Cymbeline

William Shakespeare

• Éditeur: Dover Publications
• Année: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780486790121
• Sujet: Literature
• Sous-sujet: Shakespeare Drama

The secret marriage of a king's daughter sets off a chain reaction of slander, jealousy, and divine intervention in this fairy tale-like romance. Shakespeare based his play on myths of an early Celtic king of Britain, incorporating historical elements from classical Rome and Renaissance Italy. With a cast that includes an evil stepmother, scheming suitor, and devoted lovers, the drama is heightened by duels, kidnappings, and disguised identities.
Cymbeline offers captivating storytelling that's crowned by the beauty of its language. Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, and countless others have quoted Act IV's funeral song: `Fear no more the heat o' th' sun/Nor the furious winter's rages;/Thou thy worldly task hast done,/Home art gone and ta'en thy wages.` A moving story of loss and recovery, Shakespeare's drama promises that a leap of faith can lead to miracles.

ACT V.

SCENE I. Britain. The Roman Camp.

Enter POSTHUMUS, with a bloody handkerchief

POSTHUMUS. Yea, bloody cloth, I ’ll keep thee; for I wish’d

Thou shouldst be colour’d thus.

You married ones,

If each of you should take this course, how many

Must murder wives much better than themselves

For wrying but a little! O Pisanio! 6

Every good servant does not all commands:

No bond but to do just ones. Gods! if you

Should have ta’en vengeance on my faults, I never

Had lived to put on this: so had you saved 10

The noble Imogen to repent, and struck

Me, wretch more worth your vengeance. But, alack,

You snatch some hence for little faults; that ’s love,

To have them fall no more: you some permit

To second ills with ills, each elder worse, 15

And make them dread it, to the doers’ thrift. 16

But Imogen is your own: do your best wills,

And make me blest to obey! I am brought hither

Among the Italian gentry, and to fight

Against my lady’s kingdom: ’t is enough 20

That, Britain, I have kill’d thy mistress; peace!

I ’ll give no wound to thee. Therefore, good heavens,

Hear patiently my purpose: I ’ll disrobe me

Of these Italian weeds, and suit myself

As does a Briton peasant: so I ’ll fight

Against the part I come with; so I ’ll die

For thee, O Imogen, even for whom my life

Is, every breath, a death: and thus, unknown,

Pitied nor hated, to the face of peril

Myself I ’ll dedicate. Let me make men know 30

More valour in me than my habits show.

Gods, put the strength o’ the Leonati in me!

To shame the guise o’ the world, I will begin 33–34

The fashion, less without and more within. [Exit.

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6 wrying] going awry, swerving.

15 each elder worse] each later crime worse than its forerunner.

16 to the doers’ thrift] The meaning seems to be that the sense of dread of their crimes, which the evil-doers experience, is to their ultimate advantage.

SCENE II. Field of Battle Between the British and Roman Camps.

Enter, from one side, LUCIUS, IACHIMO, IMOGEN, and the Roman Army; from the other side, the British Army; LEONATUS POSTHUMUS following, like a poor soldier. They march over and go out. Then enter again, in skirmish, IACHIMO and POSTHUMUS: he vanquisheth and disarmeth IACHIMO, and then leaves him

IACH. The heaviness and guilt within my bosom

Takes off my manhood: I have belied a lady,

The princess of this country, and the air on ’t

Revengingly enfeebles me; or could this carl, 4

A very drudge of nature’s, have subdued me

In my profession? Knighthoods and honours, borne

As I wear mine, are titles but of scorn.

If that thy gentry, Britain, go before

This lout as he exceeds our lords, the odds

Is that we scarce are men and you are gods. [Exit. 10

The battle continues; the Britons fly; CYMBELINE is taken: then enter, to his rescue, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS

BEL. Stand, stand! We have the advantage of the ground;

The lane is guarded: nothing routs us but

The villany of our fears.

Re-enter POSTHUMUS, and seconds the Britons: they rescue CYMBELINE and exeunt. Then re-enter LUCIUS, IACHIMO, a...