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Cymbeline (Shakespeare Project Lecture) (Patreon)

Published:
2024-12-20 21:31:22
Imported:
2026-06
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  • HLBC Cymbeline Lecture.mp3

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Content

'Fear no more the heat o' the sun, nor the furious winter's rages.'

Our journey through the works of William Shakespeare continues, and we have now arrived at the curious mature work that is Cymbeline.

We’re discussing romance vs tragedy, generic designation, the playwright's world-weariness, homage, imitation, parody, storytelling conventions, historic criticism, dark humour, and much more.

Timestamps:

0:00 Shakespeare’s palace of tropes

2:00 romance, tragedy, comedy, or history?

4:00 Cymbeline’s position in the canon

6:00 discoveries from reading Shakespeare

8:00 how I personally feel about Cymbeline

10:00 have I fallen out with the romances?

12:00 Shakespeare is nearing retirement

14:00 did Will grow tired of the theatre?

15:00 explaining the story of Cymbeline

17:00 the wager about Imogen’s constancy

19:00 Giacomo tries to seduce Imogen

21:00 appreciating some fabliaux motifs

23:00 Giacomo emerges from the trunk

25:00 homages, metafiction & allusions

26:00 is Imogen one of the wisest heroines?

28:00 Imogen righteously insults Cloten

30:00 Posthumous receives ocular proof

32:00 soliloquy on the woman’s part in man

34:00 Shakespeare’s proto-feminist stance

36:00 more cross-dressing from the bard

38:00 Cymbeline refuses tribute to Rome

39:00 meeting Belarius, Polydore & Cadwal

40:00 imitation as storytelling cornerstone

42:00 life in nature vs life in the court

44:00 Imogen in the cave at Milford Haven

46:00 Cloten in the garments of Posthumous

48:00 dark humour when Cloten gets unstuck

49:00 the wisdom Imogen teaches us

51:00 my personal one-passage from the play

52:00 ‘fear no more the heat of the sun’

53:00 goddess death and rebirth trope

54:00 what is the value of comedy/romance?

55:00 discussing the climax of Cymbeline

56:00 historic criticism of the final act

1:00:00 my ultimate thoughts on this play

1:02:00 what do you make of this Cymbeline?

Recommended Resources:

  • Arden Edition: The Arden edition of this play is excellent. The critical introduction and annotations are incredibly insightful.

  • Radio Adaptation: I highly recommend the wonderful BBC Radio 3 adaptation as the cast do a splendid job of bringing the play to life.

  • Music Appreciation: By this point in our journey, we have enjoyed a lot of the bard's songs. 'Fear no more the heat of the sun' is up there, along with Feste's song, as one of my personal favourites. You can listen to some beautiful recordings of it here and here.

  • Critical Appreciation: If you would find yourself interested in Shakespeare's late mature plays, then you may like Derek Traversi's sensitive analysis of Cymbeline and the final romances in his book Shakespeare: The Last Phase.

  • Film Adaptation: There is a modern film adaptation of this play starring Dakota Johnson as Imogen, Penn Badgley as Posthumous, Ethan Hawke as Iachamo, Ed Harris as Cymbeline, and Milla Jovovich as the Queen. If you check it out, let us know if you think it deserves the poor reviews it garnered.

  • New to Shakespeare: If you are coming to the bard for the first time, you may find a more powerful entrance to his world through some of his other plays. Every bardolator has their personal favourites, but I would recommend checking out tragedies like Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, or experiencing the Henriad saga with the Hollow Crown. If you find yourself smitten, I'd then encourage a chronological reading over the long term.

  • Our Journey Thus Far: If you want to jump into any specific play, you can check out the works we've enjoyed thus far as part of our read-through here.

Questions for You:

1) Do you feel like the bard's late plays are significantly different from his earlier works?

2) Why do you think the compilers of the First Folio put Cymbeline in the tragedies?

3) What line, passage, idea, or character most resonated with you? And what is your personal grading for Cymbeline?

Happy reading, Bardolators!

Files

Previews only

Comments

Kelly Hunsaker

This is my first reading of any Shakespeare except for Romeo and Juliet when I was in seventh grade 40+ years ago. I didn’t love it. I also feel like I didn’t take it in as well as I should have and it may be worthy of a reread at some point, but after listening to the lecture, I think perhaps I started in the wrong place.What is one of his place that you find most accessible and intriguing?

Mike

This was my first brush with Cymbeline. I watched a BBC production of the play, and it has so many great lines. Imogen was wonderfully played by a young Helen Mirren. Some of my favorite one-liners were; Men’s vows are women’s traitors. What a strange infection has fallen into thy ear. I cannot tremble at it; were it toad or adder, spider ‘twould move me sooner. I choose an eagle and did avoid a puttock. Thy words I grant are bigger. I wear not my dagger in my mouth. Strange foul light on familiar ponds. My favorite characters were Imogen and the gallant Pisanio. Posthumus never redeems himself – it’s hard to get over the fact that he ordered his servant to kill his loyal, loving wife falsely accused of adultery and that he would take the word of the mendacious Italian Iachimo. Posthumus is a putz, and one wonders why Imogen would still love him after all that. I agree that Act Five was a tedious, wildly implausible affair. I think Shakespeare tried to do too much with this play. He had too many subplots running through it. I like a happy ending as much as the next guy, but this went way beyond the plausible into the realm of the ridiculous. Measure for Measure has a similar type ending, but I thought M by M’s ending was much more artfully done. I’m going to give this one a C+ or a B -.

