Shakespeare's Cymbeline Act 5 Scene 5

Cymbeline

Please see the bottom of the page for explanatory notes.

ACT V SCENE V	Cymbeline's tent.
	Enter CYMBELINE, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS, PISANIO, Lords, Officers, and Attendants.
CYMBELINE	Stand by my side, you whom the gods have made
	Preservers of my throne. Woe is my heart
	That the poor soldier that so richly fought,
	Whose rags shamed gilded arms, whose naked breast
	Stepp'd before larges of proof, cannot be found:
	He shall be happy that can find him, if
	Our grace can make him so.
BELARIUS	I never saw
	Such noble fury in so poor a thing;	10
	Such precious deeds in one that promises nought
	But beggary and poor looks.
CYMBELINE	No tidings of him?	10
PISANIO	He hath been search'd among the dead and living,
	But no trace of him.
CYMBELINE	To my grief, I am
	The heir of his reward;
	[ To Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus.
	which I will add
	To you, the liver, heart and brain of Britain,
	By whom I grant she lives. 'Tis now the time
	To ask of whence you are. Report it.
BELARIUS	Sir,
	In Cambria are we born, and gentlemen:
	Further to boast were neither true nor modest,
	Unless I add, we are honest.
CYMBELINE	Bow your knees.
	Arise my knights o' the battle: I create you	20
	Companions to our person and will fit you
	With dignities becoming your estates.
	Enter CORNELIUS and Ladies.
	There's business in these faces. Why so sadly
	Greet you our victory? you look like Romans,
	And not o' the court of Britain.
CORNELIUS	Hail, great king!
	To sour your happiness, I must report
	The queen is dead.
CYMBELINE	Who worse than a physician
	Would this report become? But I consider,
	By medicine life may be prolong'd, yet death
	Will seize the doctor too. How ended she?	30
CORNELIUS	With horror, madly dying, like her life,
	Which, being cruel to the world, concluded
	Most cruel to herself. What she confess'd
	I will report, so please you: these her women
	Can trip me, if I err; who with wet cheeks
	Were present when she finish'd.
CYMBELINE	Prithee, say.
CORNELIUS	First, she confess'd she never loved you, only
	Affected greatness got by you, not you:
	Married your royalty, was wife to your place;
	Abhorr'd your person.
CYMBELINE	She alone knew this;	40
	And, but she spoke it dying, I would not
	Believe her lips in opening it. Proceed.
CORNELIUS	Your daughter, whom she bore in hand to love
	With such integrity, she did confess
	Was as a scorpion to her sight; whose life,
	But that her flight prevented it, she had
	Ta'en off by poison.
CYMBELINE	O most delicate fiend!
	Who is 't can read a woman? Is there more?
CORNELIUS	More, sir, and worse. She did confess she had
	For you a mortal mineral; which, being took,	50
	Should by the minute feed on life and lingering
	By inches waste you: in which time she purposed,
	By watching, weeping, tendance, kissing, to
	O'ercome you with her show, and in time,
	When she had fitted you with her craft, to work
	Her son into the adoption of the crown:
	But, failing of her end by his strange absence,
	Grew shameless-desperate; open'd, in despite
	Of heaven and men, her purposes; repented
	The evils she hatch'd were not effected; so	60
	Despairing died.
CYMBELINE	Heard you all this, her women?
First Lady	We did, so please your highness.
CYMBELINE	Mine eyes
	Were not in fault, for she was beautiful;
	Mine ears, that heard her flattery; nor my heart,
	That thought her like her seeming; it had
	been vicious
	To have mistrusted her: yet, O my daughter!
	That it was folly in me, thou mayst say,
	And prove it in thy feeling. Heaven mend all!
	Enter LUCIUS, IACHIMO, the Soothsayer, and other Roman Prisoners, guarded; POSTHUMUS behind, and IMOGEN.
	Thou comest not, Caius, now for tribute that
	The Britons have razed out, though with the loss	70
	Of many a bold one; whose kinsmen have made suit
	That their good souls may be appeased with slaughter
	Of you their captives, which ourself have granted:
	So think of your estate.
CAIUS LUCIUS	Consider, sir, the chance of war: the day
	Was yours by accident; had it gone with us,
	We should not, when the blood was cool,
	have threaten'd
	Our prisoners with the sword. But since the gods
	Will have it thus, that nothing but our lives
	May be call'd ransom, let it come: sufficeth	80
	A Roman with a Roman's heart can suffer:
	Augustus lives to think on't: and so much
	For my peculiar care. This one thing only
	I will entreat; my boy, a Briton born,
	Let him be ransom'd: never master had
	A page so kind, so duteous, diligent,
	So tender over his occasions, true,
	So feat, so nurse-like: let his virtue join
	With my request, which I make bold your highness
	Cannot deny; he hath done no Briton harm,	90
	Though he have served a Roman: save him, sir,
	And spare no blood beside.
CYMBELINE	I have surely seen him:
