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Cymbeline.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

THE general scheme of the plot of Cymbeline is formed on the ninth novel of the second day in the Decamerone of Boccaccio. It appears from the preface of the old translation of the Decamerone, printed in folio in 1620, that many of the novels had before received an English dress, and had been printed separately. A deformed and interpolated imitation of the novel in question was printed at Antwerp, by John Dusborowghe, as early as 1518, under the following title: 'This matter treateth of a merchauntes wife that afterwarde wente lyke a man and becam a greate lorde and was called Frederyke of Jennen afterwarde.' It exhibits the material features of its original, though the names of the characters are changed, their sentiments debased, and their conduct rendered still more improbable than in the scenes of Cymbeline. A book was published in London in 1603, called ' Westward for Smelts, or the Waterman's Fare of mad merry western Wenches, whose Tongues albeit like Bellclappers they never leave ringing, yet their Tales are sweet, and will much content you: Written by Kitt of Kingstone.' It was again printed in 1620. To the second tale in this work Shakspeare seems to have been indebted for the circumstances in his plot of Imogen's wandering about after Pisanio has left her in the forest; her being almost famished; and being taken at a subsequent period into the service of the Roman general as a page. But time may yet bring to light some other modification of the story, which will prove more exactly conformable to the plot of the play.

Malone supposes Cymbeline to have been written in the year 1609. The king, from whom the play takes its title, began his reign, according to Holinshed, in the nineteenth year of the reign of Augustus Cæsar; and the play commences in or about the twenty-fourth year of Cymbeline's reign, which was the VOL. IX.

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forty-second year of the reign of Augustus, and the sixteenth of the Christian era: notwithstanding which, Shakspeare has peopled Rome with modern Italians; Philario, Iachimo, &c. Cymbeline is said to have reigned thirty-five years, leaving at his death two sons, Guiderius and Arviragus. Tenantius (who is mentioned in the first scene) was the father of Cymbeline, and nephew of Cassibelan, being the younger son of his elder brother Lud, king of the southern part of Britain, he agreed to pay an annual tribute to Rome. After his death Tenantius, Lud's younger son, was established on the throne, of which he and his elder brother Androgeus, who fled to Rome, had been unjustly deprived by their uncle. According to some authorities, Tenantius quietly paid the tribute stipulated by Cassibelan; according to others, he refused to pay it, and warred with the Romans. Shakspeare supposes the latter to be the truth. Holinshed, who furnished our poet with these facts, furnished him also with the name of Sicilius, who was admitted king of Britain, A. M. 3659.

Schlegel pronounces Cymbeline to be one of Shakspeare's most wonderful compositions,' in which the poet' has contrived to blend together into one harmonious whole the social manners of the latest times with heroic deeds, and even with appearances of the gods. In the character of Imogen not a feature of female excellence is forgotten; her chaste tenderness, her softness, and her virgin pride, her boundless resignation, and her magnanimity towards her mistaken husband, by whom she is unjustly persecuted; her adventures in disguise, her apparent death, and her recovery, form altogether a picture equally tender and affecting. The two princes, Guiderius and Arviragus, both educated in the wilds, form a noble contrast to Miranda and Perdita. In these two young men, to whom the chase has given vigour and hardihood, but who are unacquainted with their high destination, and have always been kept far from human society, we are enchanted by a naïve heroism which leads them to anticipate and to dream of deeds of valour, till an occasion is offered which they are irresistibly impelled to embrace. When Imogen comes in disguise to their cave; when Guiderius and Arviragus form an impassioned friendship, with all the innocence of childhood, for the tender boy (in whom they neither suspect a female nor their own sister); when on returning from the chase they find her dead, sing her to the ground, and cover the grave with flowers:

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