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[CHAPTER SIX
THE ROMANCES
Pericles, Cymbeline,
The Winter's Tale and The Tempest]
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- - - II - - -
The first romance written entirely by Shakespeare is Cymbeline, and although it deals with events that span as many years as Pericles, the mistake of presenting disjointed episodes in order to relate the story is not repeated here. Instead, information relevant to the plot going as far back as the birth and parentage of Posthumus, and the abduction of the King's infant sons some twenty years before the play's action, is conveyed during conversation in the first scene. The idea of the lapse of time is kept alive by the account, given by Belarius himself during the play, of the stealing of Guiderius and Arviragus by Belarius, in
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revenge for wrongs done to him by Cymbeline; and the appearance of the Leonati ghosts serves the same function towards the end. In this way, the sense of order gradually eroded over a long period of time, but being restored at the end of the play, is preserved without the incongruity of presentation found in Pericles.
The idea of sexual disorder underlying other disorders in society, which is found in All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure and Pericles, finds emphatic expression in Cymbeline. Britain, at the outset, is presented as being in a disordered state, a barren land, with the King's true heir, Guiderius, missing, and his only surviving child, Imogen, married against the royal will to a commoner, who has been banished as a result. Cymbeline's line of descent will end at Imogen unless he accepts Posthumus, or she accepts Cloten. The conflict between Cymbeline and his daughter creates ripples which disturb the whole of society, a fact which finds expression in the confused syntax of the play's opening speech:
YOu do not meet a man but Frownes. Our bloods
no more obey the Heauens Then our Courtiers:
Still seeme as do's the Kings.
(I.i.1-3) 6.19
The sentiments expressed here are repeated later - the courtiers support the King's rejection of Posthumus only in appearance, while inwardly they are pleased that Imogen rejects Cloten:
But not a Courtier,
Although they weare their faces to the bent
Of the Kings lookes, hath a heart that is not
Glad at the thing they scowle at.
(I.i.12-15)
This expression of judgements which contradict the wishes of the King is in itself symptomatic of disorder: popular opinion sides with Posthumus and Imogen, and against Cymbeline, whose rejection of his daughter and her husband is a rejection of fertility and prosperity. The First Gentleman's account of the story tells us that Posthumus, 'in's Spring, became a Haruest' (I.i.46), and when this image of fertility is taken along with the lavish praise bestowed on him -
I do not thinke,
So faire an Outward, and such stuffe Within
Endowes a man, but hee.
(I.i.22-24)
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- it is clear that Cymbeline's conflict with him puts the King in opposition to the forces of youth and regeneration within the play. The issue is reiterated in the next scene, when Imogen likens her separation from her husband to death, and Cymbeline recognises her as a source of regeneration, but ironically denies her the right to exercise her regenerative powers, complaining that she ages him:
Imo.
There cannot be a pinch in death
More sharpe then this is.
Cym.
O disloyal thing,
That should'st repayre my youth, thou heap'st
A yeeres age on me.
(I.ii.61-64)
In addition to this, the threat of death hangs over the banished husband should he return to court: the natural regenerative function of fertility is violently denied, since any attempt at procreation will be met with death.
It soon becomes apparent that it is the Queen who has engineered the conflict between Cymbeline and Imogen, or at least she ensures that it never declines, while nevertheless adopting the outward appearance of a peacemaker. In the opening scene we are told she 'most desir'd the Match' (I.i.12) between her son Cloten and Imogen, and yet she claims, in discussion with Posthumus and Imogen, to be on their side. Imogen sees through her 'dissembling Curtesie' (I.ii.15), however, and the audience is fully alerted to the Queen's manipulation of events when she urges Posthumus to avoid the King, but declares her real intention in an aside, showing how she secretly influences Cymbeline:
... yet Ile moue him
To walke this way: I neuer do him wrong,
But
he do's buy my Iniuries, to be Friends:
Payes deere for my offences.
(I.ii.34-37)
Her point here is that she knows Cymbeline will be angry with her for allowing Posthumus access to Imogen, but she will use the resulting conflict with her husband to further her own ends - the advancement of Cloten under pretence of protecting Posthumus. These early scenes mark her out as an agent of disorder, disseminating conflict, but the deeper significance of her role is revealed a little later, when she rises early with her ladies to gather flowers 'Whiles yet the dewe's on ground' (I.iv.1): these flowers are emblems of evil and death, and point to the
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Queen's murderous intentions. Nosworthy draws attention to the parallel between this and Belarius' observation, concerning the funeral rites of Cloten and Imogen: 6.20
Heere's a few Flowres, but 'bout midnight more:
The hearbes that haue on them cold dew o' th' night
Are strewings fit'st for Graues ....
(IV.ii.283-285)
The association in the later scene of flowers and dew, with the evil hour of midnight, as well as death itself, may be coincidental, but when the Queen collects flowers in the earlier scene they are also connected there with malevolence. We see her not only engendering conflict by trying to bribe Pisanio into being unfaithful to Posthumus, but she also voices her hope that Pisanio will kill both himself and Imogen by administering the drug she has given him. In this she aims at nothing less than absolute control of Britain through Cloten:
... gone she is.
To death, or to dishonor, and my end
Can make good vse of either. Shee being downe,
I haue the placing of the Brittish Crowne.
(III.v.63-66)
The Queen's evil ambition is the centre of conflict in the British court, and it serves to create dramatic tension: she would not be a threatening figure but for the complete trust Cymbeline places in her, and the audience cannot be sure, with Cymbeline being so misguided, how far she will succeed in her wicked designs. The other characters with whom she has important dealings - Imogen, Pisanio and Cornelius - are not deceived by her, and this highlights Cymbeline's weakness, in which he may be compared with Lear, a man old, but not wise. While he remains under the Queen's influence, there is little hope that Britain will be a productive, fertile nation, for it is Cloten she wishes to see in power.
Cloten is first mentioned in the play as 'a thing | Too bad, for bad report' (I.i.16-17), but Cymbeline sees him quite differently, and so the conflict between father and daughter is generated:
Cym.
That might'st haue had The sole Sonne of my Queene.
Imo.
O blessed, that I might not: I chose an Eagle,
And did auoyd a Puttocke.
(I.ii.69-71)
In discussing the extensive use of bird imagery in this play, Nosworthy
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concludes that 'Shakespeare tended to see his characters simultaneously as human beings and as birds, so that they are given the kind of double signification that belongs to animal fables': 6.21 a man takes on the characteristics of the animal with which he is associated. Here the qualities of the noble eagle are ascribed to Posthumus, while the baser kite belongs to Cloten. With two such men in competition for the same lady, it is inevitable that there should be conflict between them, and although they never meet on the stage, this conflict has led to violence even before Cloten's first appearance, as reported by Pisanio:
Pisa.
My Lord your Sonne, drew on my Master.
Qu.
Hah?
No harme I trust is done?
Pisa.
There might haue beene,
But that my Master rather plaid, then fought,
And had no helpe of Anger: they were parted
By Gentlemen, at hand.
(I.ii.91-95)
It is Cloten who initiates this fight, and so from early on in the play he is associated with violence; indeed, Carr sees him as 'a type of brute appetite and violence', 6.22 a just assessment, when his sexual attitude to Imogen is taken into account. By way of contrast, Posthumus 'had no helpe of Anger' in the clash, and Imogen sees Cloten's attack on a man already in exile as an act of cowardice. The report of the clash serves not only to introduce Cloten as a violent man, but also to give the audience a true account of what actually took place; for in the next scene Cloten enters hot from the fray, his head full of the idea of having routed Posthumus, but sincerely regretting that he had not managed to injure him. The sycophantic First Lord humours Cloten, which only encourages him in his boasting, making him look all the more ridiculous. When the lord says 'the Violence of Action hath made you reek as a Sacrifice' (I.iii.1-2), his compliment not only indicates Cloten's passionate nature but also prophetically points to his death later in the play - a consequence of his violent behaviour. The Second Lord's sarcastic asides put the conversation between the other two in perspective, revealing Cloten for the fool he is: we are meant to laugh with the Second Lord at Cloten, and so here violence is a source of comedy as well as character delineation. Each remark of Cloten's meets with an approving response from the First Lord, while the Second Lord comically twists the compliments into insults in his asides:
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Clot.
The Villaine would not stand me.
2.
No, but he fled forward still, toward your face.
1.
Stand you? you haue Land enough of your owne: But he added to your hauing, gaue you some ground.
2.
As many Inches, as you have Oceans (Puppies.)
(I.iii.13-20)
Finally, Cloten's violence is connected with his interest in Imogen, and the Second Lord uses this to highlight both her virtue and his stupidity: 'If it be a sin to make a true election, she is damn'd. ... She shines not vpon Fooles, least the reflection Should hurt her' (I.iii.25-26 and 30-31).
Three points of similarity may be noted between the scene I have just discussed, and the next one in which Cloten appears: in both, Cloten has just engaged in an act of violence which has roused his spirits; he is made to look foolish by the comic, but biting, asides of the Second Lord; and finally, although Cloten is a loser in both scenes, he tries to convince both himself and the two lords that he has proved himself superior in conflict, although his blustering verbosity points to a marked lack of confidence in himself. Since Shakespeare saw fit to repeat these aspects of his presentation of Cloten, he must have considered them important, and we should take account of this when analysing his role in the play as a whole. That he is a comic figure cannot be denied, but this aspect must not be stressed at the expense of his more sinister function: Wiles finds the Folio spelling, 'Clotten', indicates that he is a fool, or clot, and suggests that he should be presented as a parody of Posthumus. 6.23 This is a sound idea, but I cannot agree with Wiles when he extends this concept to the funeral scene and Imogen's awakening: the suggestion is that Cloten and Posthumus are of entirely different build, so that Posthumus' clothes do not fit the dwarfish Cloten, and the episode is 'rendered tragicomic'. 6.24 The comic aspect of Cloten serves to underline the fact that he is not a fit man to rule Britain, but it should not be taken as far as Wiles suggests, which would entirely eliminate the possibility of Cloten's ever gaining power: if this is done, he ceases to be a threatening figure, being made comic at the expense of dramatic tension. Granville-Barker is closer to the truth when he finds him 'an uncommon if not unique item in the Shakespearean catalogue, a comic character drawn with a savagely serious pen'. 6.25 Cloten takes himself seriously, and his stature in the scenes with Lucius should be sufficient to convince us that he does indeed pose a threat to Imogen. The similarities between Posthumus and Cloten are
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stressed in the play, 6.26 and we should not ignore the possibility that, since they never appear together on the stage, Shakespeare may have intended their parts to be played by the same actor, which would make Imogen's mistake over the headless body entirely plausible; and, with this visual impact to reinforce them, other points of likeness between the two men would be more obvious. 6.27 Both men formulate plans to kill Imogen, and Parker observes that 'similar violence lurks inside both characters'; 6.28 for Siemon the comparison is more general, in that 'as Posthumus yields gradually to fear and anger, his behaviour becomes increasingly like Cloten's'; 6.29 Hunter, like Parker, stresses their violence: 'Posthumus, then, has adopted the mindless savagery of Cloten, and Cloten, by putting on Posthumus's clothes, underlines the resemblance'. 6.30 The similarities between the two are meant to be striking, but the point Shakespeare is making is not that the two men are alike, but rather that they are fundamentally different: there is a conflict between their similar appearance and the reality of their different natures. Cloten's actions are motivated by his base instincts - his lust for supremacy and power, and his desire for sexual gratification; Posthumus, on the other hand, is reduced to behaving like Cloten not as an expression of his inner nature, but in response to external influences. Both men behave inexcusably, but Posthumus engages our sympathy, firstly because we know he has been deceived, and secondly because, ultimately, he repents, whereas Cloten acts in the full knowledge of his circumstances, and repentance is foreign to his nature. Cloten's wilfully base behaviour indicates that he is unfit for redemption, and deserves to die. He may be compared with Bertram in All's Well That Ends Well, whose behaviour is equally despicable; but Bertram is fortunate in having Helena to guide him to repentance and redemption.
