A kind of conquest
Caesar
made here; but made not here his brag
Of
‘Came, and saw, and overcame’:
-Queen
Cymbeline Act III, scene i, line 73
I like this line, but there’s an even better one a few lines
back. But first, just so you know what’s going on here: This play is taking place in
England way back before it was really even England; back when the Romans were
there. It’s a date not too long after the time that Caesar was in England, and a Roman
general is back, and he's telling Cymbeline and his Queen that Rome is expecting them to start
paying an annual tribute like they used to. And Cymbeline and his queen are telling
the general to go pound sand. The queen goes into a long bit about how they kicked Caesar out, and that it wasn’t in England that Caesar
made his famous ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ line. She mangles the line a bit.
But the better line is from a few lines back and it’s Cymbeline’s.
There
be many Caesars,
Ere
such another Julius. Britain is
A
world by itself; and we will nothing pay
For
wearing our own noses.
For wearing our own noses! Oh my goodness, that’s
great! I don’t know if that’s some common expression from the 1600’s, but I
love it. I’ve got to find a way to get that into the vernacular.
No worries, I'm just checking to make sure I'm still wearing my own nose.
2 comments:
First - I really like the pic.
Second - is it essentially saying "there's no prizes for just wearing a nose on your face"?
No, I think he's saying, 'we're not paying you for something that we already have.'
It's kind of like you asking me to pay you for allowing me to drive my Prius. Um, why would I pay you for letting me drive my own car? I'm not going to pay you for that any more than I would pay you for letting me wear my own nose.
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