Cymbeline Study Guide

Cymbeline, a play of uncertain date by William Shakespeare, was produced as early as 1611. It has been described as a tragi-comedy or a romance and is set in pre-Roman Britain.

Act I

• Lest the bargain should catch cold and starve.
  • Iachimo, scene iv

• His fortunes all lie speechless, and his nameIs at last gasp.
  • Queen, scene v

• Boldness be my friend!Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!
  • Iachimo, scene vi

Act II

• Every Jack-slave hath his belly-full of fighting.
  • Cloten, scene i

• The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd senseRepairs itself by rest.
  • Iachimo, scene ii

• How bravely thou becom'st thy bed, fresh lily.
  • Iachimo, scene ii

• 'Tis her breathing thatPerfumes the chamber thus.
  • Iachimo, scene ii

• The most patient man in loss, the most coldest that ever turned up ace.
  • 1 Lord, scene iii

• Hark! hark! The lark at heaven's gate sings,And Phoebus 'gins arise,

  His steeds to water at those springs

  On chalic'd flowers that lies;

  And winking Mary-buds begin

  To ope their golden eyes;

  With everything that pretty is,

  My lady sweet, arise:

  Arise, arise.

  • Cloten, scene iii

• As chaste as unsunn'd snow.
  • Posthumus, scene v

Act III

• Some griefs are med'cinable.
  • Imogen, scene ii

• Often, to our comfort, shall we findThe sharded beetle in a safer hold

  Than is the full-wing'd eagle.

  • Belarius, scene iii

• Richer, than doing nothing for a bribe;Prouder, than rustling in unpaid-for silk.
  • Belarius, scene iii

• Our cageWe make a choir, as doth the prison'd bird

  And sing our bondage freely.

  • Arviragus, scene iii

• The art o' the court,As hard to leave as keep; whose top to climb

  Is certain falling, or so slippery that

  The fear’s as bad as falling.

  • Belarius, scene iii

• The game is up!
  • Belarius, scene iii

• 'Tis slander,Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue

  Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath

  Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie

  All corners of the world.

  • Pisanio, scene iv

• Some jay of Italy,Whose mother was her painting, hath betray’d him:

  Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion.

  • Imogen, scene iv

• It is no act of common passage, butA strain of rareness.
  • Imogen, scene iv

• I have not slept one wink.
  • Pisanio, scene iv

• Thou art all the comfortThe gods will diet me with.
  • Imogen, scene iv

• WearinessCan snore upon the flint, when resty sloth

  Finds the down pillow hard.

  • Belarius, scene vi

• By Jupiter, an angel! or, if not,An earthly paragon! Behold divineness

  No elder than a boy.

  • Belarius, scene vi

Act IV

• Triumphs for nothing, and lamenting toys,Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.
  • Guiderius, scene ii

• I thought he slept, and putMy clouted brogues from off my feet.
  • Arviragus, scene ii

• With fairest flowers,Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,

  I'll sweeten thy sad grave; thou shall not lack

  The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor

  The azur'd harebell, like thy veins.

  • Arviragus, scene ii

• Fear no more the heat o' the sunNor the furious winter's rages;

  Thou thy worldly task hast done,

  Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages:

  Golden lads and girls all must,

  As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

  • Guiderius, scene ii

Act V

• O, the charity of a penny cord! it sums up thousands in a trice.
  • 1 Gaoler, scene iv

• O, never say hereafterBut I am truest speaker: you call’d me brother

  When I was but your sister; I you, brothers,

  When you were so indeed.

  • Imogen, scene v