Play of the Month: Cymbeline

I just completed studying Cymbeline, my eleventh Shakespeare play. With over 3,900 lines and set in pre-Roman Britain, the play was reportedly produced before 1611. It was listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, but many modern critics classify it as a tragicomedy. 

As Shakespeare's works are known  for, the play deals with several complicated themes, including morality; loyalty and deception; gender roles; forgiveness and reconciliation; the gods and fate; nobility; and, not least,  imperialism vs. independence. Among all these themes, I was particularly impressed by how the traditional notions of morality and loyalty were complicated, as the play showcases that the value of both traits lies in intention alone: sometimes loyalty is immoral, while sometimes deception—when used with proper intentions—is necessary and virtuous.

Cymbeline is based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerning the early historical Celtic British King Cunobeline. The King's name has a Brittonic meaning of "Strong as a Dog," and from which the main character of the play, Cymbeline, was created—hence the play's title. Another character who impressed me by her name alone is Imogen, the daughter of King Cymbeline, because many critics believe it is a corruption of Innogen, a character in the Historia Regum Britanniae. The third name that amazed me is Posthumus, the husband of Imogen who received his name because he was born after the death of his father, the fierce Roman soldier Sicilius Leonatus. 

As part of my extended study, I explored briefly the Matter of Britain and learned about Brutus of Troy, the legendary first king after whom Britain was named, and from whom Britain traces its roots to the Trojan War of Homer's epic poems. Thanks to the play, I now have a clearer picture of pre-Roman British history and the indelible Roman influence in the British culture.

The main setting of the play is Britain, with the City of London mentioned in passing. Through the play, I learned about the ancient custom of beheading the enemies and displaying their heads in "Lud's-town", named after King Lud and known as the City of London today. As a foreign reader and having perceived London as a global financial center, among other aspects showcasing high civility and civilization, I was greatly amused by the related passages in the play.

Another setting of the play is Milford Haven, a natural harbour in Wales where the British and Roman armies fought. Milford Haven was known as a safe port and was exploited for several historical military operations, including the invasion of Ireland in 1171 by Henry II and by Cromwell in 1649. It will be a must-visit destination if I visit Wales in the future.

Quoted herewith are dialogues or soliloquies that impressed me the most in the play, in modern English translation:

IACHIMO (Act 1, Scene 6)

You should think, "Is it right for him to make me live, like a nun of the goddess Diana's, lying between cold sheets?" while he's leaping over differently-sized hurdles, injuring you and your bank account? Take your revenge. I'm available for your pleasure. I'll treat you more nobly than that runaway from your bed, and I will continue to love you, secretly and surely.

IMOGEN (Act 1, Scene 6)

Go away! I'm angry at my ears for listening to you for so long. If you were honorable you would have told this story for a virtuous reason, not for the kind of goal you're after—that's as low as it is strange. You're acting wrongly towards a gentleman, who is as far from doing what you describe as you are from being honorable. You're trying to sleep with a woman who rejects you like she does the devil. Pisanio! My father the king will be told about your assault on me. If he thinks it's right for a rude stranger to bargain like he's in a Roman brothel and to speak his horrible mind to me, he doesn't care about his court and doesn't respect his daughter at all. Pisanio!

POSTHUMUS LEONATUS (Act 2, Scene 5)

