Cymbeline
Page 23
About half the sum of his works were published in his lifetime, in texts of variable quality. A few years after his death, his fellow actors began putting together an authorized edition of his complete Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. It appeared in 1623, in large “Folio” format. This collection of thirty-six plays gave Shakespeare his immortality. In the words of his fellow dramatist Ben Jonson, who contributed two poems of praise at the start of the Folio, the body of his work made him “a monument without a tomb”:
And art alive still while thy book doth live
And we have wits to read and praise to give …
He was not of an age, but for all time!
SHAKESPEARE’S WORKS:
A CHRONOLOGY
1589–91
? Arden of Faversham (possible part authorship)
1589–92
The Taming of the Shrew
1589–92
? Edward the Third (possible part authorship)
1591
The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, originally called The First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster (element of coauthorship possible)
1591
The Third Part of Henry the Sixth, originally called The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York (element of coauthorship probable)
1591–92
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
1591–92; perhaps revised 1594
The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus (probably cowritten with, or revising an earlier version by, George Peele)
1592
The First Part of Henry the Sixth, probably with Thomas Nashe and others
1592/94
King Richard the Third
1593
Venus and Adonis (poem)
1593–94
The Rape of Lucrece (poem)
1593–1608
Sonnets (154 poems, published 1609 with A Lover’s Complaint, a poem of disputed authorship)
1592–94/1600–03
Sir Thomas More (a single scene for a play originally by Anthony Munday, with other revisions by Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, and Thomas Heywood)
1594
The Comedy of Errors
1595
Love’s Labour’s Lost
1595–97
Love’s Labour’s Won (a lost play, unless the original title for another comedy)
1595–96
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
1595–96
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
1595–96
King Richard the Second
1595–97
The Life and Death of King John (possibly earlier)
1596–97
The Merchant of Venice
1596–97
The First Part of Henry the Fourth
1597–98
The Second Part of Henry the Fourth
1598
Much Ado About Nothing
1598–99
The Passionate Pilgrim (20 poems, some not by Shakespeare)
1599
The Life of Henry the Fifth
1599
“To the Queen” (epilogue for a court performance)
1599
As You Like It
1599
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
1600–01
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (perhaps revising an earlier version)
1600–01
The Merry Wives of Windsor (perhaps revising version of 1597–99)
1601
“Let the Bird of Loudest Lay” (poem, known since 1807 as “The Phoenix and Turtle” [turtledove])
1601
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
1601–02
The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida
1604
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
1604
Measure for Measure
1605
All’s Well That Ends Well
1605
The Life of Timon of Athens, with Thomas Middleton
1605–06
The Tragedy of King Lear
1605–08
? contribution to The Four Plays in One (lost, except for A Yorkshire Tragedy, mostly by Thomas Middleton)
1606
The Tragedy of Macbeth (surviving text has additional scenes by Thomas Middleton)
1606–07
The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
1608
The Tragedy of Coriolanus
1608
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, with George Wilkins
1610
The Tragedy of Cymbeline
1611
The Winter’s Tale
1611
The Tempest
1612–13
Cardenio, with John Fletcher (survives only in later adaptation called Double Falsehood by Lewis Theobald)
1613
Henry VIII (All Is True), with John Fletcher
1613–14
The Two Noble Kinsmen, with John Fletcher
THE HISTORY BEHIND THE
TRAGEDIES: A CHRONOLOGY
FURTHER READING
AND VIEWING
CRITICAL APPROACHES
Adelman, Janet, “Masculine Authority and the Maternal Body: The Return to Origins in the Romances,” in Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origin in Shakespeare’s Plays, Hamlet to The Tempest (1992). Influential psychoanalytical reading: chapter 8 deals with Cymbeline and the other romances.
Brockbank, J. P., “History and Histrionics in Cymbeline” (1958), in Shakespeare’s Later Comedies, ed. D. J. Palmer (1971). Looks at Shakespeare’s use of both Holinshed and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s tales of Brute, arguing that Shakespeare’s dovetailing of sources creates a magical, principally theatrical, yet brilliantly researched historical narrative.
