Cymbeline is grounded in the story of the historical British king Cunobeline, which was originally recorded in Geoffrey of Monmouth‘s Historia Regum Britanniae, but which Shakespeare likely found in the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles. The subplot of Posthumus and Iachimo’s wager derives from a story from Giovanni Boccaccio‘s The Decameron. Shakespeare also drew inspiration for Cymbeline from a play called The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune, first performed in 1582.
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Playlist Cymbeline | Dramatis Personea | Sitemap Scenes Cymbeline, also known as The Tragedie of Cymbeline, King of Britain is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance. Like Othello and The Winter’s Tale, it deals with the themes of innocence and jealousy. While the precise date of composition remains unknown, the play was certainly produced as early as 1611. |
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