Act 1, Scene 6

The same. Another room in the palace.

[Enter IMOGEN]
Imogen
565 A father cruel, and a step-dame false;
566 A foolish suitor to a wedded lady,
567 That hath her husband banish'd;—O, that husband!
568 My supreme crown of grief! and those repeated
569 Vexations of it! Had I been thief-stol'n,
570 As my two brothers, happy! but most miserable
571 Is the desire that's glorious: blest be those,
572 How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills,
573 Which seasons comfort. Who may this be? Fie!
[Enter PISANIO and IACHIMO]
Pisanio
574 Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome,
575 Comes from my lord with letters.
Iachimo
576 Change you, madam?
577 The worthy Leonatus is in safety
578 And greets your highness dearly.
[Presents a letter]
Imogen
579 Thanks, good sir:
580 You're kindly welcome.
[Aside]
Iachimo
581 All of her that is out of door most rich!
582 If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare,
583 She is alone the Arabian bird, and I
584 Have lost the wager. Boldness be my friend!
585 Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!
586 Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight;
587 Rather directly fly.
[Reads]
Imogen
588 'He is one of the noblest note, to whose
589 kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon
590 him accordingly, as you value your trust—
591 LEONATUS.'
592 So far I read aloud:
593 But even the very middle of my heart
594 Is warm'd by the rest, and takes it thankfully.
595 You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I
596 Have words to bid you, and shall find it so
597 In all that I can do.
Iachimo
598 Thanks, fairest lady.
599 What, are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes
600 To see this vaulted arch, and the rich crop
601 Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt
602 The fiery orbs above and the twinn'd stones
603 Upon the number'd beach? and can we not
604 Partition make with spectacles so precious
605 'Twixt fair and foul?
Imogen
606 What makes your admiration?
Iachimo
607 It cannot be i' the eye, for apes and monkeys
608 'Twixt two such shes would chatter this way and
609 Contemn with mows the other; nor i' the judgment,
610 For idiots in this case of favour would
611 Be wisely definite; nor i' the appetite;
612 Sluttery to such neat excellence opposed
613 Should make desire vomit emptiness,
614 Not so allured to feed.
Imogen
615 What is the matter, trow?
Iachimo
616 The cloyed will,
617 That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub
618 Both fill'd and running, ravening first the lamb
619 Longs after for the garbage.
Imogen
620 What, dear sir,
621 Thus raps you? Are you well?
Iachimo
622 Thanks, madam; well.
[To PISANIO]
Iachimo
623 Beseech you, sir, desire
624 My man's abode where I did leave him: he
625 Is strange and peevish.
Pisanio
626 I was going, sir,
627 To give him welcome.
[Exit]
