ure, which of you copied from the other! would not be misapplied to
Shakspeare.

The other characters in this play are represented with great truth and
accuracy, and as it happens in most of the author's works, there is not
only the utmost keeping in each separate character; but in the casting of
the different parts, and their relation to one another, there is an
affinity and harmony, like what we may observe in the gradations of colour
in a picture. The striking and powerful contrasts in which Shakspeare
abounds could not escape observation; but the use he makes of the
principle of analogy to reconcile the greatest diversities of character
and to maintain a continuity of feeling throughout, has not been
sufficiently attended to. In CYMBELINE, for instance, the principal
interest arises out of the unalterable fidelity of Imogen to her husband
under the most trying circumstances. Now the other parts of the picture
are filled up with subordinate examples of the same feeling, variously
modified by different situations, and applied to the purposes of virtue or
vice. The plot is aided by the amorous importunities of Cloten, by the
persevering determination of Iachimo to conceal the defeat of his project
by a daring imposture; the faithful attachment of Pisanio to his mistress
is an affecting accompaniment to the whole; the obstinate adherence to his
purpose in Bellarius, who keeps the fate of the young princes so long a
secret in resentment for the ungrateful return to his former services, the
incorrigible wickedness of the Queen, and even the blind uxorious
confidence of Cymbeline, are all so many lines of the same story, tending
to the same point. The effect of this coincidence is rather felt than
observed; and as the impression exists unconsciously in the mind of the
reader, so it probably arose in the same manner in the mind of the author,
not from design, but from the force of natural association, a particular
train of thought suggesting different inflections of the same predominant
feeling, melting into, and strengthening one another, like chords in
music.

The characters of Bellarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus, and the romantic
scenes in which they appear, are a fine relief to the intrigues and
artificial refinements of the court from which they are banished. Nothing
can surpass the wildness and simplicity of the descriptions of the
mountain life they lead. They follow the business of huntsmen, not of
shepherds; and t