Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
Act 5 - Scene 1
Britain. The Roman camp.
Posthumus Leonatus : Yea, bloody cloth, I'll keep thee, for I wish'd
[p]Thou shouldst be
colour'd thus. You married ones,
[p]If each of you should take this
course, how many
[p]Must murder wives much better than
themselves
[p]For wrying but a little! O Pisanio!
[p]Every good
servant does not all commands:
[p]No bond but to do just ones. Gods!
if you
[p]Should have ta'en vengeance on my faults, I never
[p]Had
lived to put on this: so had you saved
[p]The noble Imogen to repent,
and struck
[p]Me, wretch more worth your vengeance. But, alack,
[p]You
snatch some hence for little faults; that's love,
[p]To have them fall
no more: you some permit
[p]To second ills with ills, each elder
worse,
[p]And make them dread it, to the doers' thrift.
[p]But Imogen
is your own: do your best wills,
[p]And make me blest to obey! I am
brought hither
[p]Among the Italian gentry, and to fight
[p]Against my
lady's kingdom: 'tis enough
[p]That, Britain, I have kill'd thy
mistress; peace!
[p]I'll give no wound to thee. Therefore, good
heavens,
[p]Hear patiently my purpose: I'll disrobe me
[p]Of these
Italian weeds and suit myself
[p]As does a Briton peasant: so I'll
fight
[p]Against the part I come with; so I'll die
[p]For thee, O
Imogen, even for whom my life
[p]Is every breath a death; and thus,
unknown,
[p]Pitied nor hated, to the face of peril
[p]Myself I'll
dedicate. Let me make men know
[p]More valour in me than my habits
show.
[p]Gods, put the strength o' the Leonati in me!
[p]To shame the
guise o' the world, I will begin
[p]The fashion, less without and more
within.
Previous: Act 4 - Scene 4
Next: Act 5 - Scene 2
