Original: This is a lord! O noble misery,
Modern: That’s what passes for a lord! What a pathetic example of nobility!

Original: To be i’ the field, and ask ‘what news?’ of me!
Modern: To be on the battlefield and have to ask me what’s happening!

Original: To-day how many would have given their honours
Modern: Today, how many men would have traded their reputations

Original: To have saved their carcasses! took heel to do’t,
Modern: Just to save their own skins! They ran away to do it,

Original: And yet died too! I, in mine own woe charm’d,
Modern: And still ended up dead anyway! Meanwhile, I’m so absorbed in my own grief

Original: Could not find death where I did hear him groan,
Modern: That I couldn’t find death even where I heard dying men groaning,

Original: Nor feel him where he struck: being an ugly monster,
Modern: Nor feel him even where he was killing people. Death is such a horrible monster,

Original: ‘Tis strange he hides him in fresh cups, soft beds,
Modern: Yet it’s odd that he hides himself in pleasant drinking, comfortable beds,

Original: Sweet words; or hath more ministers than we
Modern: And kind words—or perhaps he has more servants than we have

Original: That draw his knives i’ the war. Well, I will find him
Modern: Who draw their weapons in war. Well, I’ll find death myself

Original: For being now a favourer to the Briton,
Modern: Since I’ve now helped the British side,

Original: No more a Briton, I have resumed again
Modern: I’m no longer a Briton, so I’ve taken back

Original: The part I came in: fight I will no more,
Modern: My original role as a Roman. I won’t fight anymore,

Original: But yield me to the veriest hind that shall
Modern: But will surrender myself to the lowest servant who

Original: Once touch my shoulder. Great the slaughter is
Modern: Even so much as touches my shoulder. The killing here

Original: Here made by the Roman; great the answer be
Modern: Done by the Romans is terrible; and terrible will be the revenge

Original: Britons must take. For me, my ransom’s death;
Modern: The Britons will take. As for me, only my death can pay my debt;

Original: On either side I come to spend my breath;
Modern: Whichever side wins, I’ve come here to give up my life;

Original: Which neither here I’ll keep nor bear again,
Modern: I won’t hold onto my life here, nor will I carry it away with me,

Original: But end it by some means for Imogen.
Modern: But will end it somehow, all for the sake of Imogen.

In Act V, Scene iii of Cymbeline, Posthumus enters disguised as a Roman soldier and encounters a British lord fleeing from battle. The lord describes how the tide of battle turned when an old man and two young men (Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus, though their identities remain unknown to the lord) rallied the British forces in a narrow lane, transforming defeat into victory. Posthumus reveals in soliloquy that he was the old man’s companion in this heroic stand, having fought disguised as a British peasant to atone for his earlier wrongs against Imogen.

After the lord exits, Posthumus deliberately removes his British disguise and resumes his Roman soldier appearance, hoping to be captured and executed as an enemy. British soldiers soon arrive and take him prisoner. Captain arrives with other prisoners including Lucius, Iachimo, and the soothsayer Philharmonus. The Captain reports to Cymbeline that the mysterious old man and two young men who turned the battle’s tide have disappeared without seeking reward. Cymbeline orders that the Roman prisoners be guarded until he can personally examine them, expressing particular interest in finding and rewarding the unknown British heroes who secured victory.

Cymbeline tells the story of King Cymbeline of Britain, whose daughter Imogen secretly marries Posthumus Leonatus against her father’s wishes. Cymbeline banishes Posthumus to Rome, where he boasts of Imogen’s virtue and fidelity. The cunning Iachimo wagers that he can seduce Imogen and prove her unfaithful. When his direct attempts fail, Iachimo hides in a trunk in Imogen’s bedchamber, emerges while she sleeps, and steals her bracelet while noting intimate details of her body and room.

Returning to Rome with his false evidence, Iachimo convinces Posthumus that Imogen has been unfaithful. Enraged, Posthumus orders his servant Pisanio to kill Imogen. Instead, Pisanio reveals the plot to Imogen and helps her escape by disguising her as a young man named Fidele. She flees to the Welsh mountains, where she unknowingly encounters her long-lost brothers, Guiderius and Arviragus, who were kidnapped as infants and raised by the banished lord Belarius.

Meanwhile, Cymbeline’s evil Queen (Imogen’s stepmother) plots to poison Imogen and place her own son Cloten on the throne. Cloten pursues Imogen to Wales, where Guiderius kills him in combat. The Queen’s physician Cornelius has secretly given her a sleeping potion instead of poison, but when Imogen takes it believing it to be medicine, she falls into a death-like sleep beside Cloten’s headless corpse, whom she mistakes for Posthumus upon awakening.

The play culminates when Roman forces invade Britain. During the battle, the disguised Imogen serves the Romans while her unknown brothers and Belarius fight for Britain. After Britain’s victory, all deceptions are revealed: Iachimo confesses his lies, the Queen dies after admitting her evil plots, Imogen’s true identity and virtue are established, the royal brothers are restored to their father, and Posthumus and Imogen are reunited. Cymbeline makes peace with Rome and pardons all offenders.