The opposing comic and violent aspects of Cloten's personality must be carefully balanced if he is to succeed on the stage, but the task is made easier by a third factor which links these two, giving him a more rounded character, this being his lack of confidence, or, under some circumstances, his misguided confidence. Whenever we see Cloten he is angry or quarrelling, and so, like his mother, he is an evil, discordant influence in the play; nevertheless, much of his anger, particularly in his first two scenes, seems designed to divert attention from his recent failures, and so rather than making him appear a dynamic, forceful person (like Hotspur, who is also querulous and power-seeking), his anger makes
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him ridiculous, the butt of the Second Lord's jokes. One of his comic asides adds to the bird imagery associated with Cloten: we have seen him called a 'Puttocke', and now he is a cock and a capon:
[Clo].
... euery Iacke-Slaue hath his belly full of Fighting, and I must go vp and downe like a Cock, that no body can match.
2.
You are Cocke and Capon too, and you crow Cock, with your combe on.
(II.i.20-24)
To Cloten the cock signifies virility and aggression, a fitting image of himself. The Second Lord cleverly gives Cloten's bird image a twist, so that his self-aggrandisement is debased, and he descends from the virile cock to the sterile capon, an emblem of the fool or court jester. 6.31 Bergeron relates the capon, and Cloten's later reference to 'the voyce of vnpaued Eunuch' (II.iii.28-29), to his 'misdirected sexuality', 6.32 tentatively suggesting that he may in fact be a eunuch himself. I find the argument unconvincing, but agree with Bergeron's realisation that Cloten's sexual behaviour is 'symptomatic of the larger sterile, non-procreative world' of the play. 6.33 His wooing of Imogen is typical of all he does: he executes it not with sensitivity and refinement, but grossly, as seen in his indulgence in crude sexual punning on the music he orders for her:
Come on, tune: If you can penetrate her with your fingering, so: wee'l try with tongue too: if none will do, let her remaine: but Ile neuer giue o're.
(II.iii.13-15)
When she rejects his advances, he becomes increasingly impatient, and ironically accuses her of implementing disorder by clinging to the banished Posthumus:
You sinne against
Obedience, which you owe your Father, for
The Contract you pretend with that base Wretch,
One, bred of Almes, and foster'd with cold dishes,
With scraps o' th' Court: It is no Contract, none.
(II.iii.110-114)
Cloten tries to use social order, 'The consequence o' th' Crowne' (II.iii.120), to convince Imogen that her union with Posthumus is not valid: if Posthumus does not come of noble stock he should not marry Imogen. Ferguson observes that this recalls the conflict between nurture and Nature in All's Well That Ends Well: 6.34 Cloten adopts the same stance as Bertram, and both are attitudes of convenience, proposed to invalidate
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an unwelcome marriage. In both plays Shakespeare's point is that social status is of less importance than the innate virtue exhibited by the lowly characters, Posthumus and Helena. Cloten's marriage to Imogen must be resisted if Britain is to prosper, since his inadequacy, both sexual and social, makes him unfit to rule, a fact which Imogen, unlike her father, has recognised. This point is made when Cymbeline, the Queen and Cloten meet Lucius to discuss the Roman demand for tribute: Cymbeline, in his refusal to pay, is influenced by the Queen and Cloten, who take it upon themselves to put Britain's case in the debate. Their arguments are blunt and forceful, and even after Cymbeline has stated his position and extended his hospitality to Lucius, Cloten cannot forget the conflict, but continues abrasively,
... if you seek vs afterwards in other tearmes, you shall finde vs in our Salt-water Girdle: if you beate vs out of it, it is yours: if you fall in the aduenture, our Crowes shall fare the better for you: and there's an end.
(III.i.79-83)
'Warre and Confusion' (III.i.66) will be the outcome of Cloten's policy, but he is quite unconcerned about the cost to Britain of such a stand: he uses violence to further his own ambition.
The national significance of Cymbeline has been fully explored by Wilson Knight, who finds it natural that Posthumus, whose role in the play is 'to typify Britain's best manhood', 6.35 should expect Cymbeline to resist the Roman demand for tribute, 'but what we might not expect is to find precisely the same thoughts expressed even more satisfyingly by the Queen and Cloten'. 6.36 There is no denying that while Cloten is unimpressively witty at the expense of Lucius, the Queen's arguments ring of high patriotism, at least on the surface. Britain's conflict with Rome is counter-productive not only because of the disorder and violence which result from the ensuing battle, but also because it is a denial of the original source of much that is good in Britain. The very names, Posthumus Leonatus, and that of his father, Sicilius, owe something to Roman influence, and it is significant that Posthumus changes sides several times in the course of the battle, showing that his allegiance is not clearly defined. Cymbeline himself provides further evidence of the British debt to Rome, saying to Lucius,
Thy Caesar Knighted me; my youth I spent
Much vnder him: of him, I gather'd Honour,
Which he, to seeke of me againe, perforce,
Behooues me keepe at vtterance.
(III.i.70-73)
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When Cymbeline finally wins the fight (with the help of Posthumus), there is no reason why he should pay the tribute demanded by Rome, an act which would acknowledge Britain's moral and cultural debt. The true valour that Rome stands for, and which is notably absent in Cymbeline's disordered, sterile Britain, is expressed in Lucius' speech of defeat, on learning that he and his men are to lose their lives:
... had it gone with vs,
We should not when the blood was cool, haue threatend
Our Prisoners with the Sword. But since the Gods
Will haue it thus, that nothing but our liues
May be call'd ransome, let it come: Sufficeth,
A Roman, with a Romans heart can suffer.
