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Cymbeline: Act III, Scene 5

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Cymbeline
Act III, Scene 5

Britain. A room in Cymbeline’s palace.

The Queen

The Queen

Costume design for the Daly production of Cymbeline

Walford Graham Robertson, circa 1900

  1. Enter Cymbeline attended, Queen, Cloten, Lucius, and Lords.

Cymbeline

1
  1. Thus far, and so farewell.

Caius Lucius

2 - 5
  1.                            Thanks, royal sir.
  2. My emperor hath wrote I must from hence,
  3. And am right sorry that I must report ye
  4. My master’s enemy.

Cymbeline

6 - 9
  1.                    Our subjects, sir,
  2. Will not endure his yoke; and for ourself
  3. To show less sovereignty than they, must needs
  4. Appear unkinglike.

Caius Lucius

10 - 12
  1.                    So, sir. I desire of you
  2. A conduct overland to Milford-Haven.
  3. Madam, all joy befall your Grace, and you!

Cymbeline

13 - 15
  1. My lords, you are appointed for that office;
  2. The due of honor in no point omit.
  3. So farewell, noble Lucius.

Caius Lucius

16
  1.                            Your hand, my lord.

Cloten

17 - 18
  1. Receive it friendly; but from this time forth
  2. I wear it as your enemy.

Caius Lucius

19 - 20
  1.                          Sir, the event
  2. Is yet to name the winner. Fare you well.

Cymbeline

21 - 22
  1. Leave not the worthy Lucius, good my lords,
  2. Till he have cross’d the Severn. Happiness!
  1. Exit Lucius with Lords.

Queen

23 - 24
  1. He goes hence frowning; but it honors us
  2. That we have given him cause.

Cloten

25 - 26
  1.                               ’Tis all the better,
  2. Your valiant Britains have their wishes in it.

Cymbeline

27 - 32
  1. Lucius hath wrote already to the Emperor
  2. How it goes here. It fits us therefore ripely
  3. Our chariots and our horsemen be in readiness.
  4. The pow’rs that he already hath in Gallia
  5. Will soon be drawn to head, from whence he moves
  6. His war for Britain.

Queen

33 - 34
  1.                      ’Tis not sleepy business,
  2. But must be look’d to speedily and strongly.

Cymbeline

35 - 42
  1. Our expectation that it would be thus
  2. Hath made us forward. But, my gentle queen,
  3. Where is our daughter? She hath not appear’d
  4. Before the Roman, nor to us hath tender’d
  5. The duty of the day. She looks us like
  6. A thing more made of malice than of duty,
  7. We have noted it. Call her before us, for
  8. We have been too slight in sufferance.
  1. Exit a Messenger.

Queen

43 - 49
  1.                                        Royal sir,
  2. Since the exile of Posthumus, most retir’d
  3. Hath her life been; the cure whereof, my lord,
  4. ’Tis time must do. Beseech your Majesty,
  5. Forbear sharp speeches to her. She’s a lady
  6. So tender of rebukes that words are strokes,
  7. And strokes death to her.
  1. Enter a Messenger.

Cymbeline

50 - 51
  1.                           Where is she, sir? How
  2. Can her contempt be answer’d?

Messenger

52 - 54
  1.                               Please you, sir,
  2. Her chambers are all lock’d, and there’s no answer
  3. That will be given to th’ loud of noise we make.

Queen

55 - 61
  1. My lord, when last I went to visit her,
  2. She pray’d me to excuse her keeping close,
  3. Whereto constrain’d by her infirmity,
  4. She should that duty leave unpaid to you
  5. Which daily she was bound to proffer. This
  6. She wish’d me to make known; but our great court
  7. Made me to blame in memory.

Cymbeline

62 - 64
  1.                             Her doors lock’d?
  2. Not seen of late? Grant, heavens, that which I fear
  3. Prove false!
  1. Exit.

Queen

65
  1. Son, I say, follow the King.
Costume design for unspecified character in the Viola Allen production of Cymbeline

From: Costume design for unspecified character in the Viola Allen production of Cymbeline

Tom Heslewood, circa 1906

Cloten

66 - 67
  1. That man of hers, Pisanio, her old servant,
  2. I have not seen these two days.

Queen

68 - 79
  1.                                 Go, look after.
  2. Exit Cloten.
  3. Pisanio, thou that stand’st so for Posthumus!
  4. He hath a drug of mine; I pray his absence
  5. Proceed by swallowing that; for he believes
  6. It is a thing most precious. But for her,
  7. Where is she gone? Haply despair hath seiz’d her;
  8. Or wing’d with fervor of her love, she’s flown
  9. To her desir’d Posthumus. Gone she is
  10. To death or to dishonor, and my end
  11. Can make good use of either. She being down,
  12. I have the placing of the British crown.
  13. Enter Cloten.
  14. How now, my son?

Cloten

80 - 82
  1.                  ’Tis certain she is fled.
  2. Go in and cheer the King, he rages, none
  3. Dare come about him.

Queen

83 - 84
  1. Aside.
  2.                      All the better. May
  3. This night forestall him of the coming day!
  1. Exit Queen.

Cloten

85 - 98
  1. I love and hate her; for she’s fair and royal,
  2. And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite
  3. Than lady, ladies, woman, from every one
  4. The best she hath, and she, of all compounded,
  5. Outsells them all. I love her therefore, but
  6. Disdaining me and throwing favors on
  7. The low Posthumus slanders so her judgment
  8. That what’s else rare is chok’d; and in that point
  9. I will conclude to hate her, nay indeed,
  10. To be reveng’d upon her. For when fools shall—
  11. Enter Pisanio.
  12. Who is here? What, are you packing, sirrah?
  13. Come hither. Ah, you precious pandar! Villain,
  14. Where is thy lady? In a word, or else
  15. Thou art straightway with the fiends.

