William Shakespeare: Romances by Everyman’s Library
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
These plays are published by arrangement with New American Library, a division of Penguin Books, USA Inc.
Pericles: Copyright © 1965 by Ernest Schanzer
Copyright © 1963, 1988 by Sylvan Barnet
Pages 1-112
Edited by Ernest Schanzer
Cymbeline: Copyright © 1968 by Richard Hosley
Copyright © 1963, 1988 by Sylvan Barnet
Pages 113-256
Edited by Richard Hosley
I read both plays in immediate succession and found them both to be incredibly poignant and resonating reads. The theme of transcendence in the late plays (or Romances, as labelled by the copy which held both) which I’ve heard discussed is definitely alive in both of these plays: where there would assumedly be tragedy (especially in the case of Cymbeline, whose progressively thickening plot almost makes your stomach churn in anticipation for the climax) there is instead a transcendence beyond this, to a peaceful closure. Arguably, both plays are resolved with a happily ever after, which is a stark contrast to TTNK’s cathartic, miserable ending. Both plays also feature the dead being resurrected: Thaisa is brought back to life on Ephesus, and Imogen is saved by Cornelius’ tampering with the Queen’s poisonous vial when ill. Both feature female protagonists dedicated to Diana and their chastity: Thaisa becomes a priestess of Diana once she awakes while her daughter, Marina, converts the men who visit her at the brothel to the path of purity; Imogen is willing to die once she receives the letter from Posthumus declaring that she had cuckolded him, even though this was part of Iachimo’s scheming. TTNK’s Emilia is similar in this regard.
Pericles seems unlike any other Shakespeare I’ve read (but does deal with the same themes of chivalry and morality that TTNK does) and although I haven’t read it yet, reminds me of The Tempest with its focus on the maritime. Its usage of Gower and the frequencies of the Dumb Shows are unlike any other Shakespeare I’ve encountered, bar the play-within-a-play elements of Hamlet; it is used for transitions and often inspires both mirth and pathos. The meeting of Marina and Pericles is massively pathos-inducing and has echoes of Lear and Cordelia’s reunion in regards to its massive emotional weight; when the Jailer’s friends recover his Daughter there is a similar but paler echo of this. The processions involving the Knights invokes a similar atmosphere to TTNK’s, and Pericles’ friendship with Helicanus echoes that of Theseus and Pirithous’.
Cymbeline is a fantastic play. The delicate and often-spurned relationship between Posthumus Leonatus and Imogen is reminiscent of Othello and Desdemona – both are set towards downfall by scheming Italians whose names begin with ‘Ia’, both are wedded against the permission of their fathers, both rely on misplaced tokens to herald the infidelity (although Iachimo supplies far more damning evidence, by relaying a view of the chamber and the mole upon Imogen’s left breast) – but Imogen survives her husband’s wrath thanks to the help of Pisanio, as she and her husband have a reconciliation at the end of the play. The theme of reconciliation is in fact one of the most prominent in this play, as in the end there is the reconciliation between the couple, between Cymbeline, Belarius and his two stolen sons, between Cymbeline and Imogen, between Imogen and Pisanio (as she thought he had killed Posthumus when she wakes in hers and the headless Cloten’s grave), between Iachimo’s guilt and Posthumus’ nobility to not kill him, and between Rome and Britain. The reconciliations demonstrate it as the play whose characters communicate instead of waging war, and they are happier for it. Cymbeline seems to bookend the tragedies– chiefly Othelloand King Lear – where the lack of communication serves to be but one cause of their peripeteias. It seems interesting then to compare this happier reconciliation with the heart-wrenching one between Palamon and Arcite when the latter is dying. However, it has to be noted that Shakespeare and Fletcher were following the unhappy ending already laid out by Chaucer in The Knight’s Tale.
As late plays, they are most likely to be what I’ll compare TTNK to, if I regain any sense of what the essay will be about.
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