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Cymbeline: Act I, Scene 6

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Cymbeline
Act I, Scene 6

Britain. Another room in Cymbeline’s palace.

Julia Arthur as Imogen

Julia Arthur as Imogen

Lizzie Caswall Smith, Virtue & Co., circa 1900

  1. Enter Imogen alone.

Imogen

1 - 9
  1. A father cruel, and a step-dame false,
  2. A foolish suitor to a wedded lady
  3. That hath her husband banish’d. O, that husband!
  4. My supreme crown of grief, and those repeated
  5. Vexations of it! Had I been thief-stol’n,
  6. As my two brothers, happy! But most miserable
  7. Is the desire that’s glorious. Blessed be those,
  8. How mean soe’er, that have their honest wills,
  9. Which seasons comfort. Who may this be? Fie!
  1. Enter Pisanio and Jachimo.

Pisanio

10 - 11
  1. Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome,
  2. Comes from my lord with letters.

Jachimo

12 - 14
  1.                                  Change you, madam:
  2. The worthy Leonatus is in safety
  3. And greets your Highness dearly.
  1. Presents a letter.

Imogen

15 - 16
  1.                                  Thanks, good sir,
  2. You’re kindly welcome.

Jachimo

17 - 23
  1. Aside.
  2. All of her that is out of door most rich!
  3. If she be furnish’d with a mind so rare,
  4. She is alone th’ Arabian bird, and I
  5. Have lost the wager. Boldness be my friend;
  6. Arm me audacity from head to foot,
  7. Or like the Parthian I shall flying fight—
  8. Rather, directly fly.

Imogen

24 - 31
  1. Reads.
  2. “He is one of the noblest note, to whose kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon him accordingly, as you value your trust—
  3. Leonatus.”
  4. So far I read aloud—
  5. But even the very middle of my heart
  6. Is warm’d by th’ rest—and take it thankfully.
  7. You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I
  8. Have words to bid you, and shall find it so
  9. In all that I can do.

Jachimo

32 - 39
  1.                       Thanks, fairest lady.
  2. What, are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes
  3. To see this vaulted arch and the rich crop
  4. Of sea and land, which can distinguish ’twixt
  5. The fiery orbs above, and the twinn’d stones
  6. Upon the number’d beach, and can we not
  7. Partition make with spectacles so precious
  8. ’Twixt fair and foul?

Imogen

40
  1.                       What makes your admiration?

Jachimo

41 - 48
  1. It cannot be i’ th’ eye: for apes and monkeys
  2. ’Twixt two such shes would chatter this way, and
  3. Contemn with mows the other; nor i’ th’ judgment:
  4. For idiots in this case of favor would
  5. Be wisely definite; nor i’ th’ appetite:
  6. Sluttery, to such neat excellence oppos’d,
  7. Should make desire vomit emptiness,
  8. Not so allur’d to feed.

Imogen

49
  1. What is the matter, trow?

Jachimo

50 - 53
  1.                           The cloyed will—
  2. That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub
  3. Both fill’d and running—ravening first the lamb,
  4. Longs after for the garbage.

Imogen

54 - 55
  1.                              What, dear sir,
  2. Thus raps you? Are you well?

Jachimo

56 - 59
  1. Thanks, madam, well.
  2. To Pisanio.
  3.                      Beseech you, sir,
  4. Desire my man’s abode where I did leave him:
  5. He’s strange and peevish.

Pisanio

60 - 61
  1.                           I was going, sir,
  2. To give him welcome.
  1. Exit.
Imogen

What makes your admiration?

Imogen

J. Smith, late 19th century

Imogen

62
  1. Continues well my lord? His health, beseech you?

Jachimo

63
  1. Well, madam.

Imogen

64
  1. Is he dispos’d to mirth? I hope he is.

Jachimo

65 - 67
  1. Exceeding pleasant; none a stranger there
  2. So merry and so gamesome. He is call’d
  3. The Britain reveller.

Imogen

68 - 70
  1.                       When he was here,
  2. He did incline to sadness, and oft-times
  3. Not knowing why.

