The Mimesis of Retreat -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 11:12:27 03/30/08 Sun
Author: Kiernan
Subject: The Mimesis of Retreat

In Shakespeare's "Cymbeline," the British army is fleeing before the face of the Roman army. It seems like a total rout, but then an older man and his two handsome sons stopped fleeing, turned, and stood. They cried out to their fellow soldiers to stop and make a stand as well. In the narration of this in the text, Shakespeare makes obvious the mimetic nature of this retreat and then the turning of the army:

"These three,
Three thousand confident, in act as many -
For three performers are the file when all
The rest do nothing - with this word 'Stand, stand,'
Accomodated by the place, more charming
With their own nobleness, which could have turned
A distaff to a lance, gilded pale looks,
Part shame, part spirit renewed, that some, turned coward
But by example - oh, a sin in war,
Damned in the first beginners! - 'gan to look
That way that they did and to grin like lions
Upon the pikes o' th' hunters." (5.3.28-39)

This passage brilliantly reveals the nature of mimesis. Shakespeare recognizes that most of the soldiers only fled because they were following the example of a few others. Therefore, to turn the tide of battle, only another few needed to turn and stand, appearing more glorious, and thus more worth imitating, than those that fled. The text notes that the mimetic power of those three "could have turned a distaff to a lance," or, in other words, could have even drawn women from their usual tasks. Thus, retreat on the battlefield comes to be a matter of the strongest model - a competition which these three men win in this passage.

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