CYMBELINE.] Mr. Pope fuppofed the ftory of this play to have been borrowed from a novel of Boccace; but he was mistaken, as an imitation of it is found in an old ftory-book entitled Weftward for Smelts. This imitation differs in as many particulars from the Italian novelist, as from Shakfpeare, though they concur in fome material parts of the fable. It was published in a quarto pamphlet. 1603. This is the only copy of it which I have hitherto feen, There is a late entry of it in the books of the Stationers' Company, Jan. 1619, where it is faid to have been written by Kitt of King fton. STEEVENS. The tale in Weftward for Smelts, which I published fome years ago, I fhall fubjoin to this play. The only part of the fable, however, which can be pronounced with certainty to be drawn from thence, is, Imogen's wandering about after Pifanio has left her in the foreft; her being almoft famished; and being taken, at a subfequent period, into the fervice of the Roman General as a page. The general scheme of Cymbeline is, in my opinion, formed on Boccace's novel (Day 2, Nov. 9.) and Shakspeare has taken a circumstance from it, that is not mentioned in the other tale. See p., n. It appears from the preface to the old translation of the Decamerone, printed in 1620, that many of the novels had be fore received an English drefs, and had been printed separately: "I know, most worthy lord, (fays the printer in his Epistle Dedicatory,) that many of them [the novels of Boccace] have long fince been published before, as ftolen from the original author, and yet not beautified with his fweet ftyle and elocution of phrase, neither favouring of his fingular morall applications." Cymbeline, I imagine, was written in the year 1605. See An Attempt to afcertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. I. The king from whom the play takes its title began his reign, according to Holinfhed, in the 19th year of the reign of Auguftus Cæfar; and the play commences in or about the twenty-fourth year of Cymbeline's reign, which was the forty-fecond year of the reign of Auguftus, and the 16th of the Chriftian æra: notwithstanding which, Shakspeare has peopled Rome with modern Italians; Philario, Iachimo, &c. Cymbeline is faid to have reigned thirty-five years, leaving at his death two fons, Guiderius and Arviragus. MALONE. I am unable to afcertain this reference, no circumftance attached to the novel of Boccace being discoverable in p. 364, n. 6, the place to which we are directed by Mre Malone, in his edition of our author's works, Vol. VIII. P. 309. STEVENS, PERSONS repre Tented. Cymbeline, King of Britain. Cloten, fon to the Queen by a former bufband. Leonatus Pofthumus, a gentleman, bufband to Imogen. Belarius, a banished lord, difguifed under the name of Guiderius, difguifed under the names of Polydore Morgan. and Cadwal, Juppofed fons to Belarius. Italians. Arviragus, J Cornelius, a Phyfician. Two Gentlemen. Two Gaolers. Queen, wife to Cymbeline, Imogen, daughter to Cymbeline by a former queen. Helen, woman to Imogen. tions, a Soothsayer, Dutch Gentleman, a Spanish Lords, Ladies, Roman Senators, Tribunes, AppariGentleman, Muficians, Officers, Captains, Soldiers, SCENE, fometimes in Britain; Sometimes in Italy. Messengers, and other Attendants. CYMBELINE. ACT I. SCENE I. Britain. The Garden behind Cymbeline's Palace. Enter two Gentlemen. 1. GENT. You do not meet a man, but frowns: No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers; • You do not meet a man, but frowns: our bloods No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers; Still feem, as does the king's.] The thought is this: we are not now (as we were wont) influenced by the weather, but by the king's looks. We no more obey the heavens [the fky] than our courtiers obey the heavens [God]. By which it appears that the reading-our bloods, is wrong. For though the blood may be affected with the weather, yet that affection is discovered not by change of colour, but by change of countenance. And it is the outward not the inward change that is here talked of, as appears from the word feem. We should read therefore: our brows No more obey the heavens, &c. which is evident from the precedent words: You do not meet a man but frowns. And from the following: "Altho' they wear their faces to the bent "Of the king's look, but hath a heart that is "Glad at the thing they cowl at." The Oxford editor improves upon this emendation, and reads: our looks No more obey the heart, ev'n than our courtiers. But by venturing too far, at a fecond emendation, he has stript it of all thought and fentiment. WARBURTON, |