Act 5 Flashcards
(279 cards)
1
Q
Posthumous: You married ones, / If each of you should take this course, how many / Must murder wives much better than themselves / For wrying but a little
A
- Addresses ausdience
- Characterizes an unfaithful wife as better than a husband who murders her for infidelity- sudden moral transformation/forgivenesss of Innogen, but too late to withhold original decree- reliant entirely on Pisanio’s disobedience for forgiveness to have meaning/manifest/yield significant outcome
Provides a point of correction for Leontes in WT when he accuses some of the audience of being cuckolds??
2
Q
Oh Pisanio/every good servant does not all commands/no bond but to do just ones
A
Oh Pisanio! Good servants don’t obey every order. Their duty is just to obey the moral ones.
(i.e. allocates some degree of judgement to the servant)
3
Q
Posthumous: I never / Had lived to put on this
A
I never should have lived…
4
Q
Posthumous: You snatch some hence for little faults;/That’s love / To have them fall no more.
A
you kill some of us for small sins. That shows your love for those people, because you keep them from sinning worse.
5
Q
Posthumous: You some permit / To second ills with ills, each elder worse, / And make them dread it, to the doers’ thrift / But Innogen is your own
A
You allow some to do evil after evil, each one worse than the one before, and cause them to regret their actions, to their ultimate gain But Imogen is with you now.
(Describes people who are so entangled in wrong-doings that they regret their actions, which ultimately benefits them).
6
Q
Stylistic point: ‘I’ll disrobe me of these Italian weeds and suit myself/As does a Briton peasant;’
A
Marks a shift in affiliation (from Italian to Briton) as well as a change in social rank (from gentle to base)
7
Q
Posthumous: O Innogen, even for whom my life / Is every breath a death
A
•I die of remorse with every breath
8
Q
and thus, unknown,
Pitied nor hated, to the face of peril
Myself I’ll dedicate. Let me make men know/more valour in me than my habits show.
A
And so, unknown, neither pitied nor hated, I’ll face danger. Let me show more bravery in this than I usually do.
9
Q
Stylistic point: Gods, put the strength o’ the Leonati in me!
A
Calling on his ancestors through his family name, which Posthumus’ father earned by doing battle against the Romans
10
Q
Posthumous: To shame the guise o’th’world, I will begin / The fashion: less without and more within
A
The shame the custom of the world, I’ll turn the usual fashion around by seeming less noble on the outside, and more on the inside
i.e. contrasts appearance as peasant with internal worth
11
Q
The heaviness and guilt within my bosom/takes off my manhood
A
The sadness and guilt in my heart make me less of a man.
12
Q
Iachimo: I have belied a lady…the air on’t / Revengingly enfeebles me;
A
I have slandered Innogen…the atmosphere of Britain weakens me in as repayment for my prior actions
(i.e. it’s the air’s revenge, not his own)
13
Q
or could this carl, / A very drudge of nature’s, have subdued me / In my profession?
A
or how else would peasant-Posthumous-, a slave of nature’s, have beaten me in his performance as a soldier?
14
Q
Knighthoods and honours, borne
As I wear mine, are titles but of scorn.
+ context point
A
Knighthoods and honours like the ones I have are worth nothing except as insults to me.
n.b. this remark is particularly pertinent in light of James I’s frequent conferral of knighthoods
15
Q
Iachimo: If that thy gentry, Britain, go before / This lout as he exceeds our lords, the odds / Is, that we scarce are men and you are gods
A
•If your nobles, Britain, surpass this peasant as much as he exceeds our Roman lords, then the Romans are barely men & the Britons are divine
16
Q
Lucius: and the disorder’s such as war were hoodwinked
A
and it’s as much of a mess as if war itself were to be blindfolded and strike out indiscrimanately
17
Q
Lucius: It is a day turned strangely. Or betimes / Lets reinforce, or fly
A
It is a day that has turned surprisingly. Either promptly (or betimes), let’s obtain reinforcements or flee.
18
Q
Posthumous: Though you, it seems, come from the fliers?
A
However, you seem to have come from the Britons who fled
19
Q
Posthumous: For all was lost, / But that the heavens fought. The King himself / Of his wings destitute
A
- The battle would have been lost for us, if the Gods had not fought for the Britons
- The King lacked his divisions on each side (i.e. alone)
20
Q
Posthumous: The enemy full-hearted, / Lolling the tongue with slaught’ring
A
•The enemy was full of courage & confidence; with tongues hanging out, (like wild animals/hunting dogs)
21
Q
Posthumous: The strait pass was / damned with dead men, hurt behind, and cowards living / To die with lengthened shame
A
•The narrow way was blocked with corpses, those wounded while running away, and cowards who were fleeing to die with shame extended for the rest of their lives
22
Q
Posthumus: who deserved / So long a breeding as his white beard came to
A
Who has earned a lineage as long as his beard
23
Q
Striplings
A
Youths passing from boyhood to manhood
24
Q
lads more like to run / The country base than to commit such slaughter,
A
lads more likely to play a children’s game than to engage in battle
25
With faces fit for masks, or rather fairer / Than those for preservation cased, or shame
with faces so delicate they deserve to be protected with masks, or rather they are more fair than those who cover their faces to preserve their complexions, or for the sake of modesty
n.b. - reference to masks worn by ladies to conceal identity at balls & Masques), secured the passage
26
Made good the passage
Secured the passage
27
To darkness fleet souls that fly backwards.
The souls of people who run away hasten to hell.
28
Stand, / Or we are Romans, and will give you that / Like beasts which you shun beastly
Stand your ground or we will act like Romans and attack you fiercely (like beasts is a quantifier of how they are going to attack them) which you, beast-like, shun.
