Shakespeare's romantic play ' Cymbeline' is carefully set in the pretoChristian Roman era. The main theme of Cymbeline–Posthumus' wager on the chastity of his wife, Imogen–Shakespeare derived from a story in Boccacio's Decameron. But he put this Italianate intrigue into a setting that, for his audience, was authentic. In 'Cymbeline' Shakespeare shows great dramatic skill in weaving together many different elements of plot, period and place.