In Holinshed are also found the stories of Cymbeline and Macbeth, the former supposed to have occurred during the Roman occupancy of Britain, and the latter during the Saxon period.
With these before us, let us observe that names, chronology, geography, costumes, and customs are as nothing in his eyes.

His aim is human philosophy: he places his living creations before us, dressing them, as it were, in any garments most conveniently at hand.

These lose their grotesqueness as his characters speak and act.

Paternal love and weakness, met by filial ingratitude; these are the lessons and the fearful pictures of Lear: sad as they are, the world needed them, and they have saved many a later Lear from expulsion and storm and death, and shamed many a Goneril and Regan, while they have strengthened the hearts of many a Cordelia since.

Chastity and constancy shine like twin stars from the forest of Cymbeline.