Characters

The cast of Cymbeline

The people who make Cymbeline move — what they want, who they love, who they hate, and how each one fits the story. Tap any name to read more.

{"relationship":"foster father","to":"guiderius"}; {"relationship":"foster father","to":"arviragus"}s

Belarius

Exiled nobleman and foster father; secret preserver of the royal heirs · elderly

father (unknown to him); brother; foster father; sister (unknown to him; calls her brother)s

Arviragus

One of Cymbeline's lost sons, raised in the Welsh wilderness; noble, martial, and emotionally acute · young man (early twenties, likely)

queen (mother)s

Cloten

Brutish stepson of the king; would-be suitor to the princess, scheming and cowardly · Young man

Imogen (daughter); Cloten (stepson, through second wife); Guiderius (lost son, raised as Polydore); Arviragus (lost son, raised as Cadwal)s

Cymbeline

Aging King of Britain, manipulated by his queen and deceived by courtiers, who must learn wisdom through loss and redemption · Elderly

father (unrecognized); brother; sister (unrecognized); foster-fathers

Guiderius

Righteous warrior; elder foster-son to Belarius and unacknowledged prince of Britain · young man, late teens or early twenties

father: Cymbeline; stepmother: Queen; {"relation":"brothers (discovered)","names":"Guiderius and Arviragus"}s

Imogen

Princess of Britain; tragic heroine caught between filial duty, marital love, and masculine evil · almost fourteen

Son of Sicilius Leonatus (deceased); ward of Cymbelines

Posthumus Leonatus

Tragic husband whose jealousy nearly destroys the innocent · Young man, around twenty

husband; biological son; stepdaughters

The Queen

Scheming stepmother and architect of the tragedy; Cymbeline's second wife · middle-aged

wife: Mother (of Posthumus); son: Posthumus Leonatus

Sicilius Leonatus

Shade of Posthumus's father; petitioner to Jupiter for his son's redemption · deceased (appears as ghost)

Other characters

Iachimo

Skilled seducer and master of deception; the play's primary architect of tragedy

Pisanio

Loyal servant torn between duty to master and mistress; moral anchor of the play

Caius Lucius

Roman general and ambassador; voice of imperial authority and measured justice

Second Lord

Cynical courtier and silent observer of Cloten's folly

First Lord

Cloten's courtier and observer; comic mirror to princely folly

Philario

Posthumus's Roman host and voice of reason

Cornelius

Court physician and reluctant confidant to the Queen's dark schemes

First Gentleman

Courtier and expositor of the British court's affairs

First Gaoler

Prison keeper and philosophical wit

Second Gentleman

Attendant and conversational foil in the opening exposition

Lady

Imogen's attendant and messenger

A Frenchman

Italian courtier and witness to Posthumus's boasting

A British Lord

Messenger and witness to the final battle

Soothsayer

Roman diviner and interpreter of omens; revealer of hidden truths
In the app

Hear every line of Cymbeline, narrated.

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