In the infancy of the British Empire as Scotland, England, and Ireland were unified for the first time in history under James I, William Shakespeare writes the play Cymbeline. While the actual date he wrote it is unknown, the first performance of Cymbeline is thought to be in 1610, just three years before Shakespeare’s daughter, Susanna, is falsely accused of adultery in a very public trial, at which she won, and proved her innocence. The play Cymbeline famously applies what’s known as the calumny narrative, which is when a woman is accused of something unchaste and then is proven innocent, revealing that the charges were slanderous. Just like his daughter Susanna, the character of Innogen in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline is innocent, despite the ordeal of being falsely accused. While the play is not a representation of Shakespeare’s own experience since it was written before his daughter’s trial, the themes in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline bring to light a controversial side of England’s history by challenging what we often consider to have been status quo for 16th century England. But just how much of the play’s narrative is reflective of real life, and can we really tell what life was like in the early 17th century England just from the performances of these characters on stage?

Our guest this week, Valerie Wayne, points out in her introduction to the Arden Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, that Shakespeare’s personal experience reflects what happens in the play, and that parallels to historical accounts of England’s past monarch’s,along with political commentary about James’ unification ideas, resonate throughout the performance to paint a puzzle for us in posterity that, when examined more closely, can function as a glimpse into Shakespeare’s life, his opinions about women, and the turmoil at home politically, at the turn of the 17th century.