1555Bel. A goodly day, not to keepe house with such,

1556Whose Roofe's as lowe as ours: Sleepe Boyes, this gate

1557Instructs you how t'adore the Heauens; and bowes you

1558To a mornings holy office. The Gates of Monarches

1559Are Arch'd so high, that Giants may iet through

1560And keepe their impious Turbonds on, without

1561Good morrow to the Sun. Haile thou faire Heauen,

1562We house i'th' Rocke, yet vse thee not so hardly

1563As prouder liuers do.

1564Guid. Haile Heauen.

1565Aruir. Haile Heauen.

1566Bela. Now for our Mountaine sport, vp to yond hill

1567Your legges are yong: Ile tread these Flats. Consider,

1568When you aboue perceiue me like a Crow,

1569That it is Place, which lessen's, and sets off,

1570And you may then reuolue what Tales, I haue told you,

1571Of Courts, of Princes; of the Tricks in Warre.

1572This Seruice, is not Seruice; so being done,

1573But being so allowed. To apprehend thus,

1574Drawes vs a profit from all things we see:

1575And often to our comfort, shall we finde

1576The sharded-Beetle, in a safer hold

1577Then is the full-wing'd Eagle. Oh this life,

1578Is Nobler, then attending for a checke:

1579Richer, then doing nothing for a Babe:

1580Prouder, then rustling in vnpayd-for Silke:

1581Such gaine the Cap of him, that makes him fine,

1582Yet keepes his Booke vncros'd: no life to ours.

1583Gui. Out of your proofe you speak: we poore vnfledg'd

1584Haue neuer wing'd from view o'th' nest; nor knowes not

1585What Ayre's from home. Hap'ly this life is best,

1586(If quiet life be best) sweeter to you

1587That haue a sharper knowne. Well corresponding

1588With your stiffe Age; but vnto vs, it is

1589A Cell of Ignorance: trauailing a bed,

1590A Prison, or a Debtor, that not dares

1591To stride a limit.

1592Arui. What should we speake of

1593When we are old as you? When we shall heare

1594The Raine and winde beate darke December? How

1595In this our pinching Caue, shall we discourse

aaa 3 The

1596The freezing houres away? We haue seene nothing:

1597We are beastly; subtle as the Fox for prey,

1598Like warlike as the Wolfe, for what we eate:

1599Our Valour is to chace what flyes: Our Cage

1600We make a Quire, as doth the prison'd Bird,

1601And sing our Bondage freely.

1602Bel. How you speake.

1603Did you but know the Citties Vsuries,

1604And felt them knowingly: the Art o'th' Court,

1605As hard to leaue, as keepe: whose top to climbe

1606Is certaine falling: or so slipp'ry, that

1607The feare's as bad as falling. The toyle o'th' Warre,

1608A paine that onely seemes to seeke out danger

1609I'th' name of Fame, and Honor, which dyes i'th' search,

1610And hath as oft a sland'rous Epitaph,

1611As Record of faire Act. Nay, many times

1612Doth ill deserue, by doing well: what's worse

1613Must curt'sie at the Censure. Oh Boyes, this Storie

1614The World may reade in me: My bodie's mark'd

1615With Roman Swords; and my report, was once

1616First, with the best of Note. Cymbeline lou'd me,

1617And when a Souldier was the Theame, my name

1618Was not farre off: then was I as a Tree

1619Whose boughes did bend with fruit. But in one night,

1620A Storme, or Robbery (call it what you will)

1621Shooke downe my mellow hangings: nay my Leaues,

1622And left me bare to weather.

1623Gui. Vncertaine fauour.

1624Bel. My fault being nothing (as I haue told you oft)

1625But that two Villaines, whose false Oathes preuayl'd

1626Before my perfect Honor, swore to Cymbeline,

1627I was Confederate with the Romanes: so

1628Followed my Banishment, and this twenty yeeres,

1629This Rocke, and these Demesnes, haue bene my World,

1630Where I haue liu'd at honest freedome, payed

1631More pious debts to Heauen, then in all

1632The fore-end of my time. But, vp to'th' Mountaines,

1633This is not Hunters Language; he that strikes

1634The Venison first, shall be the Lord o'th' Feast,

1635To him the other two shall minister,

1636And we will feare no poyson, which attends

1637In place of greater State:

1638Ile meete you in the Valleyes. Exeunt.

1639How hard it is to hide the sparkes of Nature?

1640These Boyes know little they are Sonnes to'th' King,

1641Nor Cymbeline dreames that they are aliue.

1642They thinke they are mine,

1643And though train'd vp thus meanely

1644I'th' Caue, whereon the Bowe their thoughts do hit,

1645The Roofes of Palaces, and Nature prompts them

1646In simple and lowe things, to Prince it, much

1647Beyond the tricke of others. This Paladour,

1648The heyre of Cymbeline and Britaine, who

1649The King his Father call'd Guiderius. Ioue,

1650When on my three-foot stoole I sit, and tell

1651The warlike feats I haue done, his spirits flye out

1652Into my Story: say thus mine Enemy fell,

1653And thus I set my foote on's necke, euen then

1654The Princely blood flowes in his Cheeke, he sweats,

1655Straines his yong Nerues, and puts himselfe in posture

1656That acts my words. The yonger Brother Cadwall,

1657Once Aruiragus, in as like a figure

1658Strikes life into my speech, and shewes much more

1659His owne conceyuing. Hearke, the Game is rows'd,

1660Oh Cymbeline, Heauen and my Conscience knowes

1661Thou didd'st vniustly banish me: whereon

1662At three, and two yeeres old, I stole these Babes,

1663Thinking to barre thee of Succession, as

1664Thou refts me of my Lands. Euriphile,

1665Thou was't their Nurse, they took thee for their mother,

1666And euery day do honor to her graue:

1667My selfe Belarius, that am Mergan call'd

1668They take for Naturall Father. The Game is vp. Exit.