thought was poison, hoping to kill him, and that Pisanio was innocent of what the compound really was, thinking it medicinal. Reunited at last, Posthumus and Innogen embrace.
Lines 307–571: Cymbeline and Innogen lovingly reunite, and Cymbeline questions Cloten’s disappearance. Pisanio tells of Cloten’s leaving for Milford Haven in pursuit of Innogen and Posthumus, and Guiderius finishes the story. Cymbeline, filled with regret because he still admires the young warrior, has no choice but to sentence him to death for killing a prince. Belarius intercedes, telling Cymbeline that the young man is “better than the man he slew,” confessing that he is the banished Belarius, disguised as Morgan, and that the young men with him are Cymbeline’s sons, whom he raised these twenty years. Cymbeline is at first incredulous, but upon seeing the star-shaped birthmark he remembers upon Guiderius’ neck, all doubt is removed, and, overcome with joy, he pardons Belarius and is tearfully reunited with his sons. The boys and Innogen now realize why they felt such a natural bond with each other. Innogen has Caius Lucius freed, and Posthumus, after forgiving Iachimo, calls upon the Soothsayer to interpret the strange tablet he found in his jail cell. The prophecy relates to what has just taken place; to Posthumus findingInnogen again, and to Cymbeline’s sons being “jointed” back onto the royal family tree, ensuring the continued stability of the realm. “Pardon’s the word to all,” Cymbeline declares, and even promises to continue paying the tribute to Rome as a sign of mutual respect. All go in together to celebrate and to make offerings to the gods who have ensured that everything has ended in “peace.”
SHAKESPEARE’S CAREER IN THE THEATER
BEGINNINGS
William Shakespeare was an extraordinarily intelligent man who was born and died in an ordinary market town in the English Midlands. He lived an uneventful life in an eventful age. Born in April 1564, he was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a glove maker who was prominent on the town council until he fell into financial difficulties. Young William was educated at the local grammar in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, where he gained a thorough grounding in the Latin language, the art of rhetoric, and classical poetry. He married Ann Hathaway and had three children (Susanna, then the twins Hamnet and Judith) before his twenty-first birthday: an exceptionally young age for the period. We do not know how he supported his family in the mid-1580s.
Like many clever country boys, he moved to the city in order to make his way in the world. Like many creative people, he found a career in the entertainment business. Public playhouses and professional full-time acting companies reliant on the market for their income were born in Shakespeare’s childhood. When he arrived in London as a man, sometime in the late 1580s, a new phenomenon was in the making: the actor who is so successful that he becomes a “star.” The word did not exist in its modern sense, but the pattern is recognizable: audiences went to the theater not so much to see a particular show as to witness the comedian Richard Tarlton or the dramatic actor Edward Alleyn.
Shakespeare was an actor before he was a writer. It appears not to have been long before he realized that he was never going to grow into a great comedian like Tarlton or a great tragedian like Alleyn. Instead, he found a role within his company as the man who patched up old plays, breathing new life, new dramatic twists, into tired repertorypieces. He paid close attention to the work of the university-educated dramatists who were writing history plays and tragedies for the public stage in a style more ambitious, sweeping, and poetically grand than anything which had been seen before. But he may also have noted that what his friend and rival Ben Jonson would call “Marlowe’s mighty line” sometimes faltered in the mode of comedy. Going to
Lines 307–571: Cymbeline and Innogen lovingly reunite, and Cymbeline questions Cloten’s disappearance. Pisanio tells of Cloten’s leaving for Milford Haven in pursuit of Innogen and Posthumus, and Guiderius finishes the story. Cymbeline, filled with regret because he still admires the young warrior, has no choice but to sentence him to death for killing a prince. Belarius intercedes, telling Cymbeline that the young man is “better than the man he slew,” confessing that he is the banished Belarius, disguised as Morgan, and that the young men with him are Cymbeline’s sons, whom he raised these twenty years. Cymbeline is at first incredulous, but upon seeing the star-shaped birthmark he remembers upon Guiderius’ neck, all doubt is removed, and, overcome with joy, he pardons Belarius and is tearfully reunited with his sons. The boys and Innogen now realize why they felt such a natural bond with each other. Innogen has Caius Lucius freed, and Posthumus, after forgiving Iachimo, calls upon the Soothsayer to interpret the strange tablet he found in his jail cell. The prophecy relates to what has just taken place; to Posthumus findingInnogen again, and to Cymbeline’s sons being “jointed” back onto the royal family tree, ensuring the continued stability of the realm. “Pardon’s the word to all,” Cymbeline declares, and even promises to continue paying the tribute to Rome as a sign of mutual respect. All go in together to celebrate and to make offerings to the gods who have ensured that everything has ended in “peace.”
SHAKESPEARE’S CAREER IN THE THEATER
BEGINNINGS
William Shakespeare was an extraordinarily intelligent man who was born and died in an ordinary market town in the English Midlands. He lived an uneventful life in an eventful age. Born in April 1564, he was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a glove maker who was prominent on the town council until he fell into financial difficulties. Young William was educated at the local grammar in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, where he gained a thorough grounding in the Latin language, the art of rhetoric, and classical poetry. He married Ann Hathaway and had three children (Susanna, then the twins Hamnet and Judith) before his twenty-first birthday: an exceptionally young age for the period. We do not know how he supported his family in the mid-1580s.
Like many clever country boys, he moved to the city in order to make his way in the world. Like many creative people, he found a career in the entertainment business. Public playhouses and professional full-time acting companies reliant on the market for their income were born in Shakespeare’s childhood. When he arrived in London as a man, sometime in the late 1580s, a new phenomenon was in the making: the actor who is so successful that he becomes a “star.” The word did not exist in its modern sense, but the pattern is recognizable: audiences went to the theater not so much to see a particular show as to witness the comedian Richard Tarlton or the dramatic actor Edward Alleyn.
Shakespeare was an actor before he was a writer. It appears not to have been long before he realized that he was never going to grow into a great comedian like Tarlton or a great tragedian like Alleyn. Instead, he found a role within his company as the man who patched up old plays, breathing new life, new dramatic twists, into tired repertorypieces. He paid close attention to the work of the university-educated dramatists who were writing history plays and tragedies for the public stage in a style more ambitious, sweeping, and poetically grand than anything which had been seen before. But he may also have noted that what his friend and rival Ben Jonson would call “Marlowe’s mighty line” sometimes faltered in the mode of comedy. Going to
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