ABSTRACT
T HOUGH the language of these three plays cannot be treated as one, they are all different, except for the early scenes of The Winter's Tale, from the tragedies that precede them. This contrast is very marked in Cymbeline, where if one looks for highly metaphorical language, crowded phrase, and bold personification, that by a dramatic setting has stepped into a lively symbolism, one will suffer inevitable disappointment. I n comparison with the tragedies the language has on the whole a quietness, a thinness, an absence of overtones or subtle associations. I t serves the complex action with complete adequacy but it does not in its passage explore the depths of human experience, any more than does the action itself.
