| ACT II 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 | 5 |
| | 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 | 10 |
| | 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! | 15 |
| 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 | 20 |
| | 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. | 25 |
| 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? | 30 |
| CLOTEN | A stranger, and I not know on't! | |
| Second Lord | Aside He's a strange fellow himself, and knows it not. | |
| | not. | |
| First Lord | There's an Italian come; and, 'tis thought, one of | |
| | Leonatus' friends. | |
| CLOTEN | Leonatus! a banished rascal; and he's another, | 35 |
| | 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. | 40 |
| 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. | 45 |
| | 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, | 50 |
| | 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 | 55 |
| | 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 | |
