Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Works of Shakespeare, Vol. 10 of 12: The Text Carefully Restored According to the First Editions; With Introductions, Notes Original and Selected, and a Life of the Poet
All this, to be sure. Does not prove that the play was new when Forman saw it since we know not how long it may have held its place on the stage; and the fact of its being kept out of print during the Poet's life is strong evidence that the company were interested in retaining it for performance. It appears, also, by an entry of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels, that the play was acted at Court, on the lst of January, 1633, before King Charles I., and was well liked by the King. Nevertheless, our iwii conviction is very clear that the play, as it has come down to us, was indeed fresh from the mint about the time of Forman's notice. External evidence bearing on this point, we have already implied there is none. But the play has the same general charac teristics of style and imagery as The Tempest and The Winter's Tale while perhaps no play in the whole series abounds more in those overcrammed and elliptical passages which show too great a rush and press of thought for the author's space. The poetry and characterisation, also, are marked by the same severe beauty and austere sweetness, as in the other plays mentioned; while the moral sentiment of the piece comes out from time to time in just that condensed and ?ashing energy which indicates, to our mind, the Poet's last and highest stage of art. But these points have been sufficiently dwelt upon in the other plays which we reckon to the same period; so that there is no need of pursuing them here.
Every discerning and careful student will easily perceive that some passages of Cymbeline, especially in the fifth act, run in a very different style from the rest of the play. We rcfer, of course to that piece of dull impertinence, the vision of Posthumus in prison, his dialogue with the Jailers. And the absurd -4 label found on his bosom after the vision disappeared. For nothing can well be plainer than that this whole thing is strictly impertinetn it does not throw the least particle of light on the character or motive of any person; has indeed no business whatsoever with the action of the drama, except to hinder and embarrass it. The dialogue with the Jailers is the brightest part of it yet even here we have, tn efi'ect, but a stupid repetition of what Posthumus has already set forth with such utterance as Shakespeare alone could give him. This ugly blemish apart, the denouement is perfect, and the whole preparation for it made with consummate judgment and skill.
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