======================================================================
= Cymbeline =
======================================================================
Introduction
======================================================================
'Cymbeline' (), also known as 'The Tragedie of Cymbeline' or
'Cymbeline, King of Britain', is a play by William Shakespeare set in
Ancient Britain () and based on legends that formed part of the Matter
of Britain concerning the early historical Celtic British King
Cunobeline. Although it is listed as a tragedy in the First Folio,
modern critics often classify 'Cymbeline' as a romance or even a
comedy. Like 'Othello' and 'The Winter's Tale', it deals with the
themes of innocence and jealousy. While the precise date of
composition remains unknown, the play was certainly produced as early
as 1611.
Characters
======================================================================
;In Britain
* Cymbeline - Modelled on the historical King of Britain, Cunobeline,
and father to Imogen
* Queen - Cymbeline's second wife and mother to Cloten
* Imogen / Innogen - Cymbeline's daughter by a former queen, later
disguised as the page Fidele
* Posthumus Leonatus - Innogen's husband, adopted as an orphan and
raised in Cymbeline's family
* Cloten - Queen's son by a former husband and step-brother to Imogen
* Belarius - banished lord living under the name Morgan, who abducted
King Cymbeline's infant sons in retaliation for his banishment
* Guiderius - Cymbeline's son, kidnapped in childhood by Belarius and
raised as his son Polydore
* Arvirargus - Cymbeline's son, kidnapped in childhood by Belarius and
raised as his son Cadwal
* Pisanio - Posthumus's servant, loyal to both Posthumus and Imogen
* Cornelius - court physician
* Helen - lady attending Imogen
* Two Lords attending Cloten
* Two Gentlemen
* Two Captains
* Two Jailers
;In Rome
* Philario - Posthumus's host in Rome
* Iachimo/Giacomo - a Roman lord and friend of Philario
* French Gentleman
* Dutch Gentleman
* Spanish Gentleman
* Caius Lucius - Roman ambassador and later general
* Two Roman senators
* Roman tribunes
* Roman captain
* Philharmonus - soothsayer
;Apparitions
* Jupiter - King of the gods in Roman mythology
* Sicilius Leonatus - Posthumus's father
* Posthumus's mother
* Posthumus's two brothers
Summary
======================================================================
The treacherous Queen is now wasting away due to her son Cloten's
disappearance. Meanwhile, the guilt-ridden Posthumus enlists in the
Roman forces as they invade Britain. Belarius, Guiderius, Arviragus,
and Posthumus all help rescue Cymbeline from the Roman onslaught; the
king does not yet recognise these four, yet takes notice of them as
they fight bravely and capture the Roman commanders, Lucius and
Iachimo, thus winning the day. Posthumus, allowing himself to be
captured, as well as Fidele, are imprisoned alongside the true Romans,
who all await execution. In jail, Posthumus sleeps, while the ghosts
of his dead family appear to complain to Jupiter of his grim fate.
Jupiter himself appears in thunder and glory to assure the others that
destiny will grant happiness to Posthumus and Britain.
Sources
======================================================================
'Cymbeline' is grounded in the story of the historical British king
Cunobeline, which was originally recorded in Geoffrey of Monmouth's
'Historia Regum Britanniae', but which Shakespeare likely found in the
1587 edition of Raphael’s 'Holinshed's Chronicles'. Shakespeare based
the setting of the play and the character Cymbeline on what he found
in Holinshed's chronicles, but the plot and subplots of the play are
derived from other sources. The subplot of Posthumus and Iachimo's
wager derives from story II.9 of Giovanni Boccaccio's 'The Decameron'
and the anonymously authored 'Frederyke of Jennen'. These share
similar characters and wager terms, and both feature Iachimo's
equivalent hiding in a chest in order to gather proof in Imogen's
room. Iachimo's description of Imogen's room as proof of her
infidelity derives from 'The Decameron', and Pisanio's reluctance to
kill Imogen and his use of her bloody clothes to convince Posthumus of
her death derive from 'Frederyke of Jennen.' In both sources, the
equivalent to Posthumus's bracelet is stolen jewellery that the wife
later recognises while cross-dressed. Shakespeare also drew
inspiration for 'Cymbeline' from a play called 'The Rare Triumphs of
Love and Fortune,' first performed in 1582. There are many parallels
between the characters of the two plays, including a king's daughter
who falls for a man of unknown birth who grew up in the king's court.
