The argument that “Imogen” in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline is a misprint for “Innogen” does not depend solely on Simon Forman’s account of a contemporary performance (Letters, 16 December). Innogen was the wife of the legendary founder of Britain, Brute the Trojan, and Cymbeline is one of the plays in which Shakespeare turns to ancient British rather than English history, following the accession of the Scottish James I to the English throne in 1603. Innogen is the form of the name used by Holinshed, one of Shakespeare’s sources for Cymbeline, and also appears as the name of a non-speaking “ghost” character (the wife of Leonato) in the 1600 quarto of Much Ado About Nothing. Shakespeare was evidently familiar with this spelling and the couple Innogen and Leonato anticipate the later pairing of Innogen with Posthumus Leonatus in Cymbeline. All things considered, the theory that “Imogen” is a misprint seems highly probable.
Emeritus professor Rowland Wymer
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
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