Nor when she purposes return. 'Beseech your highness,
Hold me your loyal servant.
1 Lord.

Good my liege,
The day that she was missing, he was here;
I dare be bound he's true, and shall perform
All parts of his subjection loyally.
For Cloten,-
There wants no diligence in seeking him,
And will, no doubt, be found.

Cym. The time's troublesome;
We'll slip you for a season; but our jealousy

[To PISANIO. Does yet depend. 1 Lord.

So please your majesty,
The Roman legions, all from Gallia drawn,
Are landed on your coast ; with a supply
Of Roman gentlemen, by the senate sent.

Cym. Now for the counsel of my son and
I am amazed with matter.3
1 Lord.

Good my liege,
Your preparation can affront“ no less
Than what you hear of: come more, for more you're

ready.
The want is, but to put those powers in motion,
That long to move.
Cym.

I thank you. Let's withdraw;
And meet the time, as it seeks us. We fear not
What can from Italy annoy us; but
We grieve at chances here.-Away. [Exeunt.

Pis. I heard no letter 5 from my master, since I wrote him Imogen was slain.

Tis strange. Nor hear I from my mistress, who did promise To yield me often tidings. Neither know I

queen!

What is betid to Cloten ; but remain
Perplexed in all. The Heavens still must work:
Wherein I am false, I am honest; not true, to be true.
These present wars shall find I love my country,
Even to the note o’the king, or I'll fall in them.
All other doubts, by time let them be cleared ;
Fortune brings in some boats, that are not steered.

[Exit.

SCENE IV. Before the Cave.

Enter BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS.
Gui. The noise is round about us.
Bel.

Let us from it.
Arv. What pleasure, sir, find we in life, to lock it
From action and adventure ?
Gui.

Nay, what hope
Have we in hiding us ? This way, the Romans
Must, or for Britons slay us ; or receive us
For barbarous and unnatural revolts,?
During their use, and slay us after.
Bel.

Sons,
We'll higher to the mountains ; there secure us.
To the king's party there's no going; newness
Of Cloten's death (we being not known, not mustered
Among the bands) may drive us to a render 3
Where we have lived ; and so extort from us
That which we've done, whose answer would be death,
Drawn on with torture.
Gui.

This is, sir, a doubt,
In such a time, nothing becoming you,
Nor satisfying us.
Arv.

It is not likely,
That when they hear the Roman horses neigh,

2

Behold their quartered fires," have both their eyes
And ears so cloyed importantly as now,
That they will waste their time upon our note,
To know from whence we are.
Bel.

0, I am known
Of many in the army; many years,
Though Cloten then but young, you see, not wore him
From my remembrance. And, besides, the king
Hath not deserved my service, nor your loves;
Who find in my exile the want of breeding,
The certainty of this hard life; ay, hopeless
To have the courtesy your cradle promised,
But to be still hot summer's tanlings, and
The shrinking slaves of winter.
Gui.

Than be so,
Better to cease to be. Pray, sir, to the army.
I and my brother are not known; yourself,
So out of thought, and thereto so o’ergrown,
Cannot be questioned.
Arv.

By this sun that shines,
I'll thither. What thing is it, that I never
Did see man die ? scarce ever looked on blood,
But that of coward hares, hot goats, and venison ?
Never bestrid a horse, save one, that had
A rider like myself, who ne'er wore rowel
Nor iron on his heel ? I am ashamed
To look upon the holy sun, to have
The benefit of his blessed beams, remaining
So long a poor unknown.
Gui.

By Heavens, I'll go !
If you will bless me, sir, and give me leave,
I'll take the better care ; but if you
The hazard therefore due fall on me, by
The hands of Romans !
Arv.

So say I; amen.
Bel. No reason I, since on your lives you set
So slight a valuation, should reserve

will not,

My cracked one to more care.

Have with you, boys; If in your country wars you chance to die, That is my bed too, lads, and there I'll lie. Lead, lead.—The time seems long; their blood thinks scorn,

[ Aside. Till it fly out, and show them princes born.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I. A Field between the British and Roman

Camps.

Enter Posthumus, with a bloody handkerchief.' Post. Yea, bloody cloth, I'll keep thee; for I wished Thou shouldst be colored thus. You married ones, If each of you would take this course, how many Must murder wives much better than themselves, For wryingbut a little ?-O Pisanio! Every good servant does not all commands: No bond, but to do just ones.—Gods! if you Should have ta’en vengeance on my faults, I never Had lived to put on this : so

on this: so had you saved The noble Imogen to repent; and struck Me, wretch, more worth your vengeance. But, alack, You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love To have them fall no more : you some permit To second ills with ills, each elder worse ;

4

1 The bloody token of Imogen's death, which Pisanio, in the foregoing act, determined to send.

This uncommon verb is used by Stanyhurst in the third book of the translation of Virgil :

the maysters wrye their vessells." And in Sidney's Arcadia, lib. i. ed. 1633, p. 67 " That from the right line of virtue are wryed to these crooked shifts."

3 To put on, is to incite, instigate.

4 The last deed is certainly not the oldest; but Shakspeare calls the deed of an elder man an elder deed, VOL. VI.

39

And make them dread it to the doer's shrift.
But Imogen is your own. Do your best wills,
And make me blessed to obey !-I am brought hither
Among the Italian gentry, and to fight
Against my lady's kingdom. 'Tis enough
That, Britain, I have killed thy mistress; peace!
I'll give no wound to thee. Therefore, good Heavens,
Hear patiently my purpose. I'll disrobe me
Of these Italian weeds, and suit myself
As does a Briton peasant. So I'll fight
Against the part I come with ; so I'll die
For thee, O Imogen, even for whom my life
Is, every breath, a death ; and thus, unknown,
Pitied nor hated, to the face of peril
Myself I'll dedicate. Let me make men know
More valor in me, than my habits show.
Gods put the strength o’the Leonati in me!
To shame the guise o’the world, I will begin
The fashion, less without, and more within. [Exit.

SCENE II. The same.

Enter, at one side, Lucius, lachimo, and the Roman

Army; at the other side, the British Army; LEONAtus Posthumus following it, like a poor soldier. They march over, and go out. Alarums. Then enter again, in skirmish, Iachimo and Posthumus: he vanquisheth and disarmeth Iachimo, and then leaves him.

lach. The heaviness and guilt within my bosom Takes off my manhood. I have belied a lady,