Act 1 Flashcards
You do not meet a man but frowns
Every man you meet today is frowning
Our bloods no more obey the heavens than our courtiers still seem as does the King
Our dispositions are not influenced by the heavens any more than our courtiers are governed by the reactions of the king, although they imitate him
[his daughter ] hath referred herself unto
has bestowed herself to
[Although they wear their faces] to the bent
[of the king’s looks]
inclination/disposition
there would be something failing in him that should compare
there would be something lacking in him that was chosen to compare (with post Posthumus)
extend him… within himself
enlarge him only as far as his worth
I cannot delve him to the root
I can’t tell his ancestry entirely, delve = dig
who did join his honour
Against the Romans with Cassibelan,
who did give him fame against the Romans (i.e. fought against) with Cassibelan
Cassibelan= British King who was attacked by Julius Caesar 55-54BC & made tributary to Rome
- fond of issue + stylistic point
2. Gentleman: Sur-addition
- obsessed with (the loss of?) his children
n.b. •Posthumous’ mother was pregnant at the time that father committed suicide out of grief for deceased children
•Despairing of having more children or doting on his children- productive tension
- Additional name/title awarded for commendatory service
(and his gentle lady,) Big of (this gentleman our theme)
pregnant with
[The King] Breeds him
brings him up
[to the more mature] A glass that feated them
a mirror that showed them good behaviour
dotards
old men/fools
[I honour posthumus] even out of your report
on the grounds of your account
That a king’s children should be so conveyed [So slackly guarded, and the search so slow,
That could not trace them!]
so carried away/stolen
Queen: [you shall not find me] evil-eyed [unto you]
+ stylistic point
full of ill-will/malice
Draws attention to the evil stepmother trope; in doing so, shows the truth in cliché
Queen to Innogen: [Your gaoler shall deliver you the keys] that lock up your restraint
that put you under house arrest
Queen: [ ‘twere good you] leaned unto his sentence [with what patience/Your wisdom may inform you.]
deferred to his sentence (of banishment)
Queen: I’ll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying
The pangs of barr’d affections
I’ll take a walk around the garden, and pity the ache of forbidden love
Innogen: [How fine this tyrant can] tickle where she wounds
flatter that which she hurts
Innogen: My dearest husband,
I something fear my father’s wrath; but nothing—
Always reserved my holy duty—what
His rage can do on me
My dear husband, I am sometimes afraid of my father’s anger, but not at all—except for my responsibility as a daughter to ‘honour my father—what he could do to me because of it.
n.b. Duty of child to parent as said by 5th commandment
Innogen: [And I shall here abide] the hourly shot of angry eyes
the continual hostile glances (n.b. shot is contained within the translation of ‘hostile glances’)
P: [I will remain
The loyal’st husband that did e’er] plight troth
make a vow of marriage
Queen, aside: [I never do him wrong,] “he does buy my injuries, to be friends”
He allows what I do wrong in order that we remain friends OR he interprets the wrongs as favours (imagery of commerce with “buy”)
- Posthumus: Should we be taking leave
As long a term as yet we have to live,
The loathness to depart would grow. Adieu! - Innogen: [Nay, stay a little]:
Were you but riding forth to air yourself
- Even if we kept saying goodbye for the rest of our lives, it would keep getting harder to leave. Goodbye!
- Even if you were riding off TO EXERCISE
Innogen: [such parting were] too petty
to brief/inadequate
Posthumus (in response to I saying he should take another woman): [You gentle gods, give me but this I have] “cere up my embracements from a next / With bonds of death”
[kind gods,j ust give me this one I have], and wrap up my corpse in grave clothes rather than that I embrace a second wife
Posthumus: [As I my poor self did exchange for you,] to your so infinite loss
which was such a bad bargain/disadvantage for you
P: So in our trifles/I still win of you
I’m still getting a better deal in this exchange of love tokens
P: It is a manacle of love
It is a bracelet/shackle of love
n.b. use of manacle registers his deisre to contain I’s sexuality in marriage whilst he is absent
Cymb: [If after this command thou] fraught [the court
With thy unworthiness…]
burden
Innogen: [I beseech you, sir,
Harm not yourself with your vexation
I am senseless of your wrath;] a touch more rare
[Subdues all pangs, all fears.]
a more exquisite pain - pain as perfect as death
Innogen: “I chose an eagle, / And did avoid a puttock”
Eagle is king of birds, puttock is the lesser kite
Innogen: [Posthumus] “over-buys me / Almost the sum he pays”
the amount he suffers on my account is almost too high a price to pay for me
Innogen: [Would I were a] neatherd [’s daughter]
cowherd - representative of simple rural life and anticipatory of the life to come in Wales
Section 1: Cym: Nay, let her languish
A drop of blood a day; and, being aged,
Die of this folly!
Section 2: Pisanio (talking about P’s fight with C): [But that my master rather play’d than fought] had no help of anger
- No, let her suffer as though she sheds a drop of blood every day and finally, when she is old, let her die of this foolishness!
- was not moved by anger (thereby preserving self-control)
Innogen (talking about P and C’s fight): I would they were in Afric both together;/Myself by with a needle, that I might prick
The goer-back.