(V.v.76-81)
In proposing to 'slaughter' (V.v.72) the Roman captives in revenge for the loss of British life, Cymbeline is denying any obligation to the foreign power. The brave attitude to death shown by Lucius may be contrasted with the confused and disordered flight of the Britons from the battle until Belarius, Guiderius and Arviragus stand and fight.
It is Posthumus who indirectly initiates the restoration of amity between Rome and Britain by his forgiving of Iachimo, which inspires Cymbeline to pardon all his enemies. Although Posthumus is undoubtedly a positive, regenerative force in the play, it seems unlikely that the Posthumus of the earlier scenes would have exercised the generosity we observe in him in the final scene, without the experience of his traumatic adventures behind him. His union with Imogen carries a promise of fertility, but this is thwarted by his banishment in Cloten's favour. What replaces the natural, productive virility of Posthumus is the disordered and debased sexuality of Cloten, which, being misdirected, inevitably proves sterile. Furthermore, once Posthumus comes under the influence of Iachimo, his love for Imogen is tried and found wanting: he fails in love because he is prepared to believe Imogen could be false to him, and believing this puts him in the same position as Cloten - he is rejected (or so he thinks) by the woman he desires. Both men react to rejection with violence. Posthumus is beside himself, once he is convinced that Imogen has been unfaithful to him: he turns on Iachimo, threatening,
If you will sweare you haue not done't, you lye,
And I will kill thee, if you do'st deny
Thou'st made me Cuckold.
(II.iv.144-146)
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He continues in this violent fit:
O that I had her heere, to teare her Limb-meale:
I will go there and doo't, I' th' Court, before
Her Father. Ile do something.
(II.iv.147-149)
These words are hotly spoken; what Posthumus decides to do after consideration is to have Pisanio murder Imogen, which is still more reprehensible since he does not even have the courage to face Imogen and do the deed himself. The jealous passion of Posthumus has something in common with that of Othello, since both men are persuaded by a clever villain, on rather inconclusive evidence, that their wives have been unfaithful, and both decide that the offence of unchastity merits death. Othello is the more noble of the two, because he at least has the courage to murder Desdemona himself: Posthumus' use of Pisanio to do the evil deed is debased, but does, nevertheless, avert tragedy in allowing Imogen's life to be spared. What Iachimo has done in inciting jealousy is to deepen an already serious rift between Posthumus and Imogen, making the chances of the restoration of order in Britain more remote: when Imogen learns of Posthumus' plot, she despairs of ever being reconciled to him. She recognises that her union with him was a breach of order, and we ought to see in this an indication of why the relationship has proved sterile: a fruitful and harmonious marriage cannot be based on a relationship itself founded on disorder, a flouting of parental authority:
And thou Posthumus,
That didd'st set vp my disobedience 'gainst the King
My Father, and makes me put into contempt the suites
Of Princely Fellowes, shalt heereafter finde
It is no acte of common passage, but
A straine of Rarenesse ....
(III.iv.89-94)
There is also a hint here, that their union goes against natural social order, since Cloten is of royal blood, one of the 'Princely Fellowes', which Posthumus is not. This aspect is, quite naturally, emphasised by Cymbeline and Cloten, as seen in Cymbeline's first words in the play, addressed to Posthumus: 'Thou basest thing, auoyd hence, from my sight' (I.ii.56). For Cloten he is 'that base Wretch' (II.iii.112); 'a base Slaue' (II.iii.121); 'The low Posthumus' (III.v.77), having 'so many waights of basenesse' (III.v.89); and 'that Begger Posthumus'
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(III.v.119-120). In contemporary drama there was normally no objection to a man marrying above his station, and the repeated references to Posthumus' low status convey the idea that true worth is not tied to social order - a point made even clearer when Cloten, of noble stock, is contrasted with Posthumus. Before Britain can flourish, Cymbeline must be brought to realise the worth of Posthumus and also to consent to his marriage to Imogen, just as in All's Well That Ends Well prosperity in Rosillion had depended on Bertram's acceptance of Helena's merit.
The three murder plots against Imogen fail, but all contribute in some way to bringing Posthumus back to his wife and restoring order in Britain. Firstly, Posthumus' plot, the product of his unreasonable jealousy incited by Iachimo, results in Imogen fleeing to Wales and meeting her brothers, and it is there that Cloten goes in pursuit of her. Secondly, the Queen in her lust for power intends to kill Imogen by means of her potion, but instead it allows Imogen to join the Roman forces, so that she falls into Cymbeline's hands when Lucius is captured. Finally, Cloten's plan is not only the most violent of the three murder plots, but is also grossly perverted. The idea of dressing in Posthumus' clothes and killing him, with Imogen looking on, and then raping her while pointedly still wearing the same clothes, is so astonishingly bizarre that it must be designed to catch our attention, indicating some significance deeper than the grotesque and violent acts themselves. The clue lies in Cloten's reaction to this taunt of Imogen's:
His mean'st Garment
That euer hath but clipt his body; is dearer
In my respect, then all the Heirs aboue thee,
Were they all made such men ....
(II.iii.132-135)
I think Bergeron is right in seeing a 'sexual association' on Imogen's part between Posthumus and his clothes, 6.37 and I would add that the 'mean'st Garment' could specifically refer to an intimate item of clothing, such as the codpiece; the phrase 'clipt his body' is suggestive of a significance beyond the garment itself, in any case. Cloten seems aware of this, repeating (as many as four times in just over twenty lines) part or all of Imogen's words, 'His mean'st Garment'; and then, when he formulates his plan for revenge, he recalls this insult in particular:
... shee held the very Garment of Posthumus, in more respect, then my Noble and
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naturall person; together with the adornement of my Qualities.
