Lists of Parts are supplied in the First Folio for only six plays, not including Cymbeline, so the list here is editorially supplied. Capitals indicate that part of the name used for speech headings in the script (thus “POSTHUMUS Leonatus, husband to Innogen”).
Locations are provided by the Folio for only two plays, of which Cymbeline is not one. Eighteenth-century editors, working in an age of elaborately realistic stage sets, were the first to provide detailed locations (“another room in the palace”). Given that Shakespeare wrote for a bare stage and often an imprecise sense of place, we have relegated locations to the explanatory notes, where they are given at the beginning of each scene where the imaginary location is different from the one before. In the case of Cymbeline the action moves between ancient Britain and Rome.
Act and Scene Divisions were provided in Folio in a much more thoroughgoing way than in the Quartos. Sometimes, however, they were erroneous or omitted; corrections and additions supplied by editorial tradition are indicated by square brackets. Five-act division is based on a classical model, and act breaks provided the opportunity to replace the candles in the indoor Blackfriars playhouse which the King’s Men used after 1608, but Shakespeare did not necessarily think in terms of a five-part structure of dramatic composition. The Folio convention is that a scene ends when the stage is empty. Nowadays, partly under the influence of film, we tend to consider a scene to be a dramatic unit that ends with either a change of imaginary location or a significant passage of time within the narrative. Shakespeare’s fluidity of composition accords well with this convention, so in addition to act and scene numbers we provide a running scene count in the right margin at the beginning of each new scene, in the typeface used for editorial directions. Where there is a scene break caused by a momentary bare stage, but the location does not change and extra time does not pass, we use the convention running scene continues. There is inevitably a degree of editorial judgment in making such calls, but the system is very valuable in suggesting the pace of the plays.
Speakers’ Names are often inconsistent in Folio. We have regularized speech headings, but retained an element of deliberate inconsistency in entry directions, in order to give the flavor of Folio.
Verse is indicated by lines that do not run to the right margin and by capitalization of each line. The Folio printers sometimes set verse as prose, and vice versa (either out of misunderstanding or for reasons of space). We have silently corrected in such cases, although in some instances there is ambiguity, in which case we have leaned toward the preservation of Folio layout. Folio sometimes uses contraction (“turnd” rather than “turned”) to indicate whether or not the final “-ed” of a past participle is sounded, an area where there is variation for the sake of the five-beat iambic pentameter rhythm. We use the convention of a grave accent to indicate sounding (thus “turnèd” would be two syllables), but would urge actors not to overstress. In cases where one speaker ends with a verse half line and the next begins with the other half of the pentameter, editors since the late eighteenth century have indented the second line. We have abandoned this convention, since the Folio does not use it, and nor did actors’ cues in the Shakespearean theater. An exception is made when the second speaker actively interrupts or completes the first speaker’s sentence.
Spelling is modernized, but older forms are very occasionally maintained where necessary for rhythm or aural effect.
Punctuation in Shakespeare’s time was as much rhetorical as grammatical. “Colon” was originally a term for a unit of thought in an argument. The semicolon was a new unit of punctuation (some of the Quartos lack them altogether). We have modernized punctuation throughout, but have given more weight to Folio punctuation than many editors, since, though not Shakespearean, it reflects the usage of his period. In particular, we have used the colon far more than many editors: it is exceptionally useful as a way of indicating how many Shakespearean speeches unfold clause by clause in a developing argument that gives the illusion of enacting the process of thinking in the moment. We have also kept in mind the origin of punctuation in classical times as a way of assisting the actor and orator: the comma suggests the briefest of pauses for breath, the colon a middling one, and a full stop or period a longer pause. Semicolons, by contrast, belong to an era of punctuation that was only just coming in during Shakespeare’s time and that is coming to an end now: we have accordingly used them only where they occur in our copy texts (and not always then). Dashes are sometimes used for parenthetical interjections where the Folio has brackets. They are also used for interruptions and changes in train of thought. Where a change of addressee occurs within a speech, we have used a dash preceded by a full stop (or occasionally another form of punctuation). Often the identity of the respective addressees is obvious from the context. When it is not, this has been indicated in a marginal stage direction.
Entrances and Exits are fairly thorough in Folio, which has accordingly been followed as faithfully as possible. Where characters are omitted or corrections are necessary, this is indicated by square brackets (e.g. “[and Attendants]”). Exit is sometimes silently normalized to Exeunt and Manet anglicized to “remains.” We trust Folio positioning of entrances and exits to a greater degree than most editors.
Editorial Stage Directions such as stage business, asides, indications of addressee and of characters’ position on the gallery stage are used only sparingly in Folio. Other editions mingle directions of this kind with original Folio and Quarto directions, sometimes marking them by means of square brackets. We have sought to distinguish what could be described as directorial interventions of this kind from Folio-style directions (either original or supplied) by placing them in the right margin in a smaller typeface. There is a degree of subjectivity about which directions are of which kind, but the procedure is intended as a reminder to the reader and the actor that Shakespearean stage directions are often dependent upon editorial inference alone and are not set in stone. We also depart from editorial tradition in sometimes admitting uncertainty and thus printing permissive stage directions, such as an Aside? (often a line may be equally effective as an aside or a direct address—it is for each production or reading to make its own decision) or a may exit or a piece of business placed between arrows to indicate that it may occur at various different moments within a scene.