I wish they were both in Africa together, and that I were near them with a needle, to poke whichever one retreated from the fight.
First Lord to Cloten: [Sir, I would advise you to] shift a shirt. The violence of action hath made you reek as a sacrifice.
change your shirt. The violent of the fight has made you give off vapours, like the smoke from a sacrificial animal
Cloten: Have I hurt him?
2 Lord: No, faith, not so much as his patientce.
Even Posthumus’ patience has not been tried by the encounter
First Lord (buttering up Cloten): “Where air comes out, air comes in. There’s none abroad / so wholesome as that you vent.”
‘he must take air in to supply what he loses, and the outer air is less wholesome than that of his own sweet body.’
First Lord: “His [Posthumus’s, after fight) body’s a passable carcass”
Intensifying using passable, punning on something you can pass swords through in order to turn them into a carcass
Second Lord: “His steel was in debt, it went o’th’ backside the town.”
His sword was like a debtor, taking to the back-streets of a town to avoid arrest (i.e. it missed Posthumus).
backside the town meaning ‘back-streets’,:
James l’s visit to Cambridge cited by Dowden: Jesuits were ‘carried over the back side of the town’ to prison, not through the town centre.
2 Lord: [Sarcastically Referring to how far Posthumus retreated during the fight] As many inches as you have oceans. Puppies!
He gave you as many inches as you have oceans. (i.e. none!) Fools!
Innogen to Pisanio: “I would thou grew’st unto the shores o’th’ haven” And question’dst every sail
I wish you’d become organically fixed to the shores of the harbour and asked every sail of every boat for information about Posthumus.
Innogen: Still waving, as the fits and stirs of ‘s mind
Could best express how slow his soul sail’d on,
How swift his ship
He kept waving, as though expressing his mental disturbance through this action could show how slowly his soul sailed on, and how quickly his ship did
i.e. Posthumus’ soul moves at a slower rate than the ship as it leaves the shore
“as little as a crow”
Receding, disappearance, he will become as small as a bird in the sky before disappearing
eye-strings
the muscles of the eye, thought to break at death or at the loss of sight
Pisanio: (Be assured, madam,)
With his next vantage.with his next vantage
at his earliest opportunity
Innogen: [Before I could ask him to] “At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight
T’encounter me with orisons”
And before I could tell him that, at six in the morning, at noon, and at midnight, he should meet me in prayer.
I am in heaven for him
I am lifted spiritually for him
Innogen: [before I could give him a parting kiss, my father came in] “like the tyrannous breathing of the north, Shakes all our buds from growing.”
The north wind dashes the spring buds and so prevents them from developing (as the love of Innogen and Posthumus is prevented from maturing).
Iachimo (referring to P): of a crescent note
growing in reputation. Posthumus’ star is rising, like the increasing, crescent-shaped moon.
Philario: “now he is with that which makes him both without and within”
has those qualities which make him what he is both in appearance (judgement of others) and personality (personal character)
Frenchman: “we had very many there could behold the sun with as firm eyes as he.”
He couldn’t look straight at the sun any more easily than other people could.
The ability to stare directly into the sun was thought to be the prerogative of the eagle, but the Frenchman implies that Posthumus is no more exceptional than many of his countrymen. The ideal image of Posthumus given at the start of the play is starting to be modified
Iachimo: “words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter.”
amplifies his reputation beyond what it really is
Iachimo: “ the approbation of those that weep this lamentable divorce under her colours are wonderfully to extend him”
‘the approval of those who take Innogen’s side (under her colours) and therefore lament her separation from Posthumus has the effect of greatly inflating his reputation.’
Iachimo: To fortify her judgement, / Which else an easy battery might lay flat for taking a / Beggar without less quality
+ stylistic point
In order to ratify Innogen’s judgement, which otherwise an easy assault might demolish for taking someone of no rank
n.b. Without less quality: a double negative, designed to emphasize Posthumus’ worthlessness
Philario: [let him be so entertained
amongst you] as suits, with gentlemen of your
knowing, [to a stranger of his quality.]
As befits gentlemen of your experience in society
Frenchman: Sir, we [Posthumus and I] have known together in Orleans
Sir, we have been acquainted in Orleans
Frenchman [I was glad I did] atone [my countryman and you].
reconcile
Frenchman: (it had been a pity you should have been) put together (with so mortal a purpose as then each bore…)
opposed in combat
Posthumus: [I] rather shunned to go even with what I heard than in my every action to be guided by others’ experiences:
I preferred to resist assent (go even) to the advice of others than allow myself to be influenced by them
confounded one the other
one would have destroyed the other
warrant of bloody affirmation
pledge to support his claim by shedding blood
abate her nothing
lessen my estimation of her in no respect
a kind of hand-in-hand comparison
a comparison on the basis of equality, not superiority
” If she went before others I have seen, as that diamond of yours outlustres many”
- reducing any idea that Innogen is special:
- ‘Even if she excelled some women, that is all she did’
- or perhaps ‘if she excelled others to the same extent as your diamond’.
- his parenthetical equation of her to Posthumus’ ring suggests that her value is less divine than commercial.
- This prepares for the wager, and focuses attention on the ring that will be wagered.
I rated her
I estimated/valued her (quantified worth). Compare to Othello when Iago does the same
