So, for those who’ve been following the blog for any length of time, you know I’ve been loving the New Oxford Shakespeare Authorship Companion. It gives us a great look at the latest research as to who may have assisted Shakespeare in the composition of the plays.
Much was made last fall of the announcement, based on this work, that the three Henry VI plays are more co-compositions with Christopher Marlowe, with the first part actually being more the work of Marlowe.
So what does the Authorship Companion have to say about Cymbeline?
Not much.
Other than it’s all Bill’s.
They discuss the argument some have made that certain scenes that seem un-Bard-like (like the Act Three, Scene Seven dialog between Senator Exposition and a tribune, or the weirdly stage-direction-heavy battle sequence of Act Five, Scene Two, and of course there’s always that weird Jupiter sequence in Act Five, Scene Four. So despite claims by Furness, Granville-Barker and the like that there were collaborators, it seems this play is all Bill’s…for better or worse.