Is there no way for men to be born except for women to do half the work? We're all illegitimate. That respected man I called my father wasn't in the room when I was conceived. I was a fake made by some forger. But my mother appeared like a virgin goddess then, and my wife appears equally astounding now. Oh, revenge, revenge! She held off my sexual desires and often asked me to show restraint. She asked this with such sweet prudence that even a god would have found her attractive. I thought she was as pure as unmelted snow. Oh, by all the devils! Unhealthy-looking Iachimo—in an hour, wasn't it? Or less, the first time they laid eyes on each other! Maybe he didn't speak, but like a wild boar cried out and mounted her. He didn't find any resistance except exactly the kind he wanted, not the kind she should have used to stop him. I wish I could find the part of me made out of a woman! If it's lying, that's the part that's made from a woman. If it's buttering people up, it's hers. If it's deceiving people, it's hers. If it's filled with lust and disgusting thoughts, it's hers, definitely hers. If it wants revenge, it's hers. If it's filled with ambition, jealousy, changing clothes, disrespect, ridiculous cravings, slander, changes of mind, and all sins that don't have names, no—all the sins there are in hell, then it's partly or all hers. Or actually, all. Women aren't even faithful to evil, because they're always changing from one sin to the next within thirty seconds. I'll write about them, hate them, curse them. But it's a better revenge to pray that they get what they want. Not even the devils themselves could be worse to them than they are to themselves.

BELARIOUS (Act 3, Scene 3)

(Exeunt GUIDERIUS and ARVIRAGUS)

It's so hard to hide people's natures! These boys have no idea they're the sons of the king, and Cymbeline has no idea they're alive. They think they're my sons, and even though I've raised them humbly in this cave that makes them bow, their ambitions reach high enough to hit the roofs of palaces. Even when they're doing simple and low things they seem much more like princes than anyone else. Polydore, Cymbeline's and Britain's heir, was called Guiderius by his father. By Jove! When I sit on my stool and tell them about the deeds I did at war, he puts himself entirely into the story. When I say, "My enemy fell in this way, and I put my foot on his neck in this way," his noble blood flows into his face and he sweats and acts my words out. His younger brother, Cadwal, once called Arviragus, also acts out my stories but adds his own twist to them. Listen, they've found a deer! Oh Cymbeline! The gods and my conscience know you were wrong to banish me. So, when they were three and two years old, I stole these babies. I thought I would take your heirs from you, the way you took my lands. Euriphile, you were their nurse. They thought you were their mother, and visit her grave every day. They think I, Belarius, now called Morgan, am their birth father. The hunt has started.

IMOGEN (Act 4, Scene 2)

(Seeing the body of CLOTEN)

These flowers are like the pleasures of this world, and this bloody man is like the sadness in it. I hope I'm dreaming. I thought I lived in a cave, and was a cook for honest men. But that's not true. It was a lightning bolt that came from nowhere and hit nothing, invented by my brain. People's eyes are sometimes as bad as their judgement. Goodness, I'm still trembling with fear. But if there is still left in heaven a drop of pity as small as a bird's eye, please give me a part of it, gods! The dream's still here. Even when I wake up, it's outside me as well as inside. I can feel it, not just imagine it. A headless man! Posthumus's clothes! I recognize the shape of his leg. This is his hand. His foot like Mercury's. His thigh like Mars's. His muscles like Hercules's. But his Jove-like face—oh gods!—how could this be—it's gone. Pisanio, may all the curses Hecuba threw at the Greeks, added to mine, be thrown at you! You plotted with that strange devil, Cloten, to kill my lord in this way. May writing and reading be considered treason from now on! Damned Pisanio with his fake letters - damned Pisanio - knocked the main mast off the best ship in the world! Oh Posthumus! Where is your head? Where is it? Where is it? Pisanio could have stabbed you in the heart and left your head on. How could this happen? Pisanio? It's him and Cloten. Resentment and the desire for money made them do this. Oh, I see how it went! The drug he gave me, which he said was effective and would make me feel better—didn't it knock me out? That confirms it. Pisanio did this, and Cloten! Oh! I'll put your blood on my pale cheek so that we seem more frightening to anyone who happens to see us. Oh, my husband, my husband!