(III.v.135-138)
Later, in Cloten's soliloquy, spoken as he goes to commit the murder and rape, the sexual association is found once again, reinforced by the sexual punning on 'fit':
How fit his Garments serue me? Why should his Mistris who was made by him that made the Taylor, not be fit too? The rather (sauing the reuerence of the Word) for 'tis saide a Womans fitnesse comes by fits.
(IV.i.2-6)
The episode points to not only Cloten's baseness, but also his inadequacy: as Bergeron has said, 'the clothes seem to offer him a strength he otherwise does not have'. 6.38 Cloten's wearing of Posthumus' clothes expresses his inner desire to become like Posthumus, and he dwells on the similarity of his appearance to that of Posthumus, not only in respect of the well-fitting garments, but also, 'the Lines of my body are as well drawne as his; no lesse young, more strong' (IV.i.9-10). There is conflict, though, between appearance and reality, and Cloten's plan to take Posthumus' place can never succeed because he lacks the inner qualities of Posthumus: for a start, his feelings towards Imogen are ambivalent, as he admits to himself, 'I loue, and hate her' (III.v.71). His love is based on her beauty and rank - 'for she's Faire and Royall' (III.v.71) - rather than on her inner virtues; he hates her because of her devotion to Posthumus, and since his love for her is only superficial, it is his hate which expresses itself most fully in their relationship, characterised throughout by conflict. Cloten's plan of murder and rape perfectly conveys the quality of his feelings towards Imogen, since he assumes that she, like himself, will love appearance, with no regard to inner reality, and the violence of his proposed action would be the climactic expression of his hate for her and Posthumus.
The essential difference between the bids for murder made by Cloten and his mother, and that of Posthumus, is that the latter is not motivated by hatred and the desire for power, while the other two are. Posthumus, like Othello, is 'one that lou'd not wisely, but too well' (Othello V.ii.345). Had he not the deepest love for, and implicit trust in, Imogen, he would never have made the wager with Iachimo, and it is ironical that when he thinks he is proving her love by putting it to the test, it is actually his own love that is found wanting, while she passes the test without difficulty. The conflict between Iachimo and Posthumus
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is based on male pride. Initially, Posthumus is offended that anyone should doubt the chastity of his wife, since this would imply that she had succumbed to a man of sexual qualities superior to his own, while Iachimo sees himself as that person, capable of seducing any woman with his sexual charm. When Iachimo finds Imogen able to resist his advances, his male pride will not let him admit his defeat, and he presents a contrived proof to Posthumus that she has been unfaithful. This does not diminish the degree of conflict in the play in any way, since Posthumus is no less hostile to Iachimo afterwards, but in addition is at odds with Imogen. So Posthumus' love for Imogen is tried and found wanting; but equally distressing is the fact that Imogen's love for Posthumus undergoes a similar test, and she too fails. Because of her resistance to Iachimo she is usually thought of as being true to Posthumus throughout the play, an idea proved false if her reaction to discovering Posthumus' plot is examined more closely. She concludes immediately that his reason for wanting to murder her is his unfaithfulness to her with 'Some Iay of Italy' (III.iv.50), and so she brands him false:
So thou, Posthumus
Wilt lay the Leauen on all proper men;
Goodly, and gallant, shall be false and periur'd
From thy great faile ....
(III.iv.62-65)
This completes the rift between Imogen and Posthumus which Cymbeline had initiated by forbidding their love, locking Imogen away, and banishing Posthumus. The prospect of a return to order and fertility reaches its lowest point when both lovers feel the other false, and react by adopting a disguise, retreating from the real world in which disorder, conflict and violence have become unbearable. Ironically, the disguises, meant to protect those behind them from harsh reality, give rise to further hardships and disorder: only when harmony is restored, between the young married couple will order be returned to Britain, enabling true identities to be resumed with impunity.
Britain's fortunes reach their nadir about half way through the action, with Posthumus and Imogen separated, and war with Rome inevitable. The action's tragic potential has been apparent from the outset, with Cymbeline's separation of his daughter from her husband, the Queen's plotting to take her life, and Iachimo's intention of seducing her - all of these threaten dire consequences. Nevertheless, the possibility of regeneration through Posthumus and Imogen has modified the
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audience's response to the destructive forces in the play. In order to prevent the tragic possibilities of his plot from looming too large, Shakespeare introduces an upward turn in events, which at the same time heightens dramatic expectations. Between the revelation to Pisanio of Posthumus' plan for revenge and Imogen's reaction to it (which completes the rift between the lovers), Belarius, Guiderius and Arviragus make their first appearance. Here is conflict of a different kind, for while the three men are seen to be living an idyllic, Arcadian life, away from 'the Citties Vsuries' (III.iii.45) and 'the Art o' th' Court' (III.iii.46), the two young princes do not find this life as pleasant as they ought, and Belarius is at pains to point out its advantages. They find the rustic life unstimulating, and long for action. Guiderius compares their life with
A Cell of Ignorance: trauailing a bed,
A Prison, or a Debtor, that not dares
To stride a limit,
(III.iii.33-35)
and Arviragus similarly stresses the idea that they are unwilling captives:
... Our Cage
We make a Quire, as doth the prison'd Bird,
And sing our Bondage freely.
(III.iii.42-44)
Granville-Barker suggests that this conflict with Belarius follows 'the simplest dramatic recipe for giving a scene life', 6.39 by which he meant that the opposing attitudes to rusticity add interest, since the question must be raised as to how the princes will eventually achieve their freedom, resolving their conflict. The escape to the forest in As You Like It is a retreat from 'the Art o' th' Court' to a safer, benign environment, the green world; but it is also an abdication of the responsibilities of real life, 6.40 and the protests by the young princes against their 'Cell of Ignorance' are an instinctive recognition of the necessity to come to terms with harsh realities, as neither Belarius nor Duke Senior have done.