29
And may save/but to look back in frown
and may avert merely by facing the enemy with defiance
30
These / three, three thousand confident, in act as many
As effective as 3000 men
31
For three performers are the file, when all / The rest do nothing – with this word ‘ “stand”, / stand’
for three performers constitute the entire rank or formation of soldiers, when all the rest do nothing – with this word ‘ “Stand”, they take stand’,
32
Section 1: Accommodated by the place,
Section 2: more charming / With their own nobleness,
Section 3: which could have turned / A distaff to a lance,
Section 4: gilded pale looks
Section 1: Given an advantage by the environment
Section 2: Working their spell on others through their great deeds
Section 3: Which could have transformed a staff used for spinning in to a military weapon (n.b. a distaff came to stand for a woman)
Section 4: restored colour to the soldiers' faces, blanched with fear.
33
Posthumous: Part shame, part spirit renewed, that some turned cowards / But by example
•Some were revived by shame, some by courage, so that some of them became cowardly, but by imitating the cowardice of others
34
(O, a sin in war, / Damned in the first beginners)
(O, a sin in war, damned in those who first display cowardice)
35
‘gan to look / The way that they did and to grin like lions / Upon the pikes o’th’hunters.
began to look the way that they did and bared their teeth like lions at the weapon of those who hunted them down
36
Section 1: Posthumous: Then began / A stop i’th’chaser, a retire;
Section 2: anon /
Section 3: A rout,
Section 4: confusion thick; forthwith they fly/ Chickens, the way which they stooped eagles;
Section 1: Then a sudden check in the pursuers occurred, a withdrawal;
Section 2: shortly (anon)
Section 3: an act of retreating in disorder
Section 4: thick confusion; then immediately, they flee like chickens over the same path they had swooped down like eagles
the chase ended, the enemy fell back and was defeated, and there was nothing but confusion in their ranks. Immediately they ran like chickens when before they acted like eagles.
37
/ slaves, the strides they victors made; and now our cowards, / Like fragments in hard voyages, became / The life o’th’need
retracing like slaves the long strides they had taken as victors; and now our cowards, like scraps of food on harrowing journeys, managed to sustain life in extreme circumstances
38
Having found the back door / Open of the unguarded hearts, how they wound!
Having found easy access to the enemies unprotected hearts, the wounded them!
39
Some slain before, some dying, some their friends / O’erborne I’th former wave, ten chased by one/Are now each one the slaughterman of twenty
Some were slaughtered earlier, some dying, some knocked down by the other Britons, ten of them fleeing one Roman, were turned into men who could each slaughter 20 Romans.
40
Those that would die or ere resist are grown / The mortal bugs o’th’field
•Those who were willing to die before resisting became deadly, terrifying forces on the field
41
Lord: This was strange chance
This was an exceptional/fortuitous circumstance
42
Stylistic point: Posthumous: Nay, do not wonder at it. You are made / Rather to wonder at the things you hear / Than to work any.
* Disdain for Lord who probably fled battle with other Britons
* First says Lord should not wonder, then says it is all he can do given he is incapable of performing valorously himself
43
Will you rhyme upon’t, / And vent it for a mock’ry?
• Do you want to compose a verse about it & circulate it as source of derision?
44
An old man twice a boy...
Still going? (referring to the Lord who has just exited)
An old man twice the age of a young boy
Always running away?
45
O noble misery (to be i'th field and ask 'what news?' of me)
O wretched specimen of the nobility!
46
To-day how many would have given their honours
To have saved their carcasses! took heel to do't,
And yet died too!
Today so many chose to give up their honour* to save their bodies! They ran to do it, but died anyway!
*giving words in exchange for preferential treatment upon surrender
47
I, in mine own woe charmed, / Could not find death where I did hear him groan, / Nor feel him where he struck.
I, charmed by my own wretchedness, couldn't find death even where I heard him groaning, and couldn't get hit by him even where he was striking people down.
48
Being an ugly monster, ‘Tis strange he hides him in fresh cups, soft beds, / Sweet words, or hath moe ministers than we / That draws his knives I’th’ war
Since death's an ugly monster, it's strange that he hides in refreshing drinks, comfortable beds, and flattering language, and has at his disposal more agents than there are soldiers on the field
49
For being now a favourer to the Briton/no more a Briton
Since death now favours the Britons (because Romans are dying), I will no longer be a Briton
50
Posthumus: Yield me to the veriest hind that shall / Once touch my shoulder
•I surrender myself to the merest peasant that shall arrest me (once touch my shoulder)
- happy submit to a low-ranking soldier rather than receive privileged treatment of elite soldiers
‘I yield myself’- establishes binding contract between captive & captor
51
Great the slaughter is here made by th'Roman; great the answer be
Britons must take.
The Romans killed a lot of people here, and the Britons will punish them for it.
52
On either side I come to spend my breath, / Which neither here I’ll keep nor bear again
•On one side or the other I come to give up my life, which I will not keep here or carry away to continue elsewhere
53
2 Captain: in a silly habit
in a simple outfit
54
Posthumous: Who had not now been drooping here if seconds / Had answered him
•Who wouldn't have been faltering here if reinforcements had backed him up
55
A leg of Rome shall not return to tell
One who fled on their legs shall not go back to Rome to tell...
56
1 Jailer: You shall not now be stolen…graze as you find pasture
+ stylistic point
You won't be rescued... so you can eat whatever you find...
