The Complete Works of William ShakespeareShakespeare, William
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The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, William
English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600
GUIDERIUS.
Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name,
I cannot tremble at it. Were it Toad, or Adder, Spider,
’Twould move me sooner.
CLOTEN.
To thy further fear,
Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know
I am son to th’ Queen.
GUIDERIUS.
I’m sorry for’t; not seeming
So worthy as thy birth.
CLOTEN.
Art not afeard?
GUIDERIUS.
Those that I reverence, those I fear—the wise;
At fools I laugh, not fear them.
CLOTEN.
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, rustic mountaineer.
[_Exeunt, fighting._]
Enter Belarius and Arviragus.
BELARIUS.
No company’s abroad?
ARVIRAGUS.
None in the world; you did mistake him, sure.
BELARIUS.
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.
ARVIRAGUS.
In this place we left them.
I wish my brother make good time with him,
You say he is so fell.
BELARIUS.
Being scarce made up,
I mean to man, he had not apprehension
Or roaring terrors; for defect of judgement
Is oft the cease of fear.
Enter Guiderius with Cloten’s head.
But, see, thy brother.
GUIDERIUS.
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.
BELARIUS.
What hast thou done?
GUIDERIUS.
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.
BELARIUS.
We are all undone.
GUIDERIUS.
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?
BELARIUS.
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
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.
ARVIRAGUS.
Let ordinance
Come as the gods foresay it. Howsoe’er,
My brother hath done well.
BELARIUS.
I had no mind
To hunt this day; the boy Fidele’s sickness
Did make my way long forth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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