By accident325,

I had a feignèd letter326 of my master’s

Then in my pocket, which directed him

To seek her on the mountains near to Milford,

Where in a frenzy, in my master’s garments,

Which he enforced from me, away he posts330

With unchaste purpose, and with oath to violate

My lady’s honour. What became of him

I further know not.

GUIDERIUS    Let me end the story:

I slew him there.

CYMBELINE    Marry, the gods forfend!336

I would not thy good deeds should from my lips

Pluck a hard sentence: prithee, valiant youth,

Deny’t again.339

GUIDERIUS    I have spoke it, and I did it.

CYMBELINE    He was a prince.341

GUIDERIUS    A most incivil342 one. The wrongs he did me

Were nothing prince-like, for he did provoke me

With language that would make me spurn the sea,

If it could so roar to me. I cut off’s head,

And am right glad he is not standing here

To tell this tale of mine.347

CYMBELINE    I am sorrow348 for thee:

By thine own tongue thou art condemned, and must

Endure our law: thou’rt dead.350

INNOGEN    That headless man

I thought had been my lord.

CYMBELINE    Bind the offender,

And take him from our presence.

BELARIUS    Stay, sir king.

This man is better than the man he slew,

As well descended357 as thyself, and hath

More of thee merited358 than a band of Clotens

To the Guard

Had ever scar for.359— Let his arms alone,

They were not born for bondage.

CYMBELINE    Why, old soldier,

Wilt thou undo the worth thou art unpaid for362

By tasting of363 our wrath? How of descent

As good as we?

ARVIRAGUS    In that he spake too far.

CYMBELINE    And thou366 shalt die for’t.

BELARIUS    We will die all three,

But I will prove that two on’s368 are as good

As I have given out him.369 My sons, I must

For mine own part unfold a dangerous speech370,

Though haply well for371 you.

ARVIRAGUS    Your danger’s ours.

GUIDERIUS    And our good his.

BELARIUS    Have at it then, by leave.374

Thou hadst, great king, a subject who

Was called Belarius.

CYMBELINE    What of him? He is

A banished traitor.

BELARIUS    He it is that hath

Assumed this age380: indeed, a banished man,

I know not how a traitor.

CYMBELINE    Take him hence,

The whole world shall not save him.

BELARIUS    Not too hot384:

First pay me for the nursing of thy sons,

And let it be confiscate all so386 soon

As I have received it.

CYMBELINE    Nursing of my sons?

Kneels

BELARIUS    I am too blunt and saucy389, here’s my knee:

Ere I arise I will prefer390 my sons,

Then spare not the old father. Mighty sir,

These two young gentlemen that call me father,

And think they are my sons, are none of mine.

They are the issue of your loins, my liege,

And blood395 of your begetting.

CYMBELINE    How, my issue?

BELARIUS    So sure as you your father’s. I, old Morgan,

Am that Belarius whom you sometime398 banished:

Your pleasure was my mere399 offence, my punishment

Itself, and all my treason. That I suffered400

Was all the harm I did. These gentle princes —

For such and so they are — these twenty years

Have I trained up: those arts they have as I

Could put into404 them. My breeding was, sir,

As your highness knows. Their nurse, Euriphile,

Whom for the theft I wedded, stole these children

Upon my banishment: I moved407 her to’t,

Having received the punishment before408

For that which I did then. Beaten409 for loyalty

Excited410 me to treason. Their dear loss,

The more of you ’twas felt, the more it shaped411

Unto my end of412 stealing them. But, gracious sir,

Here are your sons again, and I must lose

Two of the sweet’st companions in the world.

The benediction of these covering heavens

Fall on their heads like dew, for they are worthy

To inlay heaven with stars.

CYMBELINE    Thou weep’st, and speak’st:

The service419 that you three have done is more

Unlike420 than this thou tell’st. I lost my children:

If these be they, I know not how to wish

A pair of worthier sons.

BELARIUS    Be pleased awhile.423

This gentleman, whom I call Polydore,

Most worthy prince, as yours425, is true Guiderius:

This gentleman, my Cadwal, Arviragus,

Your younger princely son. He, sir, was lapped427

In a most curious428 mantle, wrought by th’hand

Of his queen mother, which for more probation429

I can with ease produce.

CYMBELINE    Guiderius had

Upon his neck a mole, a sanguine432 star.

It was a mark of wonder.

BELARIUS    This is he,

Who hath upon him still that natural stamp435:

It was wise nature’s end in the donation436

To be his evidence now.

CYMBELINE    O, what am I?

A mother to the birth of three? Ne’er mother

Rejoiced deliverance more: blest pray440 you be,

That, after this strange starting from your orbs441,

You may reign in them now! O Innogen,

Thou hast lost by this a kingdom.443

INNOGEN    No, my lord:

I have got two worlds by’t. O my gentle brothers,

Have we thus met? O, never say hereafter

But447 I am truest speaker. You called me brother

When I was but your sister: I you brothers,

When ye were so indeed.

CYMBELINE    Did you e’er meet?

ARVIRAGUS    Ay, my good lord.

GUIDERIUS    And at first meeting loved,

Continued so until we thought he died.

CORNELIUS    By the queen’s dram she swallowed.

CYMBELINE    O rare455 instinct!

