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by Jupiter has a wondrous resemblance to the odd things of the early stage.* We throw out these observations rather as hints for the student of Shakspere, than as opinions in which we expect our readers will agree. The greater part of the play is certainly such as no one but Shakspere could have written, and not only so, but Shakspere in the full possession and habitual exercise of his powers. The mountain scenes with Imogen and her brothers are perhaps unequalled, even in the whole compass of the Shaksperian drama. They are of the very highest order of poetical beauty,— not such an outpouring of beauty as in the Romeo and Juliet and The Midsummer Night's Dream, where the master of harmonious verse revels in all the graces of his art-but of beauty entirely subservient to the peculiarities of the characters, the progress of the action, the scenery, ay, and the very period of the drama, whatever Dr. Johnson may say of "incongruity." There is nothing to us more striking than the contrast which is presented between the free natural lyrics sung by the brothers over the grave of Fidele, and the elegant poem which some have thought so much more beautiful. The one is perfectly in keeping with all that precedes and all that follows; the other is entirely out of harmony with its associations. "To fair Fidele's grassy tomb" is the dirge of Collins over Fidele; "Fear no more the heat o' the sun is Fidele's proper funeral song by her bold brothers. It is this marvellous power of going out of himself that renders it so difficult to say that Shakspere is at any time inferior to himself. If it were not for this exercise of power, even in the smallest characters, we might think that Cloten was of the immature Shakspere. But then he has made Cloten his own, by one or two magic touches, so as to leave no doubt that, if he was at first a somewhat hasty sketch, he is now a finished portrait. The snatches in his voice and burst of speaking" Mentify him as the "

very Cloten" that none other but Shakspere could have painted.

SUPPOSED SOURCE OF THE PLOT.

“MR. POFE," says Steevens, "supposed the story 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 story-book entitled 'Westward for Smelts.'" This is unquestionably one of Steevens's random assertions. Malone has printed the tale, and has expressed his opinion, in opposition to that of Steevens, that the general scheme of Cymbeline is founded on Boccaccio's novel (9th story of the second day of the Decameron). Mrs. Lennox has given, in her 'Shakspeare Illustrated,' a paraphrase of Boccaccio's story; which she has mixed up with more irreverent impertinence towards Shakspere than can be perhaps found elsewhere in the English language, except in Dr. Johnson's judgment upon this play, which ɛɔunds very like "prisoner at the bar." It might have been supposed that the odour of Mrs. Lennox's criticisms upon Shakspere had been dissipated long before the close of the last century; but, nevertheless, Mr. Dunlop, in his History of Fiction,' published in 1816, makes the opinions of Mrs. Lennox his own: "The incidents of the novel have been very closely adhered to by Shakespeare, but, as has been remarked by an acute and elegant critic (Mrs. Lennox), the scenes and characters have been most injudiciously

* Schlegel has a remarkable theory with reference to the apparition-scene, which we present to our readers. It is not objected that "the aged parents and brothers of Posthumus speak the language of a more simple olden time," but that they do not speak the language of poetry, such as Shakspere would have chosen to express a feeble sound of wailing." What Schlegel says of the speech of Jupiter has great truth. Nothing, for example, can be in a higher strain than"Poor shadows of Elysium, hence; and rest

Upon your never-withering banks of flowers."

"Pope, as is well known, was strongly disposed to declare whole scenes for interpolations of the players; but his opinions were not much listened to. However, Steevens still accedes to the opinion of Pope, respecting the apparition of the ghosts and of Jupiter in Cymbeline, while Posthumus is sleeping in the dungeon. But Posthumus finds, on waking, a tablet on his breast, with a prophecy on which the dénouement of the piece depends. Is it to be imagined that Shakspere would require of his spectators the belief in a wonder without a visible cause? Is Posthumus to dream this tablet with the prophecy? But these gentlemen do not descend to this objection. The verses which the apparitions deliver do not appear to them good enough to be Shakspere's. I imagine I can discover why the poet has not given them more of the splendour of diction. They are the aged parents and brothers of Posthumus, who, from concern for his fate, return from the world below: they ought, consequently, to speak the language of a more simple olden time, and their voices ought also to appear as a feeble sound of wailing, when contrasted with the thundering oracular language of Jupiter. For this reason Shakspere chose a syllabic measure, which was very common before his time, but which was then getting out of fashion, though it still continued to be frequently used, especially in translations of classical poets. In some such manner might the shades express themselves in the then existing translations of Homer and Virgil. The speech of Jupiter is on the other hand majestic, and in form and style bears a complete resemblance to the sonnets of Shakspere."-Lectures on Dramatic Literature, vol. ii.

