How Cymbeline drew on The Decameron
A documented line of influence: William Shakespeare demonstrably engaged Giovanni Boccaccio’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Decameron
Giovanni Boccaccio · c. 1351
MedievalThe influenced
Cymbeline
William Shakespeare · c. 1610
ShakespeareRelevance
8/10
On Cymbeline’s page
- The bet that drives Cymbeline is Boccaccio's, lifted nearly whole
- Day 2, Story 9 of The Decameron gives Shakespeare the wager on a wife's fidelity, the trunk smuggled into her bedroom, the intimate mole "under her breast" produced as false proof
- Reading the tale first lets you watch Shakespeare graft a romance's forgiveness and reunion onto a sharper, crueler medieval story
On The Decameron’s page
- Boccaccio's wager tale is the engine of Cymbeline's plot
- Day 2, Story 9 — Bernabò bets on his wife's virtue, and Ambrogiuolo cheats to win it — is the direct source for Iachimo's slander of Imogen
- Even the proof carries over: the villain hides in the bedchamber and reports a private mark on the heroine's body, just as Boccaccio's schemer does