Imogen’s Lament (Cymbeline)

Themes: Classical, Cymbeline, Death, Determination, Dramatic, longing, Secrets, Shakespeare
Length: 1 Minute
Gender: Female

Imogen is speaking to Pisanio as she learns of her husband’s whereabouts and plots her departure to reunite with him.

O, for a horse with wings! Hear’st thou, Pisanio? He is at Milford-Haven: read, and tell me How far ’tis thither. If one of mean affairs May plod it in a week, why may not I Glide thither in a day? Then, true Pisanio,– Who long’st, like me, to see thy lord; who long’st,– O, let me bate,–but not like me;–yet long’st, But in a fainter kind:–O, not like me; For mine’s beyond beyond: say, and speak thick,– Love’s counsellor should fill the bores of hearing, To the smothering of the sense,–how far it is To this same blessed Milford: and, by the way, Tell me how Wales was made so happy as To inherit such a haven: but, first of all, How we may steal from hence; and for the gap That we shall make in time, from our hence-going And our return, to excuse:–but first, how get hence. Why should excuse be born or e’er begot? We’ll talk of that hereafter. Prithee, speak, How many score of miles may we well ride ’Twixt hour and hour?