altered, and the manners of a tradesman's wife, and two intoxicated Italian merchants, have been bestowed on a great princess, a British Lero, and a noble Roman." Mr. Dunlop, however, has given a neat abridgment of the tale; and in this matter it will be sufficient to refer the general reader to his work, and the Italian student to Boccaccio.

Shakspere found his historical materials in Holinshed; and he has adhered to them as far as is consistent with the progress of a romantic story. The following extracts include all in Holinshed that bears upon the plot of this drama.

*

"After the death of Cassibellane, Theomautius or Lenautius, the youngest son of Lud, was made king of Britain in the year of the world 3921, after the building of Rome 706, and before the coming of Christ 45. * Theomautius ruled the land in good quiet, and paid the tribute to the Romans which Cassibellane had granted, and finally departed this life after he had reigned twenty-two years, and was buried at London.

Kymbeline or Cimbeline, the son of Theomautius, was of the Britains made king, after the decease of his father, in the year of the world 3944, after the building of Rome 728, and before the birth of our Saviour 33. This man (as some write) was brought up at Rome, and there made knight by Augustus Cæsar, under whom he served in the wars, and was in such favour with him, that he was at liberty to pay his tribute or not. * ** * ** Touching the conChuance of the years of Kymbeline's reign some writers do vary, but the best approved affirm that he reigned thirty-five years and then died, and was buried at London, leaving behind him two sons, Guiderius and Arviragus. But here is to be noted that, although our histories do affirm that as well this Kymbeline, as also his father Theomautius, lived in quiet with the Romans, and continually to them paid the tributes which the Britains had covenanted with Julius Cæsar to pay, yet we find in the Roman writers, that after Julius Cæsar's death, when Augustus had taken upon him the rule of the empire, the Britains refused to pay that tribute: whereat, as Cornelius Tacitus reporteth, Augustus (being otherwise occupied) was contented to wink; howbeit, through earnest calling upon to recover his right by such as were desirous to see the uttermost of the British kingdom; at length, to wit, in the tenth year after the death of Julius Cæsar, which was about the thirteenth year of the said Theomautius, Augustus made provision to pass with an army over into Britain, and was come forward upon his journey into Gallia Celtica, or, as we may say, into these hither parts of France.

