Book Review: Cymbeline
‘Though those that are betray’d do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor stands in worse case of woe’
Dr. House, played by Hugh Laurie, once said ‘Men are pigs and they’ll sleep with anyone’ and reading Cymbeline, I was inclined to agree - at least with the first part of that quote. That’s because the men in this play, are pretty horrible to the heroine Imogen, even the hero. I mean, I know men aren’t perfect and neither are women for that matter but, WOW. This play takes the biscuit. It’s one of Shakespeare’s lesser known works, whilst everyone is basking in the glow of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’, ‘Cymbeline’ is one of the works that gets overlooked. But it’s a goodie.
So what happens, well Cymbeline is King of the Britons (yay) and he is raging mad because his lovely daughter Imogen has eloped with the young Posthumus. Thus, Posthumus gets exiled because it’s treason to marry a princess without the Kings permission apparently. I mean similar things happened to King Henry the VIII’s sister Princess Margaret which also caused a lot of upset. Watch The Tudors. Its juicy. But I digress, Posthumus exiles himself in Italy where he makes the worlds most foolish bet with an Italian ambassador Iachimo who bets that he can seduce the beautiful Imogen but he must bring proof! This bet is like poking a sleeping dragon in the eye, I've also added it to my growing list of reasons why women shall inherit the earth because this bet has disaster written all over it. But I guess without it we wouldn’t have such a nail bitter of a play.
Now we have the Queen, Imogen’s step-mother who incidentally is mother to the fool Cloten. The Queen’s place is a little precarious, Cloten was a son born from a previous marriage so if she can get Cloten to successfully woo and marry Imogen then her royal bloodline is secure as Imogen is to inherit the British Crown. Cloten is an idiot and also a bit of a dick, he hears that Posthumus may be in Milford Haven where Imogen supposedly is going to meet him. His plan is to dress in Posthumus’ clothes in order to fool Imogen after which he will kill Posthumus then abduct, rape and marry Imogen. In that order. Luckily for the reader, he meets a rather grizzly end, I won’t say how. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. The Queen isn’t really much better as she plans to kill both Imogen and the King Cymbeline in order for her son to take the thrown.
But what of Imogen? She has escaped the palace dressed as a boy called ‘Fidele’. Now, anyone who has ever read any Shakespeare knows that this is one of his favourite traits to explore. Particularly because when this play was first performed women weren’t allowed on the stage. So it was a man pretending to be a woman dressed as a man, Shakespeare does love a bit of mind-bending-gender exploration.
Several years before all this malarkey went down, the Kings two young children (both boys) Arvirargus and Guiderius (quite the mouthful) were kidnapped and presumed dead, however they have been happily living in the forest the whole damn time. (Yaas!) And guess what! They befriend Imogen when she runs away from court! It was rather sweet watching/reading(???) As they bonded together and became close, not realising that they were siblings the whole time.
I have to say that towards the end of the play it did start to get a little ridiculous and you can kinda see why this play isn’t one of his best. Naturally everything come to a resolution, Cymbeline regains his daughter and his long lost sons meaning Imogen can marry whoever she wants. Iachimo reveals that it was all lies and that he got the description of Imogen’s room through mischievous and rotten means oh and the Queen dies revealing all of her wicked plots. It kinda sounds more like the end of a pantomime than a serious play. You know the ones that make you go ‘Awwwww’. But I won’t smite a happy ending, its nice to read a play/book/anything with a remotely happy ending. Even if its a bit of a damp squib.