Line Numbers are editorial, for reference and to key the explanatory and textual notes.
Explanatory Notes explain allusions and gloss obsolete and difficult words, confusing phraseology, occasional major textual cruces, and so on. Particular attention is given to nonstandard usage, bawdy innuendo, and technical terms (e.g. legal and military language). Where more than one sense is given, commas indicate shades of related meaning, slashes alternative or double meanings.
Textual Notes at the end of the play indicate major departures from the Folio. They take the following form: the reading of our text is given in bold and its source given after an equals sign, with “F2” indicating a correction that derives from the Second Folio of 1632, “F3” a correction introduced in the Third Folio of 1664, and “Ed” one that derives from the subsequent editorial tradition. The rejected Folio (“F”) reading is then given. Thus for Act 1 Scene 6 line 125: “illustrous = Ed. F = illustrious” means that the Folio text’s “illustrious” has been rejected in favor of the editorial correction “illustrous.” F’s reading gives exactly the opposite sense to that required by the context of the passage.
KEY FACTS
MAJOR PARTS: (with percentage of lines/number of speeches/scenes onstage) Innogen (16%/118/10), Posthumus Leonatus (12%/77/8), Iachimo (12%/77/6), Belarius (9%/58/6), Cymbeline (8%/81/6), Cloten (7%/77/7), Pisanio (6%/58/10), Guiderius (5%/62/6), Queen (5%/27/5), Arviragus (4%/46/5), Caius Lucius (3%/25/5), Cornelius (2%/13/2), First Gentleman (2%/10/1), First Jailer (1%/9/1), Second Lord (1%/20/3), Philario (1%/14/2).
LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 85% verse, 15% prose.
DATE: 1610. Simon Forman attended a performance in
April 1611; composition apparently postdates Beaumont and Fletcher’s Philaster (1608–10); probably belongs to the months when the theaters were reopened in spring 1610 after a long period of closure due to the plague; the emphasis on Wales may suggest composition around the time of the investiture of Henry as Prince of Wales in June 1610; perhaps performed at court during the winter of 1610–11.
SOURCES: The plot involving Cymbeline, Guiderius, Arviragus, and the Romans in Britain is derived from a rudimentary outline in Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587 edition); the heroic defense of the lane in the battle is imported from elsewhere in Holinshed. The story of the wager on a virtuous wife’s chastity goes back to Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron (2nd Day, 9th novel) via an anonymous prose romance, Frederyke of Jennen (1560 edition). The idea of combining pseudohistory with romance may have been inspired by Beaumont and Fletcher’s recent play Philaster, a pioneering work of Jacobean tragicomedy with a girl disguised as a boy, a mischief-making older woman, a virtuous lady accused of an illicit sexual liaison, a contrast between a noble hero and an ignoble prince, the forbidden marriage of a princess to a commoner, a movement from court to country, and elements of masque form. Some scholars, however, propose that Cymbeline influenced Philaster rather than vice versa.
TEXT: First Folio of 1623 is the only text. Probably set from a transcript by Ralph Crane, scribe to the King’s Men. Fairly well printed text, though some correction required, especially in those parts of the play that were typeset by “Compositor E,” the least competent man in the printing house. The heroine is called “Innogen” in both Holinshed’s Chronicles and Simon Forman’s notes on seeing the play; this name also appears in Much Ado About Nothing (as well as in works by contemporaries such as Thomas Heywood and Michael Drayton). “Imogen” did not exist as a name at this time and, besides, the heroines of Shakespeare’s late plays are given symbolic names (Marina = from the sea; Perdita = the lost one; Miranda = cause for admiration; hence Innogen = innocent one). All this very strongly suggests that Folio’s “Imogen” was a minim scribal or compositorial error for “Innogen,” so we have corrected accordingly.
CYMBELINE
LIST OF PARTS
CYMBELINE, King of Britain
INNOGEN, his daughter by a former queen, later disguised as Fidele
QUEEN, his second wife
CLOTEN, her son, Cymbeline’s stepson
POSTHUMUS Leonatus, husband to Innogen
PISANIO, his servant
CORNELIUS, a doctor
LADY attendant on Innogen, named Helen
Two LORDS attendant on Cloten
Two GENTLEMEN
Two British CAPTAINS
Two JAILERS
BELARIUS, a banished lord, living in Wales under the name Morgan
Cymbeline’s sons, known as sons of Belarius called Polydore and Cadwal
GUIDERIUS
ARVIRAGUS
PHILARIO, an Italian, Posthumus’ host in Rome
IACHIMO, an Italian nobleman, friend to Philario
A FRENCHMAN
A Dutchman
A Spaniard
Caius LUCIUS, general of the Roman army
SOOTHSAYER, named Philharmonus
Two Roman SENATORS
A Roman TRIBUNE
A Roman CAPTAIN
JUPITER
Ghost of SICILIUS LEONATUS, Posthumus’ father
Ghost of Posthumus’ MOTHER
Ghosts of Posthumus’ two BROTHERS
Lords, Attendants, Messengers, Musicians, Roman Tribunes, British and Roman Captains, Soldiers
Act 1 Scene 1
running scene 1
Enter two Gentlemen
FIRST GENTLEMAN You do not meet a man but frowns. Our bloods1
No more obey the heavens than our courtiers
Still seem as does the king.3
SECOND GENTLEMAN But what’s the matter?