	His favour is familiar to me. Boy,
	Thou hast look'd thyself into my grace,
	And art mine own. I know not why, wherefore,
	To say 'live, boy:' ne'er thank thy master; live:
	And ask of Cymbeline what boon thou wilt,
	Fitting my bounty and thy state, I'll give it;
	Yea, though thou do demand a prisoner,
	The noblest ta'en.
IMOGEN	I humbly thank your highness.	100
CAIUS LUCIUS	I do not bid thee beg my life, good lad;
	And yet I know thou wilt.
IMOGEN	No, no: alack,
	There's other work in hand: I see a thing
	Bitter to me as death: your life, good master,
	Must shuffle for itself.
CAIUS LUCIUS	The boy disdains me,
	He leaves me, scorns me: briefly die their joys
	That place them on the truth of girls and boys.
	Why stands he so perplex'd?
CYMBELINE	What wouldst thou, boy?
	I love thee more and more: think more and more
	What's best to ask. Know'st him thou look'st on? speak,
	Wilt have him live? Is he thy kin? thy friend?	111
IMOGEN	He is a Roman; no more kin to me
	Than I to your highness; who, being born your vassal,
	Am something nearer.
CYMBELINE	Wherefore eyest him so?
IMOGEN	I'll tell you, sir, in private, if you please
	To give me hearing.
CYMBELINE	Ay, with all my heart,
	And lend my best attention. What's thy name?
IMOGEN	Fidele, sir.
CYMBELINE	Thou'rt my good youth, my page;
	I'll be thy master: walk with me; speak freely.
	[ Cymbeline and Imogen converse apart.
BELARIUS	Is not this boy revived from death?
ARVIRAGUS	One sand another
	Not more resembles that sweet rosy lad
	Who died, and was Fidele. What think you?
GUIDERIUS	The same dead thing alive.
BELARIUS	Peace, peace! see further; he eyes us not; forbear;
	Creatures may be alike: were 't he, I am sure
	He would have spoke to us.
GUIDERIUS	But we saw him dead.
BELARIUS	Be silent; let's see further.
PISANIO	[ Aside ] 'Tis my mistress:
	Since she is living, let the time run on
	To good or bad.
	[ Cymbeline and Imogen come forward.
CYMBELINE	Come, stand thou by our side;
	Make thy demand aloud.
	[ To IACHIMO ]
	Sir, step you forth;	130
	Give answer to this boy, and do it freely;
	Or, by our greatness and the grace of it,
	Which is our honour, bitter torture shall
	Winnow the truth from falsehood. On, speak to him.
IMOGEN	My boon is, that this gentleman may render
	Of whom he had this ring.
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS	[ Aside ] What's that to him?
CYMBELINE	That diamond upon your finger, say
	How came it yours?
IACHIMO	Thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that
	Which, to be spoke, would torture thee.
CYMBELINE	How! me?	140
IACHIMO	I am glad to be constrain'd to utter that
	Which torments me to conceal. By villany
	I got this ring: 'twas Leonatus' jewel;
	Whom thou didst banish; and--which more may
	grieve thee,
	As it doth me--a nobler sir ne'er lived
	'Twixt sky and ground. Wilt thou hear more, my lord?
CYMBELINE	All that belongs to this.
IACHIMO	That paragon, thy daughter,--
	For whom my heart drops blood, and my false spirits
	Quail to remember--Give me leave; I faint.
CYMBELINE	My daughter! what of her? Renew thy strength:	150
	I had rather thou shouldst live while nature will
	Than die ere I hear more: strive, man, and speak.
IACHIMO	Upon a time,--unhappy was the clock
	That struck the hour!--it was in Rome,--accursed
	The mansion where!--'twas at a feast,--O, would
	Our viands had been poison'd, or at least
	Those which I heaved to head!--the good Posthumus--
	What should I say? he was too good to be
	Where ill men were; and was the best of all
	Amongst the rarest of good ones,--sitting sadly,	160
	Hearing us praise our loves of Italy
	For beauty that made barren the swell'd boast
	Of him that best could speak, for feature, laming
	The shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva.
	Postures beyond brief nature, for condition,
	A shop of all the qualities that man
	Loves woman for, besides that hook of wiving,
	Fairness which strikes the eye--
CYMBELINE	I stand on fire:
	Come to the matter.
IACHIMO	All too soon I shall,
	Unless thou wouldst grieve quickly. This Posthumus,	170
	Most like a noble lord in love and one
	That had a royal lover, took his hint;
	And, not dispraising whom we praised,--therein
	He was as calm as virtue--he began
	His mistress' picture; which by his tongue
	being made,
	And then a mind put in't, either our brags
	Were crack'd of kitchen-trolls, or his description
	Proved us unspeaking sots.
CYMBELINE	Nay, nay, to the purpose.
IACHIMO	Your daughter's chastity--there it begins.
	He spake of her, as Dian had hot dreams,	180
	And she alone were cold: whereat I, wretch,
	Made scruple of his praise; and wager'd with him
	Pieces of gold 'gainst this which then he wore
	Upon his honour'd finger, to attain
	In suit the place of's bed and win this ring
	By hers and mine adultery. He, true knight,
