Shakespeare's Cymbeline Act 1 Scene 2

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

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

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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 >.

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