ABSTRACT
Cymbeline engages with nationalism on different planes: passing through cross-dressing, rhetorical flourish and a gendered resistance to colonialism. Clinton Crumley offers a useful summary of critical responses to this moment in 'Questioning History in Cymbeline'. Rome's embassage to the British court to persuade Britain back from independence coincides with the Roman Iachimo's attempt to seduce Britain's princess. In Joan of Arc, Shaw finds a female embodiment of French resistance to English empire. In Cymbeline Refinished, Shaw openly offers to improve upon a Shakespeare play. Ireland and India opted to fight force with force' but explains that this was not typical of the Irish response to British feminization. For Shaw, Joan and Imogen are androgynous women rebels, both dressed as men and living amongst soldiers in war. At the end, Imogen remains in her Roman page's clothing, in a strange in-between place. Rome and Britain may or may not continue to 'wave friendly together'.
