Simon Forman and Cymbeline

Simon Forman (1552-1611) was an Elizabethan/Jacobean occultist, astrologer, doctor (of medicine), herbalist, magician, necromancer, astronomer, playgoer, etc.  He became popular as a doctor by remaining in London during the severe plague outbreaks of 1592 and 1594 when many other "official" physicians (members of the College of Physicians) fled.  He was often in collision with authorities for his "immoral" behavior and practice of magic.  He is of interest because of the clientele he cultivated in his successful London private practice, many of whom were acquainted with theatrical circles of the day, including those who knew and knew of Shakespeare, including Shakespeare's landlady during his stay on Silver Street, Marie Mountjoy.  Forman was implicated in the Overbury murder of 1613, but died (notably predicting his own death) long before that case came to trial.  (See Anne Somerset's Unnatural Murder: Poison at the Court of James I for details on the Overbury murder).

"Forman left behind a large body of manuscripts dealing with his patients and with all the subjects that interested him, from astronomy and astrology to medicine, mathematics, and magic. His Casebook is the most famous of these resources, though he also produced diaries and a third-person autobiography. His texts have proven to be a treasure trove of rare, odd, unusual data on one of the most studied periods of cultural history. His intimate knowledge of Shakespeare's circle makes him especially attractive to literary historians" (Wikipedia).

His "Bocke of Plaies" is a notebook where he recorded lessons taken from three Shakespearean plays he observed in 1611:  Macbeth, The Winter's Tale, and Cymbeline.  His observations on the plays are among the few first-hand accounts of Shakespearean performances during Shakespeare's lifetime, though they are idiosyncratic.  The book, unfortunately (or perhaps, inevitably) was first published by the forger John Payne Collier in 1836.  Facsimiles of the "Bocke of Plaies" along with transcriptions were also printed by Halliwell-Phillipps in 1849.  Because the work was handled by Collier before it became public, it became suspect to certain modern scholars (particularly Dr. S. A. Tannenbaum), but its authenticity has since been established.  It's modern discovery was made by Ashmole Collection (Oxford University) cataloger W. H. Black, who sent a transcript on to Collier.  The authenticity of the Bocke was conclusively established by John Dover Wilson and R. W. Hunt in "The Authenticity of Simon Forman's Bocke of Plaies," The Review of English Studies (vol. 23, no. 91, July 1947, pp. 193-200); see also J. H. P. Pafford's ""Simon Forman's 'Bocke of Plaies," The Review of English Studies, New Series (vol. 10, No. 39, August 1959, pp. 289-291).

The foundational work on Forman is by A. L. Rowse: Sex and Society in Shakespeare's Age: Simon Forman the Astrologer, 1974, who also reproduces the "Bocke of Plaies" along with Forman's third-person autobiography and extracts from his diaries.  Latter day works include Lauren Kassell's Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London: Simon Forman: Astrologer, Alchemist, and Physician and Barbara Traister's The Notorious Astrological Physician of London: Works and Days of Simon Forman.

I give below Forman's observations on Cymbeline, which he saw in May of 1611. (Actually, there is some minor--and mistaken, in my view--controversies about the dates of Forman's notes on the plays.  He gives notes on four plays: Macbeth, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, and a version of Richard II not by Shakespeare.  The dates he provides for Richard II and the Winter's Tale are in April and May of 1611.  The date he provides for Macbeth is April "1610," though this clearly refers to 1611, since he refers to Saturday April 20, and April 20 was a Saturday in 1611, not 1610.  It also is consistent that all the notes from this notebook were written near the same time, in April-May of 1611.  Forman does not give a date for Cymbeline, though it is undoubtedly consistent with the others).  I have quoted from the version as it is given in H. H. Furness' A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Tragedie of Cymbeline, J. B. Lippincott Company, London, 1913, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF, pp. 445-447.  Modern spelling transcriptions can be found in many modern editions, including the Rowse work cited above and the New Pelican edition by Peter Holland.

Of Cimbalin king of England

Remember also the storri of Cymbalin king of England in Lucius tyme, howe Lucius cam from octauus cesar for Tribut and being denied, after sent Lucius with a greate Arme of Souldiars who landed at milford hauen, and Affter wer vanquished by Cimbalin and Lucius taken prisoner and all by means of 3 outlawes of the w'h 2 of them were the sonns of Cimbalin stolen from him when they were but 2 yers old. by an old man whom Cymbalin banished, and he kept them as his own sonns 20 yers wt him in A cave. And howe of [sic] of them slewe Clotan that was the quens sonn goinge to milford hauen to sek the loue of Innogen kinge daughter whom he had banished also for louinge his daughter, and howe the Italian that cam from her loue convoied him selfe into A Cheste and said yt was a chest of plate sent from her loue & others to be p'sented to the kinge. And in the depest of the night she being aslepe. he opened the cheste, & cam forth of yt And vewed her in her bed and the markes of her body. & toke awai her braslet & after Accused her of adultery to her loue &c And in thend howe he came wt the Romains into England & was taken prisoner and after Reueled to Innogen. who had turned her self into man apparrell & fled to mete her loue at milford hauen, & chanchsed to fall on the Caue in the wode wher her 2 brothers were & howe by eating a sleping Dram they thought she had bin deed & laid her in the wode, & the body of cloten by her in her loues apparrell that he left behind him, & howe she was found by lucous, &c.

It is often remarked that Forman makes no reference to the descent of Jupiter on an eagle, the most noteworthy entrance in the play according to many modern editors, but there is no justification for calling the authenticity of the Jupiter scene into question based on Forman's idiosyncratic observations.  Forman titles his notes "The Bocke of Plaies and Notes thereof, per Formans, for common Policie," that is, as a remembrance of things "because they afforded him a useful lesson of prudence or 'policy' for the 'common' affairs of life" (Furness, p. 445).  It is also noted that he does not mention the cauldron in Macbeth--and editors think this should have been of extreme importance to him--or the bear in Winter's Tale (one regrets this most of all).  As can be seen, he scarcely does justice to the complex plot of Cymbeline, though he is not alone in being confused by its complexity.