Understanding
the First Scene of Shakespeare's "Cymbeline"
by Flora
Deter
The Characters: Two Gentlemen
Shakespeare uses two gentlemen to bring the audience up to speed with the events and characters:
- The marriage
between Imogen and Posthumus Leonatus, which the Queen (Imogen's stepmother)
disapproved of since she wanted Imogen to marry her son, Cloten. King Cymbeline
was not exactly pleased with this match either:
You do not meet a man but frowns: our blood
No more obey the heavens than our courtiers
Still seem as does the king's. (i. i. 1-3) - The story of Posthumus Leonatus and his lineage. The First Gentleman describes Posthumus Leonatus as "a poor but worthy gentleman" (7). The language used between the two gentlemen is sophisticated and elegant, but at the same time, is often ambiguous and unemotional. For example, the First Gentleman describes Posthumus Leonatus as "a creature" (19), "fair" and "stuff" (23). The vague meaning of these words demonstrates how the narrative performs an important role in "Cymbeline".
- Cymbeline's
other children: his two sons who were kidnapped twenty years earlier, when
the older son was three years old. Not much is known of their disappearance,
but enough information is given for us to question the strangeness of this
situation and expect that Shakespeare would not leave us hanging:
"Sec. Gent." That a king's children should be so convey'd,
So slackly guarded, and the search so slow
That not trace them!
"First Gent." Howsoe'er 'tis strange,
Or that the negligence may well be laugh'd at,
Yet is it true, sir. (i. i. 63-67)
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