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)
Gao.
Words
414
Characters
2084
Typicality
0.49 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11954.36
BritDrama no.
1623
Cluster
Cluster 0 — Clowns, beggars & street sellers
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
You shall not now be stolen, You have locks upon you: So graze, as you find Pasture. Come Sir, are you ready for death? Hanging is the word, Sir, if you be ready for that, you are well Cooked. A heavy reckoning for you Sir: But the comfort is you shall be called to no more payments, fear no more Tavern Bills, which are often the sadness of parting, as the procuring of mirth: you come in faint for want of meat, depart reeling with too much drink: sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you are paid too much: Purse and Brain, both empty: the Brain the heavier, for being too light; the Purse too light, being drawn of heaviness. O, of this contradiction you shall now be quit: O the charity of a penny Cord, it sums up thousands in a trice: you have no true Debtor, and Creditor but it: of what's passed, is, and to come, the dis charge: your neck (Sis) is Pen, Book, and Counters; so the Acquittance follows. Indeed Sir, he that sleeps, feels not the Toothache: but a man that were to sleep your sleep, and a Hangman to help him to bed, I think he would change places with his Officer: for, look you Sir, you know not which way you shall go. Your death has eyes in's head then: I have not seen him so pictured: you must either be directed by some that take upon them to know, or to take upon your self that which I am sure you do not know: or jump the after-enquiry on your own peril: and how you shall speed in your journeys end, I think you'll never return to tell one. What and infinite mock is this, that a man should have the best use of eyes, to see the way of blindness: I am sure hanging the way of winking. I'll be hanged then. Unless a man would marry a Gallows, & be get young Gibbets, I never saw one so prove: yet on my Conscience, there are verier Knaves desire to live, for all he be a Roman; and there be some of them too that die against their wills; so should I, if I were one. I would we were all of one mind, and one mind good: Oh there were desolation of Gaolers and Galowses: I speak a gainst my present profit, but my wish hath a preferment in't.
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…