The subplot of Belarius and the lost princes was inspired by the story
of Bomelio, an exiled nobleman in 'The Rare Triumphs' who is later
revealed to be the protagonist's father.
Date and text
======================================================================
The first recorded production of 'Cymbeline', as noted by Simon
Forman, was in April 1611. It was first published in the 'First Folio'
in 1623. When 'Cymbeline' was actually written cannot be precisely
dated.
The Yale edition suggests a collaborator had a hand in the authorship,
and some scenes (e.g., Act III scene 7 and Act V scene 2) may strike
the reader as particularly un-Shakespearean when compared with others.
The play shares notable similarities in language, situation, and plot
with Beaumont and Fletcher's tragicomedy 'Philaster, or Love Lies
a-Bleeding' (). Both plays concern themselves with a princess who,
after disobeying her father in order to marry a lowly lover, is
wrongly accused of infidelity and thus ordered to be murdered, before
escaping and having her faithfulness proven. Furthermore, both were
written for the same theatre company and audience. Some scholars
believe this supports a dating of approximately 1609, though it is not
clear which play preceded the other.The first page of 'Cymbeline' from
the [[First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623.]]The
editors of the Oxford and Norton Shakespeare believe the name of
Imogen is a misprint for Innogen--they draw several comparisons
between 'Cymbeline' and 'Much Ado About Nothing', in early editions of
which a ghost character named Innogen was supposed to be Leonato's
wife (Posthumus being also known as "Leonatus", the Latin form of the
Italian name in the other play). Stanley Wells and Michael Dobson
point out that Holinshed's 'Chronicles', which Shakespeare used as a
source, mention an Innogen and that Forman's eyewitness account of the
April 1611 performance refers to "Innogen" throughout. In spite of
these arguments, most editions of the play have continued to use the
name Imogen.
Milford Haven is not known to have been used during the period (early
1st century AD) in which 'Cymbeline' is set, and it is not known why
Shakespeare used it in the play. Robert Nye noted that it was the
closest seaport to Shakespeare's home town of Stratford-upon-Avon:
"But if you marched due west from Stratford, looking neither to left
nor to right, with the idea of running away to sea in your young head,
then Milford Haven is the port you'd reach," a walk of about , about
six days' journey, that the young Shakespeare might well have taken,
or at least dreamed of taking. Marisa R. Cull notes its possible
symbolism as the landing site of Henry Tudor, when he invaded England
via Milford on 7 August 1485 on his way to deposing Richard III and
establishing the Tudor dynasty. It may also reflect English anxiety
about the loyalty of the Welsh and the possibility of future invasions
at Milford.
Criticism and interpretation
======================================================================
'Cymbeline' was one of Shakespeare's more popular plays during the
eighteenth century, though critics including Samuel Johnson took issue
with its complex plot:
William Hazlitt and John Keats, however, numbered it among their
favourite plays.
By the early twentieth century, the play had lost favour. Lytton
Strachey found it "difficult to resist the conclusion that
[Shakespeare] was getting bored himself. Bored with people, bored with
real life, bored with drama, bored, in fact, with everything except
poetry and poetical dreams."
In 1937, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote 'Cymbeline
Refinished,' that rewrites the final act of the play. Shaw commented
on the play 1896, in one fiery critique stating it was: "stagey trash
of the lowest melodramatic order, in parts abominably written,
throughout intellectually vulgar, and, judged in point of thought by
modem intellectual standards, vulgar, foolish, offensive, indecent and
exasperating beyond all tolerance." Shaw, however, would go on to
reform his opinion of the play after his rewriting of the ending, yet
he remained firmly of the opinion that the final act was disastrous,
writing in 1946 that it was "one of the finest of Shakespeare's later
plays" but "goes to pieces in the final act." Harley Granville-Barker,
who found success as an actor in Shaw's plays had similar views,
saying that the play shows that Shakespeare was becoming a "wearied
artist".
Some have argued that the play parodies its own content. Harold Bloom
wrote that "'Cymbeline', in my judgment, is partly a Shakespearean
self-parody; many of his prior plays and characters are mocked by it."
