Shakespeare's Cymbeline Act 4 Scene 4

Cymbeline

Please see the bottom of the page for explanatory notes.

ACT IV SCENE IV	Wales: before the cave of BELARIUS.
	Enter BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS
GUIDERIUS	The noise is round about us.
BELARIUS	Let us from it.
ARVIRAGUS	What pleasure, sir, find we in life, to lock it
	From action and adventure?
GUIDERIUS	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.
BELARIUS	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 muster'd	10
	Among the bands--may drive us to a render
	Where we have lived, and so extort from's that
	Which we have done, whose answer would be death
	Drawn on with torture.
GUIDERIUS	This is, sir, a doubt
	In such a time nothing becoming you,
	Nor satisfying us.
ARVIRAGUS	It is not likely
	That when they hear the Roman horses neigh,
	Behold their quarter'd fires, have both their eyes
	And ears so cloy'd importantly as now,
	That they will waste their time upon our note,	20
	To know from whence we are.
BELARIUS	O, 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; aye hopeless
	To have the courtesy your cradle promised,
	But to be still hot summer's tanlings and
	The shrinking slaves of winter.
GUIDERIUS	Than be so	30
	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 question'd.
ARVIRAGUS	By this sun that shines,
	I'll thither: what thing is it that I never
	Did see man die! scarce ever look'd 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	40
	To look upon the holy sun, to have
	The benefit of his blest beams, remaining
	So long a poor unknown.
GUIDERIUS	By heavens, I'll go:
	If you will bless me, sir, and give me leave,
	I'll take the better care, but if you will not,
	The hazard therefore due fall on me by
	The hands of Romans!
ARVIRAGUS	So say I amen.
BELARIUS	No reason I, since of your lives you set
	So slight a valuation, should reserve
	My crack'd one to more care. Have with you, boys!	50
	If in your country wars you chance to die,
	That is my bed too, lads, an there I'll lie:
	Lead, lead.
	[ Aside ]
	The time seems long; their blood
	thinks scorn,
	Till it fly out and show them princes born.
	[ Exeunt.

Cymbeline, Act 5, Scene 1

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Explanatory Notes for Act 4, Scene 4
From Cymbeline. A.W. Verity. Cambridge, University Press.

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6. revolts, rebels (i.e. to Cymbeline).

7-14. Belarius has his own reasons for keeping out of the way; cf. 21-24. a render, an account.

13. whose answer. "The retaliation of the death of Cloten would be death" -- Johnson.

18. their quarter'd fires; "fires in the respective quarters of the Roman army" -- Steevens. A camp-scene like Henry V. Prologue IV. (on the eve of Agincourt).

19. importantly, importunately; see Glossary.

27. The certainty; "the certain consequence of this hard life" -- Malone. Perhaps 'the certain continuance.' (F.)

33. o'ergrown, i.e. with hair, beard. This seems to me the key to V. 5. 319, where age = 'aged appearance.'

How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. Cymbeline. Ed. A.W. Verity. Cambridge, University Press, 1899. Shakespeare Online. 10 Dec. 2013. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/cymbel_4_4.html >.

How to cite the sidebar:
Mabillard, Amanda. Notes on Shakespeare. Shakespeare Online. 10 Dec. 2013. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/cymbel_4_4.html >.

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Cymbeline Sources

Shakespeare relied upon Holinshed's Chronicles for the setting of the play and the name of the main character, Cymbeline. Holinshed reports on a king named Kymbeline, a descendant of King Lear, who ruled Britain from 33 B.C. to 2 A.D. The main plot of Cymbeline is an old and well-known story, retold time and again throughout the ages. Shakespeare no doubt had heard the tale, in many forms, of a man wagering that his lover is virtuous only to be made the fool. It seems that Shakespeare liked best the rendition of this timeless story told in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (second day, ninth novel), written in 1353. Read on...

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