Today’s Totally Random Lines
Why, I must die;
And if I do not by thy hand, Thou art
No servant of thy master’s: ‘gainst self-slaughter
There is a prohibition so divine
That cravens my weak hand.
Imogen
Cymbeline
Act III Scene iv, Line
75
So Imogen here, is asking Pisanio to kill her. Hmmm, well this doesn’t seem to be a very pleasant scenario. The girl is pleading with this guy to kill her, and says it’s his duty to his master. She also says she’d do it herself if suicide weren’t such a great sin.
There’s certainly a bit, perhaps a lot, of context missing here. Would you find it interesting to know that Pisanio’s master is Imogen’s husband? It’s true. And why does Imogen’s husband want his servant to kill his wife? It has something to do with Imogen’s infidelity. Actually, her husband thinks she’s been unfaithful, but of course, she hasn’t.
Imogen goes on for a bit, trying to coax Pisanio into killing her. The fellow comes up
with a pretty interesting line.
O gracious lady,
Since I received command to do this business
I have not slept one wink.
Do’t and to bed then.
I’ll wake mine eyeballs out first.
How about that: he’ll wake his eyeballs out first. He’ll stay awake worrying
about having to kill her so long that his eyeballs will fall out from lack of
sleep. It’s almost a funny line, isn’t it?
This is one guy who will never, ever have to worry about waking his eyeballs out. Never.
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