British identity
==================
Similarities between Cymbeline and historical accounts of the Roman
Emperor Augustus have prompted critics to interpret the play as
Shakespeare voicing support for the political notions of James I, who
considered himself the "British Augustus." His political manoeuvres to
unite Scotland with England and Wales as an empire mirror Augustus'
'Pax Romana.' The play reinforces the Jacobean idea that Britain is
the successor to the civilised virtue of ancient Rome, portraying the
parochialism and isolationism of Cloten and the Queen as villainous.
Other critics have resisted the idea that 'Cymbeline' endorses James
I's ideas about national identity, pointing to several characters'
conflicted constructions of their geographic identities. For example,
although Guiderius and Arviragus are the sons of Cymbeline, a British
king raised in Rome, they grew up in a Welsh cave. The brothers lament
their isolation from society, a quality associated with barbarousness,
but Belarius, their adoptive father, retorts that this has spared them
from corrupting influences of the supposedly civilised British court.
Iachimo's invasion of Imogen's bedchamber may reflect concern that
Britain was being maligned by Italian influence. According to Peter A.
Parolin, 'Cymbeline’s' scenes ostensibly set in ancient Rome may be
anachronistic portrayals of sixteenth-century Italy, which was
characterised by contemporary British authors as a place where vice,
debauchery, and treachery had supplanted the virtue of ancient Rome.
Though 'Cymbeline' concludes with a peace forged between Britain and
Rome, Iachimo's corruption of Posthumus and metaphorical rape of
Imogen may demonstrate fears that Great Britain's political union with
other cultures might expose Britons to harmful foreign influences.
Gender and sexuality
======================
Scholars have emphasised that the play attributes great political
significance to Imogen's virginity and chastity. There is some debate
as to whether Imogen and Posthumus's marriage is legitimate. Imogen
has historically been played and received as an ideal, chaste woman
maintaining qualities applauded in a patriarchal structure; however,
critics argue that Imogen's actions contradict these social
definitions through her defiance of her father and her cross-dressing.
Yet critics including Tracey Miller-Tomlinson have emphasised the ways
in which the play upholds patriarchal ideology, including in the final
scene, with its panoply of male victors. Whilst Imogen and Posthumus's
marriage at first upholds heterosexual norms, their separation and
final reunion leave open non-heterosexual possibilities, initially
exposed by Imogen's cross-dressing as Fidele. Miller-Tomlinson points
out the falseness of their social significance as a "perfect example"
of a public "heterosexual marriage", considering that their
private relations turn out to be "homosocial, homoerotic, and
hermaphroditic."
Queer theory has gained traction in scholarship on 'Cymbeline',
building upon the work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Judith Butler.
Scholarship on this topic has emphasised the play's Ovidian allusions
and exploration of non-normative gender/sexuality - achieved through
separation from traditional society into what Valerie Traub terms
"green worlds." Amongst the most obvious and frequently cited examples
of this non-normative dimension of the play is the prominence of
homoeroticism, as seen in Guiderius and Arviragus's semi-sexual
fascination with the disguised Imogen/Fidele. In addition to
homoerotic and homosocial elements, the subjects of hermaphroditism
and paternity/maternity also feature prominently in queer
interpretations of 'Cymbeline'. Janet Adelman set the tone for the
intersection of paternity and hermaphroditism in arguing that
Cymbeline's lines, "oh, what am I, / A mother to the birth of three?
Ne’er mother / Rejoiced deliverance more", amount to a
"parthenogenesis fantasy". According to Adelman and Tracey
Miller-Tomlinson, in taking sole credit for the creation of his
children Cymbeline acts a hermaphrodite who transforms a maternal
function into a patriarchal strategy by regaining control of his male
heirs and daughter, Imogen. Imogen's own experience with gender
fluidity and cross-dressing has largely been interpreted through a
patriarchal lens. Unlike other Shakespearean agents of onstage gender
fluidity - Portia, Rosalind, Viola and Julia - Imogen is not afforded
empowerment upon her transformation into Fidele. Instead, Imogen's
power is inherited from her father and based upon the prospect of
reproduction.
Performance history
======================================================================
After the 1611 performance mentioned by Simon Forman, there is no
record of production until 1634, when the play was revived at court
for Charles I and Henrietta Maria. The Caroline production was noted
as being "well likte by the kinge." In 1728 John Rich staged the play
with his company at Lincoln's Inn Fields, with emphasis placed on the
spectacle of the production rather than the text of the play.
