the tragedy of cymbeline is a play by william shakespeare. it is based on a story in a book called "holinshed's chronicles" by raphael holinshed. shakespeare also used "history of the kings of britain" by geoffrey of monmouth about the real-life british king cunobelinus. shakespeare also used a story in a book by giovanni boccaccio called "decameron" for some details. the first known performance was in april 1611. it was first printed in 1623 in the first folio, a collection of all of shakespeare's plays.