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Cymbeline - Act 5, scene 1
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Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015
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Cymbeline - Act 5, scene 1Act 5, scene 1
Scene 1
Synopsis:
Posthumus, in Britain as part of the Roman army, repents Imogen’s (reported) murder and decides to seek death by joining the British army in the disguise of a poor soldier.
Enter Posthumus alone, ⌜wearing Roman garments andcarrying a bloody cloth.⌝
POSTHUMUS
2837 Yea, bloody cloth, I’ll keep thee, for I wished
2838 Thou shouldst be colored thus. You married ones,
2839 If each of you should take this course, how many
2840 Must murder wives much better than themselves
2841 5 For wrying but a little! O Pisanio,
2842 Every good servant does not all commands;
2843 No bond but to do just ones. Gods, if you
2844 Should have ta’en vengeance on my faults, I never
2845 Had lived to put on this; so had you saved
2846 10 The noble Imogen to repent, and struck
2847 Me, wretch more worth your vengeance. But, alack,
2848 You snatch some hence for little faults; that’s love,
2849 To have them fall no more; you some permit
2850 To second ills with ills, each elder worse,
2851 15 And make them dread it, to the doers’ thrift.
2852 But Imogen is your own. Do your best wills,
2853 And make me blest to obey. I am brought hither
2854 Among th’ Italian gentry, and to fight
2855 Against my lady’s kingdom. ’Tis enough
2856 20 That, Britain, I have killed thy mistress. Peace,
2857 I’ll give no wound to thee. Therefore, good heavens,
p.
203
2858
Hear patiently my purpose. I’ll disrobe me2859 Of these Italian weeds and suit myself
2860 As does a Briton peasant. So I’ll fight
2861 25 Against the part I come with; so I’ll die
2862 For thee, O Imogen, even for whom my life
2863 Is every breath a death. And thus, unknown,
2864 Pitied nor hated, to the face of peril
2865 Myself I’ll dedicate. Let me make men know
2866 30 More valor in me than my habits show.
2867 Gods, put the strength o’ th’ Leonati in me.
2868 To shame the guise o’ th’ world, I will begin
2869 The fashion: less without and more within.
He exits.