Imogen
628 Continues well my lord? His health, beseech you?
Iachimo
629 Well, madam.
Imogen
630 Is he disposed to mirth? I hope he is.
Iachimo
631 Exceeding pleasant; none a stranger there
632 So merry and so gamesome: he is call'd
633 The Briton reveller.
Imogen
634 When he was here,
635 He did incline to sadness, and oft-times
636 Not knowing why.
Iachimo
637 I never saw him sad.
638 There is a Frenchman his companion, one
639 An eminent monsieur, that, it seems, much loves
640 A Gallian girl at home; he furnaces
641 The thick sighs from him, whiles the jolly Briton—
642 Your lord, I mean—laughs from's free lungs, cries 'O,
643 Can my sides hold, to think that man, who knows
644 By history, report, or his own proof,
645 What woman is, yea, what she cannot choose
646 But must be, will his free hours languish for
647 Assured bondage?'
Imogen
648 Will my lord say so?
Iachimo
649 Ay, madam, with his eyes in flood with laughter:
650 It is a recreation to be by
651 And hear him mock the Frenchman. But, heavens know,
652 Some men are much to blame.
Imogen
653 Not he, I hope.
Iachimo
654 Not he: but yet heaven's bounty towards him might
655 Be used more thankfully. In himself, 'tis much;
656 In you, which I account his beyond all talents,
657 Whilst I am bound to wonder, I am bound
658 To pity too.
Imogen
659 What do you pity, sir?
Iachimo
660 Two creatures heartily.
Imogen
661 Am I one, sir?
662 You look on me: what wreck discern you in me
663 Deserves your pity?
Iachimo
664 Lamentable! What,
665 To hide me from the radiant sun and solace
666 I' the dungeon by a snuff?
Imogen
667 I pray you, sir,
668 Deliver with more openness your answers
669 To my demands. Why do you pity me?
Iachimo
670 That others do—
671 I was about to say—enjoy your—But
672 It is an office of the gods to venge it,
673 Not mine to speak on 't.
Imogen
674 You do seem to know
675 Something of me, or what concerns me: pray you,—
676 Since doubling things go ill often hurts more
677 Than to be sure they do; for certainties
678 Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing,
679 The remedy then born—discover to me
680 What both you spur and stop.
Iachimo
681 Had I this cheek
682 To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch,
683 Whose every touch, would force the feeler's soul
684 To the oath of loyalty; this object, which
685 Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye,
686 Fixing it only here; should I, damn'd then,
687 Slaver with lips as common as the stairs
688 That mount the Capitol; join gripes with hands
689 Made hard with hourly falsehood—falsehood, as
690 With labour; then by-peeping in an eye
691 Base and unlustrous as the smoky light
692 That's fed with stinking tallow; it were fit
693 That all the plagues of hell should at one time
694 Encounter such revolt.
Imogen
695 My lord, I fear,
696 Has forgot Britain.
Iachimo
697 And himself. Not I,
698 Inclined to this intelligence, pronounce
699 The beggary of his change; but 'tis your graces
700 That from pay mutest conscience to my tongue
701 Charms this report out.
Imogen
702 Let me hear no more.
Iachimo
703 O dearest soul! your cause doth strike my heart
704 With pity, that doth make me sick. A lady
705 So fair, and fasten'd to an empery,
706 Would make the great'st king double,—to be partner'd
707 With tomboys hired with that self-exhibition
708 Which your own coffers yield! with diseased ventures
709 That play with all infirmities for gold
710 Which rottenness can lend nature! such boil'd stuff
711 As well might poison poison! Be revenged;
712 Or she that bore you was no queen, and you
713 Recoil from your great stock.
Imogen
714 Revenged!
715 How should I be revenged? If this be true,—
716 As I have such a heart that both mine ears
717 Must not in haste abuse—if it be true,
718 How should I be revenged?
Iachimo
719 Should he make me
720 Live, like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets,
721 Whiles he is vaulting variable ramps,
722 In your despite, upon your purse? Revenge it.
723 I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure,
724 More noble than that runagate to your bed,
725 And will continue fast to your affection,
726 Still close as sure.
Imogen
727 What, ho, Pisanio!
Iachimo
728 Let me my service tender on your lips.
Imogen
729 Away! I do condemn mine ears that have
730 So long attended thee. If thou wert honourable,
731 Thou wouldst have told this tale for virtue, not
732 For such an end thou seek'st,—as base as strange.
733 Thou wrong'st a gentleman, who is as far
734 From thy report as thou from honour, and
735 Solicit'st here a lady that disdains
736 Thee and the devil alike. What ho, Pisanio!
737 The king my father shall be made acquainted
738 Of thy assault: if he shall think it fit,
