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Did you but know the city’s usuries
And felt them knowingly; the art o’ th’ court,
As hard to leave as keep, whose top to climb
Is certain falling, or so slipp’ry that
The fear’s as bad as falling; the toil o’ th’ war,
A pain that only seems to seek out danger
I’ th’ name of fame and honor, which dies i’ th’ search
And hath as oft a sland’rous epitaph
As record of fair act—nay, many times
Doth ill deserve by doing well; what’s worse,
Must curtsy at the censure. O boys, this story
The world may read in me. (3.3.50–61)
Upon making his first appearance in the play, Belarius extols the virtues of country life. However, his adopted son Guiderius (alias Polydore) questions his assertion that the country is superior to the royal court. Belarius then attempts to justify his preference for the country with these lines, where he offers a critique of courtly life. He specifically criticizes the social hierarchies that exist at court, which lead to an impossible and unending competition in which people “toil” and “seek out danger / I’ th’ name of fame and honor.” Yet all this pursuit of social status results in nothing, since people slide down the social ladder faster than they can climb it. With all their achievement easily forgotten, they succumb to social death. His depiction of courtly life as a social survival of the fittest is damning indeed.
O, noble strain!
O, worthiness of nature, breed of greatness!
Cowards father cowards and base things sire base;
Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace.
I’m not their father, yet who this should be
Doth miracle itself, loved before me.—
’Tis the ninth hour o’ th’ morn. (4.2.29–35)
After Arviragus expresses a feeling of brotherly love for Imogen (disguised as “Fidele”), Belarius says these words in an aside. He marvels privately at the innate nobility of his adopted sons, who, despite knowing nothing about their heritage, nonetheless display the qualities typically associated with the highborn. Although his celebration of the princes’ nobility of spirit may seem to contradict his earlier critique of courtly life, it’s worth noting that Belarius expresses their bearing as a matter of natural inheritance. Ever a lover of the natural world, Belarius sees their untutored honorability as a matter of natural law. Curiously, Imogen confirms this notion of natural inheritance in an aside of her own: “These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies I have heard! / Our courtiers say all’s savage but at court; / Experience, O, thou disprov’st report!” (4.2.39–41). Though her words seem to contradict those of Belarius, it’s only because she doesn’t yet know the two young men are her brothers, and hence highborn. Her experience may not definitively prove that “all’s savage but at court,” but it certainly hasn’t disproven the notion that nobility is an inherited trait.
I, old Morgan,
Am that Belarius whom you sometime banished.
Your pleasure was my mere offense, my punishment
Itself, and all my treason. That I suffered
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 into them. . . .
Their dear loss,
The more of you ’twas felt, the more it shaped
Unto my end of 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. (5.5.406–413, 419–26)
With these lines, Belarius reveals his true identity to Cymbeline. He takes this opportunity to confront the king with the injustice once visited upon him, when he was wrongfully accused of a crime and exiled as punishment. But instead of overemphasizing the king’s cruelty, Belarius opens the way for restorative justice. Indeed, he immediately shifts the focus to the two boys, whom he is now eager to reunite with their true father. He underscores how he has cared for “these gentle princes” and trained them as best as he could. Speaking with genuine paternal affection, he commends Guiderius and Arviragus to their biological father and gives the newly reconciled royal family his blessings. The touching beauty of this moment will lead to Cymbeline not only forgiving Belarius his trespasses, but also symbolically incorporating him into the family by addressing him as “brother” (5.5.485).
