QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
(…) These flowers are like the pleasures of the world;
This bloody man, the care on’t. I hope I dream;
For so I thought I was a cave-keeper,
And cook to honest creatures: but ’tis not so;
‘Twas but a bolt of nothing, shot at nothing,
Which the brain makes of fumes: our very eyes
Are sometimes like our judgments, blind. Good faith,
I tremble stiff with fear: but if there be
Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity
As a wren’s eye, fear’d gods, a part of it!
The dream’s here still: even when I wake, it is
Without me, as within me; not imagined, felt.
A headless man! The garments of Posthumus!
I know the shape of’s leg: this is his hand;
His foot Mercurial; his Martial thigh;
The brawns of Hercules: but his Jovial face
Murder in heaven?—How!—’Tis gone. Pisanio,
All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks,
And mine to boot, be darted on thee! Thou,
Conspired with that irregulous devil, Cloten,
Hast here cut off my lord. To write and read
Be henceforth treacherous! Damn’d Pisanio
Hath with his forged letters,—damn’d Pisanio—
From this most bravest vessel of the world
Struck the main-top! O Posthumus! alas,
Where is thy head? where’s that? Ay me! where’s that? (…)

DUTCH:
Gij, met dien bandeloozen duivel Cloten,
Gij hebt mijn gá vermoord! O, lezen, schrijven,
Zij voortaan hoogverraad! — Pisanio, bloedhond! —
Gij hebt met valschen brief,

MORE:
A fume=A vapour, a delusion, phantasm, anything hindering the function of the brain, like a mist
Madded=Made mad (with revenge)
To boot=As well
Irregulous=Lawless
Main-top=Top of the mast
Compleat:
The glory of mortals is but a fume=De eerre der stervelingen is maar rook
To be in a fume=In een woede zyn

Topics: pity, imagination, madness, evidence