In addition, the princes' disagreement with Belarius is a manifestation of a clash between two opposing sets of values, those of Art and Nature. Here, the theme has strong political overtones, since it is used to pay tribute to the supposed inheritance of noble qualities
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which reveal themselves despite the absence of courtly nurture, thus suggesting that royalty is inherently superior:
How hard it is to hide the sparkes of Nature?
These Boyes know little they are Sonnes to'th' King,
Nor Cymbeline dreames that they are aliue.
They thinke they are mine, And though train'd vp thus meanely
I' th' Caue, whereon the Bowe their thoughts do hit,
The Roofes of Palaces, and Nature prompts them
In simple and lowe things, to Prince it, much
Beyond the tricke of others.
(III.iii.79-86)
The conflict between Art and Nature is found in both The Winter' s Tale, where Perdita is in a position similar to the princes in Cymbeline and equally shows forth her noble breeding; and also in The Tempest, where Caliban exhibits his base characteristics, unimproved by Art. The idea is frequently found in Elizabethan literature, and we find Spencer in The Fairie Queene paying an identical royal compliment:
O what an easie thing is to descry
The gentle bloud, how euer it be wrapt
In sad misfortunes foule deformity,
And wretched sorrowes, which haue often hapt?
For howsoeuer it may grow mis-shapt
Like this wyld man, being vndisciplynd,
That to all vertue it may seeme vnapt
Yet will it shew some sparkes of gentle mynd,
And at last breake forth in his owne proper kynd.
(Faerie Queene VI.v.1) 6.41
The 'saluage man' (VI.iv.2) to whom these lines apply 'shewd some token of his gentle blood' - 'For certes he was borne of noble blood' (VI.v.2) - in his kind treatment of the distressed Matilda. In a similar way, Guiderius and Arviragus cannot but behave nobly because of their royal blood.
It is Guiderius who first breaks into action, in a most fitting but unexpected way, by killing Cloten. Guiderius is the true heir to the British throne, and Cloten's intention when he plans to kill Posthumus and rape Imogen is to ascend this throne. The violence of his death matches the violence he proposed using on his victims, and so, while the sight of Guiderius carrying his head is gruesome, we may at least feel that a worse evil has been avoided, and justice has been done. The production of the severed head on the stage is a powerful image of the conquering of evil, and its use by Shakespeare here recalls that of Peele in The Old Wives' Tale, where the Ghost of Jack bears in the head of the
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wicked Sacrapant (Old Wives' Tale 851). More importantly in Cymbeline, however, the Queen's potion and Cloten's headless body are instrumental in bringing Imogen to a realisation of the worth of Posthumus once she thinks he is dead - she then sees him as 'this most brauest vessell of the world' (IV.ii.319). Cloten in his death also precipitates a resolution to the conflict Guiderius and Arviragus experience between their peaceful rural life and the more active and aggressive life they desire. Belarius associates such action with the intrigues of court which he had left behind when he fled with the King's sons; they themselves are aware of the conflict between pastoral and courtly values, and so Guiderius' sudden, violent slaying of Cloten signals the return of order to Britain, not only because the principal agent of disorder is thus removed, but also because the true heir to the throne breaks free of the restraining bonds of the Welsh mountains in order to fight for his country.
With Posthumus supposedly dead, Imogen feels that life has lost its meaning: 'I am nothing; or if not, | Nothing to be were better' (IV.ii.367-368). When we next see Posthumus he is in a similar state, filled with remorse, ready to die:
... Ile dye
For thee (O Imogen) euen for whom my life
Is euery breath, a death: and thus, vnknowne,
Pittied, nor hated, to the face of perill
My selfe Ile dedicate.
(V.i.25-29)
The same applies to Iachimo:
The heauiness and guilt within my bosome,
Takes off my manhood: I haue belyed a Lady,
The Princesse of this Country; and the ayre on't
Reuengingly enfeebles me ....
(V.ii.1-4)
Cymbeline, too, is near despair, with Cloten and Imogen missing, and the Queen mortally ill:
... My Queene
Vpon a desperate bed, and in a time
When fearefull Warres point at me: Her sonne gone,
So needfull for this present? It strikes me, past
The hope of comfort.
(IV.iii.5-9)
Worse follows for Cymbeline: as Tillyard says, 'The rottenness of what he
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and his then state of mind stand for is imaged in the disgraceful panic into which his army falls, and his own capture'. 6.42 The violence of war thus serves to underline the debased state of the King, Posthumus, Imogen and Iachimo. It is also, of course, indicative of the general state of disorder in Britain, and it is not until Belarius, Guiderius, Arviragus and Posthumus take up arms for the British, restoring order and discipline to their ranks, that Cymbeline wins victory. The experience of war leaves him unregenerate, however, and it takes the successive blows of the various revelations in the final scene to bring Cymbeline to realise the evils of Cloten and his mother, and the virtues of Imogen and Posthumus.
It would have been possible for Shakespeare to present the final act of his play without the theophany of Jupiter, for there is no external evidence of direct intervention by the god. Despite this, the play gains immeasurably from Jupiter's presence, since, in giving his approval to the establishment of peace and harmony at the end, he makes it seem all-pervading, infinitely durable. Nosworthy argues that without the vision, the restoration of order would have been impossible, such was the state of disorder and violence before it: 'the situation is so fantastically chaotic that no mere human being could be expected to control it. Such disorder can be remedied only by a god'. 6.43 The point has some validity, for, ironically, in the world of romance we can accept divine intervention more readily than ascribing the event to mere chance. The Soothsayer takes advantage of this fact in order to present a fresh interpretation of his vision of the eagle, confirming for everyone that the heavens arranged and condone the final ordered state:
The fingers of the Powres aboue, do tune
The harmony of this Peace ....