Theophilus Cibber revived Shakespeare's text in 1744 with a
performance at the Haymarket. There is evidence that Cibber put on
another performance in 1746, and another in 1758.
In 1761, David Garrick edited a new version of the text. It is
recognized as being close to the original Shakespeare, although there
are several differences. Changes included the shortening of Imogen's
burial scene and the entire fifth act, including the removal of
Posthumus's dream. Garrick's text was first performed in November of
that year, starring Garrick himself as Posthumus. Several scholars
have indicated that Garrick's Posthumus was much liked. Valerie Wayne
notes that Garrick's changes made the play more nationalistic,
representing a trend in perception of 'Cymbeline' during that period.
Garrick's version of 'Cymbeline' would prove popular; it was staged a
number of times over the next few decades.
In the late eighteenth century, Cymbeline was performed in Jamaica.
William Charles Macready mounted the play several times between 1837
and 1842. At the Theatre Royal, Marylebone, an epicene production was
staged with Mary Warner, Fanny Vining, Anna Cora Mowatt, and Edward
Loomis Davenport.
In 1859, 'Cymbeline' was first performed in Sri Lanka. In the late
nineteenth century, the play was produced several times in India.
In 1864, as part of the celebrations of Shakespeare's birth, Samuel
Phelps performed the title role at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Helena
Faucit returned to the stage for this performance.
The play was also one of Ellen Terry's last performances with Henry
Irving at the Lyceum in 1896. Terry's performance was widely praised,
though Irving was judged an indifferent Iachimo. Like Garrick, Irving
removed the dream of Posthumus; he also curtailed Iachimo's remorse
and attempted to render Cloten's character consistent. A review in the
'Athenaeum' compared this trimmed version to pastoral comedies such as
'As You Like It'. The set design, overseen by Lawrence Alma-Tadema,
was lavish and advertised as historically accurate, though the
reviewer for the time complained of such anachronisms as gold crowns
and printed books as props.
Similarly lavish but less successful was Margaret Mather's production
in New York in 1897. The sets and publicity cost $40,000, but Mather
was judged too emotional and undisciplined to succeed in a fairly
cerebral role.
Barry Jackson staged a modern dress production for the Birmingham Rep
in 1923, two years before his influential modern dress 'Hamlet'.
Walter Nugent Monck brought his Maddermarket Theatre production to
Stratford in 1946, inaugurating the post-war tradition of the play.
London saw two productions in the 1956 season. Michael Benthall
directed the less successful production, at The Old Vic. The set
design by Audrey Cruddas was notably minimal, with only a few
essential props. She relied instead on a variety of lighting effects
to reinforce mood; actors seemed to come out of darkness and return to
darkness. Barbara Jefford was criticised as too cold and formal for
Imogen; Leon Gluckman played Posthumus, Derek Godfrey Iachimo, and
Derek Francis Cymbeline. Following Victorian practice, Benthall
drastically shortened the last act.
By contrast, Peter Hall's production at the Shakespeare Memorial
presented nearly the entire play, including the long-neglected dream
scene (although a golden eagle designed for Jupiter turned out too
heavy for the stage machinery and was not used). Hall presented the
play as a distant fairy tale, with stylised performances. The
production received favourable reviews, both for Hall's conception
and, especially, for Peggy Ashcroft's Imogen. Richard Johnson played
Posthumus, and Robert Harris Cymbeline. Iachimo was played by Geoffrey
Keen, whose father Malcolm had played Iachimo with Ashcroft at the Old
Vic in 1932.
Hall's approach attempted to unify the play's diversity by means of a
fairy-tale topos. The next major Royal Shakespeare Company production,
in 1962, went in the opposite direction. Working on a set draped with
heavy white sheets, director William Gaskill employed Brechtian
alienation effects, to mixed critical reviews. The acting, however,
was widely praised. Vanessa Redgrave as Imogen was often compared
favourably to Ashcroft; Eric Porter was a success as Iachimo, as was
Clive Swift as Cloten. Patrick Allen was Posthumus, and Tom Fleming
played the title role.
A decade later, John Barton's 1974 production for the RSC (with
assistance from Clifford Williams) featured Sebastian Shaw in the
title role, Tim Pigott-Smith as Posthumus, Ian Richardson as Iachimo,
and Susan Fleetwood as Imogen. Charles Keating was Cloten. As with
contemporary productions of 'Pericles', this one used a narrator
(Cornelius) to signal changes in mood and treatment to the audience.
