Posthumus Leonatus’ dead mother says thanks, too.

Way back when, two years ago, when we were discussing that melancholic Dane, I mentioned that our friend scansion had helped us figure out how we were supposed to pronounce Ophelia’s big bro’s name: not “LAYerTEES” (like I had alway thought), but “layAIRtees.” Go figure. Who knew we’d get that same kind of revelation this month with Cymbeline? But we do…

Even though we pronounce the adjective posthumous “POSchaMUS” . . . we do not pronounce the character Posthumus that way. Nope. It’s “posCHUmas.” As with Polonius’ son two years ago, throughout the play–in almost every case–when the name of Imogen’s beloved shows up in a poetic line, to maintain the scansion of that line’s iambic pentameter, it’s got to have the stress on the second syllable.

So we’ve got that working for us.

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