Cymbeline

The city of Rome is a crucial setting of this play, but one that seems very rarely represented. It is in Act 1, scene 4 that Posthumus makes the bet with Iachimo in Philario's house. Rome is also the place where Iachimo falsely recounts his conquering of Imogen. While it may be conventional to ascribe Posthumus's failings to his type of character, what effect might the setting of Rome have on his culpability? Can we agree with the editor of Bevington's edition when she says, "Humanity's own wavering heart chooses evil," as she personifies Posthumus as humanity? In other words, what effects can we ascribe to Posthumus's banishment, his place in Rome as opposed to the British court?

The last scene of the play takes place at the British camp after the military encounter with the Roman forces. It may be the amount and variety of characters that make appearances in this scene, but I couldn't help feeling that this was almost a replication of the British court. Does Cymbeline represent an attempt to impose a type of social order on what seems to be an otherwise ungoverned landscape? Though the battlefield is different from the forest, I get a sense that this location allows certain tropes of the tragic-comedy to be enacted, such as Posthumus forgiving Iachimo and Cymbeline reconciling with Belarius and re-promising tribute to Rome. How much does the proxy setting of the court change what we, the audience, might expect to happen in the final scene? Are there uncharacteristic elements of forgiveness or capitulation? Does the battlefield represent the chance for the court to act as if it had a clean slate (independent of our expectations), or is it more action according to popular expectation (doing the things that we wish had been done all along)?