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- $Unique_ID{SSP01657}
- $Title{Cymbeline: Act II, Scene I}
- $Author{Shakespeare, William}
- $Subject{}
- $Log{Dramatis Personae*01650.txt}
-
- Portions copyright (c) CMC ReSearch, Inc., 1989
-
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
-
- CYMBELINE
-
-
- ACT II
- ................................................................................
-
-
- SCENE I: Britain. Before Cymbeline's palace.
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-
- {Enter CLOTEN and two Lords.}
-
- CLOTEN: Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the
- jack, upon an up-cast to be hit away! I had a
- hundred pound on't: and then a whoreson jackanapes
- must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine
- oaths of him and might not spend them at my
- pleasure.
-
- First Lord: What got he by that? You have broke his pate with
- your bowl.
-
- Second Lord: [Aside] If his wit had been like him that broke it,
- it would have run all out.
-
- CLOTEN: When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for 10
- any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha?
-
- Second Lord: No my lord;
-
- [Aside.]
-
- nor crop the ears of them.
-
- CLOTEN: Whoreson dog! I give him satisfaction?
- Would he had been one of my rank!
-
- Second Lord: [Aside] To have smelt like a fool.
-
- CLOTEN: I am not vexed more at any thing in the earth: a
- pox on't! I had rather not be so noble as I am;
- they dare not fight with me, because of the queen my
- mother: every Jack-slave hath his bellyful of
- fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock that
- nobody can match. 20
-
- Second Lord: [Aside] You are cock and capon too; and you crow,
- cock, with your comb on.
-
- CLOTEN: Sayest thou?
-
- Second Lord: It is not fit your lordship should undertake every
- companion that you give offence to.
-
- CLOTEN: No, I know that: but it is fit I should commit
- offence to my inferiors.
-
- Second Lord: Ay, it is fit for your lordship only.
-
- CLOTEN: Why, so I say.
-
- First Lord: Did you hear of a stranger that's come to court
- to-night? 30
-
- CLOTEN: A stranger, and I not know on't!
-
- Second Lord: [Aside] He's a strange fellow himself, and knows it
- not.
-
- First Lord: There's an Italian come; and, 'tis thought, one of
- Leonatus' friends.
-
- CLOTEN: Leonatus! a banished rascal; and he's another,
- whatsoever he be. Who told you of this stranger?
-
- First Lord: One of your lordship's pages.
-
- CLOTEN: Is it fit I went to look upon him? is there no
- derogation in't?
-
- Second Lord: You cannot derogate, my lord. 40
-
- CLOTEN: Not easily, I think.
-
- Second Lord: [Aside] You are a fool granted; therefore your
- issues, being foolish, do not derogate.
-
- CLOTEN: Come, I'll go see this Italian: what I have lost
- to-day at bowls I'll win to-night of him. Come, go.
-
- Second Lord: I'll attend your lordship.
-
- [Exeunt CLOTEN and First Lord.]
-
- 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, 50
- Thou divine Imogen, what thou endurest,
- Betwixt a father by thy step-dame govern'd,
- A mother hourly coining plots, a wooer
- More hateful than the foul expulsion is
- Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act
- Of the divorce he'ld make! The heavens hold firm
- The walls of thy dear honor, keep unshaked
- That temple, thy fair mind, that thou mayst stand,
- To enjoy thy banish'd lord and this great land!
-
- [Exit.]
-