Author Description

Cymbeline Was Probably Written, By Shakespeare Alone, In 1610, Just Before The Tempest. (see Authorship Companion, 379-81.) It Is One Of Sixteen Previously Unpublished Plays Entered In The Stationers' Register To Edward Blount And Isaac Jaggard On 8 November 1623. The Only Authoritative Text Was Published Soon After In Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, And Tragedies, Now Known As The First Folio. Cymbeline Is The Last Play In That Big Book, And Therefore Last In The 'tragedies' Section, Where It Is Consistently Labelled 'the Tragedy Of Cymbeline'. But Most Scholars Agree That The Generic Label Is Misleading. Although The Evil Queen And Her Son Die, Cymbeline Does Not. This Fact Distinguishes Cymbeline From All Shakespeare Plays Printed In His Lifetime Which Were Called Tragedies On Their Title Pages, And Also Distinguishes It From The Ten Other 'tragedies' In The Folio Table Of Contents (called A 'catalogue'): In All Those Pre-cymbeline Tragedies, The Character(s) Named In The Title Die During The Play. Perhaps Cymbeline Appears Among The Tragedies Simply Because The Printer Did Not Acquire A Manuscript Until Most Of The Book Was Already Printed. Even The Folio Publishers Send A Mixed Message About Cymbeline's Title: The Catalogue Lists It As 'cymbeline King Of Britaine'. That Title Is Supported By The Only Known Reference To The Play During Shakespeare's Lifetime: Simon Forman, In His Private Manuscript Notebooks, Recorded His Memories Of Various Plays He Attended, Including What He Twice Called 'cimbalin King Of England'. Although 'england' (which Never Occurs In The Play) Is Certainly A Mistake For 'britain' (which Occurs More Often Here Than In All Shakespeare's Other Plays Combined), Forman Confirms The Structure Of The Title And Its Emphasis On British Royal History. The Catalogue's Phrase Goes Back To The Roman Historian Suetonius, Who Called Him 'brittanorum Rex', And The Emphasis On 'britain' Rather Than 'england' Would Have Appealed To King James I, The P