	No lesser of her honour confident
	Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring;
	And would so, had it been a carbuncle
	Of Phoebus' wheel, and might so safely, had it	190
	Been all the worth of's car. Away to Britain
	Post I in this design: well may you, sir,
	Remember me at court; where I was taught
	Of your chaste daughter the wide difference
	'Twixt amorous and villanous. Being thus quench'd
	Of hope, not longing, mine Italian brain
	'Gan in your duller Britain operate
	Most vilely; for my vantage, excellent:
	And, to be brief, my practise so prevail'd,
	That I return'd with simular proof enough	200
	To make the noble Leonatus mad,
	By wounding his belief in her renown
	With tokens thus, and thus; averting notes
	Of chamber-hanging, pictures, this her bracelet,--
	O cunning, how I got it!--nay, some marks
	Of secret on her person, that he could not
	But think her bond of chastity quite crack'd,
	I having ta'en the forfeit. Whereupon--
	Methinks, I see him now--
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS	[ Coming forward ] Ay, so thou dost
	Italian fiend! Ay me, most credulous fool,	210
	Egregious murderer, thief, any thing
	That's due to all the villains past, in being,
	To come! O, give me cord, or knife, or poison,
	Some upright justicer! Thou, king, send out
	For torturers ingenious: it is I
	That all the abhorred things o' the earth amend
	By being worse than they. I am Posthumus,
	That kill'd thy daughter:--villain-like, I lie--
	That caused a lesser villain than myself,
	A sacrilegious thief, to do't: the temple	220
	Of virtue was she; yea, and she herself.
	Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set
	The dogs o' the street to bay me: every villain
	Be call'd Posthumus Leonitus; and
	Be villany less than 'twas! O Imogen!
	My queen, my life, my wife! O Imogen,
	Imogen, Imogen!
IMOGEN	Peace, my lord; hear, hear--
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS	Shall's have a play of this? Thou scornful page,
	There lie thy part.
	[ Striking her: she falls.
PISANIO	O, gentlemen, help!
	Mine and your mistress! O, my lord Posthumus!
	You ne'er kill'd Imogen til now. Help, help!
	Mine honour'd lady!
CYMBELINE	Does the world go round?
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS	How come these staggers on me?
PISANIO	Wake, my mistress!
CYMBELINE	If this be so, the gods do mean to strike me
	To death with mortal joy.
PISANIO	How fares thy mistress?
IMOGEN	O, get thee from my sight;
	Thou gavest me poison: dangerous fellow, hence!
	Breathe not where princes are.
CYMBELINE	The tune of Imogen!
PISANIO	Lady,
	The gods throw stones of sulphur on me, if	240
	That box I gave you was not thought by me
	A precious thing: I had it from the queen.
CYMBELINE	New matter still?
IMOGEN	It poison'd me.
CORNELIUS	O gods!
	I left out one thing which the queen confess'd.
	Which must approve thee honest: 'If Pisanio
	Have,' said she, 'given his mistress that confection
	Which I gave him for cordial, she is served
	As I would serve a rat.'
CYMBELINE	What's this, Comelius?
CORNELIUS	The queen, sir, very oft importuned me	250
	To temper poisons for her, still pretending
	The satisfaction of her knowledge only
	In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs,
	Of no esteem: I, dreading that her purpose
	Was of more danger, did compound for her
	A certain stuff, which, being ta'en, would cease
	The present power of life, but in short time
	All offices of nature should again
	Do their due functions. Have you ta'en of it?
IMOGEN	Most like I did, for I was dead.
BELARIUS	My boys,
	There was our error.
GUIDERIUS	This is, sure, Fidele.
IMOGEN	Why did you throw your wedded lady from you?
	Think that you are upon a rock; and now
	Throw me again.
	[ Embracing him .
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS	Hang there like a fruit, my soul,
	Till the tree die!
CYMBELINE	How now, my flesh, my child!
	What, makest thou me a dullard in this act?
	Wilt thou not speak to me?
IMOGEN	[ Kneeling.
BELARIUS	[ To Guiderius and Arviragus.
	this youth, I blame ye not:
	You had a motive for't.
CYMBELINE	My tears that fall
	Prove holy water on thee! Imogen,
	Thy mother's dead.
IMOGEN	I am sorry for't, my lord.	270
CYMBELINE	O, she was nought; and long of her it was
	That we meet here so strangely: but her son
	Is gone, we know not how nor where.
PISANIO	My lord,
	Now fear is from me, I'll speak troth. Lord Cloten,
	Upon my lady's missing, came to me
	With his sword drawn; foam'd at the mouth, and swore,
	If I discover'd not which way she was gone,
	It was my instant death. By accident,
	had a feigned letter of my master's
	Then in my pocket; which directed him	280
	To seek her on the mountains near to Milford;
	Where, in a frenzy, in my master's garments,
	Which he enforced from me, away he posts
	With unchaste purpose and with oath to violate
