Act 3, Scene 1

Britain. A hall in Cymbeline's palace.

[Enter in state, CYMBELINE, QUEEN, CLOTEN, and Lords at one door, and at another, CAIUS LUCIUS and Attendants]
Cymbeline
1330 Now say, what would Augustus Caesar with us?
Caius Lucius
1331 When Julius Caesar, whose remembrance yet
1332 Lives in men's eyes and will to ears and tongues
1333 Be theme and hearing ever, was in this Britain
1334 And conquer'd it, Cassibelan, thine uncle,—
1335 Famous in Caesar's praises, no whit less
1336 Than in his feats deserving it—for him
1337 And his succession granted Rome a tribute,
1338 Yearly three thousand pounds, which by thee lately
1339 Is left untender'd.
Queen
1340 And, to kill the marvel,
1341 Shall be so ever.
Cloten
1342 There be many Caesars,
1343 Ere such another Julius. Britain is
1344 A world by itself; and we will nothing pay
1345 For wearing our own noses.
Queen
1346 That opportunity
1347 Which then they had to take from 's, to resume
1348 We have again. Remember, sir, my liege,
1349 The kings your ancestors, together with
1350 The natural bravery of your isle, which stands
1351 As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in
1352 With rocks unscalable and roaring waters,
1353 With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats,
1354 But suck them up to the topmast. A kind of conquest
1355 Caesar made here; but made not here his brag
1356 Of 'Came' and 'saw' and 'overcame: ' with shame—
1357 That first that ever touch'd him—he was carried
1358 From off our coast, twice beaten; and his shipping—
1359 Poor ignorant baubles!— upon our terrible seas,
1360 Like egg-shells moved upon their surges, crack'd
1361 As easily 'gainst our rocks: for joy whereof
1362 The famed Cassibelan, who was once at point—
1363 O giglot fortune!—to master Caesar's sword,
1364 Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright
1365 And Britons strut with courage.
Cloten
1366 Come, there's no more tribute to be paid: our
1367 kingdom is stronger than it was at that time; and,
1368 as I said, there is no moe such Caesars: other of
1369 them may have crook'd noses, but to owe such
1370 straight arms, none.
Cymbeline
1371 Son, let your mother end.
Cloten
1372 We have yet many among us can gripe as hard as
1373 Cassibelan: I do not say I am one; but I have a
1374 hand. Why tribute? why should we pay tribute? If
1375 Caesar can hide the sun from us with a blanket, or
1376 put the moon in his pocket, we will pay him tribute
1377 for light; else, sir, no more tribute, pray you now.
Cymbeline
1378 You must know,
1379 Till the injurious Romans did extort
1380 This tribute from us, we were free:
1381 Caesar's ambition,
1382 Which swell'd so much that it did almost stretch
1383 The sides o' the world, against all colour here
1384 Did put the yoke upon 's; which to shake off
1385 Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon
1386 Ourselves to be.
Cloten and Lords
1387 We do.
Cymbeline
1388 Say, then, to Caesar,
1389 Our ancestor was that Mulmutius which
1390 Ordain'd our laws, whose use the sword of Caesar
1391 Hath too much mangled; whose repair and franchise
1392 Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed,
1393 Though Rome be therefore angry: Mulmutius made our laws,
1394 Who was the first of Britain which did put
1395 His brows within a golden crown and call'd
1396 Himself a king.
Caius Lucius
1397 I am sorry, Cymbeline,
1398 That I am to pronounce Augustus Caesar—
1399 Caesar, that hath more kings his servants than
1400 Thyself domestic officers—thine enemy:
1401 Receive it from me, then: war and confusion
1402 In Caesar's name pronounce I 'gainst thee: look
1403 For fury not to be resisted. Thus defied,
1404 I thank thee for myself.
Cymbeline
1405 Thou art welcome, Caius.
1406 Thy Caesar knighted me; my youth I spent
1407 Much under him; of him I gather'd honour;
1408 Which he to seek of me again, perforce,
1409 Behoves me keep at utterance. I am perfect
1410 That the Pannonians and Dalmatians for
1411 Their liberties are now in arms; a precedent
1412 Which not to read would show the Britons cold:
1413 So Caesar shall not find them.
Caius Lucius
1414 Let proof speak.
Cloten
1415 His majesty bids you welcome. Make
1416 pastime with us a day or two, or longer: if
1417 you seek us afterwards in other terms, you
1418 shall find us in our salt-water girdle: if you
1419 beat us out of it, it is yours; if you fall in
1420 the adventure, our crows shall fare the better
1421 for you; and there's an end.
Caius Lucius
1422 So, sir.
Cymbeline
1423 I know your master's pleasure and he mine:
1424 All the remain is 'Welcome!'
[Exeunt]

