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?