Cymbeline: Shakespeare's Last Roman Play

Abstract

B Y THE TIME HE WROTE Cymbeline, Shakespeare had already made several forays into things Roman: the early tragedies Titus Andronicus and Julius Caesar and the two tragedies shortly before Cymbeline-Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus. Shakespeare apparently saw in the ancient Romans virtues that could be celebrated, historical events of profound significance, and characters ripe for dramatic presentation. In a recent retrospective essay discussing criticism and scholarship on Shakespeare's classical plays, John W. Velz wrestles with the question, What ... was Rome to Shakespeare?' He argues that Shakespeare thought concretely, perhaps authentically, about Rome. The qualities Velz sees in Shakespeare's plays include language and style (especially an oratorical mode), national character (mirrored sometimes in the Stoicism of characters and sometimes in their decadence), institutions (with particular emphasis on the family, notably in Titus), and sense of place (Rome as a walled city of civilization). One might also mention that common to the Roman plays is a focus on military exploits, with the accompanying tumult, confusion, and occasional exercise of magnanimity. Whatever else Shakespeare may have thought about Romans, he surely thought of them as soldiers. Unlike any of Shakespeare's other romances, Cymbeline has a military focus and a concentration of political struggles reminiscent of the Roman plays. Though its Roman background has not been particularly emphasized by interpreters,2 that attribute of the play accounts for much that happens. Cymbeline