739 A saucy stranger in his court to mart
740 As in a Romish stew and to expound
741 His beastly mind to us, he hath a court
742 He little cares for and a daughter who
743 He not respects at all. What, ho, Pisanio!
Iachimo
744 O happy Leonatus! I may say
745 The credit that thy lady hath of thee
746 Deserves thy trust, and thy most perfect goodness
747 Her assured credit. Blessed live you long!
748 A lady to the worthiest sir that ever
749 Country call'd his! and you his mistress, only
750 For the most worthiest fit! Give me your pardon.
751 I have spoke this, to know if your affiance
752 Were deeply rooted; and shall make your lord,
753 That which he is, new o'er: and he is one
754 The truest manner'd; such a holy witch
755 That he enchants societies into him;
756 Half all men's hearts are his.
Imogen
757 You make amends.
Iachimo
758 He sits 'mongst men like a descended god:
759 He hath a kind of honour sets him off,
760 More than a mortal seeming. Be not angry,
761 Most mighty princess, that I have adventured
762 To try your taking a false report; which hath
763 Honour'd with confirmation your great judgment
764 In the election of a sir so rare,
765 Which you know cannot err: the love I bear him
766 Made me to fan you thus, but the gods made you,
767 Unlike all others, chaffless. Pray, your pardon.
Imogen
768 All's well, sir: take my power i' the court
769 for yours.
Iachimo
770 My humble thanks. I had almost forgot
771 To entreat your grace but in a small request,
772 And yet of moment to, for it concerns
773 Your lord; myself and other noble friends,
774 Are partners in the business.
Imogen
775 Pray, what is't?
Iachimo
776 Some dozen Romans of us and your lord—
777 The best feather of our wing—have mingled sums
778 To buy a present for the emperor
779 Which I, the factor for the rest, have done
780 In France: 'tis plate of rare device, and jewels
781 Of rich and exquisite form; their values great;
782 And I am something curious, being strange,
783 To have them in safe stowage: may it please you
784 To take them in protection?
Imogen
785 Willingly;
786 And pawn mine honour for their safety: since
787 My lord hath interest in them, I will keep them
788 In my bedchamber.
Iachimo
789 They are in a trunk,
790 Attended by my men: I will make bold
791 To send them to you, only for this night;
792 I must aboard to-morrow.
Imogen
793 O, no, no.
Iachimo
794 Yes, I beseech; or I shall short my word
795 By lengthening my return. From Gallia
796 I cross'd the seas on purpose and on promise
797 To see your grace.
Imogen
798 I thank you for your pains:
799 But not away to-morrow!
Iachimo
800 O, I must, madam:
801 Therefore I shall beseech you, if you please
802 To greet your lord with writing, do't to-night:
803 I have outstood my time; which is material
804 To the tender of our present.
Imogen
805 I will write.
806 Send your trunk to me; it shall safe be kept,
807 And truly yielded you. You're very welcome.
[Exeunt]

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Notes

TLN 569syntax grammar
“Had I been thief-stol'n, As my two brothers”
Imogen wishes she had been 'thief-stol'n' — stolen away by a thief — as her two brothers were (they were in fact kidnapped as infants; she does not know this yet). The inverted conditional 'Had I been... happy!' means 'I would be happy if I had been.' Her brothers' unknown fate is presented here as enviable freedom.
TLN 570rhetorical device
“most miserable Is the desire that's glorious”
Imogen argues that the most wretched state is to desire something splendid — her marriage to Posthumus — when it is denied. 'Glorious' here means magnificent or supremely worth having. The thought is paradoxical: the higher the prize you cannot have, the greater the misery. 'Blest be those, / How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills' — even humble people are blessed if they get what they rightly want.
TLN 583classical allusion
“she is alone the Arabian bird”
Iachimo, admiring Imogen in an aside, calls her 'the Arabian bird' — the phoenix, a mythological creature said to be unique in the world: only one exists at a time. Admitting she is one of a kind means he fears he has already lost the wager with Posthumus.
TLN 585historical topical
“Arm me, audacity, from head to foot! Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight”
Iachimo summons his nerve before approaching Imogen, then warns himself that without boldness he will fight 'like the Parthian' — a people famous in antiquity for a tactic of turning and shooting arrows backward while retreating on horseback, appearing to flee while actually attacking. Here it means 'I will retreat while still fighting half-heartedly,' which is worse than bold engagement.
