Cymbeline - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

from her, has "betrayed her j-ovt rauu truth,
and forgotten her in the arrao of another.
All that Imogen says in this scene is com-
~r.i.ssd in a few lines - a "brief question,
or a more brief remark. The proud, and
delicate reserve with which she veils tli--;
uiii'jUioL she suffers IE iniiuitabl;/ beautifiu.
I'he Gtroupest expression of reproach he can
draw from her is only "14 lord, I fear, h: t,h
forgot Britain". ' 'hen he continues in the
same strain, she excla.lns in a,;ony, "Let rie
hear no morel" When he urges her to revenge,
she ao^-a with all "ao si;>plicit^ of virtue
"iiow should I be revenged?" And when he explains
to her how she j.r. to be revenged, her
oudden burst of indignation, and her ijmr.ediate
o^rception of his treachery, pnd t> e motive for
it, are powerfully fine; it is not only the
anger of a wouan whose delicacy has been shocked,
but the spirit of a princess insulted in her
court ..." (p.226)
r :hiG, to the last, royal, detail is vhat the raid-Victorian
audience expected of an actress in t'u interview with lachimo.
P'rs. Jataeson's other important points are her suggestion
that for some reason (a differing code of honour) Posthumus'
being party to the wager did not 'ic?rnn him as much in the
eyes of the Elizabeth or. playgoer, as it did in those of the
Victorian; she also notes the playful langua/e of Imogen
in such examples as
1 ^iss'd it.
I hope it be not gone, to tell my lord
j-'uat 1 kios aujiht but he.
This is cited as exemplifying tu.e "extreme intensity of
feeling and ... unadorned elegance of the expression" which
shows a superiority in Imogen over the florid Juliet. Contemporary
critics have found otherwise. -*
On Cloten, Frs. Jameson quotes I-Iazlitt's remark that the
character is "obsolete" and t.'..e refutation from Miss Seward's
Letters in which the Swan of Litchfield remembers just such
a person as (Jloten. I.,r&. Jameson ais Lia^uisLes neatly betv/een
Cloten and such a fool as ^-uecheek -
18.