Robert Speaight disliked the set design, which he called too minimal,
but he approved the acting.
In 1980, David Jones revived the play for the RSC; the production was
in general a disappointment, although Judi Dench as Imogen received
reviews that rivalled Ashcroft's. Ben Kingsley played Iachimo; Roger
Rees was Posthumus. In 1987, Bill Alexander directed the play in The
Other Place (later transferring to the Pit in London's Barbican
Centre) with Harriet Walter playing Imogen, David Bradley as Cymbeline
and Nicholas Farrell as Posthumus.
At the Stratford Festival, the play was directed in 1970 by Jean
Gascon and in 1987 by Robin Phillips. The latter production, which was
marked by much-approved scenic complexity, featured Colm Feore as
Iachimo, and Martha Burns as Imogen. The play was again at Stratford
in 2004, directed by David Latham. A large medieval tapestry unified
the fairly simple stage design and underscored Latham's fairy-tale
inspired direction.
In 1994, Ajay Chowdhury directed an Anglo-Indian production of
'Cymbeline' at the Rented Space Theatre Company. Set in India under
British rule, the play features Iachimo, played by Rohan Kenworthy, as
a British soldier and Imogen, played by Uzma Hameed, as an Indian
princess.
At the new Globe Theatre in 2001, a cast of six (including Abigail
Thaw, Mark Rylance, and Richard Hope) used extensive doubling for the
play. The cast wore identical costumes even when in disguise, allowing
for particular comic effects related to doubling (as when Cloten
attempts to disguise himself as Posthumus.)
There have been some well-received theatrical productions including
the Public Theater's 1998 production in New York City, directed by
Andrei Șerban. 'Cymbeline' was also performed at the Cambridge Arts
Theatre in October 2007 in a production directed by Sir Trevor Nunn,
and in November 2007 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. The play was
included in the 2013 repertory season of the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival.
In 2004 and 2014, the Hudson Shakespeare Company of New Jersey
produced two distinct versions of the play. The 2004 production,
directed by Jon Ciccarelli, embraced the fairy tale aspect of the
story and produced a colourful version with wicked step-mothers,
feisty princesses and a campy Iachimo. The 2014 version, directed by
Rachel Alt, went in a completely opposite direction and placed the
action on ranch in the American Old West. The Queen was a southern
belle married to a rancher, with Imogen as a high society girl in love
with the cowhand Posthumous.
In a 2007 Cheek by Jowl production, Tom Hiddleston doubled as
Posthumus and Cloten.
In 2011, the Shakespeare Theatre Company of Washington, DC, presented
a version of the play that emphasised its fable and folklore elements,
set as a tale within a tale, as told to a child.
In 2012, Antoni Cimolino directed a production at the Stratford
Festival that steered into the fairy-tale elements of the text.
Also in 2012, the South Sudan Theatre Company staged 'Cymbeline' in
Juba Arabic for the Shakespeare's Globe "Globe to Globe" festival. It
was translated by Derik Uya Alfred and directed by Joseph Abuk.
Connections between the content of the play and South Sudan's own
political struggle have been drawn by the production's producers, as
well as some scholars. Overall, the production was well received by
audiences and critics. Critic Matt Truman gave the production four out
of five stars, saying "The world's youngest nation seems delighted to
be here and, played with this much heart, even Shakespeare's most
rambling romance becomes irresistible."
In 2013, Samir Bhamra directed the play for Phizzical Productions with
six actors playing multiple parts for a UK national tour. The cast
included Sophie Khan Levy as Innojaan, Adam Youssefbeygi, Tony
Hasnath, Liz Jadav and Robby Khela. The production was set in the
souks of Dubai and the Bollywood film industry during the 1990s
communal riots and received acclaim from reviewers and academics
alike.
Also in 2013, a folk musical adaptation of 'Cymbeline' was performed
at the First Folio Theatre in Oak Brook, Illinois. The setting was the
American South during the Civil War, with Cymbeline as a man of high
status who avoids military service. The play was performed outdoors
and was accompanied by traditional Appalachian folk songs.
In 2015, at Shakespeare's Globe in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, a
production was directed by Sam Yates where the role of Innogen was
played by Emily Barber and Jonjo O'Neill as Posthumus.
