in Cymbeline, King of Britain — Shakespeare, William
Metadata
Play
Cymbeline, King of Britain
Author
Shakespeare, William
Year (catalogued)
1623
First performance
1609
Decade
1620s
Genre
Romance
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
King's Men
Speech prefix(es)
2 | 2.
Words
431
Characters
2203
Typicality
0.33 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11954.36
BritDrama no.
1623
Cluster
Cluster 23 — Gulls, fops & laughing-stocks
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
None but the King? And why so? You speak him far. What's his name, and Birth? I honour him, even out of your report. But pray you tell me, is she sole child to the King? How long is this ago? That a Kings Children should be so conveyed, So slackly guarded, and the search so slow That could not trace them. I do well believe you. No faith: not so much as his patience. His Steel was in debt, it went of the Backside the Town. No, but he fled forward still, towards your face. As many Inches, as you have Ocean's (Puppies.) So would I, till you had measured how long a Fool you were upon the ground. If it be a sin to make a true election, she is damned. She shines not upon Fools, least the reflection Should hurt her. I wish not so, unless it had been the fallen of and Ass, which is no great hurt. Well my Lord. Here comes the King. There was a fourth man, in a silly habit, That gave the Affront with them. Lay hands on him: a Dog, A leg of Room shall not return to tell What Crows have peckt them here: he brags his service As if he were of note: bring him to the King. If his wit had been Like him that broke it: it would have run all out. No my Lord; nor crop the ears of them. To have smelled Like a Fool. You are Cock and Capon too, and you crow Cock, with your comb on. It is not fit you Lordship should undertake every Companion, that you give offence too. I, it is fit for your Lordship only. He's a strange Fellow himself, and knows it not. You cannot derogate my Lord. You are a Fool granted, therefore your Issues being foolish do not derogate. I'll attend your Lordship. That such a crafty Devil as is his Mother Should yield the world this Ass: A woman, that Bears all down with her Brain, and this her Son, Cannot take two from twenty for his heart, And leave eighteen. Alas poor Princess, Thou divine Imogen, what thou endurest, Betwixt a Father by thy Stepdame governed, A Mother hourly coining plots: A Wooer, More hateful then the foul expusion is Of thy deer Husband. Then that horrid Act Of the divorce, heeled make the Heavens hold firm The walls of thy deer Honour. Keep unshaked That Temple thy fair mind, that thou mayest stand to enjoy thy banished Lord: and this great Land.
Plot summary
Plot — Cymbeline, King of Britain
Imogen has been the heir to Cymbeline’s kingdom since the disappearance of her infant brothers twenty years ago. Now her father intends her to marry her foolish stepbrother Cloten; but she pre-empts this by marrying Posthumus instead. Cymbeline objects to Posthumus, whom he took in as an orphan and brought up at court, and banishes him. The Queen pretends support for the couple, but is really the source of Cymbeline’s hostility; her objective is to bring the succession into her own family line, if necessary by destroying Imogen. Claiming to be studying toxicology, she asks Cornelius to give her some poison for experimental purposes. He mistrusts her motives: the ‘poison’ he supplies is really only a sleeping potion. She then gives it to Posthumus’ servant, Pisanio, claiming it to be a powerful medicine. Posthumus goes to Rome, leaving his bracelet behind with Imogen as a love-token, and taking her ring. There he boasts of his wife’s beauty and chastity, and bets Iachimo the ring that she will never succumb to his seduction. Iachimo comes to Britain, tells Imogen that Posthumus is behaving adulterously in Rome, and tries to persuade her to do the same. When she refuses, he claims he was only testing her, and asks her to take charge of a chest of valuables, partly paid for by Posthumus, and lodge them for the night in a safe place, her bedroom. He hides in the chest and emerges when she is asleep, giving him the opportunity to inspect the room, look at her in bed, and take Posthumus’ bracelet from her arm. Back in Rome, he claims to have enjoyed Imogen sexually, and the bracelet convinces Posthumus that he is telling the truth. Iachimo takes the ring and Posthumus sends two letters home: one to Imogen asking her to meet him at Milford Haven, the other to Pisanio ordering him to kill her on arrival there. Pisanio escorts her as planned, but then gives her boy’s clothes to enable her to escape from Britain; he also passes on the ‘medicine’ he had from the Queen, then writes to tell Posthumus that she has been killed as ordered. Cymbeline has neglected to pay the tribute to Rome agreed by his predecessors. Caius Lucius comes to demand it, but gets a dusty answer. Rome prepares its 1610 forces for an invasion. Imogen is found to be absent from court, and, stung by her contemptuous rejection, Cloten follows her wearing a suit of Posthumus’ clothes, intending to rape her and bring her back humiliated to court. The hungry, cross-dressed Imogen finds herself in a…