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A HISTORICAL PLAY,

IN FIVE ACTS;

By WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRES ROYAL,

DRURY LANE AND COVENT GARDEN.

PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGERS,

FROM THE PROMPT BOOK.

WITH REMARKS

BY MRS INCHBALD.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.

EDINBURGH :

Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.

5725

REMARKS.

Mr Malone informs the public, that the king from whom this play takes its title, began his reign, according to Holinshed, in the nineteenth year of the reign of Augustus Cæsar; and the play commences in, or about, the twenty-fourth of Cymbeline's reign, which was the forty-second year of Augustus, and the sixteenth of the Christian era.-Cymbeline is said to have reigned thirty-five years, leaving at his death two sons, Guiderius and Arviragus.

Notwithstanding an English king and his children furnish some names in this tragedy, it is supposed that its fable is taken from an Italian novel, which the dramatist has blended with many incidents, the produce of his own fancy,

Variety of events form the peculiar character of this play; attention is kept awake by sudden changes of time, place, and circumstances; but the mind obtains little reward for its watchfulness. Among the many amusing things, both seen and heard, at the representation of "Cymbeline," that part in which the great author is concerned, generally makes so

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