ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is briefly to characterize the mature comedies; and more, to suggest that they are the best of the comedies and that they do not often have the common good luck to be read decently. Nobody will want a demonstration that Twelfth Night and As You Like It are better plays than Two Gentlemen of Verona and Comedy of Errors, but the view that this group is in important ways superior to the ‘Romances’ is unorthodox, and it might be useful to start with a few remarks on Cymbeline. I speak only of an isolated aspect of Cymbeline but believe my conclusions to be applicable also to The Tempest.
