“[A]s Juno had been sick / And he her dieter”: Food Discourse in Cymbeline and Its Italian Resources

This chapter examines the rich and complex food discourse in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, arguing that culinary imagery functions as a powerful symbolic system to critique courtly corruption and valorise natural virtue. It establishes the play’s engagement with early modern dietary theories and contrasts the poisoned, deceptive consumption at court with the simple, honest sustenance of the Welsh wilderness. The analysis then traces this motif to its Italian intertexts, demonstrating how Shakespeare synthesises the stark primitivism of Bandello’s Novelle (1.27) and the idealised pastoral of Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata (book 7). The paper culminates in a Discourse-Historical-Analysis (DHA) close reading of Innogen’s culinary artistry in the cave, positing that this moment transcends its sources to show innate nobility transforming rustic fare into a symbol of sincere care, thereby proposing a synthesis of natural integrity and cultivated grace as the recipe for political and ethical health.