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Cobbe Portrait of William Shakespeare
Monthly Archives: December 2013
“‘Cymbeline’ offers the chance to take on an utterly transporting text, sing a song, dance a jig, have a sword fight, play lovers, villains, and fools, and have another sword fight, all before the intermission.”
Cymbeline Act Four, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ————————- Before we probe deeply into Act Five after our New Year’s break and try to figure out exactly what Cymbeline is all about, I thought it might be nice to share … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Four, Belarius, characters, Cloten, Comedy, Cymbeline, drama, entertainment, Fiasco Theater, headless, Imogen, language, literature, Posthumus, Rome, Shakespeare, The Princess Bride, trunk, William Shakespeare, writing
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“Fear no more the heat o’ th’ sun/…Thou thy worldly task hast done,/Home art gone and ta’en thy wages./Golden lads and girls all must,/As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.”
Cymbeline Act Four, Part One By Dennis Abrams —————————- Act Four: While out hunting, Belarius and his “sons” meet up with Cloten and kill him after he challenges them. Imogen, meanwhile, not feeling well, takes the Queen’s “medicine” provided by … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Four, angel, Belarius, Cloten, Cymbeline, deception, drama, entertainment, Fear no more the heat o' th' sun, headless corpse, Hercules, Imogen, intelligence, language, literature, lyric, lyric poetry, Posthumus, revenge, Rome, Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, writing
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“We have almost as great an affection for Imogen as she had for Posthumus; and she deserves it better. Of all Shakespeare’s women she is perhaps the most tender and the most artless.”
Cymbeline Act Three, Part Two By Dennis Abrams —————————— From Bloom: “Posthumus, even as an ideogram, is no fun. Shakespeare knew that a play must give pleasure, yet he portrays Posthumus as a very painful character, whose name refers both … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Three, Cymbeline, Cymbeline Shakespeare, distinctive voice, drama, entertainment, Henry V, history play, Iachimo, Imogen, King of Britain, language, Last Plays, late plays, literature, Posthumus, romances, Rome, Shakespeare, The Old Man and the Sea, tragicomedy, william hazlitt, William Shakespeare, writing
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“For mine’s beyond beyond…”
Cymbeline Act Three, Part One By Dennis Abrams ——————————– Act Three: In Britain, Cymbeline has refused to pay the annual tribute to Rome, to which the Roman ambassador Lucius responds by declaring war. Meanwhile, Pisanio has received a letter from … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Three, Ancient Britain, Belarius, Britons, Cymbeline, drama, Elizabethan theater, Elizabethan tragedy, entertainment, Hamlet, history, Iachimo, Imogen, Innogen, King of England, language, Last Plays, late plays, literature, politics, Posthumus, Shakespeare, tragicomedy, Wales, William Shakespeare, writing
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“Cymbeline is a pungent self-parody on Shakespeare’s part: we revisit King Lear, Othello, The Comedy of Errors, and a dozen other plays, but we see them now through a distorting lens.”
Cymbeline Act Two, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ————————————————- To continue with Harold Bloom, who strongly disagrees with Tanner’s admiration of the play: “Shakespeare gives a very vivid instance of antithetical technique in Act II, set in Imogen’s bedchamber, where … Continue reading
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Tagged Cymbeline, John Falstaff, King Cymbeline, King John, Lord Cloten, Shakespeare
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“I lodge in fear./Though this is a heavenly angel, hell is here.”
Cymbeline Act Two, Part One By Dennis Abrams ——— Act Two: Determined to win his bet, Iachimo asks Imogen to safeguard a large trunk which he (surprise!) hides in, coming out as she sleeps and stealing her bracelet. Returning to … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Two, Aldous Huxley, Ancient Britain, Ben Jonson, Cymbeline, drama, history, Iachimo, Imogen, jealousy, King of Britain, language, late play, lectures on Shakespeare, literature, Lucrece Shakespeare, Posthumus, Posthumus Leonates, Rome, Shakespeare, the real world, tragicomedy, trunk, William Shakespeare, writing
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“Imogen is one of the great women of Shakespeare or the world.”
Cymbeline Act One, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ——————————– From Harold Bloom first, whose dislike for the play I find rather bewildering: “Cymbeline begins with a conversation at court between two unnamed gentlemen, one a stranger, thus allowing Shakespeare to … Continue reading
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Tagged act one, Cloten, Comedy, Cymbeline, drama, Hamlet, history, history play, Imogen, James I, King Lear, language, late play, literature, Macbeth, Posthumus, Posthumus Leonatus, Shakespeare, tragedy, tragicomedy, Wicked Stepmother, William Shakespeare, writing
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“Sluttery, to such neat excellence opposed,/Should make desire vomit emptiness,/Not so allured to feed.”
Cymbeline Act One, Part One By Dennis Abrams —————————— MAJOR CHARACTERS Cymbeline, King of Britain Princess Imogen (aka Innogen in the Oxford edition), Cymbeline’s daughter (later disguised as Fidele Posthumus Leonatus, Imogen’s husband, a poor gentlemen Queen (unnamed), Cymbeline’s second … Continue reading
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Tagged act one, Ancient Britain, Britain, Clean Imogen, Cymbeline, drama, Elizabethan theater, history, Iachimo, Imogen, King Cymbeline, King of Britain Princess Imogen, language, Last Plays, literature, Princess Imogen, Renaissance Rome, Rome Iachimo, Shakespeare, tragicomedy, William Shakespeare, writing
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“I have a quite unjustifiable sense that Shakespeare would like us to experience this play as somehow taking place at the very periphery of vision, where lands and times and events merge together…”
Cymbeline An Introduction By Dennis Abrams ———————————————– Even now, no one is quite certain exactly why Cymbeline, one of Shakespeare’s final comedies (if that’s truly what it is), was included in the list of “Tragedies” in the First Folio, but … Continue reading
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Tagged Ancient Britain, Ben Jonson, Comedy, Cymbeline, drama, entertainment, Introduction, language, late play, literature, play by Shakespeare, Posthumus Leonatus, Princess Imogen, Richard III, romance, Samuel Johnson, Shakespeare, tragicomedy, William Shakespeare, writing
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The Play's The Thing 