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PinkMonkey.com-MonkeyNotes-Cymbeline, by William Shakespeare


PinkMonkey® Quotations on . . .

Cymbeline

By William Shakespeare QUOTATION: Great griefs, I see, medicine the less.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Belarius, in Cymbeline, act 4, sc. 2, l. 243.

Alluding to the proverb, a greater sorrow (for the supposed death of Imogen) drives out a lesser one (for the death of Cloten).

QUOTATION: O thou goddess,
Thou divine Nature, thou thyself thou blazon’st
In these two princely boys!
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Belarius, in Cymbeline, act 4, sc. 2, l. 169-71.

Speaking of Guiderius and Arviragus, whom Belarius knows to be the king’s sons; to “blazon” is to display, like a coat of arms.

QUOTATION: O, this life
Is nobler than attending for a check;
Richer than doing nothing for a bauble;
Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Belarius, in Cymbeline, act 3, sc. 3, l. 21-4.

Contrasting a simple country life with life at the king’s court; “attending for a check” means doing service only for a rebuke.

QUOTATION: How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature!
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Belarius, in Cymbeline, act 3, sc. 3, l. 79.

Seeing the innate nobility of the king’s sons, living with him in exile.

QUOTATION: There cannot be a pinch in death
More sharp than this is.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 1, sc. 1, l. 130-1.

On the banishment of Posthumus, her husband.

QUOTATION: O the gods!
When shall we see again?
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 1, sc. 1, l. 123-4.

To Posthumus, her husband, as they are about to be parted; “see” means see one another, meet.

QUOTATION: O
Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant
Can tickle where she wounds!
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 1, sc. 1, l. 83-5.

On her stepmother, the Queen, pretending to care for her.

QUOTATION: Against self-slaughter
There is a prohibition so divine
That cravens my weak hand.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 3, sc. 4, l. 76-8.

Alluding to the Christian injunction against suicide

QUOTATION: Look,
I draw the sword myself; take it, and hit
The innocent mansion of my love, my heart.
Fear not, ‘tis empty of all things but grief.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 3, sc. 4, l. 66-9.

She draws Pisanio’s sword, on learning he has been ordered by Posthumus to murder her.

QUOTATION: I see a man’s life is a tedious one.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 3, sc. 6, l. 1.

She is tired with traveling on foot disguised as a youth.

QUOTATION: Hath Britain all the sun that shines? day? night?
Are they not but in Britain?
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 3, sc. 4, l. 136-7.

Alluding to the proverb, “The sun shines on all alike.”

QUOTATION: O, for a horse with wings!
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 3, sc. 2, l. 48.

Imogen learns that her husband Posthumus is at Milford-Haven.

QUOTATION: I care not for you,
And am so near the lack of charity
To accuse myself I hate you; which I had rather
You felt than make’t my boast.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 2, sc. 3, l. 108-11.

To the stupid Cloten, whom she detests.

QUOTATION: Doubting things go ill often hurts more
Than to be sure they do; for certainties
Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing,
The remedy then born.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 1, sc. 6, l. 95-8.

To Jachimo, who has hinted that all is not well with her; “Doubting” means suspecting; “timely knowing” means knowing in time.

QUOTATION: I am ill, but your being by me
Cannot amend me; society is no comfort
To one not sociable. I am not very sick,
Since I can reason of it.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 4, sc. 2, l. 11-14.

QUOTATION: Thou wrong’st a gentleman, who is as far
From thy report as thou from honor, and
Solicits here a lady that disdains
Thee and the devil alike.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 1, sc. 6, l. 145-8.

Rejecting Jachimo’s account of Posthumus’s unfaithfulness.

QUOTATION: Ere I could
Give him that parting kiss which I had set
Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father,
And like the tyrannous breathing of the north
Shakes all our buds from growing.

QUOTATION: I would have broke mine eye-strings, cracked them, but
To look upon him, till the diminution
Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle;
Nay, followed him till he had melted from
The smallness of a gnat to air, and then
Have turned mine eye and wept.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Imogen, in Cymbeline, act 1, sc. 3, l. 17-22.

To Pisanio, who watched her husband, Posthumus, sail away.

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