Bullough, Geoffrey, Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare: Volume 8 (1975). In-depth analysis of Shakespeare’s source material for Cymbeline and his dramatic accomplishment in its reworking.
Hawkes, Terence, Shakespeare in the Present (2002). Focuses on the significance of Wales in the play’s various articulations of nationhood.
Jones, Emrys, “Stuart Cymbeline” (1961), in Shakespeare’s Later Comedies, ed. D. J. Palmer (1971). Excellent discussion of the play as a Jacobean panegyric.
King, Ros, Cymbeline: Constructions of Britain (2005). In-depth re-evaluation of many aspects of the play, including language, reception, literary and historical contexts, and stageworthiness.
McDonald, Russ, Shakespeare’s Late Style (2006). Invaluable close study of Shakespeare’s somewhat strange and experimental language use throughout the late plays in general.
Miola, Robert S., Shakespeare’s Rome (1983). Discusses Shakespeare’s changing visions of Rome across his drama: chapter 7 deals with Cymbeline.
Simonds, Peggy Muñoz, Myth, Emblem, and Music in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline (1992). Examines the play specifically as a product of the Renaissance, exploring such themes as Renaissance symbology, myth, art, theology, and craftsmanship, and how they are used by Shakespeare.
Thompson, Ann, “Cymbeline’s Other Endings,” in The Appropriation of Shakespeare, ed. Jean I. Marsden (1991). Looks at the dramaturgy of the play’s often baffling final scene.
Traversi, Derek, Shakespeare: The Last Phase (1954). Examines the poetic and formal characteristics of Shakespeare’s later work.
Wilson Knight, G., The Crown of Life (1947). Classic study of Shakespeare’s late plays: chapter 4 deals with Cymbeline.
THE PLAY IN PERFORMANCE
Jackson, R., and R. Smallwood, eds., Players of Shakespeare 3 (1993). Featuring Harriet Walter on playing the role of Innogen.
Shaw, George Bernard, “Blaming the Bard,” in Shaw on Shakespeare, ed. Edwin Wilson (1961). Full text of Shaw’s vitriolic Lyceum review.
Warren, Roger, Shakespeare in Performance: Cymbeline (1990). Introductory volume devoted exclusively to the play.
AVAILABLE ON DVD
Cymbeline, directed by Elijah Moshinsky for the BBC Shakespeare series (1982, DVD 2005). One of the better entries in the BBC series, and somewhat star-studded, with a vivacious Helen Mirren as Innogen, Michael Pennington as Posthumus, Robert Lindsay as Iachimo, and Claire Bloom as the Queen.
REFERENCES
1. Samuel Johnson, Footnote to Cymbeline in Samuel Johnson on Shakespeare, ed. H. R. Woudhuysen (1989), p. 235.
2. George Bernard Shaw, “Blaming the Bard,” in Shaw on Shakespeare, ed. Edwin Wilson (1961), p. 72.
3. William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays (1817), p. 1.
4. Alexander Leggatt, Shakespeare’s Comedy of Love (1974), p. 260.
5. Geoffrey Bullough, Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare: Volume 8 (1975), pp. 13–14.
6. Georg Brandes, William Shakespeare. A Critical Study, Volume 2 (1898), p. 321.
7. R. G. Moulton, The Moral System of Shakespeare (1903), p. 79.
8. Janet Adelman, “Masculine Authority and the Maternal Body: The Return to Origins in the Romances,” in Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origin in Shakespeare’s Plays, Hamlet to The Tempest (1992), p. 210.
9. Ibid., p. 211.
10. Terence Hawkes, Shakespeare in the Present (2002) p. 53.
11. Ros King, Cymbeline: Constructions of Britain (2005), p. 120.
12. Rosalie Colie, “ ‘Nature’s Above Art in That Respect’: Limits of the Pastoral Pattern,” in Shakespeare’s Living Art (1974), pp. 297–8.
