Shakespeare's Cymbeline Act 2 Scene 4 - Iachimo gives his proof to Posthumus

Cymbeline

Please see the bottom of the page for explanatory notes.

ACT II SCENE IV	Rome. Philario's house.
	Enter POSTHUMUS and PHILARIO.
POSTHUMUS	Fear it not, sir: I would I were so sure
	To win the king as I am bold her honour
	Will remain hers.
PHILARIO	What means do you make to him?
POSTHUMUS	Not any, but abide the change of time,
	Quake in the present winter's state and wish
	That warmer days would come: in these sear'd hopes,
	I barely gratify your love; they failing,
	I must die much your debtor.
PHILARIO	Your very goodness and your company
	O'erpays all I can do. By this, your king	10
	Hath heard of great Augustus: Caius Lucius
	Will do's commission throughly: and I think
	He'll grant the tribute, send the arrearages,
	Or look upon our Romans, whose remembrance
	Is yet fresh in their grief.
POSTHUMUS	I do believe,
	Statist though I am none, nor like to be,
	That this will prove a war; and you shall hear
	The legions now in Gallia sooner landed
	In our not-fearing Britain than have tidings
	Of any penny tribute paid. Our countrymen	20
	Are men more order'd than when Julius Caesar
	Smiled at their lack of skill, but found
	their courage
	Worthy his frowning at: their discipline,
	Now mingled with their courages, will make known
	To their approvers they are people such
	That mend upon the world.
	Enter IACHIMO.
PHILARIO	See! Iachimo!
POSTHUMUS	The swiftest harts have posted you by land;
	And winds of all the comers kiss'd your sails,
	To make your vessel nimble.
PHILARIO	Welcome, sir.
POSTHUMUS	I hope the briefness of your answer made	30
	The speediness of your return.
IACHIMO	Your lady
	Is one of the fairest that I have look'd upon.
POSTHUMUS	And therewithal the best; or let her beauty
	Look through a casement to allure false hearts
	And be false with them.
IACHIMO	Here are letters for you.
POSTHUMUS	Their tenor good, I trust.
IACHIMO	'Tis very like.
PHILARIO	Was Caius Lucius in the Britain court
	When you were there?
IACHIMO	He was expected then,
	But not approach'd.
POSTHUMUS	All is well yet.
	Sparkles this stone as it was wont? or is't not	40
	Too dull for your good wearing?
IACHIMO	If I had lost it,
	I should have lost the worth of it in gold.
	I'll make a journey twice as far, to enjoy
	A second night of such sweet shortness which
	Was mine in Britain, for the ring is won.
POSTHUMUS	The stone's too hard to come by.
IACHIMO	Not a whit,
	Your lady being so easy.
POSTHUMUS	Make not, sir,
	Your loss your sport: I hope you know that we
	Must not continue friends.
IACHIMO	Good sir, we must,
	If you keep covenant. Had I not brought	50
	The knowledge of your mistress home, I grant
	We were to question further: but I now
	Profess myself the winner of her honour,
	Together with your ring; and not the wronger
	Of her or you, having proceeded but
	By both your wills.
POSTHUMUS	If you can make't apparent
	That you have tasted her in bed, my hand
	And ring is yours; if not, the foul opinion
	You had of her pure honour gains or loses
	Your sword or mine, or masterless leaves both	60
	To who shall find them.
IACHIMO	Sir, my circumstances,
	Being so near the truth as I will make them,
	Must first induce you to believe: whose strength
	I will confirm with oath; which, I doubt not,
	You'll give me leave to spare, when you shall find
	You need it not.
POSTHUMUS	Proceed.
IACHIMO	First, her bedchamber,--
	Where, I confess, I slept not, but profess
	Had that was well worth watching--it was hang'd
	With tapesty of silk and silver; the story
	Proud Cleopatra, when she met her Roman,	70
	And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for
	The press of boats or pride: a piece of work
	So bravely done, so rich, that it did strive
	In workmanship and value; which I wonder'd
	Could be so rarely and exactly wrought,
