elts,' which
had already been laid under contribution by Shakespeare in the 'Merry
Wives.' {249} The by-plot of the banishment of the lord, Belarius, who
in revenge for his expatriation kidnapped the king's young sons and
brought them up with him in the recesses of the mountains, is
Shakespeare's invention. Although most of the scenes are laid in Britain
in the first century before the Christian era, there is no pretence of
historical vraisemblance. With an almost ludicrous inappropriateness the
British king's courtiers make merry with technical terms peculiar to
Calvinistic theology, like 'grace' and 'election.' {250} The action,
which, owing to the combination of three threads of narrative, is
exceptionally varied and intricate, wholly belongs to the region of
romance. On Imogen, who is the central figure of the play, Shakespeare
lavished all the fascination of his genius. She is the crown and flower
of his conception of tender and artless womanhood. Her husband
Posthumus, her rejected lover Cloten, her would-be seducer Iachimo are
contrasted with her and with each other with consummate ingenuity. The
mountainous retreat in which Belarius and his fascinating boy-companions
play their part has points of resemblance to the Forest of Arden in 'As
You Like It;' but life throughout 'Cymbeline' is grimly earnest, and the
mountains nurture little of the contemplative quiet which characterises
existence in the Forest of Arden. The play contains the splendid lyric
'Fear no more the heat of the sun' (IV. ii. 258 seq.) The 'pitiful
mummery' of the vision of Posthumus (V. iv. 30 seq.) must have been
supplied by another hand. Dr. Forman, the astrologer who kept notes of
some of his experiences as a playgoer, saw 'Cymbeline' acted either in
1610 or 1611.

'A Winter's Tale.'

'A Winter's Tale' was seen by Dr. Forman at the Globe on May 15, 1611,
and it appears to have been acted at court on November 5 following.
{251a} It is based upon Greene's popular romance which was called
'Pandosto' in the first edition of 1588, and in numerous later editions,
but was ultimately in 1648 re-christened 'Dorastus and Fawnia.'
Shakespeare followed Greene, his early foe, in allotting a seashore to
Bohemia--an error over which Ben Jonson and many later critics have made
merry. {251b} A few lines were obviously drawn from that story of
Boccaccio with which Shakespeare had dealt just before in 'Cymbeline.'
{251c} But Shakespeare c