FIRST GENTLEMAN His daughter, and the heir of’s kingdom, whom
He purposed to6 his wife’s sole son — a widow
That late he married — hath referred herself7
Unto a poor but worthy gentleman. She’s wedded,
Her husband banished, she imprisoned, all9
Is outward sorrow9, though I think the king
Be touched at very heart.
SECOND GENTLEMAN None but the king?
FIRST GENTLEMAN He that hath lost her13 too: so is the queen,
That most desired the match. But not a courtier,
Although they wear their faces to the bent15
Of the king’s looks, hath a heart that is not
Glad at the thing they scowl at.
SECOND GENTLEMAN And why so?
FIRST GENTLEMAN He that hath missed the princess is a thing19
Too bad for bad report: and he that hath her —
I mean, that married her, alack, good man,
And therefore banished — is a creature22 such
As, to seek through the regions of the earth
For one his like, there would be something failing24
In him that should compare. I do not think
So fair an outward and such stuff26 within
Endows a man but he.27
SECOND GENTLEMAN You speak him far.28
FIRST GENTLEMAN I do extend, sir, within himself29,
Crush him together rather than unfold
His measure31 duly.
SECOND GENTLEMAN What’s his name and birth?32
FIRST GENTLEMAN I cannot delve him to the root33: his father
Was called Sicilius, who did join his honour34
Against the Romans with Cassibelan35,
But had his titles by Tenantius36 whom
He served with glory and admired success:
So gained the sur-addition Leonatus.38
And had, besides this gentleman in question,
Two other sons, who in the wars o’th’time
Died with their swords in hand. For which their father,
Then old and fond of issue42, took such sorrow
That he quit being, and his gentle lady,
Big of44 this gentleman, our theme, deceased
As he was born. The king he takes the babe
To his protection, calls him Posthumus Leonatus,
Breeds him, and makes him of his bedchamber47,
Puts to him all the learnings that his time48
Could make him the receiver of, which he took
As we do air, fast50 as ’twas ministered,
And in’s spring became a harvest51: lived in court —
Which rare52 it is to do — most praised, most loved:
A sample53 to the youngest, to th’more mature
A glass that feated them, and to the graver54,
A child that guided dotards.55 To his mistress,
For whom he now is banished, her own price56
Proclaims how she esteemed him; and his virtue57
By her election may be truly read,
What kind of man he is.
SECOND GENTLEMAN I honour him even out of60 your report.
But pray you tell me, is she sole child to th’king?
FIRST GENTLEMAN His only child.
He had two sons — if this be worth your hearing,
Mark it — the eldest of them at three years old,
I’th’swathing clothes65 the other, from their nursery
Were stol’n, and to this hour no guess in knowledge
Which way they went.
SECOND GENTLEMAN How long is this ago?
FIRST GENTLEMAN Some twenty years.
SECOND GENTLEMAN That a king’s children should be so conveyed70,
So slackly71 guarded, and the search so slow
That could not trace them.
FIRST GENTLEMAN Howsoe’er ’tis strange73,
Or that th
e negligence may well be laughed at,
Yet is it true, sir.
SECOND GENTLEMAN I do well believe you.
FIRST GENTLEMAN We must forbear.77 Here comes the gentleman,
The queen and princess.
Exeunt
Enter the Queen, Posthumus and Innogen
QUEEN No, be assured you shall not find me, daughter,
After the slander80 of most stepmothers,
Evil-eyed unto you. You’re my prisoner, but
Your jailer shall deliver you the keys
That lock up your restraint.83 For you, Posthumus,
So soon as I can win84 th’offended king,
I will be known your advocate: marry85, yet
The fire of rage is in him, and ’twere good
You leaned unto his sentence, with what patience87
Your wisdom may inform you.
POSTHUMUS Please89 your highness,
I will from hence90 today.
QUEEN You know the peril.91
I’ll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying92
The pangs of barred affections93, though the king
Hath charged94 you should not speak together.
Exit
INNOGEN O dissembling95 courtesy! How fine this tyrant
Can tickle where she wounds! My dearest husband,
I something fear my father’s wrath, but nothing —
Always reserved my holy duty98 — what
His rage can do on me. You must be gone,
And I shall here abide the hourly shot100
Of angry eyes: not comforted to live,