Katja Labonté's Reviews > Cymbeline

2 stars & 2/10 hearts. I’m pretty sure everyone knows this isn’t the “cleanest” Shakespeare story out there. Because it isn’t. The whole point of the play is Posthumous thinking Imogen committed adultery. Even if that wasn’t an issue, though, I would still have hated the play. Posthumous is awful—I mean, really, immediately hopping to the belief that she was unfaithful based on the word of a known bad guy AND without asking her… and then deciding to murder her… but he never got punished for it! (And there was the whole issue of him seeing the spirits of his family and having Jupiter intervene to make all things well for him because of their intercession…) And then one of the good guys ends up being a bad guy who stole the king’s sons in revenge (so why was he good again?). And Imogen was an idiot (what’s up with keeping a trunk big enough for a man to fit into in your bedroom? And sleeping without blankets on? And then wandering all over the face of primeval Britain dressed as a man, because supposedly you’ll be safer that way?). And the Queen was terrible, and her son was a lout and a pervert. And then the princes, who showed their princeliness by picking a fight and killing someone (???). The only person I actually really liked was the Roman general. He was splendid. I absolutely loved his pleading for “Fidele” and then his declamation to “Fidele” not to save him. There were two other things I liked. One was that Shakespeare was actually accurate and had his characters call upon the Greek/Roman gods, instead of on Christ/Mary/God. The other thing was Imogen’s anachronistic response. The scene is Britain, between 27 BC and AD 14....

LUCIUS. Thou mov'st no less with thy complaining than
Thy master in bleeding. Say his name, good friend.
IMOGEN. Richard du Champ.

Classic.