a word all nobleness and sweetness
Horace Howard Furness, editor of the New Variorum Cymbeline (1913), on the Imogen/Innogen thing:
"Verily, it seems that if Imogen be a misprint for Innogen, our debt for it is due to the compositors of the First Folio, in this particular play; the name is found nowhere else. The testimony of Forman is almost decisive in favour of Innogen; and with its suggestion of Innocence, it certainly has a charm,--and a very great charm. But at this late day, when from boyhood our heart-strings have been woven around Imogen, to turn to Innogen would make earth's base seem stubble." (5-6)
I'm not sure why I'm so pleased and amused by this picture of a boyhood spent falling in love with Shakespearean heroines, but I am.
"Verily, it seems that if Imogen be a misprint for Innogen, our debt for it is due to the compositors of the First Folio, in this particular play; the name is found nowhere else. The testimony of Forman is almost decisive in favour of Innogen; and with its suggestion of Innocence, it certainly has a charm,--and a very great charm. But at this late day, when from boyhood our heart-strings have been woven around Imogen, to turn to Innogen would make earth's base seem stubble." (5-6)
I'm not sure why I'm so pleased and amused by this picture of a boyhood spent falling in love with Shakespearean heroines, but I am.