SCENE I. Britain. Before Cymbeline's palace. Cymbeline  Shakespeare homepage  |  Cymbeline  | Act 2, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE I. Britain. Before Cymbeline's palace. 

 Enter CLOTEN and two Lords  CLOTEN  Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the 

 jack, upon an up-cast to be hit away! I had a 

 hundred pound on't: and then a whoreson jackanapes 

 must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine 

 oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure. 

 First Lord  What got he by that? You have broke his pate with 

 your bowl. 

 Second Lord  [Aside]  If his wit had been like him that broke it, 

 it would have run all out. 

 CLOTEN  When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for 

 any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha? 

 Second Lord  No my lord; 



 Aside  nor crop the ears of them. 

 CLOTEN  Whoreson dog! I give him satisfaction? 

 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 

 pox on't! I had rather not be so noble as I am; 

 they dare not fight with me, because of the queen my 

 mother: every Jack-slave hath his bellyful of 

 fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock that 

 nobody can match. 

 Second Lord  [Aside]  You are cock and capon too; and you crow, 

 cock, with your comb on. 

 CLOTEN  Sayest thou? 

 Second Lord  It is not fit your lordship should undertake every 

 companion that you give offence to. 

 CLOTEN  No, I know that: but it is fit I should commit 

 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 

 not. 

 First Lord  There's an Italian come; and, 'tis thought, one of 

 Leonatus' friends. 

 CLOTEN  Leonatus! a banished rascal; and he's another, 

 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 

 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 

 issues, being foolish, do not derogate. 

 CLOTEN  Come, I'll go see this Italian: what I have lost 

 to-day at bowls I'll win to-night of him. Come, go. 

 Second Lord  I'll attend your lordship. 



 Exeunt CLOTEN and First Lord  That such a crafty devil as is his mother 

 Should yield the world this ass! a woman that 

 Bears all down with her brain; and this her son 

 Cannot take two from twenty, for his heart, 

 And leave eighteen. Alas, poor princess, 

 Thou divine Imogen, what thou endurest, 

 Betwixt a father by thy step-dame govern'd, 

 A mother hourly coining plots, a wooer 

 More hateful than the foul expulsion is 

 Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act 

 Of the divorce he'ld make! The heavens hold firm 

 The walls of thy dear honour, keep unshaked 

 That temple, thy fair mind, that thou mayst stand, 

 To enjoy thy banish'd lord and this great land! 



 Exit  Shakespeare homepage  |  Cymbeline  | Act 2, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene 