The beaten, routed Edgar, brave his conqueror? Edg. Half blooded man, Thy father's sin first, then his punishment, Thou draw'st thy villany; but, for thy part [Trumpet sounds;-they fight;-EDMUND Tis past, and so am I. Edg. As thou art my father's son, Exchange we charity on thy repentance. Edm. Thy sword has prov'd thy truth.-Forgive me, Edgar. Oh! ere life leaves me, let me do some good, Despight of my own nature:-Quickly send, Be brief, into the castle'; for my order Is on the life of Lear, and of Cordelia. Edg. O, let us fly, my lord, to save their lives! Alb. The heav'ns defend them!-Bear him hence a while. [Exeunt the DUKE OF ALBANY and EDGAR, with a Part of the SOLDIERS, and the other Part bear EDMUND away. 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, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER ROW, 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 slight an impression upon an audience, that, when the curtain is dropped, they immediately discourse upon the splendour of Imogen's bed-chamber, the becoming dress she wore as a boy, and the dexterity with which Iachimo crept out, and crept into his coffer; without bestowing equal observation upon any of those sorrows or joys, which they have just seen exhibited. Still the impossibility, that half the events in this play could ever occur, cannot be the sole cause of its weak effect. Shakspeare's scenes are frequently such, as could not take place in real life; and yet the sensations which they excite are so forcible, that improbability is overpowered by the author's art, and his auditors are made to feel, though they cannot believe. No such magic presides over the play of "Cymbeline," as to transform reas on into imagination-the spectator may be pleased, but cannot be impassioned. The only scene which approaches the pathetic, is that where Imogen is informed by Pisanio, of her husband's command, that she should be murdered;-and this is a vengeance so unlike the forgiving temper of an English courtier, upon similar occasions, that it appears, as if the air of Italy had, as she suspects, infected the loving Posthumus with that nation's predominant crimes, and no one heart is deeply affected by so extraordinary an occurrence. 1 The young mountaineers, the brothers of Imogen, are pleasing figures, among the large group of per、sonages here collected: but still their forest dresses, more than their business in the scene, amuse the spec |