ABSTRACT
Cymbeline is a play about the construction of identity, but it never seems to have a stable identity itself. If this is true, then the identification of non-responsive bodies within a play can foreground the interconnected processes of memorialization and acting, helping to explain their social roots and rhetorical strategies. In Cymbeline, sleeping or dead figures are identified at four key points: Giacomo observes the sleeping Innogen; a dirge commemorates the 'dead' Innogen, disguised as Fidele; Innogen identifies a corpse lying next to her; and Jupiter and family ghosts discuss Posthumous' affairs while he sleeps. The most famous blazon in Cymbeline takes place at night. Seeking to discredit the princess Innogen's reputation for chastity, particularly in the eyes of her exiled husband, Posthumus, Giacomo plants himself in a trunk in Innogen's bedroom, emerging after she falls asleep. Then, he delivers a speech that describes Innogen's lips, breathing, eyes, bedroom furnishings, mole, and reading material.