(V.v.467-468)
The vision is now taken to signify amity between Rome and Britain, and with Posthumus and Imogen reunited, Iachimo forgiven, Guiderius and Arviragus restored to Cymbeline, and all conflict and hostilities resolved, images of fecundity and the associated regeneration make their appearance. Posthumus and Imogen are central to this, and one of the most beautiful of all fertility images in Shakespeare is spoken by Posthumus in promising to remain faithful to Imogen:
Hang there like fruite, my soule,
Till the Tree dye.
(V.v.263-264)
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'Ten words', according to Spurgeon, 'which do more than anything else in the play to bring him in weight and value a little nearer to Imogen'. 6.44 Belarius blesses Cymbeline's sons before handing them over to him, and the images of heavenly water and inlaying of stars express the fertility anticipated once order is restored:
The benediction of these couering Heauens
Fall on their heads like dew, for they are worthie
To in-lay Heauen with Starres.
(V.v.351-353)
For Cymbeline, the restoration of his sons and daughter carries the implication of parenthood renewed:
Oh, what am I
A Mother to the byrth of three? Nere Mother
Reioyc'd deliuerance more ....
(V.v.369-371)
Iachimo knows he is worthy of death, but even his confession is associated with the fertility of the wedding ring, now restored, and Imogen's bracelet, both emblems of faith in marriage:
Take that life, beseech you
Which I so often owe: but your Ring first,
And heere the Bracelet of the truest Princesse
That euer swore her Faith.
(V.v.415-418)
The final fertility images are supplied by the Soothsayer, who goes by the auspicious name of Philharmonus. Once again the prosperity of Britain is linked with the fate of Posthumus:
... then shall Posthumus end his miseries, Britaine be fortunate, and flourish in Peace and Plentie.
(V.v.441-443)
Also vital to peace and prosperity is the re-establishing of the royal line through Guiderius:
The lofty Cedar, Royall Cymbeline
Personates thee: And thy lopt Branches point
Thy two Sonnes forth: who by Belarius stolne
For many yeares thought dead, are now reuiu'd
To the Maiesticke Cedar ioyn'd; whose Issue
Promises Britaine, Peace and Plenty.
(V.v.454-459)
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Spurgeon lists the tree images used by Shakespeare in Cymbeline, 6.45 and the cedar must obviously rank high in Elizabethan order, since it is used to depict royalty here. 6.46 The grafting of branches onto the original stock is an apt image of reunion, and may be biblical in origin, since Paul refers to the winning of Jews to Christianity as the grafting of natural stock into an olive tree:
For if thou wast cut out of the oliue tre, which was wilde by nature, and wast graffed contrary to nature in a right oliue tre, how much more shal they that are by nature, be graffed in their owne oliue tre?
(Romans 11.24)
The Pauline image fits in well in Cymbeline: in his philosophy, the converted Jew was returning to his rightful place in the divinely appointed order, just as are the princes in returning to their positions in the royal family. Earlier in the play trees had been used as images of sterility: the separation of Imogen and Posthumus by Cymbeline prevents their union from coming to fruition:
... Ore ere I could,
Giue him that parting kisse, which I had set
Betwixt two charming words, comes in my Father,
And like the Tyrannous breathing of the North,
Shakes all our buddes from growing.
(I.iv.33-37)
The 'Tyrannous breathing of the North' is a fitting image for the conflict between father and daughter, as is the dropping of 'buddes' for the resulting sterility; and we find a similar idea expressed by Belarius to signify his conflict with Cymbeline:
Cymbeline lou'd me,
And when a Souldier was the Theame, my name
Was not farre off: then was I as a Tree
Whose boughes did bend with fruit. But in one night,
A Storme, or Robbery (call it what you will)
Shooke downe my mellow hangings: nay my Leaues,
And left me bare to weather.
(III.iii.58-64)
Having twice used the image of fruit being destroyed by bad weather (itself an image of disorder), Shakespeare makes plain the image of a tree in perpetual fruit, used by Posthumus of his reunion with Imogen: their separation is at an end, and fertility will follow.
The sense of order, harmony and peace at the close of the play, in which 'Pardon's the word to all' (V.v.423), is strengthened by
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Shakespeare's treatment of violence. The idea of violence is often conveyed in the imagery, as noted by Tinkler: 'A large number of the images involve ideas of muscular tension and strain .... There is an insistent feeling of brutal strain', 6.47 contributing to the violent atmosphere of the play. The Queen lies behind much of this violence, and she meets a violent death - but instead of showing us the Queen raving (as he did in Lady Macbeth's case, to enhance the sense of disorder), Shakespeare gives us a mild report of how she met her end
With horror, madly dying, like her life,
Which (being cruell to the world) concluded
Most cruell to her selfe.
(V.v.31-33)
This subdued account avoids the melodrama of depicting terminal madness on the stage, which would divert attention from the serious business of clarifying confusions in the final scene - so violence, here, is avoided by the playwright. Cloten is the most violent character in the play, but we never actually see him commit an act of violence: instead, Shakespeare conveys the impression of Cloten's violence in the language he uses, often angry and abrasively crude. His interrupted duel with Posthumus and his skirmish with the 'whorson Iacke-an-Apes' (II.i.3) who stopped him swearing are both reported rather than acted before the audience; and his most violent act, the combined murder and rape, is only intended, never performed. Like his mother, he meets a suitably violent end, which, once again, is not performed on stage. The carrying in of Cloten's head, the presentation of his headless body, and Imogen's smearing of his blood on her cheeks enhance the sense of violence, but are symptoms of violence rather than violent acts themselves. They all contribute to the death ritual which results in the transformation of Imogen after she comes to appreciate the merits of her supposedly dead husband. Even the war, in which there is 'the losse | Of many a bold one' (V.v.70-71), is presented as a series of stylised episodes of dumb-show, avoiding a too-realistic presentation of violence.
