#imogen cymbeline

[pumpkinz-art]

have i shared this yet

[withasideofshakespeare]

Follow up:

[britneyshakespeare]

i know on a lot of levels cymbeline is not shakespeare's best play but i literally cannot get over it. cannot get over the magic of the plot and the characters. cannot get over imogen, the most central character of the play by far. the true heroine. there is no obvious second most significant character in the play to me. there's posthumus and iachamo and cloten and her brothers who are by far more significant than the titular king even is. it's about imogen baby it's always about imogen

[mysterious-secret-garden]

N.M. Price - Imogen sleeping (from Shakespeare's 'Cymbeline').

[creatediana]

I ponder what she'd want from me— I know one part is wit, which I possess, debatably; I stole her store of it. But what else of my character? To be an Imogen the men would have me—artless, pure, beneath a father's pen. I don't think I'd be so unwise to be cast in her play, to move before that woman's eyes as I do anyway— But they are drooped. She is long-dead and so are many more. I pluck hairs from her resting bed and other corpses for my wicked, hoary majesties, my poems, mortal, light— look all around these lines. The breeze breathes dust through storied sight. Look for romantic ingenues, and you may painted find their flesh embalmed, with added hues that never crossed a mind. My eyes come not from Cymbeline— the eagle plucked them out. I found some pearls, incarnadine dyed in my husband's doubt. I ponder—do I do enough for women with my arts? Stroll through their graves, unpack their stuff, dissect their carrion hearts, decayed and crumbling in my palms— do I do right by them? Past undegrading them with balms, I paste on pomp and gem.

—"Do It for Her (Self-Aggrandizing Self-Portrait as Imogen)" - a poem written 2/16/2024

[crawlingbetweenearthandheaven]

they had pointless on at the gym and a woman called imogen had to name a shakespeare play’s title containing letter “d” or “l” and she did not choose CYMBELINE. a silly little fool!

[loonfromq]

i love all these new shakespeare productions that just make everything gay. coolest thing ever

[shipcestuous-two]

has Cymbeline (the Shakespeare play) come up before? Princess Imogen secretly marries her love Posthumus Leonatus, an orphan who was adopted and raised within the king's family. meanwhile, her stepmother plots to marry her to the mom's shitty son from a prev relationship, Cloten (I's stepbrother). lots of stuff happens, including Cloten trying to kill Posthumus so he can abduct/marry Imogen (he dies--good). ask 1/2 bc there's more deets

Cymbeline 2/2: Cloten was killed by one of 2 friends Imogen made along the way, Guiderius and Arviragus. Well, it turns out they're long-lost sons of the king, making them Imogen's biological brothers! This is great for Imogen, bc since she isn't the only bio successor to her dad, she's free to be with her true love (and adoptive brother) Posthumus. And her cruel stepmother is outed for being, well, cruel. all's well that ends well? (3/3 bc i'm an idiot) I neglected to mention that there's an undertone with Guiderius and Arviragus's relationship with their sister when they meet her, not knowing they're siblings. Imogen is disguised as a boy named Fidele (bc this is Shakespeare and we can't have Shakespeare without gender fuckery and queer undertones) and her brothers are so intrigued by "him" in a way that's easily read as homoerotic. I lowkey ship them and Posthumus in a weird messy polycule, even if it doesn't make sense

I'm not familiar with Cymbeline. It's really keeping it in the family, isn't?

Thanks for the deets, Anon!

[the-noisiest-pumpkin]

cmon tumblr please tell me at least ONE of you has also had posthumus/iachimo thoughts

[posthumus]

one sand another / not more resembles that sweet rosy lad / who died, and was fidele.

imogen sketches!!! she has bewitched me body and soul.....

[purplemuskrat]

Pleasantly surprised by all the Winter's Tale love! I thought no one knew that play except for the bear thing.

Asked a non-shakesgeek friend for a zeitgeist check and got this

followed by a whole rant about how Leontes should've fucked off and died. It was great.

Sorry it's not in alphabetical order but I can't easily rearrange the options and I have a life to live

[britneyshakespeare]

Shakespeare at the end of one of his romances: And the lost princess... is returned Me, every single time: [gasps] Oh my God the lost princess is returned

[socialshakespeare]

Shakespeare Tourney, Round 1

(summaries from shakespeare.org.uk; further summaries and propaganda encouraged)

Cymbeline: Imogen's fidelity is questioned, everyone puts on some sort of disguise, revelations abound at the end, and only one person dies.

