They are the First Quarto and the First Folio. It looks like the perfect crime: no body can be found.ĤWhat makes this habitual exclusion so strange is that Innogen is clearly specified in the earliest texts from which all subsequent texts derive. And the list could be extended for many lines. Humphreys’ Arden edition of the play excludes her, and so do the editions by David Stevenson (Signet), Sheldon P. Nevertheless, for centuries, editors (and they always seem to be male editors) have excised her: they’ve killed the unfortunate woman! You will not find her in such standard editions of the Complete Works as Peter Alexander’s, or the Riverside, or the Norton, or the Wells and Taylor volume for Oxford. She is the wife of Leonato and mother of Hero, and she is supposed to appear in at least two scenes. Apparently the name was misprinted in Cymbeline, perhaps because the written version was unclear and from that play “Imogen” has been transmitted to posterity, so that it is now a familiar first name for females: Imogen Thomas, the television personality, Imogen Ryall, the Brighton jazz singer, and Imogen Stubbs, the star of stage and screen, come to mind.ģ Hardly anyone, however, has heard of Innogen in Much Ado about Nothing. 1 Although “Innogen” probably derived from the Gaelic “Inghean”, meaning “maiden” or “daughter”, to modern readers it looks like a portmanteau-word suggesting “innocent from birth”.
You will soon see that it has big implications for editors, directors, and theatre-goers.ĢEveryone knows about the character called “Imogen”, who has an important rôle in Cymbeline, and whose name should be ‘Innogen’, according (for example) to Roger Warren. The main puzzle is: why was she ever suppressed? This is not a trivial matter. I say “Yes”, and argue here that she should be restored to the play to which she belongs. 1 Should we save Innogen in Much Ado About Nothing? For centuries, editors have answered that question with a ruthless “No”.
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