Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Yet you are curb’d from that enlargement by

The consequence o’the crown; and must not foil

The precious note of it with a base slave,

A hilding for a livery, a squire’s cloth,

A pantler, not so eminent.

 

-Cloten

Cymbeline                               Act II Scene iii, Line 125

 

Just to be clear who’s who: Cymbeline is the king. The queen (and she has no other name than ‘the queen’) is Cymbeline’s second wife (pretty sure the first one died). Imogen (and that’s who Cloten is talking to here) is Cymbeline’s daughter from his first queen, and Cloten is the current queen’s son from a previous marriage. So we’ve got the whole blended (or unblended) family thing going on here.

The current queen is trying to get Cloten married to his stepsister Imogen, just to make sure that her son Cloten will eventually become king. Meantime, Imogen has already got her guy, Posthumus Leonatus, and he’s not a royal. So that’s what Cloten is talking about here, telling Imogen that she can’t marry Posthumus because he’s a base slave. FYI, a hilding is a worthless individual, and a pantler is a servant  (and for the record, both those words are in the current online MW, though, to be fair, both are noted as being archaic).

Anyway and naturally, Posthumus is a pretty good guy, and Cloten is a creep. Furthermore, Imogen wants absolutely nothing to do with Cloten and tells him so. Good for her! However, Cloten doesn’t take rejection very well, and that might not be good for her.

So that’s where we’re at. Comments?