Intends to keep Posthumous imprisoned for ransom
•Chained in open field to prevent escape- debased like animal
57
2 Jailer: Ay, or a stomach
Or an appetite
58
Posthumous: Yet am I better / Than one that’s sick o’th’ gout
•Yet I am greater than one who is stricken with gout-
disease of painful inflammation of small joints- assumes sufferer would rather live with pain than be relieved of it through death
59
Stylistic point:
| Posthumous: You good gods, / give me the penitent instrument to pick that bolt (of my conscience)
•Pentinence symbolized as key to unlocking bolt of Posthumous’ conscience, fettered by guilt
60
Posthumous: So children temporal fathers do appease
•Children pacify their earthly fathers with apologies
61
Gyves
fetters/shackles
62
Posthumous: To satisfy, / If of my freedom ‘tis the main part, take / No stricter render of me than my all
•If giving up my freedom is the most important component of my atonement, take no more precise portion from me than life itself
63
Posthumous: I know you are more clement than vile men…letting them thrive again / On their abatement
•I know you are more compassionate rather than creditors/usurers (who seize a portion of money or goods belonging to their people who owe them money)... letting them thrive on the remaining capital
64
Tween man and man they weigh not every stamp
Humans don't weigh every coin we exchange (in order to ascertain that it definitely contains the full quantity of metal)
65
Though light, take pieces for the figure’s sake,
•Although the coin is underweight, it is valuable due to the image stamped upon it
- essentially Posthumus is begging the God's to accept him anyway because he was made in their image
66
You rather, mine being yours
Hence you, Gods, may accept my life since I was created in your image
67
If you will make this audit, take this life and *cancel these cold bonds*
*has three possible meanings
If you will examine this financial record and void this legal contract/unlock these shackles/release me from this life
68
Sicilius: With Mars fall out, with Juno chide, that thy adulteries / Rates and revenges
apostrophizes to Jupiter to sever himself from Mars as god of war & to forego wife Juno who rebukes/scolds & takes vengeance on his adulterous affairs
69
(whilst in the womb he stayed) attending nature's law
awaiting the natural course of his birth
70
Whose father then, as men report
Thou orphans' father art,
Thou shouldst have been
people say you're a father to orphans, and you should have been a father to him
71
Sicilius: Earth-vexing smart
•The suffering & grief that afflict mortals
72
Mother: Lucina lent me not her aid, but took me in my throes
Lucina, the Roman Goddess of childbirth did not help me, but allowed me to die whilst experiencing the pangs of labour
73
Sicilius: Great nature, like his ancestry, moulded the stuff so fair
Nature, combined with his ancestors, contributed to his development as esteemed nobleman.
74
1 brother: When once he was mature for man,
In Britain where was he
That could stand up his parallel;
When he had grown into a man, who else in Britain was equal to him
75
Or fruitful object be
In eye of Imogen, that best
Could deem his dignity?
or who else could compete with him in Imogen's affection, she who more than anyone could see how virtuous he was?
76
Leonati seat
Literally, the ancestral home of the leonati family
77
And to become the geck and scorn
O' th' other's villany?
+ stylistic point
And let him be the dupe of Iachimo's trickery?
+ hendiadys
78
2 Brother: From stiller seats we came…Our fealty and Tenantius’ right with honour to maintain
From the Elysian Fields we came... to maintain our loyalty (fealty) and the right (to rule?) of Tenantius (Cym's father)
79
Like hardiment Posthumus hath to Cymbeline performed
Posthumus performed deeds of similar valour
| like hardiment = deeds of similar valour
80
1 Brother: Why hast thou adjourned/the graces for his merits due
• Asks Jupiter why he has deferred the joy that Posthumous deserves for his virtue
81
Sicilius: Thy crystal window ope, look out, no longer exercise / Upon a valiant race
imperative command: open your crystal window, look out, no longer abuse a worthy race
82
marble mansion
the heavens
83
Sicilius: (cry to the) shining synod of the rest
•Assembly of all gods
84
Jupiter: whose bolt, you know, sky-planted, batters all rebelling coasts
when you know my lightning bolt, originating in the heavens, shoots at all rebelling countries
85
Be not with mortal accidents oppressed
Do not be oppressed by human events
86
Whom best I love I *cross*; to make my *gift*, The more delay'd, delighted.
I thwart (cross) the people I love best, because postponing my grace (gift) makes people appreciate it more.
87
godhead
powers
88
In our temple was he married
Reference to Posthumus and Innogen having married in Jupiter's temple
89
Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine
Where I've set down the full pleasure of his destiny (?)
90
Scilius: (the holy eagle) stooped, as to foot us
Swooped down as if to seize us with its talons
91
Sicilius: his ascension is
| More sweet than our blest fields
Seeing him fly away is more beautiful than the blessed (Elysian) fields we live in
92
his royal bird
Prunes the immortal wing and claws his beak,
As when his god is pleased.
His royal bird is tends its wing feathers and scratches (his beak? with his talons, as he does when his god is pleased.
93
Stylistic point: the marble pavement closes
After Jupiter's ascent, the trapdoor in the false ceiling above the stage would have closed behind him to conceal the stage machinery.
94
Perform his great behest
Perform his great command
95
Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and begot
A father to me; and thou hast created
A mother and two brothers
Sleep, you were like a grandfather: you engendered a father for me, and you created a mother and two brothers.
96
Posthumus: Poor wretches that depend / On greatness’ favour dream as I have done,/ wake, and ifnd nothing
•Poor wretches that rely on the good will of great men dream as I have just dreamt and wake up to find that they have nothing
97
I swerve
I err/go astray
98
Many dream not to find, neither deserve,
| And yet are steep'd in favours
Many don't hope to find anything and do not deserve to do so but are drowned in good fortune.
99
Posthumous: Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment / Nobler than that it covers
Don't be like novelty-obsessed world and have a cover that looks more noble than what it's covering.
