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Soliloquy
Act 5, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis:
Cymbeline is characterized by an intricate and complex style that is typical of many of Shakespeare's later works. The play presents a number of carefully interconnected subplots, scenes of misrecognition, and false or mistaken identities, demanding the audience's close attention. Indeed, it is often regarded as one of Shakespeare’s most difficult plays to follow in live performance. King Cymbeline himself comments upon the complexity of the events that have transpired throughout the course of the play. In the final scene, when the true identities of all characters have been revealed, a notably confused Cymbeline asks:
When shall I hear all through? This fierce abridgment
Hath to it circumstantial branches which
Distinction should be rich in. Where, how lived you?
And when came you to serve our Roman captive?
How parted with your brothers ? How first met them?
Why fled you from the court? And whither? To Belarius. These,
And your three motives to the battle, with
I know not how much more, should be demanded,
And all the other by-dependences
From chance to chance; but nor the time nor place
Will serve our long interrogatories.
He has heard an abridged version of the events but demands a more thorough explanation of everything that has taken place, noting the various “circumstantial branches” or subplots that are hallmarks of the play’s complex style. He does not understand, for example, how his daughter, Princess Imogen, ended up fleeing the court, disguising herself as a man, meeting and then departing from her long-estranged brothers in the woods, and ultimately joining the retinue of Britain's enemy, Caius Lucius. There are many additional questions on his mind, but he concedes that these various narrative threads are too complicated to be resolved then and there.