	My lady's honour: what became of him
	I further know not.
GUIDERIUS	Let me end the story:
	I slew him there.
CYMBELINE	Marry, the gods forfend!
	I would not thy good deeds should from my lips
	Pluck a bard sentence: prithee, valiant youth,
	Deny't again.
GUIDERIUS	I've spoke it, and I did it.	290
CYMBELINE	He was a prince.
GUIDERIUS	A most incivil one: the wrongs he did me
	Were nothing prince-like; for he did provoke me
	With language that would make me spurn the sea,
	If it could so roar to me: I cut off's head;
	And am right glad he is not standing here
	To tell this tale of mine.
CYMBELINE	I am sorry for thee:
	By thine own tongue thou art condemn'd, and must
	Endure our law: thou'rt dead.
IMOGEN	That headless man
	I thought had been my lord.
CYMBELINE	Bind the offender,	300
	And take him from our presence.
BELARIUS	Stay, sir king:
	This man is better than the man he slew,
	As well descended as thyself; and hath
	More of thee merited than a band of Clotens
	Had ever scar for.
	[ To the Guard ]
	Let his arms alone;
	They were not born for bondage.
CYMBELINE	Why, old soldier,
	Wilt thou undo the worth thou art unpaid for,
	By tasting of our wrath? How of descent
	As good as we?
ARVIRAGUS	In that he spake too far.	310
CYMBELINE	And thou shalt die for't.
BELARIUS	We will die all three:
	But I will prove that two on's are as good
	As I have given out him. My sons, I must,
	For mine own part, unfold a dangerous speech,
	Though, haply, well for you.
ARVIRAGUS	Your danger's ours.
GUIDERIUS	And our good his.
BELARIUS	Have at it then, by leave.
	Thou hadst, great king, a subject who
	Was call'd Belarius.
CYMBELINE	What of him? he is
	A banish'd traitor.
BELARIUS	He it is that hath
	Assumed this age; indeed a banish'd man;
	I know not how a traitor.
CYMBELINE	Take him hence:
	The whole world shall not save him.	320
BELARIUS	Not too hot:
	First pay me for the nursing of thy sons;
	And let it be confiscate all, so soon
	As I have received it.
CYMBELINE	Nursing of my sons!
BELARIUS	I am too blunt and saucy: here's my knee:
	Ere I arise, I will prefer my sons;
	Then spare not the old father. Mighty sir,
	These two young gentlemen, that call me father
	And think they are my sons, are none of mine;
	They are the issue of your loins, my liege,	330
	And blood of your begetting.
CYMBELINE	How! my issue!
BELARIUS	So sure as you your father's. I, old Morgan,
	Am that Belarius whom you sometime banish'd:
	Your pleasure was my mere offence, my punishment
	Itself, and all my treason; that I suffer'd
	Was all the harm I did. These gentle princes--
	For such and so they are--these twenty years
	Have I train'd up: those arts they have as I
	Could put into them; my breeding was, sir, as
	Your highness knows. Their nurse, Euriphile,	340
	Whom for the theft I wedded, stole these children
	Upon my banishment: I moved her to't,
	Having received the punishment before,
	For that which I did then: beaten for loyalty
	Excited me to treason: 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	350
	Fall on their heads like dew! for they are worthy
	To inlay heaven with stars.
CYMBELINE	Thou weep'st, and speak'st.
	The service that you three have done is more
	Unlike than this thou tell'st. I lost my children:
	If these be they, I know not how to wish
	A pair of worthier sons.
BELARIUS	Be pleased awhile.
	This gentleman, whom I call Polydore,
	Most worthy prince, as yours, is true Guiderius:
	This gentleman, my Cadwal, Arviragus,
	Your younger princely son; he, sir, was lapp'd	360
	In a most curious mantle, wrought by the hand
	Of his queen mother, which for more probation
	I can with ease produce.
CYMBELINE	Guiderius had
	Upon his neck a mole, a sanguine star;
	It was a mark of wonder.
BELARIUS	This is he;
	Who hath upon him still that natural stamp:
	It was wise nature's end in the donation,
	To be his evidence now.
CYMBELINE	O, what, am I
	A mother to the birth of three? Ne'er mother
	Rejoiced deliverance more. Bless'd pray you be,	370
	That, after this strange starting from your orbs,
	may reign in them now! O Imogen,
	Thou hast lost by this a kingdom.
IMOGEN	No, my lord;
	I have got two worlds by 't. O my gentle brothers,
	Have we thus met? O, never say hereafter
	But I am truest speaker you call'd me brother,
	When I was but your sister; I you brothers,
	When ye were so indeed.
CYMBELINE	Did you e'er meet?
ARVIRAGUS	Ay, my good lord.
GUIDERIUS	And at first meeting loved;
	Continued so, until we thought he died.	380
CORNELIUS	By the queen's dram she swallow'd.
CYMBELINE	O rare instinct!
	When shall I hear all through? This fierce
	abridgement
	Hath to it circumstantial branches, which
	Distinction should be rich in. Where? how lived You?
	And when came you to serve our Roman captive?
	How parted with your brothers? how first met them?
	Why fled you from the court? and whither? These,