Jachimo

71 - 81
  1.                  I never saw him sad.
  2. There is a Frenchman his companion, one
  3. An eminent monsieur that it seems much loves
  4. A Gallian girl at home. He furnaces
  5. The thick sighs from him, whiles the jolly Britain
  6. (Your lord, I mean) laughs from ’s free lungs; cries “O,
  7. Can my sides hold, to think that man, who knows
  8. By history, report, or his own proof,
  9. What woman is, yea, what she cannot choose
  10. But must be, will ’s free hours languish for
  11. Assured bondage?”

Imogen

82
  1.                   Will my lord say so?

Jachimo

83 - 86
  1. Ay, madam, with his eyes in flood with laughter.
  2. It is a recreation to be by
  3. And hear him mock the Frenchman. But heavens know
  4. Some men are much to blame.

Imogen

87
  1.                             Not he, I hope.

Jachimo

88 - 92
  1. Not he; but yet heaven’s bounty towards him might
  2. Be us’d more thankfully. In himself, ’tis much;
  3. In you, which I account his, beyond all talents.
  4. Whilst I am bound to wonder, I am bound
  5. To pity too.

Imogen

93
  1.              What do you pity, sir?

Jachimo

94
  1. Two creatures heartily.

Imogen

95 - 97
  1.                         Am I one, sir?
  2. You look on me; what wrack discern you in me
  3. Deserves your pity?

Jachimo

98 - 100
  1.                     Lamentable! What,
  2. To hide me from the radiant sun, and solace
  3. I’ th’ dungeon by a snuff!

Imogen

101 - 103
  1.                            I pray you, sir,
  2. Deliver with more openness your answers
  3. To my demands. Why do you pity me?

Jachimo

104 - 107
  1. That others do
  2. (I was about to say) enjoy your—But
  3. It is an office of the gods to venge it,
  4. Not mine to speak on’t.

Imogen

108 - 114
  1.                         You do seem to know
  2. Something of me, or what concerns me: pray you—
  3. Since doubting things go ill often hurts more
  4. Than to be sure they do; for certainties
  5. Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing,
  6. The remedy then born—discover to me
  7. What both you spur and stop.

Jachimo

115 - 128
  1.                              Had I this cheek
  2. To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch
  3. (Whose every touch) would force the feeler’s soul
  4. To th’ oath of loyalty; this object, which
  5. Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye,
  6. Firing it only here; should I (damn’d then)
  7. Slaver with lips as common as the stairs
  8. That mount the Capitol; join gripes with hands
  9. Made hard with hourly falsehood (falsehood, as
  10. With labor); then by-peeping in an eye
  11. Base and illustrious as the smoky light
  12. That’s fed with stinking tallow: it were fit
  13. That all the plagues of hell should at one time
  14. Encounter such revolt.
Imogen

Imogen

From costume illustrations for the Daly production of Cymbeline

Walford Graham Robertson, circa 1900

Imogen

129 - 130
  1.                        My lord, I fear,
  2. Has forgot Britain.

Jachimo

131 - 135
  1.                     And himself. Not I
  2. Inclin’d to this intelligence pronounce
  3. The beggary of his change; but ’tis your graces
  4. That from my mutest conscience to my tongue
  5. Charms this report out.

Imogen

136
  1.                         Let me hear no more.

Jachimo

137 - 147
  1. O dearest soul! Your cause doth strike my heart
  2. With pity that doth make me sick. A lady
  3. So fair, and fasten’d to an empery
  4. Would make the great’st king double—to be partner’d
  5. With tomboys hir’d with that self exhibition
  6. Which your own coffers yield; with diseas’d ventures
  7. That play with all infirmities for gold
  8. Which rottenness can lend nature; such boil’d stuff
  9. As well might poison poison. Be reveng’d,
  10. Or she that bore you was no queen, and you
  11. Recoil from your great stock.

Imogen

148 - 152
  1.                               Reveng’d?
  2. How should I be reveng’d? If this be true
  3. (As I have such a heart that both mine ears
  4. Must not in haste abuse), if it be true,
  5. How should I be reveng’d?

Jachimo

153 - 160
  1.                           Should he make me
  2. Live, like Diana’s priest, betwixt cold sheets,
  3. Whiles he is vaulting variable ramps,
  4. In your despite, upon your purse—revenge it.
  5. I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure,
  6. More noble than that runagate to your bed,
  7. And will continue fast to your affection,
  8. Still close as sure.

Imogen

161
  1.                      What ho, Pisanio!

