ARKCODEX
Act II, Scene 1
1Britain. Before Cymbeline’s palace.
2Enter Cloten and two Lords.
3ClotenWas 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.
4First LordWhat got he by that? You have broke his pate with your bowl.
5Second LordAside. If his wit had been like him that broke it, it would have run all out.
6ClotenWhen a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha?
7Second LordNo my lord; aside nor crop the ears of them.
8ClotenWhoreson dog! I give him satisfaction? Would he had been one of my rank!
9Second LordAside. To have smelt like a fool.
10ClotenI 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.
11Second LordAside. You are cock and capon too; and you crow, cock, with your comb on.
12ClotenSayest thou?
13Second LordIt is not fit your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offence to.
14ClotenNo, I know that: but it is fit I should commit offence to my inferiors.
15Second LordAy, it is fit for your lordship only.
16ClotenWhy, so I say.
17First LordDid you hear of a stranger that’s come to court to-night?
18ClotenA stranger, and I not know on’t!
19Second LordAside. He’s a strange fellow himself, and knows it not.
20First LordThere’s an Italian come; and, ’tis thought, one of Leonatus’ friends.
21ClotenLeonatus! a banished rascal; and he’s another, whatsoever he be. Who told you of this stranger?
22First LordOne of your lordship’s pages.
23ClotenIs it fit I went to look upon him? is there no derogation in’t?
24Second LordYou cannot derogate, my lord.
25ClotenNot easily, I think.
26Second LordAside. You are a fool granted; therefore your issues, being foolish, do not derogate.
27ClotenCome, I’ll go see this Italian: what I have lost to-day at bowls I’ll win to-night of him. Come, go.
28Second LordI’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.