Solution to Close Reading of Cymbeline (out of 10)
This template may be useful for close reading any long speech, not just in drama.
I accepted reasonable alternatives to the answers below. I awarded one point per question.
Close reading of Dialogue: Cymbeline. You can use your copy of the play for this or use the handout I
provide. Choose one of these two speeches: Second Lord at 2.1.51-66 OR Cymbeline at 3.1.49-65.
Answer the questions below using the speech you choose. Answer on the back of this paper.|
A. Second Lord at 2.1.51-66
1. Who is speaking, and under what circumstances?
The Second Lord speaks alone on stage (that is, performs a soliloquy) after his lord Cloten and
another attending lord leave.
2. Are there words whose meanings you don’t understand (you have never seen the word before, or if
you have, you still don’t know the meaning anyway)? Choose one of them and guess what it means.
This answer varies by student.
3. What in the speech seems to refer to what might be happening physically on stage? Explain what
would happen on stage to match the speech.
Second Lord is not on stage with anyone. He is speaking out loud his thoughts so the audience
knows what he is thinking. He may be raising his voice from time to time, since his dialogue has
exclamation points. Other than that, the soliloquy does not indicate what else the Second Lord is
doing on stage.
3. Can any other characters hear who is speaking? Who? What would those characters think about the
speech? Are there other characters who might be interested in knowing what the speaker says, and why?
No one else is on stage. Cloten might be surprised to find out that one of his attending lords hates
him. The Queen would not like knowing that someone at court is aware that she is always plotting.
Imogen would be happy to hear that someone at court supports her decision to marry Posthumus
and urges her to stay steadfast in her decisions and her ideals.
5. What is the most important statement in the speech? Why is it important?
Second Lord does not like or trust either Cloten or the Queen. This mistrust shows that Cloten and
the Queen do not have much support among the people in Cymbeline’s court.
6. Is the speech related to the past, present or future? Explain how in all of these circumstances.
Regarding the past, the soliloquy acknowledges Imogen’s mistreatment by Cloten and the Queen.
Second Lord realizes that Imogen is presently suffering because of Cymbeline’s banishment of
Posthumus and the Queen’s plot to have Imogen marry Cloten. Second Lord hopes that Imogen
does not weaken in her ideals, for if she remains firm, she may be reunited with Posthumus and one
day “enjoy...this great land” (be happy, in other words, in England); Second Lord’s wishes come
true, it turns out.
7. Does the audience (you, that is) know something that the speaker doesn’t know? What is the effect of
this special knowledge that the audience has?
The audience knows the extremity of the Second Lord’s correctness: the audience knows
specifically what the Queen is plotting. This knowledge makes the audience realize to what extent
the court knows what kind of person the Queen is (that is, the court knows she and Cloten are bad
people). The audience hasn’t misinterpreted the play’s characters (or if the audience has, the
audience gets a correction to that misinterpretation). The audience’s view gets supported by the
insider, making the audience a kind of insider.
8. Does the speech contain any figures (figures of speech or sound devices)? List one and explain it.
Here are some:
-“this ass!” (metaphor: Cloten is like an ass)
- “The walls of thy dear honor, keep unshaked / That temple” (metaphor: honor like a
temple, a holy place, threatened with destruction from the outside)
-“ That temple, thy fair mind, that thou mayst stand
/ T’ enjoy thy banished lord and
this great land.” (rhyme on “stand” and “land”)
-“A woman that / Bears all down with her brain” (perhaps a reference to the act of childbirth, so
that the Queen’s plotting, for which she uses her brains, is like a woman giving birth. The rest of
the sentence then suggests that the outcome of her plots are positive, but the product of her literal
childbirth, Cloten, has somehow turned out to be unintelligent [without brains]
9. Does the speech contain any major images? Choose one. What is the significance of the image in this
speech?
-temple of Imogen’s honor under attack (her faith in her husband does get threatened; as well, her
honor in the sexual sense is attacked by Iachimo).
-childbirth, though not much that is specifically described except perhaps for “bearing down”
(“pushing”, we would say today) (Cloten is an unintelligent man, unlike the queen’s rather effective
schemes)
10. List a short passage of the speech that is odd or mysterious or unusual to you. What drew your
attention to it? Try to make sense of the passage.
-Varies with the student.