13. King, Cymbeline, p. 120.
14. Robert Henke, Pastoral Transformations: Italian Tragicomedy and Shakespeare’s Late Plays (1997), pp. 100–1.
15. Northrop Frye, A Natural Perspective (1965), p. 67.
16. J. P. Brockbank, “History and Histrionics in Cymbeline” (1958), in Shakespeare’s Later Comedies, ed. D. J. Palmer (1971), pp. 238–9.
17. G. Wilson Knight, The Crown of Life (1947), p. 129.
18. Philip Edwards, Threshold of a Nation (1979), p. 93.
19. Jodi Mikalachki, “The Masculine Romance of Roman Britain: Cymbeline and Early Modern English Nationalism,” Shakespeare Quarterly 46 (1995), p. 303.
20. Adelman, “Masculine Authority and the Maternal Body,” p. 201.
21. Robert S. Miola, Shakespeare’s Rome (1983), p. 237.
22. Hawkes, Shakespeare in the Present, p. 58.
23. Emrys Jones, “Stuart Cymbeline” (1961), in Shakespeare’s Later Comedies, ed. D. J. Palmer (1971), pp. 259–60.
24. Ben Jonson, The New Inn, Ode l. 22.
25. E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems, Volume 2 (1930), pp. 338–9.
26. Ibid., p. 352.
27. The Court Magazine, December 1761.
28. Universal Museum, March 1762.
29. James Boaden, J. P. Kemble, Volume 1 (1825), p. 300.
30. Ibid., p. 343.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. The Times (London), 23 January 1843.
34. Spectator, 28 January 1843.
35. Saturday Review, 22 October 1864.
36. Private letter from Shaw to Terry, 8 September 1896.
37. Private letter from Terry to Shaw, 24 September 1896.
38. Saturday Review, 26 September 1896.
39. Ibid.
40. Shaw, Shaw on Shakespeare, p. 80.
41. Mary Clarke, Shakespeare at the Old Vic (1957).
42. New York Times, 25 August 1957.
43. Kenneth Tynan, A View of the English Stage (1975), p. 267.
44. Observer, 23 September 1984.
45. Michael Billington, Guardian, 23 May 1988.
46. Roger Warren, Staging Shakespeare’s Late Plays (1990), p. 23.
47. Ibid., p. 24.
48. Ibid., p. 60.
49. Billington, Guardian, 23 May 1988.
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid.
52. Susannah Clapp, Observer, 15 July 2001.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 12 July 2001.
56. Paul Taylor, Independent, 28 November 2001.
57. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 13 May 2005.
58. Paul Taylor, Independent, 31 May 2007.
59. Ibid.
60. Judith Buchanan, Shakespeare on Film (2005), p. 43.
61. David Myerscough Jones quoted in Henry Fenwick, “The Production,” All’s Well That Ends Well, The BBC TV Shakespeare (1980), p. 25. Moshinsky had directed All’s Well and followed his designer Jones’s maxim into his work on Cymbeline.
62. Neil Taylor, “Two Types of Television Shakespeare,” in Shakespeare and the Moving Image, ed. Anthony Davies and Stanley Wells (1994), p. 93.
63. Sean Day-Lewis, Daily Telegraph, 11 July 1983.
64. Ibid.
65. Michael Billington, Guardian, 8 August 2003.
66. Don Chapman, Oxford Mail, 18 July 1962.
67. Michael Billington, Guardian, 5 June 1974.
68. John Barber, Daily Telegraph, 5 June 1974.
69. Herbert Kretzmer, Daily Express, 5 June 1974.
70. Andrew Rissik, Independent, 14 November 1987.
71. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 27 February 1979.
72. Michael Billington, Guardian, 18 April 1979.
73. Alastair Macaulay, Financial Times, 26 November 2001.
74. Benedict Nightingale, The Times (London), 26 November 2001.
75. Paul Taylor, Independent, 28 November 2001.
76. Rachel Halliburton, Evening Standard, 23 November 2001.
77. Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph, 24 November 2001.
