PREFACE By ISRAEL GOLLANCZ, M.A. THE FIRST EDITION The Tragedie of Cymbeline was first printed in the Folio of 1623; it is the last play in the volume, where it occupies pp. 369–399 (misprinted 993). The place of Cymbeline in the First Folio has led some critics to infer that it was included late, and as an afterthought. The text of the play is certainly unsatisfactory, and possibly represents in many cases the poet's "roughcast notes" rather than his finished work. DOUBTFUL PASSAGES The Vision in Act V, sc. iv, was probably by some other hand than Shakespeare's; it recalls the problems connected with the Masque in the Fourth Act of the Tempest; in both cases it is important to remember the fondness for this species of composition during the reign of James I. The Vision may have been inserted for some special Court representation. The exquisite simplicity of the dirge sung by the brothers over the grave of Fidele (Act IV, sc. ii) seems to have raised doubts in the minds of certain commentators as to the authenticity of the lines; they have found "something strikingly inferior" in the concluding couplets, both in thought and expression; they would reject, as "additions," "Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust," preferring no doubt Collin's more elegant rendering: "To fair Fidele's grassy tomb Soft maids and village hinds shall bring Each opening sweet of earliest bloom, THE "TRAGEDY" OF CYMBELINE The editors of the First Folio erred in describing Cymbeline as a "Tragedy," and in placing it in the division of "Tragedies"; "all is outward sorrow" at the opening of the story, but its close is attuned to the harmony of peace and happiness, and the play thus satisfies the essential conditions of "Romantic Comedy," or more properly of Shakespearean "Tragi-Comedy,"-life's commingling of tears and laughter, sorrow and joy, joy triumphant in the end. DATE OF COMPOSITION No positive evidence exists for the date of composition of Cymbeline; the probabilities are in favor of 1609-1610. This limit may be fixed from a notice in the MS. Diary of Dr. Simon Forman, a notorious quack and astrologer. His "Book of Plaies and Notes thereof for common Pollicie" 1 shows him an enthusiastic play-goer; it contains his reports of three Shakespearean representations at the Globe Theater in 1610-1611; Macbeth is referred to under the former year (possibly an error for 1611); The Winter's Tale was witnessed on May 15, 1611, two or three months before the diarist's death; Cymbeline unfortunately has no date assigned; there is merely the statement, preceding an epitome of the plot,— "Remember also the story of Cymbalin, King of England in Lucius' time." Cymbeline's influence on Beaumont and Fletcher's Philas 1 Among the Ashmolean MSS. (208) in the Bodleian Library; privately printed by Halliwell-Phillips. ter (cp. the characters of Imogen and Euphrasia 1) is noteworthy: the date of the latter play cannot be definitely fixed, but the evidence points to circa 1610-1611; 1608 is the earliest date critics have assigned to it. Similarly Webster's "White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona," printed in 1612, and written circa 1608, owes some of its tenderest touches to the most striking scenes in Cymbeline. 4 The relation of these two plays, to the present play, as well as certain striking resemblances between scenes and situations in Cymbeline and Macbeth (e. g., Act II, sc. ii, compared with Macbeth, Act II 2), have led to the conjecture that some portions of the work were written as early as 1606-1607, the whole being completed in 16091610; one scholar assigns to the former date Act II, sc. i, and Act V, sc. ii-v.3 Another scholar calls attention to a change of treatment to be found in the character of Cloten; in the earlier scenes "he is a mere fool” (e. g. Act I, sc. iii, Act II, sc. i; in the latter "he is by no means deficient in manliness, and the lack of his counsel is regretted by the King in Act IV, sc. i." He finds in Act III, sc. v, corroboration of his view, pointing out that the prose part is a subsequent insertion, having some slight discrepancies with the older parts of the scene. According to this view the story of Cymbeline and his sons, the tribute, etc., in the last three acts, was written at an earlier time, in 1606.5 1 As a single instance of the borrowings, in thought and phraseology, the following may be noted: The gods take part against me; could this boor Have held me thus else?" (Philaster, IV. i.). Cp. Cymbeline, V. ii. 2–6. 2 Some of the parallels are certainly noteworthy; thus, the reference to Tarquin (11. 12-14) recalls "Tarquin's ravishing strides" (Macb., II. i. 55, 56); "lac'd with blue of heaven's own tinct" (11. 22, 23) may be compared with Duncan's "silver skin laced with his golden blood" (Macb., II. iii. 118), &c. 3 G. M. Ingleby (cp. his edition of "Cymbeline,” 1886). 4 F. G. Fleay. 5 Cp. "A Chronicle History of the Life and Works of William Shakespeare." More important than these questionable theories are the unmistakable links links connecting Cymbeline with the Shakespearean fragment of Pericles, with The Tempest, and especially with The Winter's Tale-the crowning glories of the close of the poet's literary life; what the present writer has said of one of these may be said of all: “on all of them his gentle spirit seems to rest; ‘Timon the Misanthrope' no longer delights him; his visions are of human joy-scenes of forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace a world where father is re-united with child, husband with wife, brother with brother, friend with friend. Like his own Miranda, Shakespeare in these Romances again finds the world beautiful: "O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world Perhaps, after all, John Heminge and Henry Condell knew what they were about, when, in defiance of chronology and of their own classification, they opened their precious Folio with the wonders of Prospero's enchanted island, and closed it with "the divine comedy" of "Posthumous and Imogen." SOURCE OF THE PLOT The main plot of the play is the love-story of Posthumus and Imogen: this theme, with the famous “wagermotif" and the "chest intrigue," is set in a framework of pseudo-British History, and blended with episodes belonging to that mythical epoch. I. THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT. So far as the names of the British King (whose reign was contemporary with the birth of Christ), his two sons, and step-son, are concerned, the historical element was derived from Holinshed's Chronicles of England (Bk. III; ch. xiii-xviii); some few meager incidents were taken from the same source, notably the original of Posthumus' account of the battle, and of his description of the changed fortunes of the fight, summed up in "a narrow lane, an old man, and two boys." The source of this episode is found in Holinshed's History of Scotland, near the chapters dealing with the story of Macbeth. The mere name of the heroine is also to be found in Holinshed's account of ancient British story; but it is clear that Shakespeare was already familiar with the name when engaged on Much Ado About Nothing; in the opening stage-direction of this play "Innogen" is actually mentioned as "the wife of Leonato." II. THE STORY OF IMOGEN. The story of Imogen was derived, directly or indirectly, from the Decamerone of Boccaccio; it is one of the Second Day Stories; "wherein was discoursed of those who after being baffled by divers chances have won at last of a joyful issue beyond their hope." The Ninth Story tells "how Bernabo of Genoa, duped by Ambrogiuolo, loseth his good and commandeth that his innocent wife be put to death. She escapeth and serveth the Soldan in a man's habit. Here she lighteth upon the deceiver of her husband and bringeth the latter to Alexandria, where her traducer being punished, she resumeth woman's apparel and returneth with her husband, rich." This rough outline of the plot, at the head of Boccaccio's story, indicates, somewhat at least, how far Shakespeare's version departs from the Italian. Shakespeare may have read the story as told in the Decamerone, but there were many other renderings of the theme, which, perhaps originally belonging to Byzantine literature, found a place in Old French Romance and Drama long before it reached Italy; in all probability "The Romance of the Violet," by Gerbert de Montruil, circa 1225, was the source of Boccaccio's novel. From the French, rather than from the Italian, were derived the oldest German and Scandinavian stories of "The Four Merchants; or, The Virtuous Wife." Some such English variant of the Imogen story was probably |