entirely broken. The most straggling and seemingly casual incidents
are contrived in such a manner as to lead at last to the most
complete development of the catastrophe. The ease and conscious
unconcern with which this is effected only makes the skill more
wonderful. The business of the plot evidently thickens in the last
act; the story moves forward with increasing rapidity at every step;
its various ramifications are drawn from the most distant points to
the same centre; the principal characters are brought together, and
placed in very critical situations; and the fate of almost every
person in the drama is made to depend on the solution of a single
circumstance--the answer of Iachimo to the question of Imogen
respecting the obtaining of the ring from Posthumus. Dr. Johnson is
of opinion that Shakespeare was generally inattentive to the winding
up of his plots. We think the contrary is true; and we might cite in
proof of this remark not only the present play, but the conclusion
of LEAR, of ROMEO AND JULIET, of MACBETH, of OTHELLO, even of
HAMLET, and of other plays of less moment, in which the last act is
crowded with decisive events brought about by natural and striking
means.

The pathos in CYMBELINE is not violent or tragical, but of the most
pleasing and amiable kind. A certain tender gloom o'erspreads the
whole. Posthumus is the ostensible hero of the piece, but its
greatest charm is the character of Imogen. Posthumus is only
interesting from the interest she takes in him, and she is only
interesting herself from her tenderness and constancy to her
husband. It is the peculiar characteristic of Shakespeare's
heroines, that they seem to exist only in their attachment to
others. They are pure abstractions of the affections. We think as
little of their persons as they do themselves, because we are let