Cymbeline Quotes Flashcards
Honour of Posthumus
1.1
First gentleman: (Imogen) “hath referred herself/ Unto a poor but worthy gentleman”
o
Duplicitousness of the queen 1.1 Queen: "you're my prisoner, but Your jailer shall deliver you the keys That lock up your restraint."
1.1
Queen: “For you, Posthumus,
So soon as I can win the offended king,
I will be known your advocate”
1.1 Queen: (to Pisanio) "Aside: Here comes a flattering rascal; upon him Will I first work: he's for his master, An enemy to my son. How now, Pisanio! Doctor, your service for this time is ended; Take your own way."
3.5
Queen:
“Gone she is/ To death or to dishonour, and my end/ Can make good use of either”
3.5
Queen:
“[Aside] All the better: may
This night forestall him of the coming day!”
CF: Othello
Iago: “Now, whether he kill Cassio,
Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,
Every way makes my gain”
Sincere love between Imogen and Posthumus:
“
o
Faithfulness between Imogen and Posthumus:
1.1
Posthumus: “I will remain
The loyal’st husband that did e’er plight troth:”
1.1
Imogen: “But keep it till you woo another wife,
When Imogen is dead.”
o
Anger of the father as patriarch: 1.1 Cymbeline: (to Posthumus) "Thou basest thing, avoid! hence, from my sight! If after this command thou fraught the court With thy unworthiness, thou diest: away! Thou'rt poison to my blood."
1.1
Cymbeline: (to Imogen) “O disloyal thing,
That shouldst repair my youth, thou heap’st
A year’s age on me.”
1.1
Cymbeline: (to Imogen) “Thou took’st a beggar; wouldst have made my throne/ A seat for baseness.”
- CF: Othello
Brabantio: “Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters’ minds/ By what you see them act.”
Brabantio: “Please it your grace, on to the state-affairs:
I had rather to adopt a child than get it.”
Rebellion of the daughter: 1.2 Imogen: "No; I rather added A lustre to it. CYMBELINE: O thou vile one!"
- CF: Othello
Desdemona: “I am hitherto your daughter: but here’s my husband”
Tragedy of parting for Imogen: 1.3 "IMOGEN: Then waved his handkerchief? PISANIO: And kiss'd it, madam. IMOGEN: Senseless Linen! happier therein than I! And that was all?"
o
Trickery of Giacomo: 1.6 "[Aside] All of her that is out of door most rich! If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare, She is alone the Arabian bird, and I Have lost the wager."
1.6
(semi-aside from Imogen) “What, are men mad?”
1.6
(to Imogen) “I was about to say–enjoy your–But
It is an office of the gods to venge it,
Not mine to speak on ‘t.”
- strange semi-aside where he articulates his inner thoughts as if overcome in a kind of fit/ possessed but in actuality, he is just doing this for effect to sow a seed in Imogen’s mind
- CF: Othello - deliberately denying to speak in order to draw attention to what is left unsaid (paralipsis) "OTHELLO: What dost thou think? IAGO: Think, my lord?"
Trickery of Giacomo:
1.6
“Had I this cheek
To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch,
Whose every touch, would force the feeler’s soul
To the oath of loyalty; this object, which
Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye,
Fixing it only here; should I, damn’d then,
Slaver with lips as common as the stairs
That mount the Capitol; join gripes with hands
Made hard with hourly falsehood–falsehood, as
With labour; then by-peeping in an eye
Base and unlustrous as the smoky light
That’s fed with stinking tallow; it were fit
That all the plagues of hell should at one time
Encounter such revolt.”
- speaks hypothetically but with highlight pointed application
Undercutting of Cloten:
2.1
“CLOTEN:
When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for
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.”
“crop the ears” - plays on the previous use of “curtail” which means to cut something short both literally and metaphorically
“to have smelt like a fool” - plays on the previous use of the word “rank”
Giacomo debasing Imogen through sexual language:
2.2
“Cytherea,
How bravely thou becomest thy bed, fresh lily,
And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch!
But kiss; one kiss! Rubies unparagon’d,
How dearly they do’t!”
Cytherea - Greek goddess Aphrodite - love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation
(NB: previously she was Diana and now she is cast as Aphrodite)
Filario as mediator: 2.4 "Sir, be patient: This is not strong enough to be believed Of one persuaded well of-- POSTHUMUS: Never talk on't; She hath been colted by him."
CF: “OTHELLO:
I’ll tear her all to pieces.
IAGO:
Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done;
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with strawberries in your wife’s hand?”
- once men are suspect they have been cuckolded then their thoughts spiral
Filario as mediator: 2.4 "Sir, be patient: This is not strong enough to be believed Of one persuaded well of-- POSTHUMUS: Never talk on't; She hath been colted by him."
CF: “OTHELLO:
I’ll tear her all to pieces.
IAGO:
Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done;
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with strawberries in your wife’s hand?”
- once men are suspect they have been cuckolded then their thoughts spiral
Posthumus’ half-crazed monologue:
2.5
“For there’s no motion
That tends to vice in man, but I affirm
It is the woman’s part: be it lying, note it,
The woman’s; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers;
Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers;
Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,
Nice longing, slanders, mutability,
All faults that may be named”
CF: Othello - Othello: “It is not words
that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips.
–Is’t possible?–Confess–handkerchief!–O devil!–
(Falls in a trance)”
Pathos of Imogen:
3.4
Imogen: “The lamb entreats the butcher”
4.2
Imogen:
“O!
Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood,
That we the horrider may seem to those
Which chance to find us: O, my lord, my lord!”
o