78. Taylor, Independent, 28 November 2001.
79. Cavendish, Daily Telegraph, 24 November 2001.
80. Nightingale, The Times (London), 26 November 2001.
81. Taylor, Independent, 28 November 2001.
82. Billington, Guardian, 8 August 2003.
83. Susanna Clapp, Observer, 24 September 2006.
84. Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard, 26 September 2006.
85. Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph, 26 September 2006.
86. Kate Bassett, Independent on Sunday, 1 October 2006.
87. Paul Taylor, Independent, 27 September 2006.
88. Michael Billington, Guardian, 22 September 2006.
89. Mountford, Evening Standard, 26 September 2006.
90. Sam Marlowe, The Times (London), 25 September 2006.
91. Clapp, Observer, 24 September 2006.
92. Billington, Guardian, 22 September 2006.
93. Jack Tinker, Daily Mail, 5 June 1974.
94. Billington, Guardian, 5 June 1974.
95. Irving Wardle, The Times (London), 5 June 1974.
96. Ibid.
97. Harriet Walter in Players of Shakespeare 3, ed. Russell Jackson and Robert Smallwood (1993).
98. Billington, Guardian, 18 April 1979.
99. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 27 February 1997.
100. Rhoda Koenig, Independent, 8 August 2003.
101. Sunday Times (London), 17 August 2003.
102. Emma Fielding in a question and answer session at the Shakespeare Institute in 2003.
103. Kate Kellaway, Observer, 10 August 2003.
104. Harriet Walter in Players of Shakespeare 3, pp. 202–3.
105. The Stage, 18 July 1962.
106. Daily Worker, 17 July 1962.
107. Birmingham Mail, 18 July 1962.
108. Clive Barnes, Daily Express, 18 July 1962.
109. J. C. Trewin, Birmingham Post, 18 July 1962.
110. Dennis Barker, Express and Star, 18 July 1962.
111. Colin Frame, Evening News, 18 July 1962.
112. R
obert Muller, Daily Mail, 18 July 1962.
113. B. A. Young, Financial Times, 5 June 1974.
114. Wardle, The Times (London), 5 June 1974.
115. Barber, Daily Telegraph, 5 June 1974.
116. Norah Lewis, Birmingham Evening Mail, 18 April 1979.
117. Billington, Guardian, 18 April 1979.
118. Ibid.
119. Ibid.
120. Irving Wardle, The Times (London), 14 November 1987.
121. Rissik, Independent, 14 November 1987.
122. Harriet Walter in Players of Shakespeare 3.
123. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 27 February 1997.
124. Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 8 August 2003.
125. Ibid.
126. Kellaway, Observer, 10 August 2003.
127. Clapp, Observer, 24 September 2006.
128. Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph, 29 September 2006.
129. The Stage, 18 July 1962.
130. Daily Worker, 17 July 1962.
131. Billington, Guardian, 5 June 1974.
132. Morning Star, 18 April 1979.
133. Billington, Guardian, 18 April 1979.
134. Rissik, Independent, 14 November 1987.
135. Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 27 February 1997.
136. Herbert Kretzmer, Daily Express, 5 June 1974.
137. Irving Wardle, The Times (London), 5 June 1974.
138. Billington, Guardian, 18 April 1979.
139. B. A. Young, Financial Times, 18 April 1979.
140. Birmingham Mail, 18 July 1962.
141. Milton Shulman, Evening Standard, 17 July 1962.
142. The Times (London), 17 July 1962.
143. Billington, Guardian, 14 November 1987.
144. Wardle, The Times (London), 14 November 1987.
145. Billington, Guardian, 27 February 1997.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND
PICTURE CREDITS
Preparation of “Cymbeline in Performance” was assisted by a generous grant from the CAPITAL Centre (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning) of the University of Warwick for research in the RSC archive at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.