POSTHUMUS LEONATUS (Act 5, Scene 1)

Yes, bloody cloth, I'll keep you, because I wanted you to be this color. You who are married, if all of you did this, so many of you would murder wives who are much better than you just for straying a bit! Oh Pisanio! Good servants don't obey every order. Their duty is just to obey the moral ones. Gods, if you had taken revenge on me for my sins, I would never has lived long enough to do this and you would have given the noble Imogen a chance to repent and punished me, who deserve it more. But sadly you kill some of us for small sins. That shows your love for those people, because you keep them from sinning worse. Some you allow to do evil after evil, each one worse, so that they are afraid of your revenge but can only be punished once. But Imogen is with you now. Do what you want, and bless me for obeying you! I am brought here along with the Italian nobles, to fight against my wife's country. It's enough that I've killed your ruler, Britain. Let's be at peace! I won't attack you. So, gods, listen to what I mean to do:  I'll take off these Italian clothes and dress like a British peasant. So I'll fight against the army I came with. And that way I'll die for you, oh Imogen, since I already feel like I'm dying for you with every breath I take. And so, unknown, neither pitied nor hated, I'll face danger. Let me show more bravery in this than I usually do. Gods, give me the strength of a Leonatus! To make the world feel ashamed, I'll turn the usual fashion around by making myself seem less noble on the outside and more on the inside.

POSTHUMUS LEONATUS (Act 5, Scene 3)

Next to the battlefield, with ditches on the sides and walls made of grass. This gave an opportunity to an ancient solder, an honest one I bet. He deserved to be made as noble as his white beard was long for doing this in the service of his country. He, along with two young boys more likely to run races in the countryside than kill people this way, with faces attractive enough to make masks out of, or rather more beautiful than anyone whose face was made into a mask to remind people of their virtue or shame—they protected the passageway. They called to the men running away: "British deer die while running away, not British men. The souls of people who run away go to hell. Stand your ground, or we will act like Romans and treat you like animals because you're running away like animals. You can save yourselves by just turning around and frowning. Stand your ground." These three were as confident as if there were three thousand of them, and had the same effect as three thousand—because three people can make a difference when no one else is doing anything. They said "stand your ground" and looked at home where they were, and convinced people by their example, which could even have turned a woman's stick for spinning wool into a spear. They made people seem less afraid, partly because they were ashamed to and partly because their courage came back. Some people, who were acting like cowards just because everyone else was—which is a sin in war and the people who began this trend should be damned!—began to act the same as the three men and to bare their teeth like lions at hunters' spears. Then the chase ended, the enemy fell back and was defeated, and there was nothing but confusion in their ranks. Immediately they ran like chickens when before they acted like eagles. They went back like slaves over the space they first crossed like conquerors. And now those who were cowards at first on our side, like crumbs that save your life when you're starving on a long journey, saved the day. Finding the enemies' backs unprotected, they stabbed them to the heart! They trampled over some men who had been killed before, some who were dying, some who fell over in the crowd. Before, ten men were chased by one, but those men turned around and killed twenty. The men who chose to die rather than give up became the terror of the battlefield.

POSTHUMUS LEONATUS (Act 5, Scene 4)

Welcome, slavery! You are a way to find freedom. I'm better off than someone sick with gout. He would prefer to suffer forever than to be cured by that talented doctor, death, the key to these locks. My consciousness, you're less free than my legs and arms. Good gods, give me the pick to pick that lock, then I'll be free forever! Is it enough that I'm sorry for what I did? That's how children get their fathers to forgive them. Gods are more merciful. Do I have to repent? I couldn't do it better than while tied up. And it's more that I want to than that I have to. As a punishment, just take everything I have from me and no more. I know you're kinder than disgusting humans, who take a third of what people in debt owe, or a sixth or a tenth, and leave them the rest so they can earn their money back. That's not what I want. In return for Imogen's precious life, take mine. Although it's not as precious, it's still a life. You created it. Humans don't weigh every coin we exchange. Even if they're lighter than they should be, we accept that they have a certain value because of the image stamped onto them. There's even more reason for you to take mine since I was created in your image. And so, gods, examine this financial record and cancel the loan. Oh Imogen! I'll speak to you by staying silent.

