Replica of 1864 edition by Samuel French, London-New York.
This play features the adventures of the virtuous princess Imogen. Cymbeline, the king of England, banishes his daughter's lover, Posthumus, after the pair weds in secret. In exile, Posthumus meets Iachimo, who bets with Posthumus that he will inspire infidelity in Imogen. Rebuffed by the princess, Iachimo nonetheless steals her bracelet, with which he convinces Posthumus that he succeeded. Imogen flees, dishonored; finally, after Iachimo is denounced, she returns to her husband and father.
Most of what is known about William Shakespeare's life derives either from legal records or from spurious anecdotes. (Differing accounts of one eight-year period list his occupation as soldier, stable-boy, schoolmaster, and thief). Regardless of how he began, he ended as a playwright "not of an age, but for all time"; his influence is as strongly felt today as it was four centuries ago.
