Belarius, Arviragus, Imogen, Guiderius, Cloten, Captain, Soothsayer
SCENE II. Before the cave of Belarius.
Enter, from the cave, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS, and IMOGEN
BELARIUS
[To IMOGEN] You are not well: remain here in the cave;
We'll come to you after hunting.
ARVIRAGUS
[To IMOGEN] Brother, stay here
Are we not brothers?
IMOGEN
So man and man should be;
But clay and clay differs in dignity,
Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
GUIDERIUS
Go you to hunting; I'll abide with him.
IMOGEN
So sick I am not, yet I am not well;
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 all. I am ill, but your being by me
Cannot amend me; society is no comfort
To one not sociable: I am not very sick,
Since I can reason of it. Pray you, trust me here:
I'll rob none but myself; and let me die,
Stealing so poorly.
GUIDERIUS
I love thee; I have spoke it
How much the quantity, the weight as much,
As I do love my father.
BELARIUS
What! how! how!
ARVIRAGUS
If it be sin to say so, I yoke me
In 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.'
BELARIUS
[Aside] O noble strain!
O worthiness of nature! breed of greatness!
Cowards father cowards and base things sire base:
Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace.
I'm not their father; yet who this should be,
Doth miracle itself, loved before me.
'Tis the ninth hour o' the morn.
ARVIRAGUS
Brother, farewell.
IMOGEN
I wish ye sport.
ARVIRAGUS
You health. So please you, sir.
IMOGEN
[Aside] These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies
I have heard!
Our courtiers say all's savage but at court:
Experience, O, thou disprovest report!
The imperious seas breed monsters, for the dish
Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.
I am sick still; heart-sick. Pisanio,
I'll now taste of thy drug.
Swallows some
GUIDERIUS
I could not stir him:
He said he was gentle, but unfortunate;
Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest.
ARVIRAGUS
Thus did he answer me: yet said, hereafter
I might know more.
BELARIUS
To the field, to the field!
We'll leave you for this time: go in and rest.
ARVIRAGUS
We'll not be long away.
BELARIUS
Pray, be not sick,
For you must be our housewife.
IMOGEN
Well or ill,
I am bound to you.
BELARIUS
And shalt be ever.
Exit IMOGEN, to the cave
This youth, how'er distress'd, appears he hath had
Good ancestors.
ARVIRAGUS
How angel-like he sings!
GUIDERIUS
But his neat cookery! he cut our roots
In characters,
And sauced our broths, as Juno had been sick
And he her dieter.
YOU ARE READING
Cymbeline, King of Britain || William Shakespeare || 1609 ✓
ClásicosWhile usually classified as a comedy, four of William Shakespeare's plays can be classified as romances: The Tempest, Pericles, The Winter's Tale, and Cymbeline. Occasionally, Cymbeline is classified as a history, since the title character was based...