	Since the true life on't was--
POSTHUMUS	This is true;
	And this you might have heard of here, by me,
	Or by some other.
IACHIMO	More particulars
	Must justify my knowledge.	100
POSTHUMUS	So they must,
	Or do your honour injury.
IACHIMO	The chimney	80
	Is south the chamber, and the chimney-piece
	Chaste Dian bathing: never saw I figures
	So likely to report themselves: the cutter
	Was as another nature, dumb; outwent her,
	Motion and breath left out.
POSTHUMUS	This is a thing
	Which you might from relation likewise reap,
	Being, as it is, much spoke of.
IACHIMO	The roof o' the chamber
	With golden cherubins is fretted: her andirons--
	I had forgot them--were two winking Cupids
	Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely	90
	Depending on their brands.
POSTHUMUS	This is her honour!
	Let it be granted you have seen all this--and praise
	Be given to your remembrance--the description
	Of what is in her chamber nothing saves
	The wager you have laid.
IACHIMO	Then, if you can,
	[ Showing the bracelet.
	Be pale: I beg but leave to air this jewel; see!
	And now 'tis up again: it must be married
	To that your diamond; I'll keep them.
POSTHUMUS	Jove!
	Once more let me behold it: is it that
	Which I left with her?
IACHIMO	Sir--I thank her--that:	100
	She stripp'd it from her arm; I see her yet;
	Her pretty action did outsell her gift,
	And yet enrich'd it too: she gave it me, and said
	She prized it once.
POSTHUMUS	May be she pluck'd it off
	To send it me.
IACHIMO	She writes so to you, doth she?
POSTHUMUS	O, no, no, no! 'tis true. Here, take this too;
	[ Gives the ring.
	It is a basilisk unto mine eye,
	Kills me to look on't. Let there be no honour
	Where there is beauty; truth, where semblance; love,
	Where there's another man: the vows of women	110
	Of no more bondage be, to where they are made,
	Than they are to their virtues; which is nothing.
	O, above measure false!
PHILARIO	Have patience, sir,
	And take your ring again; 'tis not yet won:
	It may be probable she lost it; or
	Who knows if one of her women, being corrupted,
	Hath stol'n it from her?
POSTHUMUS	Very true;
	And so, I hope, he came by't. Back my ring:
	Render to me some corporal sign about her,
	More evident than this; for this was stolen.	120
IACHIMO	By Jupiter, I had it from her arm.
POSTHUMUS	Hark you, he swears; by Jupiter he swears.
	'Tis true:--nay, keep the ring--'tis true: I am sure
	She would not lose it: her attendants are
	All sworn and honourable:--they induced to steal it!
	And by a stranger!--No, he hath enjoyed her:
	The cognizance of her incontinency
	Is this: she hath bought the name of whore
	thus dearly.
	There, take thy hire; and all the fiends of hell
	Divide themselves between you!
PHILARIO	Sir, be patient:	130
	This is not strong enough to be believed
	Of one persuaded well of--
POSTHUMUS	Never talk on't;
	She hath been colted by him.
IACHIMO	If you seek
	For further satisfying, under her breast--
	Worthy the pressing--lies a mole, right proud
	Of that most delicate lodging: by my life,
	I kiss'd it; and it gave me present hunger
	To feed again, though full. You do remember
	This stain upon her?
POSTHUMUS	Ay, and it doth confirm
	Another stain, as big as hell can hold,	140
	Were there no more but it.
IACHIMO	Will you hear more?
POSTHUMUS	Spare your arithmetic: never count the turns;
	Once, and a million!
IACHIMO	I'll be sworn--
POSTHUMUS	No swearing.
	If you will swear you have not done't, you lie;
	And I will kill thee, if thou dost deny
	Thou'st made me cuckold.
IACHIMO	I'll deny nothing.
POSTHUMUS	O, that I had her here, to tear her limb-meal!
	I will go there and do't, i' the court, before
	Her father. I'll do something--
	[ Exit.
PHILARIO	Quite besides
	The government of patience! You have won:	150
	Let's follow him, and pervert the present wrath
	He hath against himself.
IACHIMO	With an my heart.
	Exeunt.