Seyca Manza

I was delighted to discover that I own a copy of this play already, although it is a Pelican. I have collected classics compulsively for more than two decades. I wanted to feel "smart" again after a disastrous university experience that decimated my ego. But, honestly, I read only a few over the years. So I really don't know what I own for the most part. The HCLC is offering me a chance to reengage with my books, now that I have matured. About half of the selections Ben puts on our schedules have been collecting dust on my shelves. It is always exciting to search for them!

Denise Powers

I have not been following the Shakespeare project faithfully at all, and Cymbeline is maybe the 4th or 5th play I have read. I am still finding Shakespeare difficult and while I am committed to reading it (and going through all the back catelogue) I'm not comprehending it all. I'm hoping that more time with the Bard will make his work clearer. All that said, I enjoyed this play. Yes, there is a lot going on (and Benjamin, you said Dickens gets a lot of leeway with coincidences! Nothing in comparison to this!) But I found myself delighted that it all ended well. Perhaps it is the holidays working on me, but I didn't want a gruesome ending like Lear. Innogen is magnificent; a wild and brave woman.

Bulkington

In honor of finishing David Copperfield, we just watched the bbc production from the late 1990s with Daniel Radcliffe and Maggie Smith. In America, the BBC wasn’t available on the link, but it was thankfully available on Hulu for free with no commercials because we alreadysubscribe. It was perfectly cast with two episodes. Normally, I am suspect of film versions of books and find them inferior, but in this case, it was just perfect casting and a tear jerker. Started listening to Ovid it after reading a pretty hefty introduction in order to get in the right mindset. Temperamentally from what I’ve read, so far, I really have an affinity for. Ovid. In book one, as I’ve been listening, I’ve been testing myself to note the transitions of change, which is very fun and keeps me on edge and alert. I think in terms of changes and connections and I like to pay attention so this is Tailor made for me! I cheated starting 100 years of solitude early in December, so I have put it on the back burner for now and I will probably restart it this weekend from the beginning just to solidify my experience

Margaret

I was browsing in a furniture shop today, and every time I saw a trunk I thought of Iachimo. 😆 I would edit out all of the Renaissance Italy elements of the play and just leave the ancient Britain vs Rome elements. The wager cycle with Posthumus and Iachimo convoluted the story for me. I would enjoy watching a production where Innogen runs away to the green world to escape an arranged marriage to Cloten, then her new found brother Polydore cuts off Cloten's head, protecting his sister without realizing it. I would enjoy the narrative more if it focuses on Innogen asserting her independence rather than her purity.

Kate

I’ve just finished Cymbeline for the third time. It gets easier but I still can’t rate it much higher than a D. I think the plot is a bit of a shambles with the action racing from place to place and most of the characters are fairly awful. It seems Shakespeare signals bad characters with incomprehensible speeches (I find some of Posthumus’ “Yea bloody cloth, I’ll keep thee: for I wish’d thou should be colour’d thus ……” particularly bad.). Iachimo seems a parody of Iago, Cymbeline is an ineffective leader, the Queen is a kind of wicked stepmother and Cloten is just rotten! Act 5 is very long and chaotic with a rather silly battle, a dream with ghosts and Jupiter and some inexplicable mis-recognitions leading to a lengthy reveal. For balance we have Innogen, her two brothers, Belarius and Pisano. Innogen has some appealing speeches “I see man’s life is a tedious one …’ and then there’s the wonderful and moving dirge ‘Fear no more the heat o’ th’ sun’ which has been described as the finest thing in a very uneven play.

Jay

I really enjoyed this play and for those of you out there who enjoyed it too I saw a great production of Cymbeline yesterday at the Globe theatre yesterday. If you get a chance to go i am sure you won't be disappointed . The play has been done rather than set in a male dominated world but in a female instead. King Cymbeline had been replaced by Queen Cymbeline and Innogen and Posthumus are same sex lesbian married couple .Some other male roles have been changed to female . If you are anti-woke ,like me , don't let the change of roles put you off . The play was performed so well . It had drama , it was funny and so moving . The whole cast was amazing . I am still feeling the emotions experienced during the performance and i am sure will stay with me for a long time.

Patricia Reinhardt

If this isn't all about The Gaze, the male gaze, I don't know what is. Thinking also of the celebrated search for le mot juste. In a way Emma is pinned and labeled, like a an insect specimen. I really don't feel Gus's concern for women yet. I'm just not feeling it.

Terri Matter

This play caught me by surprise. I had no idea there was one of Shakespeares most fabulous female characters still waiting in the wings for me to discover. I found her a total delight (except for the part where she finds it so easy to forgive Posthumous for murdering her😜). And the mountaineering trio--so joyful and full of life. I thought this play was really dense and found it fun to find all the callbacks. Shakespeare seems to have exited his bitter phase with a bang.