In 2016, Melly Still directed 'Cymbeline' at the Royal Shakespeare
Company. This version of the play was performed at the Royal
Shakespeare Theatre before moving to the Barbican in late 2016. The
performance featured Bethan Cullinane as Innogen and Gillian Bevan as
Cymbeline.
In 2023, Gregory Doran directed 'Cymbeline' at the Royal Shakespeare
Theatre. It was his final production as artistic director, and
received largely positive reviews. The cast included Peter De Jersey
as Cymbeline and Amber James as Imogen.
Also in 2023, San Francisco's Free Shakespeare in the Park performed
'Cymbeline', directed by Maryssa Wanlass, with a David
Bowie/fantasy-themed focus on the play's queer interpretations.
In 2024, at the Stratford Festival, 'Cymbeline', directed by Esther
Jun, reversed the gender of several roles, with Cymbeline portrayed as
Queen of Britain by Lucy Peacock and her husband as a Duke, played by
Rick Roberts. Innogen was played by Allison Edwards-Crewe.
Adaptations
======================================================================
The play was adapted by Thomas d'Urfey as 'The Injured Princess, or,
the Fatal Wager'; this version was produced at the Theatre Royal,
Drury Lane, presumably by the united King's Company and Duke's
Company, in 1682. The play changes some names and details, and adds a
subplot, typical of the Restoration, in which a virtuous waiting-woman
escapes the traps laid by Cloten. D'Urfey also changes Pisanio's
character so that he at once believes in Imogen's (Eugenia, in
D'Urfey's play) guilt. For his part, D'Urfey's Posthumus is ready to
accept that his wife might have been untrue, as she is young and
beautiful. Some details of this alteration survived in productions at
least until the middle of the century.
William Hawkins revised the play again in 1759. His was among the last
of the heavy revisions designed to bring the play in line with
classical unities. He cut the Queen, reduced the action to two places
(the court and a forest in Wales). The dirge "With fairest flowers..."
was set to music by Thomas Arne.
Nearer the end of the century, Henry Brooke wrote an adaptation which
was apparently never staged. His version eliminates the brothers
altogether as part of a notable enhancement of Posthumus's role in the
play.
George Bernard Shaw, who criticized the play perhaps more harshly than
he did any of Shakespeare's other works, took aim at what he saw as
the defects of the final act in his 1937 'Cymbeline Refinished'; as
early as 1896, he had complained about the absurdities of the play to
Ellen Terry, then preparing to act Imogen. He called it "stagey trash
of the lowest melodramatic order". He later changed his view, saying
it was "one of the finest of Shakespeare's later plays", but he
remained convinced that it "goes to pieces in the final act".
Accordingly, in 'Cymbeline Refinished' he rewrote the last act,
cutting many of the numerous revelations and expositions, while also
making Imogen a much more assertive figure in line with his feminist
views.
There have been a number of radio adaptations of 'Cymbeline' between
the 1930s and the 2000s. The BBC broadcast productions of 'Cymbeline'
in the United Kingdom in 1934, 1951, 1957, 1986, 1996, and 2006. NBC
broadcast a production of the play in the United States in 1938. In
October 1951 the BBC aired a production of George Bernard Shaw's
'Cymbeline Refinished', as well as Shaw's foreword to the play.
Screen adaptations
====================
Lucius J. Henderson directed the first screen adaptation of
'Cymbeline' in 1913. The film was produced by the Thanhouser Company
and starred Florence La Badie as Imogen, James Cruze as Posthumus,
William Garwood as Iachimo, William Russell as Cymbeline, and Jean
Darnell as the Queen.
In 1937 the BBC broadcast several scenes of André van Gyseghem's
production of the play, which opened 16 November the same year, on
television. The scenes that comprised the broadcast were pulled
exclusively from Acts I and II of the play, and included the 'trunk
scene' from Act II Scene 2. In 1956 the BBC produced a similar
television program, this time airing scenes from Michael Benthall's
theatrical production, which opened 11 September 1956. Like the 1937
program, the 1956 broadcast ran for roughly half an hour and presented
several scenes from 'Cymbeline,' including the trunk scene.
In 1968 Jerzy Jarocki directed an adaptation of the play for Polish
television, starring Wiktor Sadecki as Cymbeline and Ewa Lassek as
Imogen.
