# Scene III explained — Cymbeline

> Chapter companion for Cymbeline by William Shakespeare.

## What happens

Imogen, deeply longing for her banished husband Posthumus, questions Pisanio about his departure and expresses her grief and unspoken farewells. She is interrupted by a lady summoning her to the queen, and she instructs Pisanio to carry out her previous orders.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Fidelity

Imogen's passionate recollection of Posthumus's departure and her vow to think of him at set hours underscores her unwavering devotion.

### Power and Political Conflict

Imogen's father Cymbeline interrupts her farewell, symbolizing the oppressive political forces that separate the lovers.

## Character check-ins

### Imogen

Expresses intense longing and sorrow over Posthumus's departure, lamenting her interrupted farewell and the tyranny of her father.

### Pisanio

Describes Posthumus's lingering gestures of farewell from the ship and reassures Imogen that he will send word when possible.

## Key lines

> I would thou grew’st unto the shores o’ the haven, And question’dst every sail: if he should write, And not have it, ’twere a paper lost, As offer’d mercy is.

I wish you were rooted to the harbor shore, questioning every sail, because if he writes and you don't receive it, it would be like losing a chance at salvation.

_Imogen expresses her desperate anxiety about missing any letter from Posthumus._

> I would have broke mine eye-strings; crack’d them, but To look upon him, till the diminution Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle, Nay, follow’d him, till he had melted from The smallness of a gnat to air, and then Have turn’d mine eye and wept.

I would have strained my eyes until they broke, just to keep watching him as he shrank to the size of a needle, then a gnat, then vanished into air, and only then would I have turned away and wept.

_Imogen vividly describes how she would have watched Posthumus until he disappeared from sight entirely._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/cymbeline_se/chapters/act-i-scene-iii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/cymbeline_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/cymbeline_se/chapters