Mitarai Digital Folio

Cymbeline, Act 2 Scene 5

35Lines 1Speakers

Cymbeline, Act 2 Scene 5 runs 35 lines of dialogue, spoken by 1 speakers. That is shorter than the play’s average scene length of about 144 lines. This scene is part of Act 2 of Cymbeline.


Full Dialogue
Posthumus Leonatus
Is there no way for men to be but women
Must be half-workers? We are all bastards;
And that most venerable man which I
Did call my father, was I know not where
When I was stamp'd; some coiner with his tools
Made me a counterfeit: yet my mother seem'd
The Dian of that time so doth my wife
The nonpareil of this. O, vengeance, vengeance!
Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain'd
And pray'd me oft forbearance; did it with
A pudency so rosy the sweet view on't
Might well have warm'd old Saturn; that I thought her
As chaste as unsunn'd snow. O, all the devils!
This yellow Iachimo, in an hour,–wast not?–
Or less,–at first?–perchance he spoke not, but,
Like a full-acorn'd boar, a German one,
Cried 'O!' and mounted; found no opposition
But what he look'd for should oppose and she
Should from encounter guard. Could I find out
The woman's part in me! For there's no motion
That tends to vice in man, but I affirm
It is the woman's part: be it lying, note it,
The woman's; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers;
Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers;
Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,
Nice longing, slanders, mutability,
All faults that may be named, nay, that hell knows,
Why, hers, in part or all; but rather, all;
For even to vice
They are not constant but are changing still
One vice, but of a minute old, for one
Not half so old as that. I'll write against them,
Detest them, curse them: yet 'tis greater skill
In a true hate, to pray they have their will:
The very devils cannot plague them better.
35 lines rendered verbatim from the dialogue corpus.

Who’s On Stage

Speaking characters in this scene

Character Lines Share
Posthumus Leonatus 35 100.0%

Line distribution

The top speaker in this scene delivers 35 lines, while the scene’s average per speaker is about 35 lines.

Total speakers on stage

1 named characters speak in this scene.

Scene in Context

Position within Act 2

This is Scene 5 of 4 in Act 2 of Cymbeline.

Scene length vs. play average

At 35 lines, this scene is shorter than the Cymbeline average scene in Cymbeline (~144 lines).

Adjacent scenes

Previous: Act 2 Scene 4 · Next: Act 3 Scene 1