Tori Samar's Reviews > Cymbeline

“Our peace we’ll ratify; seal it with feasts.
Set on there! Never was a war did cease
(Ere bloody hands were wash’d) with such a peace.”

Five stars just for Imogen. What a fantastic Shakespearean leading lady. But there's SO MUCH packed into this play it would be five stars no matter what. Other standouts to me are the language (Shakespeare really had hit his stride at this point in his career), fairy tale patterns and motifs, and the echoes of earlier Shakespeare plays (with a twist, of course!), my favorite being the nods to Othello. This play’s Iago pulls off his own deception to call the wife’s chastity into question, but this time death is but a sleep, giving way to a resurrection. The couple is restored to one another, and the villain repents and is forgiven. "Pardon's the word to all."

(The Literary Life Podcast 2023 Reading Challenge – Work by Shakespeare you have never read before)

(Lit Life Patreon SIAY 2023-2024)