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Imogen and Posthumus sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes adultery, hate, and death.Wait, what?Cymbeline, King of Britain, tells a pretty crazy story, complete with an evil stepmother, a wicked villain, a scheming suitor, and a death potion. Written around 1611, the play follows Imogen, a smart and resourceful young woman wrongly accused of being unchaste but who is later reconciled with her hubby.Stories about young women wrongly accused, brought close to death, and then rejoined with their lovers were really popular during the Renaissance. Shakespeare used this plot (which can be traced all the way back to the Greek romances) in Cymbeline. But even though there's a happy ending, it's not all fun and games. In fact, there's a whole lot of nasty stuff going on in this play.Which brings us to the question of genre. Cymbeline is sometimes called a "problem play," and sometimes it's called a "romance" or a "tragicomedy." These days, it's most often thought of as a "romance."Shakespeare's "romances" (The Winter's Tale, Pericles,and The Tempest) were all written at the end of Willy's career and involve:loss and recoverya wandering journeyelements of magic and the fantasticIf you're thinking that all of this sounds a lot like a fairy tale, you're totally right, smarty pants--these "romance" plays, which are notorious for being implausible and fantastical, really do share a lot in common with fairy tales; even Shakespeare scholars think so.Whatever its genre, Cymbeline is one wild ride: the play's got beautiful, cross-dressing princesses; wicked stepmothers; fake deaths (and real ones); Roman invasions; a random interlude from Jupiter, king of the gods; and a bunch of ghosts.Just try not to love it.