"But here receiving advertisements that the Pannonians, which inhabited the country now called Hungary, and the Dalmatians, whom now we call Slavons, had rebelled, he thought it best first to subdue those rebels near home, rather than to seek new countries, and leave such in hazard whereof he had present possession, and so, turning his power against the Pannonians and Dalmatians, he left off for a time the wars of Britain, whereby the land remained without fear of any invasion to be made by the Romans till the year after the building of the city of Rome 725, and about the nineteenth year of king Theomautius' reign, that Augustus with an army departed once again from Rome to pass over into Britain, there to make war. But after his coming into Gallia, when the Britains sent to him certain ambassadors to treat with him of peace, he staid their to settle the state of things among the Galles, for that they were not in very good order. And having finished there, he went into Spain, and so his journey into Britain was put off till the next year, tha is, the 726th after the building of Rome, which fell before the birth of our Saviour 25, about which time Augustus efisoons meant the third time to have made a voyage into Britain, because they could not agree upon covenants. But as the Pannonians and Dalmatians had aforetime staid him, when (as before is said) he meant to have gone against the Britains; so even now the Salasstians (a people inhabiting about Italy and Switzerland), the Cantabrians and Asturians, by such rebellious stirs as they raised, withdrew him from his purposed journey. But whether this controversy, which appeareth to fall forth betwixt the Britains and Augustus, was occasioned by Kymbeline, or some other prince of the Britains, I have not to avouch: for that by our writers it is reported that Kymbeline, being brought up in Rome, and knighted in the court of Augustus, ever showed himself a friend to the Romans, and chiefly was loth to break with them, because the youth of the Britain nation should not be deprived of the benefit to be trained and brought up among the Romans, whereby they might learn both to behave themselves like civil men, and to attain to the knowledge of feats of war. But whether for this respect, or for that it pleased the Almighty God so to dispose the minds of men at that present. not only the Britains, but in manner all other nations, were contented to be obedient to the Roman empire. That this was true in the Britains, it is evident enough in Strabo's words, which are in effect as followeth :- At this present (saith he) certain princes of Britain, procuring by ambassadors and dutiful demeaners the amity of the emperor Augustus, have offered in the capitol unto the gods presents or gifts, and have ordained the whole ile in a manner to be appertinent, proper, and familiar to the Romans. They are burdened with sore customs which they pay for wars, either to be sent forth into Gallia, or brought from thence, which are commonly ivory vessels, shears, onches or earrings, and other conceits made of amber and glasses, and such like manner of merchandise: so that now there is no need of any army or garrison of men of war to keep the ile, for there needeth not past one legion of footmen, or some wing of horsemen, to gather up and receive the tribute; for the charges are rated according to the quantity of the tributes: for otherwise it should be needful to abate the customs, if the tributes were also raised; and if any violence should be used, it were dangerous least they might be provoked to rebellion.' Thus far Strabo."

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COSTUME.

FOR the dress of our ancient British ancestors of the time of Cymbeline or Cunobelin we have no pictorial authority, and the notices of ancient British costume which we find scattered amongst the classical historians are exceedingly scanty and indefinite. That the chiefs and the superior classes amongst them, however, were clothed completely and with barbaric splendour, there exists at present little doubt; and the naked savages with painted skins whose imaginary effigies adorned the 'Pictorial Histories' of our childhood, are now considered to convey a better idea of the more remote and barbarous tribes of the Maæatæ than of the inhabitants of Cantium or Kent, ("the most civilized of all the Britons" as early as the time of Cæsar,) and even to represent those only when, in accordance with a Celtic custom, they had thrown off their garments of skin or dyed cloths to rush upon an invading enemy.

That all the Britons stained themselves with woad, which gave a blueish cast to the skin and made them look dreadful in battle, is distinctly stated by Cæsar: but he also assures us expressly that the inhabitants of the southern coasts differed but little in their manners from the Gauls, an assertion which is confirmed by the testimony of Strabo, Tacitus, and Pomponius Mela, the latter of whom says "the Britons fought armed after the Gaulish manner."

The following description therefore of the Gauls by Diodorus Siculus becomes an authority for the arms and dress of the Britons, particularly as in many parts it corresponds with such evidence as exists in other cotemporaneous writers respecting the dress of the Britons themselves.

"The Gauls wear bracelets about their wrists and arms, and massy chains of pure and beaten gold about their necks, and weighty rings upon their fingers,* and corslets of gold upon their breasts. For stature they are tall, of a pale complexion, and red-haired, not only naturally, but they endeavour all they can to make it redder by art. They often wash their hair in a water boiled with line, and turn it backwards from the forehead to the crown of the head, and thence to their very necks, that their faces may be fully seen. Some of them shave their beards, others let them grow a little. Persons of quality shave their chins close, but their mous taches they let fall so low that they even cover their mouths.§ . . Their garments are very strange, for they wear party-coloured tunics (flowered with various colours in divisions) and hose which they call Brace. They likewise wear chequered sagas (cloaks). Those they wear in winter are thick, those in summer more slender. Upon their heads they wear helmets of brass with large appendages made for ostentation's sake to be admired by the beholders. have trumpets after the barbarian manner, which in sounding make a horrid noise. swords they use a broad weapon called Spatha, which they hang across their right thigh by iron or brazen chains. Some gird themselves with belts of gold or silver."