Elijah Moshinsky directed the BBC Television Shakespeare adaptation in
1982, ignoring the ancient British period setting in favour of a more
timeless and snow-laden atmosphere inspired by Rembrandt and his
contemporary Dutch painters. Richard Johnson, Claire Bloom, Helen
Mirren, and Robert Lindsay play Cymbeline, his Queen, Imogen, and
Iachimo, respectively, with Michael Pennington as Posthumus.
In 2014, Ethan Hawke and director Michael Almereyda, who previously
collaborated on the 2000 film 'Hamlet', re-teamed for the film
'Cymbeline', in which Hawke plays Iachimo. The film is set in the
context of urban gang warfare. Ed Harris takes the title role. Penn
Badgley plays the orphan Posthumus; Milla Jovovich plays the role of
the Queen; Anton Yelchin is Cloten; and Dakota Johnson plays the role
of Imogen.
Stage adaptions
======================================================================
Prior to operatic adaptations only incidental music was composed. The
first operatic adaption seems to be composed by Edmond Missa in 1894,
under the title "Dinah"; American composer Christopher Berg composed
another one, of which scenes were performed in 2009.
Cultural references
======================================================================
In Beethoven’s one opera Fidelio, the loyal wife Leonore, disguising
herself as a man, takes on the name Fidelio, as a probable reference
to Imogen’s cross-dressing as Fidele.
The 'Song' from Act II, Scene 3 '(Hark, hark! the lark)' was set to
music by Franz Schubert in 1826.
Perhaps the most famous verses in the play come from the funeral song
of Act IV, Scene 2, which begins:
:Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
:Nor the furious winter's rages;
:Thou thy worldly task hast done,
:Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages:
:Golden lads and girls all must,
:As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
The first two lines are quoted by Virginia Woolf in 'Mrs. Dalloway' by
the two main characters Clarissa and Septimus Smith. The lines, which
turn Mrs. Dalloway's thoughts to the trauma of the First World War,
are at once an elegiac dirge and a profoundly dignified declaration of
endurance. The song provides a major organisational motif for the
novel. The final couplet also appears in the Anton Myrer novel, 'The
Last Convertible'.
The last two lines appear to have inspired T. S. Eliot in "Lines to a
Yorkshire Terrier" (in 'Five-Finger Exercises'). He writes:
:Pollicle dogs and cats all must
:Jellicle cats and dogs all must
:Like undertakers, come to dust.
The song was set to music by Roger Quilter as "Fear No More the Heat
o' the Sun," No. 1 of Five Shakespeare Songs, Op. 23 (1921). It was
also set by Gerald Finzi as part of his song cycle on texts by
Shakespeare 'Let Us Garlands Bring' (1942). The text is sung by Cleo
Laine to music by John Dankworth on her 1964 album 'Shakespeare and
All That Jazz'.
At the end of Stephen Sondheim's 'The Frogs', William Shakespeare is
competing against George Bernard Shaw for the title of best
playwright, deciding which of them is to be brought back from the dead
in order to improve the world. Shakespeare sings the funeral song of
Act IV, Scene 2, when asked about his view of death (the song is
titled "Fear No More").
"Fear no more the heat of the sun" is the line that Winnie and her
husband are trying to remember in Samuel Beckett's 'Happy Days' as
they sit exposed to the elements.
In the Epilogue of the novel 'Appointment with Death' by Agatha
Christie, the first four lines of the verse are quoted by the
character Ginevra Boynton as she reflects on the life of her deceased
mother Mrs Boynton.
In 'The Scent of Water' (1963) by Elizabeth Goudge, the central
character, Mary Lindsay, feels struck by lightning when she realises
she has fallen in love with Paul Randall, an author and Royal Air
Force pilot, blinded in the last days of World War II, and married.
"Fear no more the lightning-flash", Mary suddenly thinks, along with
the rest of that stanza, ending "All lovers young, all lovers must
/Consign to thee, and come to dust", knowing she must hide her love,
and recognising that, already fifty, she is growing old (Chapter IX,
Part 1, p 164).
External links
======================================================================
*
* [
http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/Cym/ 'Cymbeline']
- Texts, supplementary materials, and resources at Internet
Shakespeare Editions.
* [
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1538 'Cymbeline'] - from Project
Gutenberg
*
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymbeline
