Iachimo

Play

Cymbeline

Summary

A cynical Italian gentleman who accepts Posthumus's wager that Imogen cannot be seduced, and when he fails to seduce her, resorts to hiding in a trunk in her bedchamber to gather false evidence of intimacy. His description of the sleeping Imogen is among Shakespeare's most sensuously beautiful and morally disturbing passages. Unlike the play's other villains, he eventually confesses fully and is forgiven — a distinctly Romance-mode redemption.

Notable Quotations

"The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense / Repairs itself by rest. Our Tarquin thus / Did softly press the rushes." *(II.ii)*

"On her left breast / A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops / I' the bottom of a cowslip." *(II.ii)*

Cross-references

• Cymbeline — the play
• Romances (Late Plays)
• character_posthumus — whose wager he accepts and exploits
• character_imogen — whose reputation he destroys with false testimony