When shall I hear all through? This fierce abridgement456

Hath to it circumstantial branches457, which

Distinction should be rich in.458 Where? How lived you?

And when came you to serve our Roman captive?

How parted with your brothers? How first met them?

Why fled you from the court? And whither? These,

And your three motives to462 the battle, with

I know not how much more, should be demanded463,

And all the other by-dependences464,

From chance to chance. But nor465 the time nor place

Will serve our long interrogatories.466 See,

Posthumus anchors467 upon Innogen,

And she, like harmless lightning, throws her eye468

On him, her brothers, me, her master, hitting

Each object with a joy: the counterchange470

Is severally in all. Let’s quit this ground471,

And smoke472 the temple with our sacrifices.—

To Belarius

Thou art my brother, so we’ll hold473 thee ever.

INNOGEN    You are my father too, and did relieve me474

To see this gracious season.475

CYMBELINE    All o’erjoyed,

Save477 these in bonds: let them be joyful too,

For they shall taste our comfort.478

INNOGEN    My good master,

I will yet do you service.

LUCIUS    Happy be you!

CYMBELINE    The forlorn482 soldier, that so nobly fought,

He would have well becomed this place, and graced483

The thankings of a king.

POSTHUMUS    I am, sir,

The soldier that did company486 these three

In poor beseeming: ’twas a fitment487 for

The purpose I then followed. That I was he,

Speak, Iachimo: I had you down, and might

Have made you finish.490

Kneels

IACHIMO    I am down again:

But now my heavy conscience sinks492 my knee,

As then your force did. Take that life, beseech you,

Which I so often494 owe: but your ring first,

And here the bracelet of the truest princess

That ever swore her faith.

POSTHUMUS    Kneel not to me:

The power that I have on you is to spare you:

The malice towards you to forgive you. Live,

And deal with others better.

CYMBELINE    Nobly doomed!501

We’ll learn our freeness502 of a son-in-law:

Pardon’s the word to all.

ARVIRAGUS    You holp504 us, sir,

As505 you did mean indeed to be our brother.

Joyed506 are we that you are.

POSTHUMUS    Your servant, princes. Good my lord of Rome,

Call forth your soothsayer: as I slept, methought

Great Jupiter, upon his eagle backed509,

Appeared to me, with other spritely shows510

Of mine own kindred. When I waked I found

This label on my bosom, whose containing512

Is so from sense in hardness513 that I can

Make no collection of514 it. Let him show

His skill in the construction.515

LUCIUS    Philharmonus.516

SOOTHSAYER    Here, my good lord.

LUCIUS    Read, and declare the meaning.

SOOTHSAYER    Reads ‘Whenas a lion’s whelp519 shall, to himself

unknown, without seeking find, and be embraced by a piece

of tender air: and when from a stately cedar shall be lopped

branches, which being dead many years, shall after revive,

be jointed to the old stock, and freshly grow, then shall

Posthumus end his miseries, Britain be fortunate and

flourish in peace and plenty.’

Thou, Leonatus, art the lion’s whelp:

The fit and apt construction of thy name,

Being leo-natus, doth import528 so much.—

To Cymbeline

The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daughter,

Which we call ‘mollis aer530’; and ‘mollis aer’

We term it ‘mulier’.— Which ‘mulier’ I divine531

Is this most constant wife, who even now,

Answering the letter of the oracle,

Unknown to you, unsought, were clipped about534

With this most tender air.

CYMBELINE    This hath some seeming.536

SOOTHSAYER    The lofty cedar537, royal Cymbeline,

Personates thee: and thy lopped branches point538

Thy two sons forth, who by Belarius stol’n,

For many years thought dead, are now revived,

To the majestic cedar joined, whose issue541

Promises Britain peace and plenty.

CYMBELINE    Well,

My peace we will begin.— And, Caius Lucius,

Although the victor, we submit to Caesar

And to the Roman empire, promising

To pay our wonted547 tribute, from the which

We were dissuaded by our wicked queen,

Whom549 heavens in justice both on her and hers

Have laid most heavy hand.

SOOTHSAYER    The fingers of the powers above do tune

The harmony of this peace. The vision

Which I made known to Lucius ere the stroke553

Of this yet scarce-cold battle, at this instant

Is full accomplished. For the Roman eagle,

From south to west on wing soaring aloft,

Lessened herself557, and in the beams o’th’sun

So vanished; which foreshowed our princely eagle,

Th’imperial Caesar, should again unite

His favour with the radiant Cymbeline,

Which shines here in the west.561

CYMBELINE    Laud562 we the gods,

And let our crookèd563 smokes climb to their nostrils

From our blest altars. Publish564 we this peace

To all our subjects. Set we forward565: let

A Roman and a British ensign566 wave

Friendly together: so through Lud’s town march,

And in the temple of great Jupiter

Our peace we’ll ratify, seal569 it with feasts.

Set on there!570 Never was a war did cease,

Ere bloody hands were washed, with such a peace.

Exeunt

TEXTUAL NOTES

F = First Folio text of 1623

F2 = a correction introduced in the Second Folio text of 1632

F3 = a correction introduced in the Third Folio text of 1663–64

Ed = a correction introduced by a later editor

SD = stage direction

SH = speech heading (i.e. speaker’s name)

List of parts = Ed

1.1.1 SH FIRST GENTLEMAN = Ed.