100
(let thy effects
So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers,)
As good as promise.
living up to its external appearance through its internal worth
101
Prophecy: When as a lion's whelp shall, to himself unknown,
without seeking find, and be embraced by a piece of
tender air;
"When a lion's cub, not knowing himself, finds and is embraced by a piece of soft air without looking for it...
n.b. Leonatus = the lion's cub (Leo-natus)
tender air = Cymbeline's daugher (Innogen) = from mollis aer/mulier (latin for tender air/daugher respectively)
102
...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;
and when branches are cut from a noble cedar tree and, after being dead many years, come back to life and are re-attached to the old trunk and grow again,
n.b. cedar tree = Cymbeline
lopped branches = his two offspring
jointed to the old stock= reunited with the majestic cedar (Cymbeline)
103
then shall Posthumus end his miseries,
| Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.'
then Posthumus's sorrows will end, and Britain will be fortunate, prosperous, and peaceful."
104
Posthumous: ‘Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen / Tongue and brain not; either both
I'm still dreaming, or this is the senseless chatter of madmen; either both of those things, or neither of them
105
Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such / As sense cannot untie
It's either meaningless words or words that reason cannot untie
106
Posthumous: The action of my life is like it, which I’ll keep, / If but for sympathy
Whatever this writing is, my life is like it in that it's also mysteriously unintelligible, so I'll keep it because we're alike.
107
(Posthumus: over-roasted...)
Jailer: 'hanging is the word, sir'
• Punning of meaning ‘to suspend/tie up (bacon/beef) in air to mature/dry or for preservation- continues Posthumous’ comic culinary idiom/metaphor
108
Posthumous: So if I prove a good repast to the spectators, / The dish pays the shot
So if my hanging is good food/entertainment for the spectators, then it is worth what it costs and my death settles the account
n.b. plays off the idea that public hangings fed the appetite of early modern audiences
shot = the tavern bill, reckoning
109
Jailer: A heavy reckoning
A sad account
110
Jailer: sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you are paid too much
economic pun vs that you are drunk
111
he brain the heavier for being too
light, the purse too light, being drawn of
heaviness:
Your head is worse off for feeling light and your wallet that used to be heavier is too light.
puns off: a heavy purse makes a light heart
112
Jailer: O the charity / of a penny cord: it sums up a thousands in a trice.
n.b. 'it sums up' and 'in a trice' have two different meanings
•O the generosity of the hangman’s rope, which costs only a penny: it pays off/disposes of thousands with a single pull/in an instant.
113
You have no true debtor and creditor but it.
You have no true account book but that
114
Section 1: Of what’s past, is and to come, the discharge. Your neck, sir, is pen, book and counters; so the acquittance follows
Section 2: So the acquittance follows
It can discharge you (in the sense of release you from your payment) from the past, the present and the future. Your neck is its pen, book, and and counter. It forgives you your debt immediately.
Section 2: In this way, the deliverance (from debt as well as life) follows
115
Jailer: You know not which way you shall go
•Posthumous does not know if his soul will go to heaven/hell
116
Jailer: Your death has eyes i’s head, then; I have not / Seen him so pictured.
Your vision of the grim reaper must have eyes in his head then; I have not seen him depicted in this way
117
Section 1: You must either be directed by / Some that take upon them to know, or take upon / Yourself that which I am sure you do not know, or /
Section 2: Jump the after-enquiry on your own peril;
Your serene approach to death must be prompted by those who know what come after it (e.g. divines/philosophers); or by what Posthumous presumes to know although he does not or...
Section 2: risk the last judgement after you die, which is risky.
118
I tell thee, fellow, there are none want eyes to
direct them the way I am going, but such as wink and
will not use them.
Believe me, fellow, there's no one who can't see where I'm going except those who keep their eyes closed and refuse to use them.
Wink = close their eyes
119
What an infinite mock is this, that a man should
have the best use of eyes to see the way of
***blindness***! (blindness has 2 meanings)
What a joke that is, that a man would use his eyes to see what ignorance/death looks like.
120
Jailer: I am sure hanging’s the way of winking
•Being hanged will surely close his eyes
121
Posthumus: (Thou bring'st good news; I am called) to be made free.
Jailer: I'll be hanged then
To be executed, and hence liberated by death
Jailer: If that's true, then I'll be hanged (i.e. an emphatic denial, given his responsibilities to keep his charge under control)
122
Thou shalt be then freer than a gaoler; no bolts for
| the dead.
Then you will be freer than a jailor, because no locks can stop the dead.
123
Section 1: Jailer: Unless a man would marry a gallows and beget young *gibbets*, I never saw one so prone.
Section 2: Yet, on my / Conscience, there are verier knaves desire to live, for all he be a roman
Section 1: •Unless someone were to marry the gallows and fathered young gibbets (**posts with projecting arms for displaying bodies of executed criminals**), I have never seen someone so ready in willing,
Section 2: But on my conscience, there are worse knaves who deisre to live than he, even though he is a Roman
124
Jailer: and there be some of them
too that die against their wills; so should I, if I
were one.
And there are some of them who die against their wills. I would, if I were a criminal.
125
Section 1: I would we were all of one mind, and one mind good;
Section 2: O, there were desolation of jailers and gallowses
Section 1: I wish we were all more like-minded in being good-minded
Section 2: O, that there would be an utter ruin of jailers and gallows
126
I speak against my present profit, but
my wish hath a preferment in 't.
