Cymbeline
Act I, Scene 2
Britain. A public place.
Costume design from the Viola Allen production of Cymbeline, possibly for British Lord
Tom Heslewood, 1906
- Enter Cloten and two Lords.
First Lord
1 - 4- Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt; the violence of
- action hath made you reek as a sacrifice. Where air comes
- out, air comes in; there’s none abroad so wholesome as that
- you vent.
Cloten
5- If my shirt were bloody, then to shift it. Have I hurt him?
Second Lord
6- Aside.
- No, faith; not so much as his patience.
First Lord
7 - 8- Hurt him? His body’s a passable carcass, if he be not hurt;
- it is a throughfare for steel, if it be not hurt.
Second Lord
9- Aside.
- His steel was in debt, it went o’ th’ backside the town.
Cloten
10- The villain would not stand me.
Second Lord
11- Aside.
- No, but he fled forward still, toward your face.
First Lord
12 - 13- Stand you? You have land enough of your own, but he added to
- your having, gave you some ground.
Second Lord
14- Aside.
- As many inches as you have oceans. Puppies!
Cloten
15- I would they had not come between us.
Second Lord
16 - 17- Aside.
- So would I, till you had measur’d how long a fool you were
- upon the ground.
Cloten
18- And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me!
Second Lord
19- Aside.
- If it be a sin to make a true election, she is damn’d.
First Lord
20 - 22- Sir, as I told you always; her beauty and her brain go not
- together. She’s a good sign, but I have seen small
- reflection of her wit.
Second Lord
23 - 24- Aside.
- She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection should hurt
- her.
Cloten
25 - 26- Come, I’ll to my chamber. Would there had been some hurt
- done!
Second Lord
27 - 28- Aside.
- I wish not so, unless it had been the fall of an ass, which
- is no great hurt.
Cloten
29- You’ll go with us?
First Lord
30- I’ll attend your lordship.
Cloten
31- Nay, come, let’s go together.
Second Lord
32- Well, my lord.
- Exeunt.
Dramatis Personae from Harper & Brothers edition of Cymbeline
W. J. Rolfe, 1898