History Theatre / Cymbeline

** Of course, Imogen isn't going to just assume that any and all beheaded bodies must belong to Cloten. But now she does, because Cloten is dressed in Posthumus's stolen clothes.

* NotBloodSiblings: Cloten lusts after his step-sister Imogen, and his mother the queen is keen for Cloten to marry her and inherit the throne. Imogen, however, thinks he's loathsome - and has instead married Posthumus.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: Jachimo secretly gains entrance to Imogen's room, memorises the details within and the distinguishing marks on her body, and steals her bracelet, to make Postumus think her unfaithful.

* FauxDeath: Imogen is presumed dead thanks to the cordial Pisanio gave her thinking it a restorative; the Queen gave it to him thinking it a poison, but it was actually a deep sleeping draught thanks to the forsight of Cornelius.

* AnachronismStew: Among other things, while the play is set in Roman times during the reign of [[Series/IClaudius Claudius]], Jachimo is pretty much a (stock evil) Renaissance Italian and his scenes with Postumus feel "contemporary" (for the time of Shakespeare).

* {{Arcadia}}: Guiderius and Arviragus has always lived with their adoptive father Belarius, far from civilization, subsisting on what nature provides them with.

** Okay, and why did Cloten dress in Posthumus's clothes? Because Imogene once told Cloten that even if the hairs on his head were to turn into men, each one every bit as good a fellow as Cloten, then all those men still wouldn't be as dear to her as even the clothes on Posthumus's body are. Cloten's dressed in Posthumus's stolen clothes as a reference to that--in other words, he was ''not even trying'' to disguise his identity in the first place.

Basically, the play is a mishmash of plots Shakespeare regularly used in other plays. One interesting aspect of it, though, is that the characters can be read as [[RealitySubtext allusions to Jacobean figures]]. James of England is Cymbeline, who wishes for unity and peace. The play also emphasizes the concept of "Britain" -- the word appears more in this play than any other Shakespeare play, while the word "England" appears not a once, averting the common anachronism of making reference to England before its existence.

* CruelMercy: Posthumus to Jachimo after TheReveal:
--> "Kneel not to me\\
The power that I have on you is, to spare you;\\
The malice towards you to forgive you: live,\\
And deal with others better."

* BrotherSisterIncest: The Queen convinces Cymbeline to join her in persuading Imogen to marry her step-brother Cloten.

* SuicideByCop: Ancient version--Posthumus, who wrongly believes that he caused the death of Imogen (who in fact is alive), feels so guilty about it that he plans to die in battle with the Romans. Subverted when Posthumus's intervention helps turn the tide of the battle. To ensure he will die, Posthumus then pretends that to be a traitor in the hope that he will be executed by the Britons.

* SuicideByCop: Ancient version--Posthumus, who wrongly believes that he caused the death of Imogen (who in fact is alive), feels so guilty about it that he plans to die in battle with the Romans.

* AnachronismStew: Among other things, while the play is set in Roman times during the reign of [[Series/IClaudius Claudius]], Iachimo is pretty much a (stock evil) Renaissance Italian and his scenes with Postumus feel "contemporary" (for the time of Shakespeare).

* AndAnotherThing: The entire last act of the show. In the space of a few dozen lines, Iachimo's treachery is revealed, Posthumus reveals who he is and claims to have killed Imogen, Imogen reveals who she is and that she is alive, the Queen is revealed to have been behind everything, Guiderius admits to having killed Cloten, and the princes are revealed to be royalty.

* CruelMercy: Posthumus to Iachimo after TheReveal:

* ExactWords: When confronting Posthumus with fabricated signs of Imogen's supposed infidelity, Iachimo swears by Jupiter that he had the ring "from her arm" (as opposed to her having lost it). This is technically true, because he ''stole'' it from her arm while she was asleep.
* {{Expy}}: Iachimo essentially means "little Iago"; some have argued he's supposed to be a toned-down version of ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'''s infamous villain. Like Iago, Iachimo sets out to make a husband suspicious of his wife's fidelity, though in ''Cymbeline'', tragedy is averted and the couple is reconciled at the end.