(preferment has two meanings)
I speak against my current source of income, but I desire
1. a promotion for myself to a better post if the world were free of crime
2. a preference that everyone may live in a better world
127
Section 1: Cymbeline: (The poor soldier that so richly fought, / )Whose rags shamed gilded arms,
Section 2: whose naked / breast stepped before targes of proof, cannot be found
Section 1: whose tattered clothes put glittering body armour to shame
Section 2: Who stepped up unprotected by armour to soldiers known for their skill
targes of proof = synecdoche for soldiers
128
if our grace can make him so
if that's within the remit of your royal favour
129
To my grief, I am
| The heir of his reward;
Sadly, I'll have to keep his reward...
130
Cymbeline: the liver, heart, and brain of Britain
•Vital organs- seat of the passions, affections & reason
131
Cym: 'I create you/companions to our person, and will fit you/with dignities becoming to your estates'
Cymbeline: I make you personal attendants to us and I will give you titles as honorable as you are.
132
There's business in these faces
there's serious concern in these faces
133
Section 1: Who worse than a physician
Would this report become?
Section 2: But I consider, By medicine life may be prolong'd, yet death Will seize the doctor too. How ended she?
Such a report could not come from a less appropriate person (a physician, who reports that someone they were treating died)
Section 2: But I suppose that although life can be made longer with medicine, eventually even a doctor dies. How did she die?
134
Cornelius: With horror, madly dying, like her life,
Which, being cruel to the world, concluded
Most cruel to herself.
Horribly, dying in a frenzy like she lived her life. In that life she was cruel to everyone else, and her life ended cruelly for her.
135
Cornelius: [the queen] only affected greatness got by you, not you
She only desired the power got by you, not you yourself
136
Cornelius: Married your royalty, was wife to your place
Queen married Cymbeline only for his wealth & rank/kingship/monarchy- was wed to his station, not him as an individual
137
Your daughter, whom she bore in hand to love
With such integrity, she did confess
Was as a scorpion to her sight
She pretended to love your daughter deeply, but confessed that she actually hated her.
138
Cymbeline: O most delicate fiend! / Who is’t can read a woman
* O what a subtle evil
| * Attributes inscrutability to women but also reflects own lack of discernment throughout play
139
A mortal mineral
A deadly poison
140
In which time she purposed,
By watching, weeping, tendance, kissing, to
O'ercome you with her show,
She meant to stay up, cry, tend to you, kiss you, and to overcome you with her show of love.
141
And in time,
When she had fitted you with her craft, to work
Her son into the adoption of the crown:
In time, when she had killed you with her poison, she would have recognition of her son as the heir to the trone
142
Cornelius: [The Queen] opened in despite of heaven and men her purposes
Confessed to her plots against men and Gods
143
repented
The evils she hatch'd were not effected; so
Despairing died.
regretted that she did not succeed in doing the evil things she had planned, and died in despair.
144
It had been vicious/to have mistrused her
It would have been reprehensible to have mistrusted her
145
Cymbeline: Thou com'st not, Caius, now for the tribute. That the Britons have razed out, though with the loss of many a bold one
Caius, you're not here now for the tribute that we Britons have removed by erasure, although at the cost of losing many brave men.
146
...whose kinsmen have made suit / That their goods soul may be appeased with / slaughter of you their captives
whose kinsmen (of those who have fallen) have petitioned ('made suit') that the souls of the dead may be repaid with the slaughter of the Roman captives
i.e. the dead's relatives want to kill Roman captives for vengeance of their own losses
147
Cymbeline: so think of your estate
So, bear in mind your spiritual condition
148
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.
Sir, consider how much is up to chance in war. You won by accident. If we had won, we would not have threatened to kill our prisoners in cold blood.
149
Lucius: 'that nothing but our lives/may be called ransom'
that only our deaths will be accepted as ransom
150
Augustus lives to think on't; and so much for my peculiar care
Expresses possibility of revenge from Augustus; and so much for my own personal concerns
151
Lucius: So tender over his occasions, true, / So feat, so nurse-like
So attuned to his master's requirements, so deft ('so feat'), so nurse-like
152
Section 1: Let his virtue join with my request
Section 2: Which I'll make bold your highness cannot deny
Section 1: Let his own, self-evident virtue, combine in strength with my request
Section 2: 'which I'll presume to suggest that your highness cannot possibly refuse'
153
Cym: 'his favour is familiar to me'
'his appearance is familiar to me'
154
Cymbeline: Thou hast looked thyself into my grace, / And art mine own
* You have won my favour by your looks
| * Accepts Fidele as own page- does not realise she is his own in sense of filial loyalty/daughter
155
Cymbeline; Ne’er thank thy master
Insists Fidele has not been saved by master’s plea but by his own inexplicable response/gravitation to her
156
Cymbeline: (live and ask of Cymbeline what) Boon (thou wilt)
Favour/request
157
Fitting my bounty and thy state
Appropriate to my means and to your condition/rank
158
Yea, though thou do demand a prisoner,
| The noblest ta'en.
Even if you ask for a prisoner, even the noblest one captured.
(i.e. Cymbeline believes that Fidele will ask for Lucius's life (she doesn't!!))
159
Innogen: I see a thing / Bitter to me as death
Literally, I see a thing, as terrible to me as death itself
•Notices her mother’s ring worn by Iachimo
160
Your life, good master, must shuffle for itself
Your life will have to take care of itself, good master.
161
Lucius: 'why stands he so perplexed?'
Why does he look so *distressed*?
162
Innogen: 'who being born your vassal, am something nearer'
Even though I was born your subject, I am more closely related to you.
163
Arviragus: One sand another / Not more resembles
•One grain of sand does not more resemble another
164
He eyes us not, forbear
He is not looking at us, be patient
165
Guiderius: 'but we see him dead'
We see him even though we know he was dead
| NOT: we saw him dead, which blunts the paradox of rebirth from earlier
166
Cymbeline: Bitter torture shall / Winnow the truth from falsehood
* Cruel torture will enable me to separate the truth from fabrication
* ‘winnow’- as grain is separated from chaff during threshing
167
Thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that
| Which, to be spoke, would torture thee.