TLN 600syntax grammar
“this vaulted arch, and the rich crop Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt The fiery orbs above and the twinn'd stones Upon the number'd beach”
Iachimo asks how men can perceive the wonders of the natural world — the arching sky ('vaulted arch'), the abundance of sea and land ('rich crop'), the planets ('fiery orbs'), and the pebbles on a beach — and still fail to distinguish beauty from ugliness. 'Number'd beach' means a beach whose countless pebbles are countless, innumerable. 'Twinn'd stones' are the smooth, paired or identical pebbles worn alike by water.
TLN 607archaic vocab
“apes and monkeys 'Twixt two such shes would chatter this way and Contemn with mows the other”
'Mows' are grimaces or mocking faces — the word survives today only in the phrase 'mows and moues.' Iachimo says even apes, which lack reason and judgment, could tell the difference between Imogen and a common woman: they would chatter approvingly at Imogen and sneer with mocking grimaces at 'the other.' The point is that Posthumus's preference for Imogen is not sophisticated taste but mere animal perception.
TLN 612archaic vocab
“Sluttery to such neat excellence opposed Should make desire vomit emptiness”
'Sluttery' means slovenliness or loose sexual behavior; 'neat' means pure, clean, refined (not merely tidy). Iachimo's logic: even appetite itself would be sickened ('vomit emptiness' — retch on nothing, be too nauseated to eat at all) if it ever compared a woman of loose character with someone as fine as Imogen. The violence of the image — desire retching — shows how extreme the contrast is in his view.
TLN 615archaic vocab
“What is the matter, trow?”
'Trow' is an archaic verb meaning 'do you think?' or 'I wonder'; used here as a mild intensifier — Imogen is asking 'Whatever is the matter, I wonder?' The word was already old-fashioned in Shakespeare's time and gives Imogen's speech a slightly formal, puzzled tone.
TLN 616rhetorical device
“The cloyed will, That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub Both fill'd and running, ravening first the lamb Longs after for the garbage”
Iachimo describes a man whose appetite is overfull but still unsatisfied — a 'cloyed will' (will = appetite or desire; cloyed = sickened by excess). He uses two images: a tub that is already full yet still overflowing ('both fill'd and running'), and a predator that, after eating a lamb, lusts for offal ('garbage' = animal entrails, refuse). The point is that Posthumus, having Imogen, could still crave lesser women.
TLN 621archaic vocab
“Thus raps you? Are you well?”
'Raps' here means 'entrances' or 'carries away' — Imogen is asking 'what rapture has seized you?' or 'what has carried you away in thought?' The word comes from the same root as 'rapt' (Latin rapere, to seize); today we say someone is 'rapt in thought' but Shakespeare uses the verb form directly.
TLN 625archaic vocab
“Is strange and peevish.”
'Strange' here means new to a place, unfamiliar with his surroundings — not 'strange' in the modern sense of odd or peculiar. 'Peevish' means querulous, irritable, or perverse (not merely childishly annoyed). Iachimo is making an excuse to dismiss Pisanio so he can speak alone with Imogen.
TLN 640rhetorical device
“he furnaces The thick sighs from him”
Iachimo uses 'furnaces' as a verb — to emit smoke or blasts as a furnace does. The Frenchman sighs so heavily and so repeatedly that he is like a blast-furnace belching hot air. The image is satirical: Iachimo mocks the Frenchman's lovesick sighing (love-poetry tradition held that a lover sighed away his heart, consuming himself with passion) while contrasting it with Posthumus's alleged mockery of such sentiment.
TLN 665archaic vocab
“To hide me from the radiant sun and solace I' the dungeon by a snuff?”
'Snuff' here means the charred stub of a burnt-down candle wick, giving off a smoky, dying flicker. Iachimo's rhetorical question — 'should I hide from the sun and find comfort in a dungeon by a candle-stub?' — means: Imogen is the sun, and Posthumus (by Iachimo's false account) has abandoned her for cheap, foul substitutes, the way someone would leave brilliant daylight for a smelly, guttering tallow-end.