One important piece of stage violence is not muted, however, this being the striking of the disguised Imogen by Posthumus in the final scene:
Imo.
Peace my Lord, heare, heare.
Post.
Shall's haue a play of this? Thou scornfull Page,
there lye thy part.
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Pis.
Oh Gentlemen, helpe,
Mine and your Mistris: Oh my Lord Posthumus,
You ne're kill'd Imogen till now: helpe, helpe,
Mine honour'd Lady.
Cym.
Does the world go round?
Post.
How comes these staggers on mee?
Pisa.
Wake my Mistris.
(V.v.227-233)
We should be wary of passing off this violent display as merely gratuitous, since uncalled-for violence is not encountered in Shakespeare's comedies. Why, then, should Posthumus strike Imogen so roughly that he knocks her senseless for a few moments? One obvious reason is that it most effectively creates suspense: the audience is at the height of expectation, waiting for Imogen to reveal her identity, and just as she is about to, she is ironically forestalled by the man it most concerns. Apart from this, as Taylor has observed, the 'blow brings to a climax and to an end the thwarted relationship between the lovers', 6.48 and it does this most emphatically, in an appropriate way. Posthumus has come to realise the worth of Imogen even without hearing Pisanio's confession, and when he hears that he was deceived in believing Imogen false, his striking out at what appears to be an upstart page gives expression to the turbulence of his emotions, confirming for the audience the validity of his repentance and the depth of his love. The vigorous expression of distress and remorse, hurting the one for whom he cares the most, is an ironical affirmation of Posthumus' fitness for redemption. As we have seen, all other aspects of violence in the play are deliberately minimised by Shakespeare, although reference is nevertheless made to them; thus the peace established in the denouement can hold its own, without being overshadowed by the memory of the potentially excessive violence leading up to it. This, together with the fact that the gods have intervened and given their blessing to the final amity, enhances our sense of optimism as the play closes.
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- - - NOTES: CHAPTER SIX - - -
6.19 Line numbers are taken from William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, ed. J.M. Nosworthy (London: Methuen, 1980). return
6.22 Joan Carr, 'Cymbeline and the Validity of Myth', Studies in Philology, 75 (1978), 327. return
6.23 David Wiles, Shakespeare's Clown: Actor and Text in the Elizabethan Playhouse (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), p.153. return
6.25 Granville-Barker, p.304. return
6.26 First by Cloten: IV.i.2-4 and 9-14; and then inadvertently by Imogen: IV.ii.309-322. return
6.27 This would, of course, rule out Wile's suggestion of a comically dwarfish Cloten. return
6.28 M.D.H. Parker, The Slave of Life: A Study of Shakespeare and the Idea of Justice (London: Chatto and Windus, 1955), p.45. return
6.29 James Edward Siemon, 'Noble Virtue in Cymbeline', Shakespeare Survey, 29 (1976), 58. return
6.30 Hunter, Comedy, p.158. return
6.31 This is through the fool's cap or 'coxcomb' - see Nosworthy, p.46 n. return
6.32 David M. Bergeron, 'Sexuality in Cymbeline', Essays in Literature, 10 (1983), 160. return
6.34 The point was made by Professor Ferguson during our correspondence. return
6.35 Wilson Knight, Crown, p.140. return
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6.39 Granville-Barker, p.328. return
6.40 A point made by Professor Ferguson. return
6.41 The edition cited is J.C. Smith and E. de Selincourt, eds, The Poetical Works of Edmund Spencer: Edited with Critical Notes (London: Oxford University Press, 1912). The same point is made by Greene in James IV, where the noble Dorothea is advised that she cannot go disguised:
The Rose, although in thornie shrubs she spread,
Is still the Rose, her beauties waxe not dead;
And noble mindes, altho the coate be bare,
Are by their semblance knowne, how great they are!
(James IV III.iii.1413-1416) return
6.42 Eustace Mandeville Wetenhall Tillyard, Shakespeare's Last Plays (London: Chatto and Windus, 1958), p.27 (hereafter cited as Tillyard, Last Plays). return
6.43 Nosworthy, p.xxxvii. Jupiter's role as a revenger of wrongs is referred to in Damon and Pithias by Edwards, where Stephano laments the fate of his master, Damon:
But, O Jupiter, of all wrongs the revenger,
Seest thou this unjustice, and wilt thou stay any longer
From heaven to send down thy hot consuming fire
To destroy the workers of wrong, which provoke thy just ire?
(Damon and Pithias 566-569)
This is not unlike the appeal of the Leonati ghosts. return
6.45 Ibid., pp.292-293. return
6.46 The cedar's pre-eminence is described by Lyly in Endymion:
... the statelie Cedar, whose toppe reacheth vnto the clowdes, neuer boweth his head to the shrubs that growe in the valley, nor Iuie that climeth vp by the Elme, can euer get hold of the beames of the Sunne ....
(Endymion II.i.560-564)
Nosworthy links the bird imagery of the play to the tree imagery in this one instance: 'the Elizabethans, with their conception of degree running through all created things, were ready enough to enthrone the Phoenix in the king of trees, the cedar' (p.lxxxi); the Phoenix is Imogen (see I.vii.17), and so the reunion with Cymbeline links the Phoenix with the cedar. I think the relationship is tenuous, and Nosworthy himself admits 'The Phoenix myth is one of vast implications and these can be transferred to Cymbeline more or less according to taste. The danger is that a blinding fog of mysticism may result' (p.lxxxii). return
6.47 F.C. Tinkler, 'Cymbeline', Scrutiny, 7 (1938), 6. return
6.48 Michael Taylor, 'The Pastoral Reckoning in Cymbeline', Shakespeare Survey, 36 (1983), 105. return
Proceed to The Winter's Tale