Cymbeline

CharlasThe Globe: Shakespeare, his Contemporaries, and Context

Únete a LibraryThing para publicar.

Cymbeline

Este tema está marcado actualmente como "inactivo"—el último mensaje es de hace más de 90 días. Puedes reactivarlo escribiendo una respuesta.

1belleyang
Editado: Nov 4, 2007, 1:41 am

I just finished reading "Cymbeline" and thought it was a drawer full of spare nuts, bolts, gewgaw, loose screws and one fabulous character, Imogen, whose intelligence and depth of personality was equal to Rosalind in "As You Like It." I actually like Imogen more than Rosalind. As others have said. Imogen deserves a far better play and a far better hubby.

Perhaps seeing it staged can be a great experience with all the action and surprises, for instance, Cloten's headless body layed out next to Imogen; when Imogen wakes, she thinks the body belongs her husband Posthumous.

It felt to me as if Shakespeare was really tired of making plays and wanted to throw in everything he has ever done into the mix to entertain a rabble of theater goers who wanted spectacle.

"Cymbeline" is the antithesis of "Coriolanus." In the latter, Shakespeare wrote to please himself. He did away with all the trappings of mob entertainment and went for the jugular. No fools, no love story. Sheer muscle.

Btw, "Cymbeline" was once classified as tragedy and later grouped with the romance.

Has anyone read these two plays lately?

2Cariola
Nov 3, 2007, 11:02 am

Actually, I've always found it interesting that Shakespeare wrote the romances (Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest) after writing what was probably the worst of his tragedies, Timon of Athens. (The title character literally crawls under a rock and dies when his friends desert him.) Also that, in this period shortly before his retirement to Stratford, he wrote plays about daughters who all in some way redeem their fathers. As the father of two daughters back in Stratford and a wife he didn't seem much to care for, I think there may be a good bit of the personal in the romances as well.

I don't think it was a case of pleasing "the mob" v. pleasing himself. He was trying out a new genre, and he was also collaborating with other playwrights who may have influenced the content of these plays.

Coriolanus is a bit of the fool (though an admirable one) himself, and if there is a love story, it's the one between the warrior and his mother, Volumnia.

3ivyd
Nov 3, 2007, 1:55 pm

I read both Coriolanus and Cymbeline in September. I had last read Cymbeline a few years ago, but hadn't read Coriolanus since college (many years ago).

Neither play is among my favorites (nor, in my opinion, among Shakespeare's best plays), but I rather enjoyed Cymbeline. The title is rather misleading because, as you say, the best parts of the play are about Imogen. The lost sons plot is mostly a throw-away as far as I'm concerned, though I thought that the familial "recognition" between Imogen and her brothers was an interesting concept.

As for Coriolanus, I disagree that he was "a bit of the fool." He was proud and noble and unbending; his refusal to pander to the mob led to his wrongul ejectment from Rome, and the same lofty ideals dictated his revenge (righting of the wrong) by marching on Rome. Yet, ironically, he was finally defeated by his love for his mother: she was the one who had instilled those ideals in him, and his willingness to follow her advice led to his death.

Yet, I really didn't see the depth of character in Coriolanus that I expect from Shakespeare. I guess I thought that Plutarch (who I also recently read) did a better job of exploring his character and how it led to his downfall.

4belleyang
Nov 3, 2007, 7:13 pm

>2 Cariola: At times, it seemed that whole passages were written by someone else. Saturn descending in Posthumous' vision is so bad it had to have been written as a parody or by another writer.

Bad and rotten as Cloten was, I rather liked his plodding nasty, toadiness :)

I wonder if I should start another thread for Coriolanus...

5belleyang
Editado: Nov 4, 2007, 1:38 am

>2 Cariola: Boy, don't you just love Shakespeare's women. They are all so much smarter than their men!! Yes, you're right. You can imagine his love for his daughter, Susanna.

6lilithcat
Nov 3, 2007, 7:59 pm

Perhaps seeing it staged can be a great experience with all the action and surprises

I just saw a production of Cymbeline at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. And it was, indeed, a great experience! I don't think that the humor of the play is as evident on the printed page as it is on the stage.

It does seem as though Shakespeare were plagiarizing from himself, though! There are very few of his favorite plot elements that don't appear in this one.

7KimberlyL
Nov 18, 2007, 8:29 pm

I was the Production SM overseeing a production of Cymbeline a few years ago and luckily it was in the hands of a skilled director. The ending alone boggles the mind. Just one revelation right after another all of which borders on the absurd. But Bill Brown (the director) managed to bring out the pathos as well as the humor.

Cymbeline really is a kitchen sink kind of play. And yes once again, Shakespeare's women are running circles around the men. And I love it!

#6 lilithcat, I'd be interested in more of your review of the Chicago Shakes production.