TLN 676syntax grammar
“Since doubling things go ill often hurts more Than to be sure they do; for certainties Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing, The remedy then born—discover to me What both you spur and stop.”
Imogen's argument in compressed form: fearing something may be bad often hurts more than knowing for certain it is bad, because confirmed bad news is either too late to fix or, if known in time, can be remedied. 'Doubling' = doubting. 'Timely knowing, / The remedy then born' = if you learn the truth soon enough, the remedy springs up at the same time as the knowledge. She is asking Iachimo to tell her straight what he knows.
TLN 687historical topical
“lips as common as the stairs That mount the Capitol”
Iachimo describes women (allegedly Posthumus's companions) as having lips 'as common as the stairs that mount the Capitol' — the Capitol was the great public hill in Rome, and its stairs were trodden by every citizen, slave, and stranger. 'Common' means both ordinary and available to all, with the added sense of sexually promiscuous. The image brands these women as public, shared, prostituted.
TLN 705archaic vocab
“fasten'd to an empery, Would make the great'st king double,—to be partner'd With tomboys hired”
'Empery' means empire or imperial dominion — absolute sovereignty. Iachimo is flattering Imogen extravagantly: a woman so magnificent that she is 'fasten'd to' (attached to, in possession of) an empire that would make even the greatest king bow or hesitate ('double') — and yet she is 'partner'd with tomboys hired.' 'Tomboys' here does not mean boisterous girls; it is an Elizabethan term for loose women, prostitutes.
TLN 720classical allusion
“live, like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets”
Iachimo asks whether Imogen should lie alone and celibate like a priestess of Diana — the virgin goddess whose devotees were sworn to chastity — while Posthumus consorts with other women. Diana's priests and priestesses took vows of chastity, so 'Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets' captures an enforced, loveless celibacy. The phrase is Iachimo's most direct attempt to goad Imogen into an affair with him.
classical Diana, virgin goddess of the moon
TLN 739archaic vocab
“to mart As in a Romish stew”
Imogen is furious that Iachimo has tried to 'mart' — trade, bargain, peddle — his 'beastly mind' as if her father's court were a 'Romish stew.' A 'stew' was an Elizabethan term for a brothel; 'Romish' means Roman — but Elizabethan Protestants also used 'Romish' as an insult for anything corrupt and Catholic. Imogen is saying: Iachimo has turned the court into a marketplace for vice.
TLN 754archaic vocab
“such a holy witch That he enchants societies into him; Half all men's hearts are his.”
Once Imogen rejects him, Iachimo reverses course and praises Posthumus lavishly. 'Holy witch' is an oxymoron: a person with supernatural power over others that is, paradoxically, virtuous rather than diabolic. The 'witch' does not use dark magic but personal magnetism — Posthumus 'enchants societies into him,' drawing whole companies of people into his circle ('into him' = toward and around him, into his fellowship).
TLN 765rhetorical device
“the love I bear him Made me to fan you thus, but the gods made you, Unlike all others, chaffless.”
Iachimo uses the image of winnowing grain: to 'fan' someone is to thresh or winnow them — blow away the chaff to see if there is sound grain underneath. He claims his false slander of Posthumus was a 'fan' — a test of Imogen's fidelity — and the gods made her 'chaffless,' pure grain with no chaff (no weakness, no moral dross) to be blown away by temptation.
TLN 777archaic vocab
“The best feather of our wing—have mingled sums To buy a present for the emperor”
'The best feather of our wing' is a metaphor from heraldry and falconry: the best, most distinguished member of their group. Iachimo is flattering Posthumus as the finest of the Roman-British company who have pooled ('mingled') their money to buy a gift for the emperor. The trunk he will have sent to Imogen's bedchamber does not contain a gift at all — it contains Iachimo himself.