N.M. Price - Imogen sleeping (from Shakespeare's 'Cymbeline').
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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
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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....
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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.
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Mary Hoare, Imogen Entering the Cave, ‘Cymbeline’, Act III, Scene VI, 1781
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