Pisanio

99
  1.                                       O, good my lord!

Cloten

100 - 105
  1. Where is thy lady? Or, by Jupiter,
  2. I will not ask again. Close villain,
  3. I’ll have this secret from thy heart, or rip
  4. Thy heart to find it. Is she with Posthumus?
  5. From whose so many weights of baseness cannot
  6. A dram of worth be drawn.

Pisanio

106 - 108
  1.                           Alas, my lord,
  2. How can she be with him? When was she miss’d?
  3. He is in Rome.

Cloten

109 - 111
  1.                Where is she, sir? Come nearer.
  2. No farther halting. Satisfy me home,
  3. What is become of her?

Pisanio

112
  1. O, my all-worthy lord!

Cloten

113 - 117
  1.                        All-worthy villain!
  2. Discover where thy mistress is, at once,
  3. At the next word. No more of “worthy lord”!
  4. Speak, or thy silence on the instant is
  5. Thy condemnation and thy death.

Pisanio

118 - 120
  1.                                 Then, sir:
  2. This paper is the history of my knowledge
  3. Touching her flight.
  1. Presenting a letter.

Cloten

121 - 122
  1.                      Let’s see’t. I will pursue her
  2. Even to Augustus’ throne.

Pisanio

123 - 125
  1. Aside.
  2.                           Or this, or perish.
  3. She’s far enough, and what he learns by this
  4. May prove his travel, not her danger.

Cloten

126
  1.                                       Humh!

Pisanio

127 - 128
  1. Aside.
  2. I’ll write to my lord she’s dead. O Imogen,
  3. Safe mayst thou wander, safe return again!

Cloten

129
  1. Sirrah, is this letter true?

Pisanio

130
  1. Sir, as I think.

Cloten

131 - 137
  1. It is Posthumus’ hand, I know’t. Sirrah, if thou wouldst not
  2. be a villain, but do me true service, undergo those
  3. employments wherein I should have cause to use thee with a
  4. serious industry, that is, what villainy soe’er I bid thee
  5. do, to perform it directly and truly, I would think thee an
  6. honest man. Thou shouldst neither want my means for thy
  7. relief nor my voice for thy preferment.
Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Then, sir: this paper is the history of my knowledge touching her flight.

From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Charles Cowden Clarke, Mary Cowden Clarke, 1866

Pisanio

138
  1. Well, my good lord.

Cloten

139 - 142
  1. Wilt thou serve me? For since patiently and constantly thou
  2. hast stuck to the bare fortune of that beggar Posthumus,
  3. thou canst not, in the course of gratitude, but be a
  4. diligent follower of mine. Wilt thou serve me?

Pisanio

143
  1. Sir, I will.

Cloten

144 - 145
  1. Give me thy hand, here’s my purse. Hast any of thy late
  2. master’s garments in thy possession?

Pisanio

146 - 147
  1. I have, my lord, at my lodging, the same suit he wore when
  2. he took leave of my lady and mistress.

Cloten

148 - 149
  1. The first service thou dost me, fetch that suit hither. Let
  2. it be thy first service, go.

Pisanio

150
  1. I shall, my lord.
  1. Exit.

Cloten

151 - 166
  1. Meet thee at Milford-Haven! (I forgot to ask him one thing,
  2. I’ll remember’t anon.) Even there, thou villain Posthumus,
  3. will I kill thee. I would these garments were come. She said
  4. upon a time (the bitterness of it I now belch from my heart)
  5. that she held the very garment of Posthumus in more respect
  6. than my noble and natural person, together with the
  7. adornment of my qualities. With that suit upon my back will
  8. I ravish her; first kill him, and in her eyes; there shall
  9. she see my valor, which will then be a torment to her
  10. contempt. He on the ground, my speech of insultment ended on
  11. his dead body, and when my lust hath din’d (which, as I say,
  12. to vex her I will execute in the clothes that she so
  13. prais’d), to the court I’ll knock her back, foot her home
  14. again. She hath despis’d me rejoicingly, and I’ll be merry
  15. in my revenge.
  16. Enter Pisanio with the clothes.
  17. Be those the garments?

Pisanio

167
  1. Ay, my noble lord.

Cloten

168
  1. How long is’t since she went to Milford-Haven?

Pisanio

169
  1. She can scarce be there yet.

Cloten

170 - 174
  1. Bring this apparel to my chamber. That is the second thing
  2. that I have commanded thee. The third is, that thou wilt be
  3. a voluntary mute to my design. Be but duteous, and true
  4. preferment shall tender itself to thee. My revenge is now at
  5. Milford; would I had wings to follow it! Come, and be true.
  1. Exit.

Pisanio

175 - 180
  1. Thou bid’st me to my loss; for true to thee
  2. Were to prove false, which I will never be
  3. To him that is most true. To Milford go,
  4. And find not her whom thou pursuest. Flow, flow,
  5. You heavenly blessings, on her! This fool’s speed
  6. Be cross’d with slowness; labor be his meed.
  1. Exit.
Costume design for unspecified character in the Viola Allen production of Cymbeline

Costume design for unspecified character in the Viola Allen production of Cymbeline

Tom Heslewood, circa 1906

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