had been exclusively among the vicious. What a transition, good heavens! from the fragrant outpouring of the soul of Imogen, to Iachimo's "If you buy ladies' flesh at a million a dram, you cannot prevent it from tainting." The truth is, that Posthumus, under the first shock and provocation of this revolting encounter, behaves both modestly and patiently-"as calm as virtue," according to fachimo's penitent admission. He does not propose the wager: it is forced upon him by the scoffs and taunts of the Italian; and is accepted at last with a view to punish them,-first, by the repulse which his addresses are sure to sustain,-secondly, by the loss of his property,-and thirdly, by the duel which is to follow. They who have so violently objected against the husband's procedure on this occasion, have judged of it according to the cool, calculating habits of feeling belonging to the modern time,-ignorant of, or overlooking, the real character of that chivalric love, that truly religious faith and devotion of the heart, which Shakespeare found it here his business to paint. Iachimo, in his repentance, gives the right version of the matter;for, according to the code of chivalry, so far from its being regarded as an insult and profanation on the husband's part, to permit such an experiment to be made upon the constancy of his wife, it was looked upon as the highest proof of his confidence in her virtue, and therefore as the most decided homage he could pay to it; and the attempting seducer, in such a case, was afterwards to be called to account by the husband, not so much for the attempt itself, as for the disbelief in the lady's fidelity, which it implied. Therefore says Iachimo, He, true knight, No lesser of her honour confident Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring; Of Phoebus' wheel; and might so safely, had it This account, which absolves Posthumus from impropriety and rashness in this proceeding, is given, let us remember, by the same accomplished man of the world who, but that he is stricken with remorse, has every interest in representing him as much as possible to have been in the wrong. In the present instance, too, it must be borne in mind, that the lady is a princess, surrounded by all the personal safeguards of a court, and therefore secure against there being offered to her the slightest personal violence. So far concerning Posthumus's wager and his challenge. In another paper we shall speak of his character as shown in the course of his deception, his despair, his revenge, and his repentance. 2.-POSTHUMUS AND IACHIMO. [March 18th, 1843.] THEY who are disposed to regard the dramatist as making Posthumus shew foolish credulity, in allowing himself to be convinced of his wife's infidelity by the evidence which Iachimo adduces, should attend to the sequel of that confession, from Iachimo's own lips, of which, in our preceding paper, we have cited the former part. Still addressing Cymbeline, he says: Away to Britain Post I in this design. Well may you, sir, Of your chaste daughter the wide difference 'Gan in your duller Britain operate Most vilely for my 'vantage, excellent, &c. The sentence, Mine Italian brain 'Gan in your duller Britain operate, shews us clearly the spirit in which the dramatist conceived the relation here subsisting between the deceiver and the deceived. He treats it as one illustration of the grand contrast presumed to exist between the open frankness of the British character and the subtle guile of the Italian. It is no defect of judgment in Posthumus, but the superabundance of craft in Iachimo, that is made to work this false conviction in the husband's mind. What says Iachimo himself on this point? My practice so prevail'd, That I return'd with simular proof enough By wounding his belief in her renown With tokens thus, and thus; averring notes Of chamber-hanging, pictures, this her bracelet So, in the chamber scene itself, he had anticipated the irresistibleness of these evidences. the bracelet, he says:- 'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly, Taking off To the madding of her lord. On her left breast Will force him think I have pick'd the lock, and ta'en The same prevalent idea, as to the superiority of Italian cunning, appears in Imogen's exclamation to Pisanio, on their way to Milford-haven— My husband's hand! That drug-damn'd Italy hath out-craftied him, as also in Pisanio's words to her It cannot be, But that my master is abus'd: Some villain, ay, and singular in his art, To shew that, in fact, Iachimo has been elaborately delineated by the poet as a villain most "singular in his art," becomes requisite, in order to place the character and conduct of Posthumus in a light perfectly just and true. In the banquet scene, indeed, wherein they first become acquainted, only one side of the Italian's character is brought out the easy and familiar assurance of the libertine man of the world, sceptical as to all merit in men, and incredulous regarding feminine virtue. It is in his opening scene with Imogen that the powers of insinuation and deceit possessed by this "noble gentleman of Rome" begin to unfold themselves. Certain it is, that his very first glance at the princess whose virtue he has undertaken to assail, gives him an impression such as he has never before received from woman; and herein we find one of the master-strokes by which the poet exalts the ideal perfection of his heroine :— All of her that is out of door, most rich! Already, indeed, his spirit quails before "the sunclad power of chastity;" and he feels that the enterprise he has engaged in calls for all, and more than all, the resources of that artful and tasteful eloquence wherewith the poet has so exquisitely endowed him:Boldness, be my friend! Arm me, audacity, from head to foot! Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight; : Yet, be it remembered, he has the advantage of that strongest of all possible recommendations to the goodwill and the confidence of Imogen, that he bears to her the first letters she receives from her banished hand as lord, and in them is commended to her by his own "one of the noblest note, to whose kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon him accordingly, as you value your truest Leonatus." Well may she tell him, then, You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I Have words to bid you; and shall find it so, How exquisite a masterpiece of insidious oratory do we find in his ensuing addresses! There is, first, the engaging her curiosity and attention by the acting of abstracted astonishment-" What! are men mad?" &c.;-then, the giving her to understand that he is occupied with a comparison between herself and some absent lady It cannot be i' the eye; for apes and monkeys, then, the vague insinuation The cloyed will, That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, &c.— until Imogen's question Continues well my lord ?—his health, beseech you ?— informs him that he has succeeded in rousing in her breast obscure apprehension concerning her husband. Then, we see the dexterity with which he touches this tender string, her anxiety for her husband's health and cheerfulness, till he makes his account of her lord's mirthful humour so naturally introduce the sentence wherein he attributes to him exactly one of his own voluptuary sentiments : 0! Can my sides hold, to think that man—who knows, By history, report, or his own proof, What woman is, yea, what she cannot choose Then comes his "pity" for them both;-next, his more direct insinuation of her husband's infidelity— |