Jachimo

162
  1. Let me my service tender on your lips.

Imogen

163 - 177
  1. Away, I do condemn mine ears that have
  2. So long attended thee. If thou wert honorable,
  3. Thou wouldst have told this tale for virtue, not
  4. For such an end thou seek’st—as base as strange.
  5. Thou wrong’st a gentleman, who is as far
  6. From thy report as thou from honor, and
  7. Solicits here a lady that disdains
  8. Thee and the devil alike. What ho, Pisanio!
  9. The King my father shall be made acquainted
  10. Of thy assault. If he shall think it fit
  11. A saucy stranger in his court to mart
    Dec 22, 2020 Miko
    Today the word “saucy” is a light-hearted word meaning “naughty”. In Shakespeare's day, however, it was a serious accusation of lasciviousness.
  12. As in a Romish stew, and to expound
  13. His beastly mind to us, he hath a court
  14. He little cares for and a daughter who
  15. He not respects at all. What ho, Pisanio!

Jachimo

178 - 190
  1. O happy Leonatus! I may say,
  2. The credit that thy lady hath of thee
  3. Deserves thy trust, and thy most perfect goodness
  4. Her assur’d credit. Blessed live you long,
  5. A lady to the worthiest sir that ever
  6. Country call’d his; and you his mistress, only
  7. For the most worthiest fit. Give me your pardon.
  8. I have spoke this to know if your affiance
  9. Were deeply rooted, and shall make your lord,
  10. That which he is, new o’er; and he is one
  11. The truest manner’d, such a holy witch
  12. That he enchants societies into him;
  13. Half all men’s hearts are his.
Viola Allen as Imogen

Viola Allen as Imogen

1906

Imogen

191
  1.                                You make amends.

Jachimo

192 - 201
  1. He sits ’mongst men like a descended god;
  2. He hath a kind of honor sets him off,
  3. More than a mortal seeming. Be not angry,
  4. Most mighty Princess, that I have adventur’d
  5. To try your taking of a false report, which hath
  6. Honor’d with confirmation your great judgment
  7. In the election of a sir so rare,
  8. Which you know cannot err. The love I bear him
  9. Made me to fan you thus, but the gods made you
  10. (Unlike all others) chaffless. Pray your pardon.

Imogen

202
  1. All’s well, sir. Take my pow’r i’ th’ court for yours.

Jachimo

203 - 207
  1. My humble thanks. I had almost forgot
  2. T’ entreat your Grace but in a small request,
  3. And yet of moment too, for it concerns:
  4. Your lord, myself, and other noble friends
  5. Are partners in the business.

Imogen

208
  1.                               Pray, what is’t?

Jachimo

209 - 217
  1. Some dozen Romans of us and your lord
  2. (The best feather of our wing) have mingled sums
  3. To buy a present for the Emperor;
  4. Which I (the factor for the rest) have done
  5. In France. ’Tis plate of rare device, and jewels
  6. Of rich and exquisite form, their values great,
  7. And I am something curious, being strange,
  8. To have them in safe stowage. May it please you
  9. To take them in protection?

Imogen

218 - 221
  1.                             Willingly;
  2. And pawn mine honor for their safety. Since
  3. My lord hath interest in them, I will keep them
  4. In my bedchamber.

Jachimo

222 - 225
  1.                   They are in a trunk,
  2. Attended by my men. I will make bold
  3. To send them to you, only for this night;
  4. I must aboard tomorrow.

Imogen

226
  1.                         O no, no.

Jachimo

227 - 230
  1. Yes, I beseech; or I shall short my word
  2. By length’ning my return. From Gallia
  3. I cross’d the seas on purpose and on promise
  4. To see your Grace.

Imogen

231 - 232
  1.                    I thank you for your pains:
  2. But not away tomorrow!

Jachimo

233 - 237
  1.                        O, I must, madam.
  2. Therefore I shall beseech you, if you please
  3. To greet your lord with writing, do’t tonight.
  4. I have outstood my time, which is material
  5. To th’ tender of our present.

Imogen

238 - 240
  1.                               I will write.
  2. Send your trunk to me, it shall safe be kept,
  3. And truly yielded you. You’re very welcome.
  1. Exeunt.
H. A. Saintsbury as Jachimo

H. A. Saintsbury as Jachimo

Percy Guttenberg, circa 1906

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