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Notes

TLN 1331historical topical
“Julius Caesar, whose remembrance yet Lives in men's eyes”
Caius Lucius is collecting a tribute first owed since Julius Caesar conquered Britain in 55-54 BC. Caesar invaded twice and forced the British king Cassibelan (historically Cassivellaunus) to promise yearly payments to Rome. The play is set in the reign of Augustus, Caesar's successor, and that long-unpaid debt is the war's trigger.
historical Ancient Britain and the Roman tribute
TLN 1340archaic vocab
“to kill the marvel, Shall be so ever”
'Kill the marvel' means 'end any surprise or wonder you might feel at that news' — in other words, 'let me spare you the shock of finding it out later.' The Queen is cutting off Caius Lucius briskly: not only has the tribute been left unpaid, but it will stay unpaid permanently.
TLN 1342rhetorical device
“There be many Caesars, Ere such another Julius. Britain is A world by itself”
Cloten's boast is a crude form of the rhetorical device called 'diminutio' — belittling a famous name to deflate the opponent's authority. His point: there have been many men called Caesar since Julius, but no one to match him, so the title alone proves nothing. 'Britain is a world by itself' became a famous nationalist slogan: the island's isolation makes it its own self-contained realm, owing nothing to Rome.
TLN 1350rhetorical device
“natural bravery of your isle, which stands As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in With rocks unscalable”
The Queen describes Britain as Neptune's (the sea-god's) enclosed game-park, 'ribbed and paled in' — the ribs and pales being the wooden posts and rails of a fence, here replaced by unscaleable sea-cliffs and roaring surf. It is a sustained metaphor: the island is a natural fortress, and no fleet can cross it unsunken. 'Paled in' means fenced in with pales (stakes).
classical Neptune, god of the sea
TLN 1355historical topical
“made not here his brag Of 'Came' and 'saw' and 'overcame'”
The Queen is mocking Julius Caesar's famous boast 'veni, vidi, vici' ('I came, I saw, I conquered'), which he reportedly sent to the Roman Senate after a swift victory in Asia Minor in 47 BC. Her point is that Caesar could not make that boast about Britain — he was twice beaten back and had to sail home in shame.
historical Ancient Britain and the Roman tribute
TLN 1363archaic vocab
“O giglot fortune!—to master Caesar's sword”
'Giglot' (also spelled 'giglet') meant a wanton, giddy, or promiscuous woman — a common term of abuse for a flirt. The Queen is personifying Fortune as a giggly, unreliable woman who almost gave Cassibelan the decisive victory over Caesar but then turned away at the last moment. The outburst is a parenthetical exclamation at Fortune's fickleness.
TLN 1381syntax grammar
“Caesar's ambition, Which swell'd so much that it did almost stretch The sides o' the world, against all colour”
'Against all colour' means 'without any legal justification, without any appearance of right' — 'colour' in Elizabethan legal usage meant a semblance or pretence of legal right. The phrase modifies the whole previous clause: Caesar's ambition stretched the limits of the world and then, with no lawful ground at all, placed the yoke of tribute on Britain.
TLN 1389historical topical
“Our ancestor was that Mulmutius which Ordain'd our laws”
Mulmutius (or Molmutius) is a legendary pre-Roman king of Britain who, according to Holinshed's Chronicles, gave Britain its first written laws — the 'Mulmutine laws' — and was the first British king to wear a golden crown. Cymbeline invokes him to claim that Britain had its own ancient legal order before Rome arrived, and that restoring it justifies defying the tribute.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 1409historical topical
“Behoves me keep at utterance. I am perfect That the Pannonians and Dalmatians for Their liberties are now in arms”
'Keep at utterance' means to fight to the uttermost — 'utterance' here is from the Old French 'outrance,' meaning the extreme limit, as in a duel 'a outrance' (to the death). 'I am perfect' means 'I am fully informed, certain.' Cymbeline then cites a real contemporary event: the Pannonian and Dalmatian revolt against Rome (6-9 AD), in which those provinces took up arms to recover their freedoms — a precedent he says shows what a warlike people does when oppressed.