THE ELIZABETHAN IMOGEN
OF ALL the attributes of the perfect woman, the most
significant and desirable to the Elizabetlians is chastity.
According to Abraham Darcie, it “is the flower of manners,
the honour of the body, the ornament and splendour of the
feminine sexe, the integrity of the blond, the faith of their
kinde, and the proclaimer of the sincerety and candure of a
faire soûle.”1 Ludovicus Vives calls it “the principall vertue
of a woman, and Coiitrepeyseth with all the reste.”2 A truly
wise man, therefore, can choose only a virtuous woman for
his wife,3 as Posthumus has done, and any reflection upon the
character of his wife is thus a reflection upon him. It is no
wonder, then, that Posthumus is confident of winning the
wager witlι Iachimo, nor that he should feel all womankind
to be false if his chosen one is so proved to be. Upon
lachimo’s return from England, when he presents to Post-
humus the fabricated proof of Imogen’s guilt, the reactions
of the young husband are therefore quite violent, and are
very similar to those of Hamlet and other Shakespearean
heroes when faced witlι catastrophic problems; that is,—
Posthumus draws universal conclusions based upon his own
experience, then moves from a consideration of personal
affairs to a generalized view, and at last comes to the con-
clusion that all women are dissemblers: if you see beauty,
he says, Imow that no honor exists there; if you see truth,
know that it is a mere semblance; if there is another man,
know that there can be no love for you. Women are no more
bound to then vows than they are to their virtues, and that
is not at all since they are immeasurably false.4 Later, in a
brooding soliloquy, Posthumus convinces himself that women
are not only notoriously false, but are indeed a compound
of all the vices :