Memories of Cymbeline

King Cymbeline had two sons

whom he loved very much.

The heir and the spare.

An invasion took place;

the infants were kidnapped.

Cymbeline was left

with a daughter,

Imogen.

***

Many sunsets and many phases

of the moon later,

and the daughter, Imogen,

grew up.

She fell in love with Posthumus,

a member of her father's court.

Imogen exchanged

a precious token with Posthumus

and he with her.

They shared vows

and whispered

of their future together.

Many kisses

and longing stares.

***

Cymbeline

disapproved of the marriage,

and he dismissed his daughter,

his only daughter,

and the only child

he still knows.

He shunned

the only heir to the throne.

Imogen's mental state

began to wane.

The cracks of her mental state

crescendoing for many acts.

***

The Queen has her own

agenda. She manipulates

and pulls strings willy-nilly.

She conspires

to have her son,

from a previous marriage,

to take the hand

of her stepdaughter,

Imogen.

Wedded bliss

with your stepbrother,

not a cup

most people

would drink to.

What was the Queen thinking?

The Queen wanted

to secure her bloodline

on the throne.

The Queen

hungered for power.

The Queen

also in a plot

to murder both King Cymbeline

and Princess Imogen.

The mad Queen

enlisted the help

of a servant

to deliver a poison

to aid in manifesting

her evil plot.

***

Imogen hid in a closet

to protect herself from Cloten

and his unwanted advances.

Cloten, the bumbling son

of the ravenously mad Queen.

He banged his hands on the door

begging for the princess

to give him a chance.

Please, give me a kiss!

***

Posthumus wanders many a season

after the King dismissed him

from the court.

Lovesick, he

found himself

in Italy

wherein by unfortunate chance

he confides in Iachimo

his tale of love gone wrong.

Posthumus can't stop talking

about Imogen and her sweetness,

and her beauty, and her chasteness.

So Iachimo gets a devilish idea.

He introduces a bet

that he can seduce

the princess

and prove

she has no willpower.

Posthumus (foolishly) takes him up

on the disastrous bet.

If Iachimo wins,

he'll receive Posthumus' token ring.

If Posthumus wins

they'll fight to the pain

with swords.

***

Iachimo hides in a chest

in Imogen's bedroom.

How he got there,

I'm really not sure.

When she falls asleep,

he attempts to steal her bracelet

off her arm,

the one belonging to Posthumus.

He takes note of the room,

and the mysterious mole

on her body.

He uses this information

to make Posthumus think

he seduced Imogen fair

and square.

Iachimo's lie

convinces Posthumus

that Imogen

had an affair.

The scandal

sends him

into a jealous rage.

Letters are impulsively written

and sent. One orders Imogen

to meet with Posthumus.

Another letter

sent to a servant orders him

to meet

at the location

where Posthumus and Imogen

will meet

to kill Imogen.

The servant, Pisanio,

isn't into the murderous plot.

He helps disguise Imogen

as a boy, and they leave

for Milford Haven.

Imogen takes on the name Fidele.

***

Threats grow of a Roman invasion

on Britain. The King

is tied up with global affairs

instead of familial ones.

He is unaware

of the scandals

circling around his daughter.

Cloten,

meanwhile,

still

has

the

hots

for

Imogen.

So he dresses up like Posthumus

and makes haste to Milford Haven.

Cloten wants to get rid of Posthumus.

(Grrr, that suitor in the way!)

And he plots to abduct Imogen.

***

Imogen, as Fidele, travels

throughout the lands,

making her way through

fog and bog.

She finds herself

in the Welsh mountains.

She gets very sick

on her journey,

both physically and mentally.

She finds a cave and rests there.

Lo and behold, she discovers

Belarius

and his two sons:

Polydore and Cadawl.

The men are great hunters;

they've lived their lives

almost entirely

in the wilderness.

Fidele forms a strong kinship

with the men. They share

many stories; the conversations

warm her heart

and give her hope.

Cloten, hot on her trail,

finds

the secret cave.

A swordfight,

with one of the hunters, ensues.

It takes place outside the cave.

The clashing of metal,

the tensions high,

and Cloten, well,

he loses his head.

***

Imogen's condition worsens.

While the fight takes place

with her stepbrother,

she drinks a vial,

hoping it will heal her,

not knowing it's poison.

She falls deep

into

a supreme

slumber.

Everyone

thinks she is dead.

They poke her with a big stick.

The hunters place

Cloten's headless body

next to Imogen.

A double burial, not so indeed.

***

When Imogen wakes,

she is terrified. She assumes

the body next to her is

Posthumus (irony, indeed).

The body has on the clothes

of her estranged lover.

Ah, but things get stranger

my friend, you see

the Roman army is in Britain,

and they're trouncing through Wales.

General Caius Lucius

discovers Imogen

as Fidele in the cave.

She pretends to be a servant

mourning his master.

Lucius is moved by the display,

and employs Fidele

as a pageboy.

***

The mad Queen loses

her mind

when she can't find her son,

Cloten. Her health

declines at quick speed.

Posthumus

riddled with jealously

and anger

and guilt

enlists in the Roman invasion.

***

Cymbeline

is saved from the Romans;

the king doesn't recognize

his saviors

as they escape

his castle.

***

Posthumus and Fidele

are imprisoned with

the Roman soldiers,

all of them await execution.

The guillotine is sharpened.

Death grins at the clock.

Death files his nails.

Posthumus sleeps

through the night,

his anxious mind turning

and turning.

Ancestral ghosts

complain to Jupiter

of their descendant's

impossible state.

The sky explodes

with thunder and lightning

and clouds and darkness,

the ancestral ghosts

chanting and rattling,

their prayers answered

by the king of their gods.

***

The Queen in her deathbed

confesses her schemes

to take the crown

to kill the king

and kill the princess

and kill anything

she so desired.

***

Cymbeline prepares

to execute the new prisoners.

Judgment Day is here.

But something is out of place:

Fidele notices Posthumus' ring

on Iachimo's finger.

What could this mean?

Iachimo tells Fidele of the bet

he had to seduce Imogen

and that he failed to do it.

Posthumus affirms the story

and admits his wrongfulness

in wishing Imogen dead.

Imogen throws herself

at Posthumus' feet

and he kicks her down,

thinking she is Fidele.

(Such a harsh thing to do

to kick someone

also condemned

to execution...)

At last, Imogen

removes her disguise.

The lovers finally reconnect

but under the worst

of circumstances.

Then another confession:

Belarius admits

Polydore and Cadawl

are actually the two kidnapped sons

of Cymbeline, the princes

Guiderius and Aviragus.

Since they're in line

for the throne ahead

of Princess Imogen,

she is free

to marry whomever she pleases.

She forgives Posthumus

and all the lies and deceit.

All the happy occasions

in the prison lead to another

announcement:

the Roman soldiers

are pardoned.

Cymbeline agrees

to pay a tribute to

the Roman Emperor,

a gesture of peace

that's followed by a feast.

Weddings bells,

reunited royals,

and a mad Queen

but the vultures' dessert.