Famous quotes from Cymbeline

Shakespeare’s late romance Cymbeline combines tragic and comic elements in an improbable, plot-tangled tale in a mythic world filled with unusually powerful emotions. It also includes one of the finest songs in all of Shakespeare, “Fear no more the heat o’ th’ sun.” Below are some of the most well-known lines, in order of their appearance in the play.

Lest the bargain should catch cold and starve.
—Iachimo, Act 1, scene 4

Boldness be my friend.
Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!
—Iachimo, Act 1, scene 6

Every jack-slave hath his bellyfull of
fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock
that nobody can match.
—Cloten,  Act 2, scene 1

The crickets sing, and man’s o’erlabored sense
Repairs itself by rest.
—Iachimo, Act 2, scene 2

Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,
Nice longing, slanders, mutability,
All faults that have a name, nay, that hell knows,
Why, hers, in part of all, but rather all.
—Posthumus, Act 2, scene 5 

O, for a horse with wings!
—Imogen, Act 3, scene 2 

Our cage
We make a choir, as doth the prisoned bird,
And sing our bondage freely.
—Arviragus, Act 3, scene 3

The game is up!
—Belarius, Act 3, scene 3

No, ’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, Act 3, scene 4 

I have not slept one wink.
—Pisanio, Act 3, scene 4

Hath Britain all the sun that shines?
—Imogen, Act 3, scene 4

I see a man’s life is a tedious one.
—Imogen, Act 3, scene 6

All gold and silver rather turn to dirt.
—Arviragus, Act 3, Scene 6

Play judge and executioner all himself.
—Guiderius, Act 4, scene 2

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, Act 4, scene 2

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.
—Pisanio, Act 4, scene 3

Nothing routs us but
The villainy of our fears.
—Belarius, Act 5, scene 2

Hang there like fruit, my soul,
Till the tree die.
—Posthumus, Act 5, scene 5

Kneel not to me.
The power that I have on you is to spare you;
The malice towards you to forgive you. Live
And deal with others better.
—Posthumus, Act 5, scene 5