Easily one of the most fanciful and strange of Shakespeare’s plays, ‘Cymbeline’ takes place in Ancient Britain, where King Cymbeline rules under the watchful eye of Rome. When his daughter Imogen marries the low-born Posthumus, the enraged King banishes his new son-in-law to Italy, where Posthumus – bragging of his wife’s fidelity – enters into a wager with his friend Iachimo that she will stay true to him.
Upon traveling to Britain to test her (and discovering that Imogen is devoted to her new husband), Iachimo arranges to slip into Imogen’s chamber, steal a bracelet given to her by Posthumus and return to Italy to boast of his conquest. Posthumus, believing his wife to have been unfaithful, then makes arrangements to have Imogen murdered for her disloyalty.
Becoming more and more wild and strange as it proceeds, the plot includes everything from political intrigue to bizarre plot twists, secret identities and ‘magic’ potions…and is as close to a fairy tale as anything Shakespeare ever created.
‘Cymbeline’ is presented here in its original and unabridged format.
عن المؤلف
William Shakespeare is generally acknowledged as the greatest dramatist in the history of English literature. Also a poet and actor, Shakespeare was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, where he received an education at the local grammar school, but whether he attended any educational institution subsequent to his early tutelage is unknown. By eighteen, Shakespeare was married – to an already-pregnant Anne Hathaway – and the couple would go on to have three children, Susanna and the twins Hamnet and Judith. (Hamnet died at 11 years old.) Shakespeare moved to London soon after the birth of the twins and began publishing poems (‘Venus and Adonis’ (1593) and ‘The Rape of Lucrece’ (1594)) and joined the Lord Chamberlain’s Men as an actor and playwright. Shakespeare stayed with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men throughout his career, producing some of his finest work – ‘King Lear, ‘ ‘Macbeth’ and ‘The Tempest’ among them – after the company fell under the patronage of King James I and became The King’s Men. During his career, Shakespeare penned 38 plays, two narrative poems and over 150 sonnets and enjoyed considerable financial success, eventually buying New Place, one of the largest homes in Stratford. Following his death in 1616 at the age of 52, thirty-six of his plays were collected and published as the First Folio and his entire canon – including his extant plays, sonnets and poems – were published as The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s plays are the most produced dramatic works in existence and they have been translated and adapted into countless stage, screen and television productions over the years. Entire theatres are devoted to producing his works and his writings are studied and analyzed in literature classes around the world.
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