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For

Gaulish Captive wearing the Torque }

Pliny says the Britons and Gauls wore a ring on the middle finger.

↑ A British corslet of gold found at Mold, in Flintshire, is now in the British Museum.

Strabo says the Britons are taller than the Gauls; their hair not so yellow, and their bodies looser built.
Cæsar tells us the Britons were long-haired, and shaved all the body except the head and the upper lip.

Martial has a line" Like the old bracha of a needy Briton."-Epig. ix. 21. They appear on the legs of the Gauiish figures in many Roman sculptures to have been a sort of loose pantaloon, terminating at the ankle, where they were met by a high shoe or brogue. There can be little doubt that the Highland truis is a modification of this ancient trouser, if not the identical weed itself.

In elucidation of the particular expression made use of by Diodorus in describing the variegated tissues of the Gauls, and which has been translated "flowered with various colours in divisions," we have the account of Pliny, who, after telling us that both the Gauls and Britons excelled in the art of making and dyeing cloth, and enumerating several herbs used for dyeing purple, scarlet, and other colours, says that they spun their fine wool, so dyed, into yarn, which was woven chequerwise so as to form small squares, some of one colour and some of another. Sometimes it was woven in stripes instead of chequers; and we cannot hesitate in believing that the tartan of the Highlanders (to this day called "the garb of old Gaul") and the checked petticoats and aprons of the modern Welsh peasantry are the lineal descendants of this ancient and picturesque manufacture. With respect to their ornaments of gold, we may add, in addition to the classical authorities, the testimony of the Welsh bards. In the Welsh Triads, Cadwaladyr, son of Cadwallon ab Cadwan, the last who bore the title of King of Britain, is styled one of the three princes who wore the golden bands, being emblems of supreme authority, and which, according to Turner, were worn round the neck, arms, and knees.

Of the golden neck-chains, or torques (torch or dorch in Welsh), there are several existing specimens. One has been found of silver, and several of brass. The bronze sword and small battleaxe, or celt, as it is called, of the ancient Britons, are to be found in many collections; and at

[Spear-Head and Celt.]

Goodrich Court are two very large round bronze shields of the earlier period, and an oblong one

of the Roman-British era. There is a smaller round shield also in the British Museum.

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The Druids were divided into three classes. The sacerdotal order wore white, the bards blue. and the third order, the Ovates or Obydds, who professed letters, medicine, and astronomy, wore green.

Dion Cassius describes the dress of a British queen in the person of the famous Bonduca or Boadicea. He tells us that she wore a torque of gold, a tunic of several colours all in folds, and over it a robe of coarse stuff. Her light hair fell down her shoulders far below the waist.

The costume and arms of the Romans will be noticed at considerable length in the Parts appropriated to the Tragedies of Coriolanus and Julius Cæsar.

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"THE people of Britain," says Strabo, "are generally ignorant of the art of cultivating gardens." By "the garden behind Cymbeline's palace" we should perhaps, therefore, in the spirit of minute antiquarianism, understand "a grove." But it is by no means clear that the Romans had not introduced their arts to an extent that might have made Cymbeline's palace bear some of the characteristics of a Roman villa. A highy-civilized people very quickly impart the external forms of their civilization to those whom they have colonised. We do not therefore object, even in a prosaic view of the matter, that the garden, as our artist has represented it, has more of ornament than belongs to the Druidical grove. The houses of the inhabitants in general might retain in a great degree their primitive rudeness. When Julius Cæsar invaded Britain, the people of the southern coasts had already learned to build houses a little more substantial and convenient than those of the inland inhabitants. "The country," he remarks, "abounds in houses, which very much resemble those of Gaul." Now those of Gaul are thus described by Strabo:-"They build their houses of wood, in the form of a circle, with lofty tapering roofs."-Lib. v. The foundations of some of the most substantial of these circular houses were of stone, of which there are still some remains in Cornwall, Anglesey, and other places. Strabo says, "The forests of the Britons are their cities; for, when they have enclosed a very large circuit with felled trees, they build

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