A trunk is brought in. Enter Imogen, reading, in her
bed, and a Lady. IMOGEN
Who’s there? My woman Helen? LADY Please you, madam. IMOGEN
What hour is it? LADY Almost midnight, madam. IMOGEN
I have read three hours then. Mine eyes are weak. 5 She hands the Lady her book. Fold down the leaf where I have left. To bed.
Take not away the taper; leave it burning.
And if thou canst awake by four o’ th’ clock,
I prithee, call me. (Lady exits.) Sleep hath seized
me wholly. 10
To your protection I commend me, gods.
From fairies and the tempters of the night
Guard me, beseech you. Sleeps. | Back in her room, Imogen goes to bed. She prays that the fairies and tempters of the night will not harm her, and then she goes to sleep. The trunk Imogen promised to guard is safely stowed away in her room. |
Iachimo from the trunk. IACHIMO
The crickets sing, and man’s o’erlabored sense
Repairs itself by rest. Our Tarquin thus 15
Did softly press the rushes ere he wakened
The chastity he wounded.—Cytherea,
How bravely thou becom’st thy bed, fresh lily,
And whiter than the sheets.—That I might touch!
But kiss, one kiss! Rubies unparagoned, 20
How dearly they do ’t. ’Tis her breathing that
Perfumes the chamber thus. The flame o’ th’ taper
Bows toward her and would underpeep her lids
To see th’ enclosèd lights, now canopied
Under these windows, white and azure-laced 25
With blue of heaven’s own tinct. But my design:
To note the chamber. I will write all down. He begins to write. Such and such pictures; there the window; such
Th’ adornment of her bed; the arras, figures,
Why, such and such; and the contents o’ th’ story. 30 He continues to write. | Just then, Iachimo emerges from the trunk. What? Is this for real? It totally is: Iachimo couldn't get Imogen to agree to cheat on Posthumus, so he'll just have to trick Posthumus into believing she did. Iachimo looks for proof that he was with Imogen. He takes in every detail about the room. But then he figures that he should come back with more convincing proof than just an inventory of her curtains and bed. |
Ah, but some natural notes about her body
Above ten thousand meaner movables
Would testify t’ enrich mine inventory.
O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her,
And be her sense but as a monument 35
Thus in a chapel lying. (He begins to remove her
bracelet.) Come off, come off;
As slippery as the Gordian knot was hard.
’Tis mine, and this will witness outwardly
As strongly as the conscience does within 40
To th’ madding of her lord. On her left breast
A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I’ th’ bottom of a cowslip. Here’s a voucher
Stronger than ever law could make. This secret
Will force him think I have picked the lock and ta’en 45
The treasure of her honor. No more. To what end?
Why should I write this down that’s riveted,
Screwed to my memory? She hath been reading late
The tale of Tereus; here the leaf’s turned down
Where Philomel gave up. I have enough. 50
To th’ trunk again, and shut the spring of it.
Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning
May bare the raven’s eye. I lodge in fear.
Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here.
Clock strikes.
One, two, three. Time, time! 55 He exits into the trunk. The trunk
and bed are removed. | Aha: the bracelet. Iachimo takes the bracelet off Imogen's wrist, and then he sees a mole "clinque-spotted" (translation: it's got five spots) on her breast. Iachimo's got the evidence he needs to convince Posthumus, so he runs off before he's discovered. |