B. Cymbeline at 3.1.49-65.
1. Who is speaking, and under what circumstances?
Cymbeline is speaking to the Roman delegation, headed by Lucius, and explaining that he is not
going to pay tribute to Rome.
2. Are there words whose meanings you don’t understand (you have never seen the word before, or if
you have, you still don’t know the meaning anyway)? Choose one of them and guess what it means.
This answer varies by student.
3. What in the speech seems to refer to what might be happening physically on stage? Explain what
would happen on stage to match the speech.
Cymbeline is speaking to the Romans, so he would be looking at them, and probably standing near
their leader, Lucius.
3. Can any other characters hear who is speaking? Who? What would those characters think about the
speech? Are there other characters who might be interested in knowing what the speaker says, and why?
Yes: everyone who is on stage can hear him--Lucius, the other Romans, the Queen and Cloten.
Every other character in the play has some stake in knowing if the Romans and the British will be
going to war. Back in Rome, Posthumus would be able to plot his return by coming to England with
the Roman army (which is what he does).
5. What is the most important statement in the speech? Why is it important?
Our ancestor was that Mulmutius which
Ordained our laws, whose use the sword of Caesar
Hath too much mangled, whose repair and franchise
Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed,
Though Rome be therefore angry.
That is, Cymbeline’s predecessor created British laws that declared Britain its own nation.
Cymbeline must protect and execute those laws, even if that means angering the Romans.
6. Is the speech related to the past, present or future? Explain how in all of these circumstances.
The speech notes that Rome invaded Britain once. This event made Rome believe it could get
tribute (money) in the present. Cymbeline says that in future, Britain will not pay tribute.
7. Does the audience (you, that is) know something that the speaker doesn’t know? What is the effect of
this special knowledge that the audience has?
Not really. This speech is a diplomatic speech that has political effects. Before Cymbeline makes
this speech, he has already hinted that he is not interested in bowing down to the Romans. But by
making this speech, Cymbeline actually takes action. The play’s plot hereafter shifts towards
impending war.
8. Does the speech contain any figures (figures of speech or sound devices)? List one and explain it.
-the earth’s sides stretch (see #9 for more information)
- “Did put the yoke upon 's, which to shake off / Becomes a warlike people” (metaphor of a
draught animal yoked to a cart, or to a slave put in a yoke as a way of controlling the
slave).
- Ordained our laws, whose use the sword of Caesar
Hath too much mangled, whose repair and franchise
Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed
(metaphor of a law that is somehow a physical object, perhaps just a written document that
has been ripped attacked by Rome’s aggressive: the sword here may be metonymy for
Caesar’s ambition)
9. Does the speech contain any major images? Choose one. What is the significance of the image in this
speech?
- “Caesar's ambition, / Which swelled so much that it did almost stretch / The sides o’ th’
world” (a metaphor in the idea of a swollen object [wineskin, perhaps, or of a swollen
belly] so that Caesar’s ambition both expands his empire (sides of the world) and threatens
the world (as though the ambition bursts the world open)
-the crown on the British king’s head (crown is a symbol of kingship, by which Cymbeline claims
that he is a king too)
10. List a short passage of the speech that is odd or mysterious or unusual to you. What drew your
attention to it? Try to make sense of the passage.
This answer varies by student.
Second Lord 2.1.51-65
I'll attend your lordship.
Exeunt CLOTEN and First Lord
51
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,
Thou divine Imogen, what thou endur’st,
Betwixt a father by thy stepdame govern'd,
A mother hourly coining plots, a wooer
More hateful than the foul expulsion is
Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act
Of the divorce he'd make! The heavens hold firm
The walls of thy dear honor, keep unshaked
That temple, thy fair mind, that thou mayst stand
T’ enjoy thy banished lord and this great land.
52
60
65
Exit
Cymbeline at 3.1.49-65
[To Lucius] You must know,
Till the injurious Romans did extort
This tribute from us, we were free. Caesar's ambition,
Which swelled so much that it did almost stretch
The sides o’ th’ world, against all color here
Did put the yoke upon 's, which to shake off
Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon
Ourselves to be. We do say, then, to Caesar,
Our ancestor was that Mulmutius which
Ordained our laws, whose use the sword of Caesar
Hath too much mangled, whose repair and franchise
Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed,
Though Rome be therefore angry. Mulmutius made our laws,
Who was the first of Britain which did put
His brows within a golden crown and called
Himself a king.
50
55
60
65