Cymbeline, Act 2, Scene 5

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Explanatory Notes for Act 2, Scene 4
From Cymbeline. A.W. Verity. Cambridge, University Press.

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6. If these doubtful hopes are realised Posthumus can still barely repay the kindness of Philario, and if they fail he must remain his debtor.

16. statist, statesman, politician; Hamlet, V. 2. 33. An obsolete sense, the word now being limited to the use 'one who deals in statistics, a statistician.'

22. their lack of skill. A Holinshed echo: "the British nation was then unskilfull, and not trained to feats of arms, for the Britons then being onelie used to the Picts and Irish enimies, people halfe naked, through lacke of skill easilie gaue place to the Romans force" -- Stone.

24. mingled; printed wing-led in the Folio; and the "wings" have been variously pictured as those of an army or of the Roman standards (eagles). Devotion to the Folio sometimes savours of fanaticism. (F.)

25, 26. their approvers, those who test them, mend upon the world, get the upper hand of others.

27-29. Perhaps Shakespeare's way of excusing his "offence against one of the unities [i.e. of place], in the precipitate return of Iachimo from the court of Cymbeline" -- Steevens. The wording is a little reminiscent of The Merchant of Venice, II. 7. 39, 40, and Macbeth, I. 3. 33.

30. your answer, i.e. from Imogen.

61. circumstances, circumstantial report; the details which he can give.

66. "Iachimo's language is such as a skilful villain would naturally use, a mixture of airy triumph and serious deposition" -- Johnson.

68. watching, lying awake for.

69-72. Antony and Cleopatra, II. 1. 191-218 (Cleopatra's first meeting with Antony).

Shakespeare, of course, took that description from the Life of Antony in North's Plutarch, the work which furnished him with the materials (and not a few passages) of his Roman plays, and which shares with Golding's translation of Ovid (see II. 2. 45, note) the honour of having supplied most of his knowledge of the classics.

83. So likely to report themselves, so lifelike that you might have expected them to speak. 'A speaking likeness,' as we say. Lively for likely is quite a needless change.

83-85. i.e. the sculptor had done his work as cleverly as Nature herself -- nay, surpassed her -- except that he could not endow the figures with power of speech, motion etc.

86. relation, report ; see G.

88. cherubins... fretted; see each in G. "The ceilings of Shakespeare's time were the most characteristic product of the period," i.e. in domestic architecture; being, in large houses, often of elaborate design and ornamentation. See the chapter on "Architecture" in Shakespeare's England, 1916.

89. winking, blind; the traditional representation of Cupid. The fire-irons supporting the wood-fire were two figures of Cupid bearing torches ("brands"), symbolical of love, and the figures were so moulded that they leaned upon the torches. The design is one which the student must picture for himself. Herford aptly compares Sonnets CLIII, 154.

91. This is her honour! and does her honour depend on this "description"! ironical.

95, 96. Be pale. "If you can, forbear to flush your cheek with rage" -- Johnson.

107. basilisk; a "fabulous reptile, also called cockatrice, supposed to be hatched from a cock's egy and said to kill by its breath and look."

110-112. i.e. let the vows women make be as frail as their virtues. Note the alternations in the feelings of Posthumus and the fine working up to the climax.

115. probable; "capable of being proved, demonstrable." (F.)

127. cognizance, badge.

132. one persuaded well of --. The Folio does not mark the break, but the sense seems to be 'one who is convinced of her truth.' (F.)

147. limb-meal, limb by limb; see G.

151. pervert, turn into a different channel.

How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. Cymbeline. Ed. A.W. Verity. Cambridge, University Press, 1899. Shakespeare Online. 10 Dec. 2013. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/cymbel_2_4.html >.

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Notes on Posthumus

"The fiendishly cruel and clever way in which Iachimo gradually enfolds Posthumus in the snare he has prepared for him requires the closest examination, step by step. The same eloquence, that spread its toils in vain for the seduction of Imogen, now serves the villain's purpose only too speedily and well. Observe as you read the successive moves in the game -- from Imogen's letters proving the visit to the court of Britain until Iachimo makes Posthumus see "her pretty action" of stripping the bracelet from her arm and reduces him to the last desperate suggestion, "May be she pluck'd it off to send it me" -- by which Posthumus' reason and judgment are taken prisoner, so that at last he passes sentence, not like a judge, but in the temper of a raving madman." (Alfred J. Wyatt. In his edition of Cymbeline.)

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