Titus Andronicus: Tamora plans false incrimination, rape, murder, and mutilation. Titus plans murder and cannibalism. This is not a happy play.

[princesssarisa]

Shakespeare's Cymbeline obviously has some story elements in common with Snow White. A princess heroine, a wicked queen stepmother, a servant is ordered to kill the princess but instead lets her go, she finds the home of some men in the wilderness and lives with them, but then she succumbs to "poison" from her stepmother and is mourned as dead, yet she isn't really dead, and eventually there's a happy ending.

In the play, the character of Belarius, the foster father who takes Imogen in (and whose foster sons turn out to be her long-lost brothers), goes by the pseudonym Morgan.

In the Let's Pretend radio adaptation of Snow White (or rather Snowdrop, as it's called), the leader of the seven dwarfs, basically a more dignified version of Disney's Doc, is named Morgan.

I see what you did there, Nila Mack. I see what you did there.

[snack-size-shakespeare]

two dumb questions: 1) how many characters in the tragedies kill their partners (homoerotic nemeses do count in this case) and 2 (the more important one)) are there enough to write a parody of the cell block tango

I don't know how long ago I got this, and I feel like the asker probably needed an answer fast! But I still like the question!

But I don't think there are many!

Othello killing Desdemona in OTHELLO. She's dead for real and I hate it.

2. Richard III killing Anne in RICHARD III. Bastard.

3. Aufidius killing Martius in CORIOLANUS

4.) Claudius accidentally poisoning Gertrude in HAMLET (while trying to poison someone else).

5). Iago killing Emilia in OTHELLO. Emilia's fantastic!!! I hate it!!!!

6). Posthuman sends a literal assassin after innocent Imogen in CYMBELINE. He's lucky the assassin changes his mind and warns her!! He went a step even further than Leontes, but like Leontes, he his romantic partner lived. Speaking of....

THE UN-SPECIAL MURDEROUS MENTIONS :

Leontes comes awfully close in THE WINTER'S TALE to killing Hermione! Fortunately, he's able to hold himself back, putting her on trial instead of an actual assassin. She lives!!! It's OK!!!! I actually like Leontes, in the end!

In many RICHARD II productions, Aumerle kills Richard. The murderer in the play, Exton, comes out of nowhere at the final second, and it's kind of a letdown. Whereas Aumerle disappears after trying to put teh King (with whom he also has a homoerotic connection), and then being forced to swear loyalty to Henry IV. So it's much more compelling if he does it!

Lucrece Killing Tarquin IN the THE RAPE OF LUCRECE (one of the narrative poems). He saw her as a romantic interest. He's her rapist, and she does not see him that way. She kills him!!. It's a well-deserved, satisfying moment. That could do interesting things in a CELL BLOCK TANGO parody!

More than I thought, actually! Enough to do a CELL BLOCK TANGO parody even without the Un-Special Mentions, if you include Posthumus on "attempted". Oh, damn, now I hope someone does it....

[eraofstories]

cymbeline!! i know nothing about cymbeline say more pls

it has everything! Crossdressing heroines! Stupid fathers! princes raised in the forest by a devoted servant (or evil kidnapper?) who then reunite with their family! a love interest named, this is not a joke, POSTHUMOUS!! who does fall for the whole 'my friend bet me that he could fuck my wife' (he has been banished by the wife's dad) thing re: the friend hiding in her room and taking notes ab her sleeping body/stealing a bracelet! But! not fatally!

It should be noted that at this point my roommate asked me if I was ok because my excitement had caused me to start breathing in a way that was apparently concerning.

Anyway, the scene where everyone's identities (the princes, Imogen who has been dressed as a boy, Fidele (like come on Posthumous, THIS is the woman you think cheated? get serious), Posthumous etc are revealed and everyone who is evil admits to their crimes is sooo good. Imogen as Fidele waits for quite a while to reveal herself to her father, letting him do some real good regretting.

It's utterly absurd, has elements of all the best comedies and comic/happy versions of many tropes from the best tragedies and I love it unreasonably. I have had the absolute delight to have gotten to see it performed twice, both times in outdoor productions, one at NYC's Shakespeare in the Park by the Public Theater.