directory
home contact

Cymbeline

Please see the bottom of the page for explanatory notes.

ACT I SCENE II The same. A public place. 
 Enter CLOTEN and two Lords. 
First Lord Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt; the 
 violence of action hath made you reek as a 
 sacrifice: where air comes out, air comes in: 
 there's none abroad so wholesome as that you vent.
CLOTEN If my shirt were bloody, then to shift it. Have I hurt him? 
Second Lord [ Aside ] No faith; not so much as his patience.  
First Lord Hurt him! his body's a passable carcass, if he be 
 not hurt: it is a thoroughfare for steel, if it be not hurt. 10
Second Lord [ Aside ] His steel was in debt; it went  
 o' the backside the town. 
CLOTEN The villain would not stand me.
Second Lord [ Aside ] No; but he fled forward still, toward your face.  
First Lord Stand you! You have land enough of your own: but



 
 he added to your having; gave you some ground. 
Second Lord [ Aside ] As many inches as you have oceans. Puppies! 
CLOTEN I would they had not come between us. 20
Second Lord [ Aside ] So would I; till you had measured how long  
 a fool you were upon the ground. 
CLOTEN And that she should love this fellow and refuse me!
Second Lord [ Aside ] If it be a sin to make a true election, 
 she is damned. 
First Lord Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and her brain 
 go not together: she's a good sign, but I have seen 
 small reflection of her wit. 
Second Lord [ Aside ] She shines not upon fools, lest  
 the reflection should hurt her. 30
CLOTEN Come, I'll to my chamber. Would there had been some 
 hurt done! 
Second Lord [ Aside ] I wish not so; unless it had 
 been the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt. 
CLOTEN You'll go with us? 
First Lord I'll attend your lordship.
CLOTEN Nay, come, let's go together. 
Second Lord Well, my lord. 
 [ Exeunt.  


Cymbeline, Act 1, Scene 3


_______

Explanatory Notes for Act 1, Scene 2
From Cymbeline. A.W. Verity. Cambridge, University Press.

______

The scene with its ironical "asides" of the Second Lord and somewhat thin banter resembles The Tempest, II. i. So again II. i.

8. passable, affording free passage through; with a quibble, perhaps, on pass in its fencing sense = 'a thrust at an adversary.'

11, 12. The metaphor of a debtor who slinks through back-streets to escape notice.

27, 28. go not together, are not equal -- on a par, as we say. she's a good sign... wit. She has a "fair outward show," but lacks wit. "It should be remembered, that anciently almost every sign [of an inn] had a motto, or some attempt at a witticism, underneath it" -- Steevens. For the drift of the remark cf. I. 6. 15-18.



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_1_2.html >.

How to cite the sidebar:
Mabillard, Amanda. Notes on Shakespeare. Shakespeare Online. 10 Dec. 2013. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/cymbel_1_2.html >.
_____

More to Explore

 Cymbeline: The Play with Commentary
 Cymbeline Plot Summary
 Famous Quotations from Cymbeline
 How to pronounce the names in Cymbeline
 Sources for Cymbeline

 Introduction to Imogen
 Introduction to Guiderius and Arviragus
 Introduction to Cloten
 Introduction to Cymbeline
 Introduction to Posthumus
 Introduction to Iachimo
_____

Notes on Shakespeare...

Shakespeare probably began his education at the age of six or seven at the Stratford grammar school, which is still standing only a short distance from his house on Henley Street. Although we have no record of Shakespeare attending the school, due to the official position held by John Shakespeare it seems likely that he would have decided to educate young William at the school which was under the care of Stratford's governing body. Read on...
____

Shakespeare acquired substantial wealth thanks to his acting and writing abilities, and his shares in London theatres. The going rate was ï¿&fraq12;10 per play at the turn of the sixteenth century. So how much money did Shakespeare make? Read on...




Shakespeare was familiar with seven foreign languages and often quoted them directly in his plays. His vocabulary was the largest of any writer, at over twenty-four thousand words. Read on...
____

Known to the Elizabethans as ague, Malaria was a common malady spread by the mosquitoes in the marshy Thames. The swampy theatre district of Southwark was always at risk. King James I had it; so too did Shakespeareï¿&fraq12;s friend, Michael Drayton. Read on...
____



 Shakespeare's Treatment of Love in the Plays
 Shakespeare's Dramatic Use of Songs
 Shakespeare Quotations on Love
 Shakespeare Wedding Readings
 Shakespeare on Sleep