Cymbeline

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.

Fear no more the heat o' the sun
Nor 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.

Act I

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

• His fortunes all lie speechless, and his name
  Is 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 sense
  Repairs itself by rest.
  • Iachimo, scene ii

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

• 'Tis her breathing that
  Perfumes 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

• O, for a horse with wings!
  • Imogen, scene ii

• Often, to our comfort, shall we find
  The 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 cage
  We 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, but
  A strain of rareness.
  • Imogen, scene iv

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

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

• Weariness
  Can 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 put
  My 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 sun
  Nor 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 hereafter
  But 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