Haven what your own love will out of this advise you, follow. So he wishes you all happiness, that remains loyal to his vow, and your, increasing in love,

LEONATUS POSTHUMUS.'

O, for a horse with wings! Hear'st thou, Pisanio? 50
He is at Milford-Haven: read, and tell me
How far 'tis thither. If one of mean affairs
May plod it in a week, why may not I

Glide thither in a day? Then, true Pisanio,-
Who long'st, like me, to see thy lord; who
long'st,-

O, let me bate,—but not like me-yet long'st,
But in a fainter kind :-O, not like me;

For mine's beyond beyond-say, and speak

thick;

Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing,
To the smothering of the sense—]
e-how far it is
To this same blessed Milford: and by the way
Tell me how Wales was made so happy as
To inherit such a haven: but first of all,
How we may steal from hence, and for the gap
That we shall make in time, from our hence-

going

And our return, to excuse but first, how get hence:

Why should excuse be born or ere begot?

We'll talk of that hereafter. Prithee, speak,
How many score of miles may we well ride
'Twixt hour and hour?

52. of mean affairs, concerned with common business.

56. bate, qualify (the statement 'long like me').

58. speak thick, crowd the words together.

60

Pis.

One score 'twixt sun and sun, 70 Madam, 's enough for you: [Aside] and too much

too.

Imo. Why, one that rode to 's execution,

man,

Could never go so slow: I have heard of riding

wagers,

Where horses have been nimbler than the sands That run i' the clock's behalf. But this is foolery:

Go bid my woman feign a sickness; say

She'll home to her father: and provide me pre

sently

A riding-suit, no costlier than would fit

A franklin's housewife.

Pis.

Madam, you're best consider.

Imo. I see before me, man: nor here, nor here, 80 Nor what ensues, but have a fog in them,

That I cannot look through. Away, I prithee;

Do as I bid thee: there's no more to say;
Accessible is none but Milford way.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. Wales: a mountainous country
with a cave.

Enter, from the cave, BELARIUS; GUIDERIUS,
and ARVIRAGUS following.

Bel. A goodly day not to keep house, with such Whose roof's as low as ours! Stoop, boys; this

gate

Instructs you how to adore the heavens and bows

you

75. run the clock's behalf, do the clock's work (i.e. in the hour-glass).

2. Stoop, Hanmer's correction of Ff sleep.

To a morning's holy office: the gates of monarchs
Are arch'd so high that giants may jet through
And keep their impious turbans on, without
Good morrow to the sun. Hail, thou fair heaven!
We house i' the rock, yet use thee not so hardly
As prouder livers do.

Gui.

Arv.

Hail, heaven!

Hail, heaven!

Bel. Now for our mountain sport: up to yond

hill;

Your legs are young; I'll tread these flats. Consider,

When you above perceive me like a crow,

That it is place which lessens and sets off:

And you may then revolve what tales I have

told you

Of courts, of princes, of the tricks in war:
This service is not service, so being done,
But being so allow'd to apprehend thus,
Draws us a profit from all things we see;
And often, to our comfort, shall we find
The sharded beetle in a safer hold
Than is the full-wing'd eagle.

O, this life
Is nobler than attending for a check,
Richer than doing nothing for a bauble,
Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk:
Such gain the cap of him that makes 'em fine,
Yet keeps his book uncross'd: no life to ours.
Gui. Out of your proof you speak we, poor
`unfledged,

5. jet, strut.

16. This service, i.e. that of courts and princes.

17. allow'd, approved.

20. sharded, with scaly wing

case.

22. check, rebuke.

ΤΟ

20

Have never wing'd from view o' the nest, nor

know not

What air's from home. Haply this life is best,
If quiet life be best; sweeter to you

That have a sharper known; well corresponding
With your
stiff age: but unto us it is
A cell of ignorance; travelling a-bed;
A prison for a debtor, that not dares
To stride a limit.

Arv.

What should we speak of

When we are old as you? when we shall hear
The rain and wind beat dark December, how,
In this our pinching cave, shall we discourse
The freezing hours away? We have seen nothing;
We are beastly, subtle as the fox for prey,
Like warlike as the wolf for what we eat;
Our valour is to chase what flies; our cage
We make a quire, as doth the prison'd bird,
And sing our bondage freely.

Bel.

How you speak!
Did you but know the city's usuries
And felt them knowingly; the art o' the court,
As hard to leave as keep; whose top to climb
Is certain falling, or so slippery that

The fear's as bad as falling; the toil o' the war,
A pain that only seems to seek out danger

I' the name of fame and honour; which dies i' the

search,

And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph

As record of fair act; nay, many times,

Doth ill deserve by doing well; what's worse,
Must court'sy at the censure:-O boys, this story
The world may read in me: my body's mark'd

29. What air's from home, what the air is like abroad.

34. prison for, Pope's emend

ation of Ff prison or.

35. stride, overstep.

30

40

50

With Roman swords, and my report was once
First with the best of note: Cymbeline loved me,
And when a soldier was the theme, my name
Was not far off: then was I as a tree

Whose boughs did bend with fruit: but in one
night,

A storm or robbery, call it what you will,
Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves,
And left me bare to weather.

Gui.

Uncertain favour!

Bel. My fault being nothing—as I have told you oft

60

But that two villains, whose false oaths prevail'd
Before my perfect honour, swore to Cymbeline
I was confederate with the Romans: so
Follow'd my banishment, and this twenty years
This rock and these demesnes have been my world; 70
Where I have lived at honest freedom, paid

More pious debts to heaven than in all

The fore-end of my time. But up to the mountains !

This is not hunters' language: he that strikes

The venison first shall be the lord o' the feast;
To him the other two shall minister;

And we will fear no poison, which attends

In place of greater state. I'll meet you in the valleys. [Exeunt Guiderius and Arviragus. How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature!

These boys know little they are sons to the king; 80 Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive.

They think they are mine; and though train'd up

thus meanly

I' the cave wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit

63. hangings, fruit.

73. fore-end, fore-part.

83. wherein they bow; Warburton's emendation of Ff whereon the Bow(e).