You're threatening to torture me if I don't say something that, when I say it, will torture you.
168
Iachimo, 'a nobler sir' [referring to Posthumus], 'paragon [Innogen]
Iachimo's praise of P and I is now as high as his earlier denigrations were low
169
For whom my heart drops blood, and my false spirits
| Quail to remember—Give me leave; I faint.
Mentioning her, my heart bleeds and my lying mind cringes—I'm sorry, I feel faint.
170
I had rather thou shouldst live while nature will
| Than die ere I hear more
Be strong. I would prefer you to live while you can than to die without telling me more.
171
Iachimo: —accursed
The mansion where!—
+ stylistic point
curse the house where this happened
Example of aposiopesis
172
Iachimo: O, would
Our viands had been poison'd, or at least
Those which I heaved to head!
If only our foods had been poisoned, or at least those which I lifted to my mouth
173
Iach: '(he was too good to be where) ill (men were)
immoral
174
Iach: (was the best of all amongst) the rar'st (of good ones)
the most exceptional
175
Iachimo: For beauty that made barren the swelled boast / Of him that best could speak
•For beauty that rendered empty the inflated bravado of the best speaker
(i.e. were more beautiful than even the best speaker could boast)
176
; for feature laming / The shrine of Venus or straight-pight Minerva,
For shame that made deficient the image of Venus and the erect, tall image of Minerva
177
Postures beyond brief nature
Demeanours surpassing those of mortal beings
178
for condition, / A shop of all the qualities that man / Loves woman for;
regarding their characters, a storehouse filled with all the qualities that men love women for
179
besides that hook of wiving, / Fairness which strikes the eye
Outside that bait for marriage, loveliness which strikes the eye
180
Cymb: 'I stand on fire. / Come to the matter
I'm in suspense. Get to the point.
181
Iachimo: Took his hint
•Took his opportunity/cue
182
Iachimo: He began / His mistress’ picture, which, by his tongue being / made, and then a mind put in’t...
He began to paint a picture of his wife, which, as a result of his eloquence and his addition of an excellent mind to the picture...
183
either our brags / Were cracked of kitchen trulls or his description / Proved us unspeaking sots
Either our own boats seemed as if they were boats about kitchen wenches, or proved us to be inarticulate idiots
184
He spake of her, as Dian had hot dreams,
| And she alone were cold
He spoke of her as if even the virgin goddess Diana were lustful, and only his wife was chaste
185
Made scruple of his praise
Expressed doubts about his praises
186
To attain/in suit the place of's bed
To obtain by wooing, Posthumus' place as husband in his wife's bed
187
Iachimo: Stakes his rings, / And would so had it been a carbuncle / Of Phoebus’ wheel, and might so safely had it / Been all the worth of’s car.
•Posthumous wagered his ring on Innogen’s loyalty-
he would have done the same thing if it was a jewel from the wheel of the sun-god's chariot, and could have done it safely even if it had been worth the whole chariot.
188
(away to Britain) Post (I in this design)
hasten
189
Remember me at court; where I was taught
Of your chaste daughter the wide difference
'Twixt amorous and villanous.
You may well remember seeing me in court, where I was taught by your loyal daughter the huge difference between being in love and being wicked.
190
Iachimo: For my vantage, excellent
•For my benefit/profit, excellent
| i.e., from my point of view, it was great!
191
Iachimo: I returned with similar proof
Pretended/simulated proof (NOT SIMILAR PROOF)
192
Iachimo: Averring notes
•Avouching observations
193
I having ta'en the forfeit
I having gained what was lost by the breach of the marital bond
194
Posthumous: most credulous fool/Egregious murderer
+ stylistic point
•Most gullible fool/Outrageous murderer
+ Posthumus still chooses to transfer the blame onto Iachimo for his own misdeeds
Also calls Iachimo gullible, when in fact that was him - transferal of guilt complex? Good quote to learn!!
195
anything/that's due to all the villains past, in being/to come
any name that is applicable to any past, present or future criminal!
196
Posthumous: O give me cord…some upright justicer
•Oh, give me a rope (so that I might hang myself)…some integral/principled judge
197
It is I
That all the abhorred things o' the earth amend
By being worse than they.
I am the thing that makes all the disgusting things on earth seem better by being worse than they are
198
Sacrilegious thief (stylistic point)
Having robbed Innogen of her life, he is a thief; sacrilegious anticipates his account of her as a temple
199
The temple
| Of virtue was she; yea, and she herself.
She was the temple of virtue, and virtue herself
200
Cast mire on me
throw mud at me
201
Posthumous: Set / The dogs o’th’street to bay me
•Set the dogs of the street to bark at me- wishes to be punished for harming Innogen in false beliefs
202
Every villain
Be call'd Posthumus Leonatus; and
Be villany less than 'twas!
May every criminal be called Posthumus Leonatus, and may evil itself seem less bad compared to me!
203
Posthumous: Shall’s have a play of this? Thou scornful page, / There lie thy part
Shall we act in this way? You contemptible page, play your own part by lying there.
- metatheatrical remark reinforcing reference to play
204
Pisanio: Mine and your mistress!
This is my mistress and your wife!
205
Cym: does the world go round?
Is the world spinning? (possible reference to a Copernican model of the universe)
206
How comes these staggers on me?
•How does this dizziness beset me?
207
Pisanio: Lady, the gods throw stones of sulphur on me
•Thunderbolts- reminds of Jupiter’s ‘sulphurous breath’ 5.4.85
208
Cornelius: 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.'
