Imogen

Play

Cymbeline

Summary

The daughter of King Cymbeline and the play's radiant moral center — faithful, witty, and brave. She secretly marries Posthumus against her father's wishes, survives his murderous jealousy (ordered to be killed on false evidence of infidelity), disguises herself as a boy named Fidele, serves Belarius and her unknown brothers in the Welsh hills, and is ultimately restored to everyone who loves her. Praised by Tennyson as the most perfect of Shakespeare's heroines.

Notable Quotations

"I would they were in Afric both together; / Myself by with a needle, that I might prick / The goer-back." *(I.iii)*

"Fear no more the heat o' the sun" *(IV.ii, sung over her)*

"O, for a horse with wings!" *(III.ii)*

Cross-references

• Cymbeline — the play
• Romances (Late Plays)
• character_posthumus — her secretly married husband
• character_iachimo — the Italian schemer who falsely slanders her
• character_pisanio — her faithful protector
• character_cloten — the boorish suitor who pursues her