(Sleeps. Solemn music. Enter, as in an apparition, SICILIUS LEONATUS, father to Posthumus Leonatus, an old man, attired like a warrior; leading in his hand an ancient matron, his wife, and mother to Posthumus Leonatus, with music before them: then, after other music, follow the two young Leonati, brothers to Posthumus Leonatus, with wounds as they died in the wars. They circle Posthumus Leonatus round, as he lies)

SICILIUS LEONATUS 

You thunder-god, don't punish human flies anymore. Disagree with Mars and fight with Juno who gets angry and gets her revenge for your adultery. Has my poor boy, whose face I never got to see, done anything wrong? I died while he was still in his mother's womb, growing naturally. People say you're a father to orphans, and you should have been a father to him and protected him from this pain.

JUPITER (Act 5, Scene 4)

Don't offend us by talking anymore, you minor spirits from below! Shh! How dare you ghosts accuse me of these things when you know my lightning bolts shoot from the sky at all rebelling countries? Poor ghosts from Elysium, go away, and rest on your hills covered in undying flowers. Don't worry about what happens on earth. It isn't any of your business, and you know it's mine. I make trouble for the people I love best, because postponing my help makes people appreciate it more. You can be sure, my power will save your son even though he's been laid low. Things that will comfort him are being taken care of, and the things he's going through are good for him. He was born under my star, and was married in my temple. Get up and fade away. He will be lady Imogen's husband, and this suffering will make him happier in the end. Set this tablet on his chest, where I've set down his destiny. So, go away. Don't make any more noise saying you're impatient, or I'll become impatient too. Fly up, eagle, to my crystal palace.

BELARIOUS (Act 5 Scene 5)

Wait a moment. This man I call Polydore is really your Guiderius, worthy king. This man, my Cadwal, is your younger royal son Arviragus. He, sir, was wrapped in a beautifully woven blanket, made by his mother the queen, which I can easily show you for more proof.

CYMBELINE 

Guiderius had a mole on his neck, a red star. It was an amazing thing.

BELARIOUS 

This is him, and he still has that mark. Nature was wise in giving it to him, since now it's evidence for him.

CYMBELINE

Am I a mother giving birth to three children? No mother was ever happier to deliver children. After strangely changing social classes, may you be blessed in the one you've come back to! Oh Imogen, you've lost a kingdom because of this.

IMOGEN 

No, my lord, I have gained two whole worlds. Oh my dear brothers, have we met this way? Never say I don't tell the truth more than you do. You called me brother although I was only your sister, but I called you brothers and that was exactly you where.

SOOTHSAYER (Act  5, Scene 5)

[Reads] "When a lion's cub, not knowing himself, finds a piece of soft air and is hugged by it without looking for it, and when branches are cut from a noble cedar tree and, after being dead many years, come back to life and are re-attached to the old trunk and grow again, then Posthumus's sorrows will end, and Britain will be fortunate, prosperous, and peaceful." You, Leonatus, are the lion's cub. That's what your name, Leonatus, means.

(To CYMBELINE) The piece of soft air is your virtuous daughter. The word for "woman" in Latin, "mulier," comes from "mollis aer," soft air. The "mulier" is, I think, this faithful wife. Just now, as the prophecy says, you didn't recognize her and didn't think you would find her, but you were hugged by this soft air.

CYMBELINE 

That makes sense. 

SOOTHSAYER 

The tall cedar, royal Cymbeline, stands for you. And your cut branches are your two sons who, stolen by Belarius and for many years thought to be dead, are now brought back to life and attached to the old cedar, whose children are a sign of coming peace and prosperity for Britain.

CYMBELINE 

Well, that peace will begin now. And, Caius Lucius, although we won, we submit to Caesar and the Roman empire and promise to pay our usual tribute. I was convinced not to by my evil queen, who, along with her son, has been punished terribly by the gods.