	And your three motives to the battle, with
	I know not how much more, should be demanded;
	And all the other by-dependencies,	390
	From chance to chance: but nor the time nor place
	Will serve our long inter'gatories. See,
	Posthumus anchors upon Imogen,
	And she, like harmless lightning, throws her eye
	On him, her brother, me, her master, hitting
	Each object with a joy: the counterchange
	Is severally in all. Let's quit this ground,
	And smoke the temple with our sacrifices.
	[ To Belarius ]
	Thou art my brother; so we'll hold thee ever.
IMOGEN	You are my father too, and did relieve me,
	To see this gracious season.	400
CYMBELINE	All o'erjoy'd,
	Save these in bonds: let them be joyful too,
	For they shall taste our comfort.
IMOGEN	My good master,
	I will yet do you service.
CAIUS LUCIUS	Happy be you!
CYMBELINE	The forlorn soldier, that so nobly fought,
	He would have well becomed this place, and graced
	The thankings of a king.
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS	I am, sir,
	The soldier that did company these three
	In poor beseeming; 'twas a fitment for
	The purpose I then follow'd. That I was he,	410
	Speak, Iachimo: I had you down and might
	Have made you finish.
IACHIMO	[ Kneeling.
	But now my heavy conscience sinks my knee,
	As then your force did. Take that life, beseech you,
	Which I so often owe: but your ring first;
	And here the bracelet of the truest princess
	That ever swore her faith.
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS	Kneel not to me:
	The power that I have on you is, to spare you;
	The malice towards you to forgive you: live,
	And deal with others better.
CYMBELINE	Nobly doom'd!	420
	We'll learn our freeness of a son-in-law;
	Pardon's the word to all.
ARVIRAGUS	You holp us, sir,
	As you did mean indeed to be our brother;
	Joy'd are we that you are.
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS	Your servant, princes. Good my lord of Rome,
	Call forth your soothsayer: as I slept, methought
	Great Jupiter, upon his eagle back'd,
	Appear'd to me, with other spritely shows
	Of mine own kindred: when I waked, I found
	This label on my bosom; whose containing	430
	Is so from sense in hardness, that I can
	Make no collection of it: let him show
	His skill in the construction.
CAIUS LUCIUS	Philarmonus!
Soothsayer	Here, my good lord.
CAIUS LUCIUS	Read, and declare the meaning.
Soothsayer	[ Reads ] "Whenas a lion's whelp shall, to himself
	unknown, without seeking find, and be embraced by a
	piece of tender air; and when from a stately cedar
	shall be lopped branches, which, being dead many
	years, shall after revive, be jointed to the old
	stock, and freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end
	his miseries, Britain be fortunate and flourish in
	peace and plenty."
	Thou, Leonatus, art the lion's whelp;	440
	The fit and apt construction of thy name,
	Being Leonatus, doth import so much.
	[ To Cymbeline ]
	The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daughter,
	Which we call 'mollis aer;' and 'mollis aer'
	We term it 'mulier:' which 'mulier' I divine
	Is this most constant wife; who, even now,
	Answering the letter of the oracle,
	Unknown to you, unsought, were clipp'd about	450
	With this most tender air.
CYMBELINE	This hath some seeming.
Soothsayer	The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline,
	Personates thee: and thy lopp'd branches point
	Thy two sons forth; who, by Belarius stol'n,
	For many years thought dead, are now revived,
	To the majestic cedar join'd, whose issue
	Promises Britain peace and plenty.
CYMBELINE	Well
	My peace we will begin. And, Caius Lucius,
	Although the victor, we submit to Caesar,
	And to the Roman empire; promising	460
	To pay our wonted tribute, from the which
	We were dissuaded by our wicked queen;
	Whom heavens, in justice, both on her and hers,
	Have laid most heavy hand.
Soothsayer	The fingers of the powers above do tune
	The harmony of this peace. The vision
	Which I made known to Lucius, ere the stroke
	Of this yet scarce-cold battle, at this instant
	Is full accomplish'd; for the Roman eagle,
	From south to west on wing soaring aloft,	470
	Lessen'd herself, and in the beams o' the sun
	So vanish'd: which foreshow'd our princely eagle,
	The imperial Caesar, should again unite
	His favour with the radiant Cymbeline,
	Which shines here in the west.
CYMBELINE	Laud we the gods;
	And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils
	From our blest altars. Publish we this peace
	To all our subjects. Set we forward: let
	A Roman and a British ensign wave
	Friendly together: so through Lud's town march:	480
	And in the temple of great Jupiter
	Our peace we'll ratify; seal it with feasts.
	Set on there! Never was a war did cease,
	Ere bloody hands were wash'd, with such a peace.
	[ Exeunt .

