test
Search publications, data, projects and authors

Article

English

ID: <

10670/1.jvrwxx

>

Where these data come from
Tracing Cymbeline's unnamed Queen

Abstract

International audience What’s in a name ? Or rather, what’s in a no-name ? Such is one of the enigmas raised by Shakespeare’s play, Cymbeline, in which the queen is never named. As a consequence of this we do not know who she is ; we do not know her lineage, her nationality or her ethnic origins. She has no individual identity and instead plays a number of stereotypical roles ; that of wicked queen, wicked step-mother, ambitious mother and scheming witch. However, to this we can add that Cymbeline’s queen may have been inspired by one of a number of historical figures from British and Roman history. These include Boudica, Cartimandua, Livia and Agrippina.Furthermore, placing Shakespeare’s play within the historical context of the Jacobean court, Cymbeline’s queen plays the foil onto which the political debate to unite England, Wales and Scotland into Great Britain can be projected. She represents the political opposition to James’s project and as such she is seen as the enemy, the outsider to Britain, the ‘Italian’ within, and the foreign savage whose education under the civilising influence of the Roman coloniser has clearly been a failure. What is more, with no name she has no place in history and shows the nation’s future path to historical anonymity if its island members do not accept the ‘progress’ and empire promised by union.

Your Feedback

Please give us your feedback and help us make GoTriple better.
Fill in our satisfaction questionnaire and tell us what you like about GoTriple!