Read the full text of Cymbeline with a side-by-side translation HERE.

Imogen and Posthumus sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes adultery, hate, and death.

Wait, what?

Cymbeline, King of Britain, tells a pretty crazy story, complete with an evil stepmother, a wicked villain, a scheming suitor, and a death potion. Written around 1611, the play follows Imogen, a smart and resourceful young woman wrongly accused of being unchaste but who is later reconciled with her hubby.

Stories about young women wrongly accused, brought close to death, and then rejoined with their lovers were really popular during the Renaissance. Shakespeare used this plot (which can be traced all the way back to the Greek romances) in Cymbeline. But even though there's a happy ending, it's not all fun and games. In fact, there's a whole lot of nasty stuff going on in this play.

Which brings us to the question of genre. Cymbeline is sometimes called a "problem play," and sometimes it's called a "romance" or a "tragicomedy." These days, it's most often thought of as a "romance."

Shakespeare's "romances" (The Winter's Tale, Pericles,and The Tempest) were all written at the end of Willy's career and involve:

• loss and recovery
• a wandering journey
• elements of magic and the fantastic

If you're thinking that all of this sounds a lot like a fairy tale, you're totally right, smarty pants—these "romance" plays, which are notorious for being implausible and fantastical, really do share a lot in common with fairy tales; even Shakespeare scholars think so.

Whatever its genre, Cymbeline is one wild ride: the play's got beautiful, cross-dressing princesses; wicked stepmothers; fake deaths (and real ones); Roman invasions; a random interlude from Jupiter, king of the gods; and a bunch of ghosts.

Just try not to love it.

So, you read Othello and Romeo and Juliet,and you thought to yourself, "Gee. Shakespeare's tragedies are crazy brilliant, but they're also downright depressing. Wouldn't it be great if Big Willy had written a play that wasn't afraid to explore weighty issues like jealousy and chastity but could also offer up his audience a little hope for the future?"

Well, look no further, because Uncle Shakespeare totally came through when he wrote Cymbeline.

In fact, Shakespeare didn't just stop there. With Cymbeline, he gave us the kind of happily-ever-after ending that we look for in fairy tales. Tell us if you've heard this before:

• A wicked stepmother hates her husband's daughter and plots against her. (Cinderella?)
• A beautiful princess falls into a deep sleep kind of like death from an evil spell. (Sleeping Beauty?)
• An evil queen uses magic to kill her stepdaughter. (Snow White?)
• Dead ancestors unite to pray to the gods for the safely of their child. (Mulan?)

You might think we were talking about some serious Disney classics, but we were actually talking about Cymbeline: all of those elements come directly from Shakespeare's play. Sounds pretty rad, right?

This one's got a little something for everyone. Want a little banishment, suffering, and death? You got it. Want a fairy tale with a happy ending? You got it. Want to impress everyone by saying you've read a Shakespeare play they've never heard of? You've even got that.