** The play was significantly rewritten by Thomas D'Urfey when he revived it in 1682, almost fifty years after Shakespeare's version was last performed. Pisanio gets a new subplot, and is blinded by Cloten after he kills one of Cloten's servants who's menacing his daughter. Posthumus is renamed to Ursaces, Imogen is renamed to Eugenia and Iachimo becomes the French villain Shatillon. D'Urfey also significantly rewrote the last two acts, removed Zeus and the prophecy, and renamed the play ''The Injured Princess'', hiding Shakespeare's identity as the playwright. D'Urfey's version became the default for the next fifty years, with a revival in 1718 giving it a new lease of life. The original version of ''Cymbeline'' eventually returned to theatres in 1746.

* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Iachimo, which is part of why he gets reprieved. Notably, in the Creator/{{Boccaccio}} story the play is based on, the equivalent character is [[CruelAndUnusualDeath covered in honey and put in a cage and gets stung to death by insects]]. In particular, the whole "hiding in the chest" idea is vaguely ridiculous, making him a literal Jack-in-the-box, as is the Peeping Tom aspect, even though his reason for doing so isn't funny.

* IntimateMarks: Imogen, the heroine, has a mole under one of her breasts. Iachimo is able to falsely win a bet that he could seduce her, by spying on her while sleeping and noting this distinguishing mark.

* ItWasAGift: Imogen gives Posthumus a ring, Posthumus gives Imogen a bracelet. (Iachimo effectively steals both.)

* NotWhatItLooksLike: Iachimo secretly gains entrance to Imogen's room, memorises the details within and the distinguishing marks on her body, and steals her bracelet, to make Postumus think her unfaithful.

* SignatureItemClue: Iachimo "proves" that he seduced Posthumus' wife Imogen by showing him a bracelet which he claims that Imogen gave to him; in reality he sneaked into her bedchamber while she was asleep and stole it.

''Cymbeline'', a tragicomedy by Creator/WilliamShakespeare, is one of the Bard's more obscure plays. Borrowed, barely, from Celtic lore and from a story from ''Literature/TheDecameron'', it tells the story of a king who rebels against Rome because of his evil wife. For unrelated reasons, his daughter spends most of the play cross-dressing and looking for her banished husband. Actually, [[SecondaryCharacterTitle it's more about the latter than the former]]. The first recorded performance was in 1611, but it's unclear when the play was actually written.

Cymbeline is king of a city in Britain, during the time of UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire. His daughter, Imogen, is in love with Posthumus, a poor nobleman. They marry, which infuriates Cymbeline, and so he banishes Posthumus to Italy. In Italy, Posthumus meets Jachimo (or Iachimo), who makes a bet. He says he can seduce Imogen, and prove that all women are naturally unfaithful. Jachimo goes to Britain, but failing to seduce Imogen by traditional means, resorts to trickery. Hiding himself in a chest in her room, he watches her sleep and collects details from her room. He also steals a bracelet, which was a gift from Posthumus.

Jachimo returns to Italy, hands Posthumus the bracelet, and provides details on Imogen's room and her naked body. Posthumus sends word to his servant Pisanio in Britian to kill his wife for her infidelity. Pisanio does not believe Imogen has cheated, so he convinces her to disguise herself as a boy and find her husband, so she can tell him her side of the story; Pisanio, meanwhile, will tell Posthumus she's dead. Imogen goes off to find her husband, but gets lost in Wales; she meets an exiled nobleman and his two sons. Unbeknownst to them but knownst to the nobleman, they are actually Cymbeline's sons (and Imogen's brothers); the nobleman kidnapped them in revenge for being exiled.

** The play was significantly rewritten by Thomas D'Urfey when he revived it in 1682, almost fifty years after it was last performed. Pisanio gets a new subplot, and is blinded by Cloten after he kills one of Cloten's servants who's menacing his daughter. Posthumus is renamed to Ursaces, Imogen is renamed to Eugenia and Iachimo becomes the French villain Shatillon. D'Urfey also significantly rewrote the last two acts, removed Zeus and the prophecy, and renamed the play ''The Injured Princess'', hiding Shakespeare's identity as the playwright. D'Urfey's version became the default for the next fifty years, with a revival in 1718 giving it a new lease of life. The original version of ''Cymbeline'' eventually returned to theatres in 1746.