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 gave them thee. Thou art some fool;

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.

To thy further fear,

Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know

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 heads:
Yield, rustick mountaineer."

[Exeunt, fighting.

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

Enter BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS.

Bel. No company's abroad.

Arv. 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.

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 feart: 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: 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? What company
Discover you abroad?

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,
may be heard at court, that such as we

It

+"the cure of fear :"- MALONE.

' I am perfect, what:] I am well informed, what.

S

take us in,] i. e. conquer, or subdue us.

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.5

Gui.
With his own sword,
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.

'Would I had done't,

Arv.
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.

Well, 'tis done:

Bel.
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

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

[Exit.

Till hasty Polydore return, and bring him
To dinner presently.

Arv.

Poor sick Fidele !

I'll willingly to him: To gain his colour,
I'd let a parish of such Clotens' blood,

And praise myself for charity.

Bel.
O thou goddess,
Thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon'st
In these two princely boys! They are as gentle
As zephyrs, blowing below the violet,

Not wagging his sweet head: and yet as rough,
Their royal blood enchaf'd, as the rud'st wind,
That by the top doth take the mountain pine,
And make him stoop to the vale. 'Tis wonderful,
That an invisible instínct should frame them
To royalty unlearn'd; honour untaught;
Civility not seen from other: valour,

That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop
As if it had been sow'd! Yet still it's strange,
What Cloten's being here to us portends;
Or what his death will bring us.

Gui.

Re-enter GUIDERIUS.

Where's my brother?

[Solemn Musick.

I have sent Cloten's clotpoll down the stream,
In embassy to his mother; his body's hostage
For his return.

Bel.
My ingenious instrument!
Hark, Polydore, it sounds! But what occasion
Hath Cadwal now to give it motion! Hark!

6

Gui. Is he at home?

Bel.

He went hence even now.

Gui. What does he mean? since death of my dear'st

mother

To gain his colour,] i. e. to restore him to the bloom of health, to recall the colour of it into his cheeks.