Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 1
Britain. Before Cymbeline’s palace.
Cloten : Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the
[p]jack, upon an
up-cast to be hit away! I had a
[p]hundred pound on't: and then a
whoreson jackanapes
[p]must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed
mine
[p]oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure.
First Lord : What got he by that? You have broke his pate with
[p]your bowl.
Second Lord : [Aside] If his wit had been like him that broke it,
[p]it would have
run all out.
Cloten : When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for
[p]any
standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha?
Second Lord : No my lord;
[p][Aside]
[p]nor crop the ears of them.
Cloten : Whoreson dog! I give him satisfaction?
[p]Would he had been one of my
rank!
Second Lord : [Aside] To have smelt like a fool.
Cloten : I am not vexed more at any thing in the earth: a
[p]pox on't! I had
rather not be so noble as I am;
[p]they dare not fight with me,
because of the queen my
[p]mother: every Jack-slave hath his bellyful
of
[p]fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock that
[p]nobody
can match.
Second Lord : [Aside] You are cock and capon too; and you crow,
[p]cock, with your
comb on.
Cloten : Sayest thou?
Second Lord : It is not fit your lordship should undertake every
[p]companion that
you give offence to.
Cloten : No, I know that: but it is fit I should commit
[p]offence to my
inferiors.
Second Lord : Ay, it is fit for your lordship only.
Cloten : Why, so I say.
First Lord : Did you hear of a stranger that's come to court to-night?
Cloten : A stranger, and I not know on't!
Second Lord : [Aside] He's a strange fellow himself, and knows it
[p]not.
First Lord : There's an Italian come; and, 'tis thought, one of
[p]Leonatus'
friends.
Cloten : Leonatus! a banished rascal; and he's another,
[p]whatsoever he be.
Who told you of this stranger?
First Lord : One of your lordship's pages.
Cloten : Is it fit I went to look upon him? is there no
[p]derogation in't?
Second Lord : You cannot derogate, my lord.
Cloten : Not easily, I think.
Second Lord : [Aside] You are a fool granted; therefore your
[p]issues, being
foolish, do not derogate.
Cloten : Come, I'll go see this Italian: what I have lost
[p]to-day at bowls
I'll win to-night of him. Come, go.
Second Lord : I'll attend your lordship.
[p][Exeunt CLOTEN and First Lord]
[p]That
such a crafty devil as is his mother
[p]Should yield the world this
ass! a woman that
[p]Bears all down with her brain; and this her
son
[p]Cannot take two from twenty, for his heart,
[p]And leave
eighteen. Alas, poor princess,
[p]Thou divine Imogen, what thou
endurest,
[p]Betwixt a father by thy step-dame govern'd,
[p]A mother
hourly coining plots, a wooer
[p]More hateful than the foul expulsion
is
[p]Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act
[p]Of the divorce
he'ld make! The heavens hold firm
[p]The walls of thy dear honour,
keep unshaked
[p]That temple, thy fair mind, that thou mayst
stand,
[p]To enjoy thy banish'd lord and this great land!
Previous: Act 1 - Scene 6
Next: Act 2 - Scene 2