"If Pisanio has given his mistress that compound I told him was restorative medicine, she's as dead as a rat drinking rat poison."
209
To temper poisons
To mix/concoct poisons
210
(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.)
(A certain mixture, which having been taken, would having been taken, would) halt (the appearance of life, but in a short time, all) natural faculties (would resume their necessary functions.)
211
Imogen:
Section 1: Why did you throw your wedded lady from you?
Section 2: Think that you are upon a rock; and now
Throw me again.
+ stylistic point
Section 1: Why did you push your wife away from you?
Section 2: Imagine we are standing upon a precipice: if you throw me again, we will both go down.
* Innogen’s arms are around Posthumous- like declaring a sacrificial love for him
* Maybe playfully threatening to take him down with her
212
Posthumous: Hang there like fruit, my soul / Till the tree die
+ excellent stylistic point
Hang there, O soul of our union, as if you were fruit and I were the tree, until this tree dies.
Hamlin: imagery recalls Genesis, as if the fruit were returned to the tree in a reversal of the fall
213
Cymbeline: My flesh, my child? What, mak’st thou me a dullard in this act?
* ‘My flesh’ contrasts Posthumous’ ‘my soul’
| * Are you making me a sluggish performer in this show
214
Cymbeline: My tears that fall / prove holy water on thee
•Water of blessing on Innogen
215
Cymbeline: ‘Long of her it was / That we meet here so strangely
•It is because of Queen that we meet her like strangers.
Evil machinations have led to this joyful reunion.
216
Pisanio: 'I had a feigned letter of my master's/then in my pocket
I had a dissembling (NOT A FORGED) letter belonging to my master
Dissembling = to conceal or disguise one's true feelings or beliefs.
217
Pisanio: 'in my master's garments/which he enforced from me
which he forced me to give him
218
Cym: 'marry, the gods forfend'
Well, Gods forbid!
219
Cymbeline: I would not thy good deeds should from my lips / Pluck a hard sentence
I do not want, despite your good deeds (performance on the battlefield) to have to order a death sentence
220
Deny't again
speak again and deny it
| n.b. again means 'in response'
221
Guiderius: the wrongs he did me
| Were nothing prince-like
He did not treat me like a prince
222
Guid: for he did provoke me
With language that would make me spurn the sea,
If it could so roar to me:
He provoked me with language that would make me treat the very sea with contempt if it roared at me like that.
223
Guiderius: I cut off’s head, / And am right glad he is not standing here / To tell this tale of mine
Decapitated Cloten & is relieved that it is not Cloten standing here reporting that he cut off Guiderius’ head
224
Belarius: More of thee merited than a band of Clotens / Had ever scar for
He deserves more from you than a whole brigade of Clotens would ever have deserved for their battle scars
225
Cym: 'wilt thou undo the worth thou art unpaid for/by tasting of our wrath'
Will you undo the good deeds which you have not yet been rewarded for and make me angry?
226
But I will prove that two on's are as good/As I have given out him.
But I will prove that two of us are as as I have reported Guiderius to be.
227
My sons, I must for mine own part, unfold a dangerous speech, though haply well for you
My sons, I must relate an explanation dangerous to me, although by chance, beneficial to you
228
Belarius: Have at it then, by leave
•Let’s begin then, with your permission
229
Belarius: He it is that hath / Assumed this age
It is I who have reached this degree of (old) age
230
First pay me for the nursing of thy sons;
And let it be confiscate all, so soon
As I have received it.
First pay me for bringing up your sons, and then you can take the reward away as soon as you give it to me.
231
I am too saucy
•Insolent/presumptuous- addresses king with familiar ‘thou’ rather than polite ‘you’
232
I will prefer my sons
I will PROMOTE my sons
233
Belarius: Blood of your begetting
•Guiderius & Arviragus are part of 1. Cymbeline’s royal family
2. of Ancient Briton ancestry
234
Belarius: Your pleasure was my mere offence, my punishment / Itself, and all my treason;
My entire offence, punishment & treason were only what it pleased you to believe
235
that I suffered / Was all the harm I did
The pain I myself felt was the only wrong I did by suffering
236
These gentle princes, for such and so they are
These gentle princes, for they are both gentle and princes
237
Belarius: Those arts they have
•The skills/accomplishments they have
238
Belarius: Their nurse Euriphile, / Whom for the theft I wedded, stole these children / Upon my banishment
•Belarius admits he married Euriphile in recompense for her abduction of Cymbeline’s sons
239
Belarius: Having received the punishment before / For that which I did then
•Having been sentenced to treason in advance for an act I committed afterwards (when I stole your sons)
240
The benediction of these covering heavens
Fall on their heads like dew! for they are worthy
To inlay heaven with stars.
May the gods make blessings rain down on them like dew! They are virtuous enough that they should be made into constellations.
241
Cymbeline: The service that you three have done is more / Unlike than this thou tell’st
•The incredible achievements of you three in battle are even more unbelievable than your present story, which makes it more credible
242
Belarius: He, sir, was lapped / In a most curious mantle wrought by th’hand / Of his queen mother, which for more probation / I can with ease produce
He, sir, was wrapped in a beautifully woven blanket, made by his mother the queen, which I can easily show you for more proof.
243
Cymbeline: Upon his neck a mole, a sanguine star: / It was a mark of wonder
+ stylistic point
Guiderius had a mole on his neck, a blood-red star. It was an amazing thing.
* Reminds of Innogen’s ‘cinque-spotted’ & ‘crimson’ mole
* ‘Was’- Cymbeline referring to last time he saw Guiderius
* ‘Of wonder’- to be wondered at/wonderful
244
Belarius: It was wise nature’s end in the donation / To be his evidence now
It was all-knowing nature's purpose in bestowing a mole on him, so that it might testify to his identity.
