Other abbreviations that hardly need explanation are Cf. (confer, compare), Fol. (following), Id. (idem, the same), and Prol. (prologue). The numbers of the lines in the references (except for the present play) are those of the "Globe" edition (the cheapest and best edition of Shakespeare in one compact volume), which is now generally accepted as the standard for line-numbers in works of reference (Schmidt's Lexicon, Abbott's Grammar, Dowden's Primer, the publications of the New Shakspere Society, etc.).

THE STORIES OF THE PLAY AS TOLD BY HOLINSHED AND BOCCACCIO. The following extracts from Holinshed (see p. 11 above) include all the portions of the chronicle which Shakespeare can have used in writing the play :

:

"After the death of Cassibelane, Theomantius or Lenantius, 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. . . . Theomantius ruled the land in good quiet, and paid the tribute to the Romans which Cassibelane had granted, and finally departed this life after he had reigned twentytwo years, and was buried at London.

"Kymbeline or Cimbeline, the son of Theomantius, 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 continuance 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 Theomantius, lived in quiet with the Romans, and continually to them paid the tributes which the Britains had cove.

nanted 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 Theomantius, 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 Theomantius' 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 there to settle the state of things among the Galles, for that they were not in very good order. . . . 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 British nation should not be deprived of the benefit

all. His enthusiasm only excites the laughter and mockery of his companions, particularly of Ambrogiolo, who, by the most artful mixture of contradiction and argument, rouses the anger of Bernabo, and he at length exclaims that he would willingly stake his life, his head, on the virtue of his wife. This leads to the wager "hich forms so important an incident in the drama. Ambrogiolo ets one thousand florins of gold against five thousand that Zinevra, ke the rest of her sex, is accessible to temptation - that in less han three months he will undermine her virtue, and bring her usband the most undeniable proofs of her falsehood. He sets off For Genoa in order to accomplish his purpose; but on his arrival, ll that he learns, and all that he beholds with his own eyes, of the iscreet and noble character of the lady, make him despair of sucess by fair means; he therefore has recourse to the basest treachry. By bribing an old woman in the service of Zinevra, he is onveyed to her sleeping apartment concealed in a trunk, from which he issues in the dead of night; he takes note of the furniure of the chamber, makes himself master of her purse, her norning robe, or cymar, and her girdle, and of a certain mark on er person. He repeats these observations for two nights, and, Arnished with these evidences of Zinevra's guilt, he returns to 'aris, and lays them before the wretched husband. Bernabo ects every proof of his wife's infidelity except that which finally nvinces Posthumus. When Ambrogiolo mentions the 'mole, que-spotted,' he stands like one who has received a poniard in heart; without further dispute he pays down the forfeit, and ed with rage and despair both at the loss of his money and the sehood of his wife, he returns towards Genoa. He retires to his ntry-house, and sends a messenger to the city with letters to vra, desiring that she would come and meet him, but with torders to the man to despatch her by the way. The servant s to execute his master's command, but, overcome by her for mercy and his own remorse, he spares her life, on at she will fly from the country forever. He then dis

BELINE-12

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. . . .

"Mulmucius Dunwallo, the son of Cloten, got the upper hand of the other dukes or rulers: and after his father's decease began his reign over the whole monarchy of Britain, in the year of the world 3529. This Mulmucius Dunwallo proved a right worthy prince. He builded within the city of London, then called Troinovant, a temple, and called it the Temple of Peace. He also made many good laws, which were long after used, called Mulmucius' laws. After he had established his land, and set his Britains in good and convenient order, he ordained him by the advice of his lords a crown of gold, and caused himself with great solemnity to be crowned, according to the custom of the pagan laws then in use and because he was the first who bare a crown here in Britain, after the opinion of some writers, he is named the first king of Britain, and all the other before rehearsed are named rulers, dukes, or governors."

Of the story so far as it is told by Boccaccio, Mrs. Jameson gives the following outline: —

"A company of Italian merchants who are assembled in a tavern at Paris are represented as conversing on the subject of their wives. All of them express themselves with levity, or scepticism, or scorn, on the virtue of women, except a young Genoese merchant named Bernabo, who maintains that by the especial favour of Heaven he possesses a wife no less chaste than beautiful. Heated by the wine, and excited by the arguments and the coarse raillery of another young merchant, Ambrogiolo, Bernabo proceeds to enumerate the various perfections and accomplishments of his Zinevra. He praises her loveliness, her submission, and her discretion - her skill in embroidery, her graceful service, in which the best trained page of the court could not exceed her; and he adds, as rarer accomplishments, that she could mount a horse, fly a hawk, write and read, and cast up accounts, as well as any merchant of them