1439900 1623 Shakespeare. Cymbeline Leaves.
10271.
Cymbeline. Extracted from the First Folio. 1623.
(369-72, 385-394, 397-398)
(See much fuller description in lot 10213 of this collection)
Cymbeline has been characterized as a sort of “fantasy romance” and has possibly the most intricately convoluted structure of any in the canon. It opens with two gentlemen discussing present conditions at the court of King Cymbeline who ruled during the time of Augustus.
We learn that the king’s daughter, princess Imogen, has gone against the wishes of her father and that this has greatly upset the queen (her stepmother) and therefore Cymbeline as well. Imogen has secretly married a gentleman named Posthumous Leonatus rather than Cloten, the son of the queen (whose name is never mentioned). The two gentlemen further reveal that Posthumous is a man of many virtues and is a perfect mate for the saintly Imogen as opposed to Cloten whom they characterize as a clod and dullard who is “too bad for bad report”.
Since Imogen is the king’s only child (his two boys having been stolen twenty years before and never yet found) the queen’s chances of succession are now nil. Cymbeline banishes Posthumous and virtually imprisons Imogen, leaving her in the care of her scheming stepmother.
The queen deceitfully tells Imogen and Posthumous that she ill plead their case to the king leading Imogen to whisper “how far this tyrant can tickle where she wounds”. Before parting, Imogen and Posthumous exchange gifts: she giving him a ring which had been her mother’s, he placing a bracelet on her wrist and saying
“For my sake wear this/It is a manacle of love. I’ll plsce it upon this fairest prisoner.”
Their parting scene is lovely and somewhat reminiscent of Shakespeare’s much earlier play “Romeo and Juliet.”
Cymbeline bursts in upon them and threatens Posthumous:
“Thou basest thing avoid hence, from my sight!/ if after this command thou frought the court/with thou unworthiness, thou diest! Away!/ Thou’rt poison to my blood.”
The queen enters and while soothing Cymbeline, has Imogen “penned away”. Jus then Pisanio, servant to Posthumous and says that Cloten had drawn his sword on Posthumous, but Posthumous rather easily fended him off. It is not the last encounter of the two and as the play unfolds we are taken to a fairy-land of intrigue culminating in a lengthy final scene in which no fewer that twenty-two plot points are neatly resolved. Though the play is now considered a “romance” its placement in the first folio is among the tragedies. Incidentally, the final leaf of Cymbeline,being the final leaf of the entire folio is considered the rarest, since it was most easily lost through wear and tear.
Good