Cymbeline, Scenes

_______

Explanatory Notes for Act 5, Scene 5
From Cymbeline. A.W. Verity. Cambridge, University Press.

______

A scene, beyond any other in Shakespeare, of recognitions and explanations and general unravelment. The skill with which the threads of the complex plot are gathered up is one of the commonplaces of Shakespearean eulogy.

It is, too, peculiarly a scene of reminiscences: the poet's mind working back to the "old unhappy [and happy] far-off things" of his greatest days.

3. the poor soldier: of course, Posthumus.

5. targes of proof, shields of tested metal.

25-61. Lady Macbeth's end?

38. Affected, aimed at; a common Miltonic use ( = Lat. affectare). Cf. Par. Lost, v. 763, "Affecting all equality with God" (said of Lucifer = Satan).

43. bore in hand, pretended. To bear in hand meant originally 'to maintain a statement, or charge against someone' (being a literal rendering of the legal word manutenere, 'to maintain a charge against'); then 'to maintain a false statement' etc.; then 'to pretend, to delude with false hopes, to deceive.' In the last senses it is a common Elizabethan phrase. Cf. Macbeth, III. 1. 81.

47, 48. Cf. Edgar's reflection when he finds on Oswald the letters which reveal Goneril's guilty connection with Edmund and instigation to him to murder Albany:

"O undistinguish'd space of woman's will!
A plot upon her virtuous husband's life!"

(Lear, IV. 6. 278, 279), where undistinguish'd = 'indefinable,' meaning that it is impossible to calculate what direction a woman's desires will take.

55. fitted you with her craft: a euphemism, like those we get in Macbeth.

55, 56. to work her son, etc.; the converse of the position in Hamlet, where the real heir is ousted by his step-father, supported by the Queen.

88. feat, dexterous in waiting.

92, 93. The Duke in As You Like It, V. 4. 26, 27, when Rosalind's disguise has served its dramatic purpose and the end is not far off.

105, 106. The poor sea-captain in Twelfth Night (III. 4) when he thinks that Sebastian has ungratefully discarded him (mistaking of course Cesario = Viola for her twin brother).

107. boys. "He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love" -- King Lear, III. 6. 18, 19.

120-123. Cf. the delightful puzzle of the onlookers when Viola (still dressed as a boy) and Sebastian meet at last ( Twelfth Night, V. 223-252). Strictly, the passage here will not bear analysis, but one sees the sense; I do not think that any words have dropped out.

153. The style of his speeches is meant to suggest agitation.

153-191. Not a precise reproduction of what occurred in I. 4. Perhaps Shakespeare wished "to denote Iachimo's innate untruthfulness and unscrupulousness, which lead him to falsify in minor matters as in those of greater moment." (F.)

163. feature, shape in general, exterior; F. facture, 'make,' Lat. factura. "And how, Audrey? am I [Touchstone] the man yet? doth my simple feature content you?" (As You Like It, III. 3. 2, 3).

164, 165. Shakespeare has in mind statues of the classical goddesses; a Renaissance touch. For his interest in sculpture cf. the description of the supposed statue (really Hermione) in The Winter's Tale, v. 3, with the interesting allusion earlier in the play to its author, "that rare Italian master, Julio Romano" (V. 1. 105, 106). But he was more famous as a painter; see Shakespeare's England, II. 9, 10. shrine, image. brief; since Nature's creations are brief lived in their beauty whereas Art confers immortality of grace.

189. Editors aptly quote Antony and Cleopatra, IV. 8. 28, 29:

"He has deserved it, were it carbuncled
Like holy Phoebus' car."

The chariot of the Messiah in Paradise Lost, VI. 755, has "wheels of beryl." Shakespeare may have remembered the description of the chariot of Phoebus in the story of Phrethon, Ovid, Metamorphoses, II. 107. (F.) See II. 2. 45, note.

199. practice, plot; see Glossary.

200. simular, false, counterfeit.

209. Othello, when he knows the truth and turns on Iago (the counterpart of Iachimo).

214. justicer. "The most ancient law books have justicers of the peace as frequently as justices of the peace" -- Reed. Justicer is an old, abbreviated form of justiciar, 'a judge.' It occurs several times in King Lear, e.g. IV. 2. 79.

221. yea, and she herself; "she was not only the temple of virtue, but virtue itself" -- Johnson.

225. Be villany less than 'twas! since his villany throws all other villany into the shade.

253-258. The potion in Romeo and Juliet.

262. upon a rock; "as a shipwreck'd sailor" -- Herford. But may it not be much the same metaphor as in 393? Let Posthumus feel that he has found salvation by attaching himself to the rock of her devotion. And then, with a touch of playfulness, she bids him cast himself adrift again -- if he can! I cannot see the smallest need for any change of the text such as "upon a lock," a wrestling term which would suit "throw" but does not occur elsewhere in Shakespeare, and is not, surely, very appropriate to a woman.

262-264. Like the reconciliation scene in Pericles, V. 3. 41-44; the rhythm is curiously similar.

291. He was a prince. Cf. IV. 2. 244.

305. Had ever scar for, i.e. had ever "merited" by fighting.

319. Assumed this age; explained, I think, by IV. 4. 33.

326. prefer, recommend to your consideration.

334. mere, whole; see G.; neere in the Folio. His crime and punishment, all amounted to this -- that his master was capricious.

353. To inlay heaven with stars.

"Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold" --

The Merchant of Venice, V. 58, 59.

352-354: "'Thy tears give testimony to the sincerity of thy relation [report]: and I have the less reason to be incredulous, because the actions which you have done within my knowledge are more incredible than the story which you relate.' The King reasons very justly" -- Johnson.

364. a mole. Two moles in one play! And Shakespeare had used the same device of identification in Twelfth Night, V. 249.

378. ye; the Folio we, and it is not indefensible.

382-384. i.e. 'this vehement epitome has details that demand separate explanation': hence his questions.

396. counter change, exchange of looks and feelings.

405. forlorn; explained, obviously, by 409, "in poor beseeming"; forlorn-looking; cf. 2-5 and V. 1. 22-24. That the word is used in its literal sense 'lost, not to be found' (V. 5. 5), seems to me very improbable.

407-414. A little like the final scene between Edgar and Edmund? Similarly Belarius somehow takes one's thoughts back to Kent. We have noticed other King Lear echoes. I am down again. "The wheel is come full circle; I am here" (Edmund, at the feet of Edgar, King Lear, V. 3. 174).

411, 412. I had you down. Posthumus did not then (V. 1) know of Iachimo's treachery. But why should he assume that Iachimo could identify him with his disguised vanquisher?

421. freeness, generosity. "I loved the man and do honour his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any. He was, indeed, honest and of an open and free nature" (Ben Jonson's immortal testimony to Shakespeare).

422. Pardon's the word to all. Shakespeare's final message: all his last plays come to this.

425-433. The passage which (with what follows) seems to make the Vision (V. 4) unnecessary.

428. spritely, of spirits -- "the Ghosts" of V. 4.

430-432. The contents of the label were so obscure that he could not infer (deduce) the sense.

"Her speech is nothing ( = 'nonsense'),
Yet the unshaped use of it cloth move
The hearers to collection: they aim at it"

(i.e. Ophelia's in her madness -- Hamlet, IV. 5. 7-9).

446, 447. mollis aer...mulier. Various examples of this partially incorrect derivation are cited by editors from works antecedent to Shakespeare, e.g. Caxton's Game of the Chesse, printed about 1474-75. Mulier is connected with mollis. (F.)

450. were; strictly singular (wast), as the antecedent is who ( = Posthumus); but the verb is attracted to you. The speaker makes who quite plain by turning or pointing to Posthumus. There are many passages in dramas where the sense depends on some gesture too obvious to need mention.

464. Obviously 'have laid hand on'; but the omission is quite Shakespearean.

481. the temple of great Jupiter. Lud built in London "a faire temple neere... to his palace, which temple (as some take it) was afterward turned to a chuich, and at this daie called Paules" (Holinshed).

The following verdict has the Johnsonian flavour and limitations: "This play has many just sentiments, some natural dialogues, and some pleasing scenes, but they are obtained at the expence of much incongruity. To remark the folly of the fiction, the absurdity of the conduct, the confusion of the names and manners of different times, and the impossibility of the events in any system of life, were to waste criticism upon unresisting imbecility, upon faults too evident for detection, and too gross for aggravation."

But let us end on a happier note of sympathy: "Though. ..no one can think of [Cymbeline] as a finished play, it has dramatic scenes, one faultless lyric, and many marks of beauty. It deals with the Shakespearean subject of craft working upon a want of faith for personal ends, and being defeated, when almost successful, by something simple and instinctive in human nature. It is thus not unlike Othello; but in Othello the subject is simple, and the treatment purely tragic. In Cymbeline the subject is only partly extricated, and the treatment is coloured with romance, with that strange, touching, very Shakespearean romance, of the thing lost beautifully recovered before the end...." -- Masefield.

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_5_5.html >.

How to cite the sidebar:
Mabillard, Amanda. Notes on Shakespeare. Shakespeare Online. 10 Dec. 2013. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/cymbel_5_5.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...

Richard Shakespeare, Shakespeare's paternal grandfather, was a farmer in the small village of Snitterfield, located four miles from Stratford. Records show that Richard worked on several different farms which he leased from various landowners. Coincidentally, Richard leased land from Robert Arden, Shakespeare's maternal grandfather. Read on...
____

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

Henry Bolingbroke, the eldest son of John of Gaunt and the grandson of King Edward III, was born on April 3, 1367. Henry usurped the throne from the ineffectual King Richard II in 1399, and thus became King Henry IV, the first of the three kings of the House of Lancaster. 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 Shakespeare's friend, Michael Drayton. Read on...
____

Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most captivating and complex figures in history. In 1152, Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet (later to become Henry II). Their son, John, was born in 1167 and is the title character of Shakespeare's history play.

Shakespeare's Treatment of Love in the Plays

Shakespeare's Dramatic Use of Songs

Shakespeare Quotations on Love

Shakespeare Wedding Readings

Shakespeare on Sleep