245
O, what, am I
A mother to the birth of three? Ne'er mother
Rejoiced deliverance more.
+ stylistic point
Am I a mother giving birth to three children? Never did a mother rejoice more at the delivery of her child.
Unsettles conventional gender roles which have already been disrupted by the disguise of Fidele
246
Cymbeline: After this strange starting from your orbs, / You may reign in them now
After this strange displacement from your metaphorically fixed concentric spheres, you can now resume astral/royal influence over human affairs
247
Cymbeline: O Innogen, / Thou hast lost by this a kingdom
•Innogen displaced as heir to throne by rules of primogeniture- crown passes first to eldest male child
248
Innogen: I have got two worlds by’t
•I have obtained two brothers from it= extends Cymbeline’s association of Guiderius & Arviragus with stars/planets in universe
249
Innogen: O never say hereafter/but I am truest speaker
O from now on, never say anything other than that I am a speaker of truth
250
Cym: (O) rare (instinct)
O what an exceptional instinct (refers to A and G's immediately loving Innogen)
251
Cymbeline: This fierce abridgement / Hath to it circumstantial branches which / Distinction should be rich in
•This drastically compressed account has to it parts rich in detail that, as they are distinguished, should prove to be abundant
252
Cymbeline: your three motives to the battle
•The motives of the three of you to partake in the battle
253
[These should be demanded] and All the other by-dependences / From chance to chance; but nor the time nor place / Will serve our long inter’gatories
[I should ask this... this] and all the other side-issues, from event to event; but neither time nor place will serve our long interrogations
254
Cymbeline: Posthumous anchors upon Innogen
•Posthumous fixes his attention on Innogen
255
Throws her eye on him (stylistic point)
In Galenic physiology, the eye was believed to emit beams of light that illuminated the object of vision and transformed the air into an optical instrument
256
Her master hitting each object with joy
(i.e. Lucius)
257
Cymbeline: The counterchange / Is severally in all…smoke the temple with our sacrifices
* Each person reciprocates the other’s gaze
| * Fill the temple with smoke from incense/sacrificial fires
258
Innogen: [To Belarius] You are my father too, and did relieve me / To see this gracious season
Belarius aided Innogen so she that she could be present for this blessed reunion
259
Cym: 'all o'erjoyed/save these in bonds
•Everyone is overwhelmed with joy, except for the prisoners here
260
Cymbeline: The forlorn soldier that so nobly fought, / He would have well becomed this place, and graced / The thankings of a king
* The soldier who fought at imminent risk of his life, especially at the front of an army
* He would have dignified this place and graced the expressions of gratitude of a king
261
Posthumous: These three / In poor beseeming. ‘Twas a fitment for / The purpose I then followed
•These three in poor appearance. It was a preparation for the purpose I pursued at that time
262
The power that I have on you is, to spare you;
| The malice towards you to forgive you
I'll show my power over you by letting you live, and punish you by forgiving you
263
Cymbeline: Nobly doomed. / We’ll learn our freeness of a son-in-law: / Pardon’s the word to all
That was a noble judgement! I'll learn generosity from my son-in-law. Everyone is pardoned.
264
Posthumous: Spritely shows
•Ghostly visions
265
Posthumous: I found / This label on my bosom,
I found this SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE on my chest
266
...whose containing / Is so from sense in hardness that I can / Make no collection of it. Let him show his skill in the construction
whose contents are so difficult to understand that I can make no conclusion from it. Let him demonstrate his skill of interpretation
267
Soothsayer: The lion’s whelp
•Valorous youth sprung from valorous race
268
Soothsayer: Tender air…mollis aer…mulier
* Mollis aer is Latin for ‘tender air’
| * ‘mulier’ for ‘woman/wife’
269
Soothsayer: answering the letter of the oracle
•Satisfying the terms of the oracle
270
Unknown to you, unsought, were clipp'd about
| With this most tender air.
you didn't recognize her and didn't think you would find her, but you were hugged by this soft air.
271
Cymbeline: This hath some seeming
The interpretation of soothsayer has some plausibility
272
Cymbeline: The lofty cedar…personates thee
* Symbol of royalty
| * Represents Cymbeline in the prophecy
273
Whom heavens, in justice, both on her and hers,
| Have laid most heavy hand.
who, along with her son, has been justly punished terribly by the gods.
274
Soothsayer: The fingers of the powers above do tune / The harmony of this peace
•Hands of gods create peaceful harmony in world as if tuning a musical instrument
275
Soothsayer: For the Roman eagle/ From south to west on wing soaring aloft, / Lessened herself, and in the beams o’th’sun / So vanished
Since the Roman eagle, flying from south to west, diminished in size and completely vanished into the sun.
n.b. • Translation of empire in westward direction, from fallen Troy to Rome in Aeneid, then Rome to Britain
276
which foreshadowed our princely eagle, / Th’imperial Caesar, should again unite / His favour with the radiant Cymbeline / Which shines here in the west
This showed that our royal eagle, the emperor Caesar, would again unite with bright Cymbeline who shines here in the west.
n.b. Reinterpretation of vision after Britons’ victory as sign of harmonious union between Britain & Rome
277
Laud we the Gods
let us praise the gods
278
Cym: Publish we this peace / To all our subjects. Set we forward. Let / A Roman and a British ensign wave / Friendly together
+ stylistic point
nnounce this peace to all our subjects. Let us go forth. A Roman and a British flag will wave together like friends.
n.b. Symbol of nations united through flags recalls James I’s creation of union flag in 1606- combined Scottish cross of St Andrew & English cross of St George
279
Set on there
Let's go forward
