CYMBELINE



During the time of Augustus Caesar, emperor of Rome, there reigned
n England (which was then called Britain) a king whose name was
Cymbeline.

Cymbeline's first wife died when his three children (two sons and a
daughter) were very young. Imogen, the eldest of these children, was
brought up in her father's court; but by a strange chance the two sons
of Cymbeline were stolen out of their nursery, when the eldest was
but three years of age, and the youngest quite an infant; and
Cymbeline could never discover what was become of them, or by
whom they were conveyed away.

Cymbeline was twice married: his second wife was a wicked, plotting
woman, and a cruel stepmother to Imogen, Cymbeline's daughter by
his first wife.

The queen, though she hated Imogen, yet wished her to marry a son of
her own by a former husband (she also having been twice married):
for by this means she hoped upon the death of Cymbeline to place the
crown of Britain upon the head of her son Cloten; for she knew that, if
the king's sons were not found, the princess Imogen must be the king's
heir. But this design was prevented by Imogen herself, who married