The name is absent



The Elizabethan Imogen        13

standable, but might be somewhat puzzled when we recall
that Imogen is married to Posthumus, even from the open-
ing of the play. Imogen, however, recognizes that marriage
does not alter this duty, when she says to Posthumus,

My dearest husband,

I something fear my father’s wrath; but nothing—
Always reserved my holy duty—what

His rage can do on me.5s

And she is upheld in this conception of her duty by Lu-
dovicus Vives’ precepts on the education of young ladies?9

On the other hand, the King must bear some responsibility
for her imperfection. Imogen says to him:

It is your fault that I have loved Posthumus:
You bred him as my playfellow, and he is
A man worth any woman.”

This error is made more clear when we turn once again to
the work of Vives. Speaking of the rearing of the female
child, he writes: “After that she is ones Weaned and begyn-
neth to speke and go∕let all her play & pastyme be with
maydes of her owne age∕and within the presence either of
her mother or of her nurce or some other honeste woman of
sad age. . . . Auoyde all mânes kyn away from her: nor let
her nat Ieme to delite among men. For naturally our loue
Contynueth the longest toward them∕with whom we haue
passed our tyme in youth.”6

Poor Imogen! Although she is a model of the wifely virtues
and a paragon of faithfulness, and although an actress and
critic of the last century could say that in drawing Imogen
Shakespeare Tas made his masterpiece; and of all heroines
of poetry or romance, who can be named beside her?”62
nevertheless, she would serve the Elizabethans, along with
Juliet and Desdemona, as another warning to fair women



More intriguing information

1. El Mercosur y la integración económica global
2. A Theoretical Growth Model for Ireland
3. The name is absent
4. Do imputed education histories provide satisfactory results in fertility analysis in the Western German context?
5. The Veblen-Gerschenkron Effect of FDI in Mezzogiorno and East Germany
6. Quality Enhancement for E-Learning Courses: The Role of Student Feedback
7. Commuting in multinodal urban systems: An empirical comparison of three alternative models
8. Searching Threshold Inflation for India
9. The name is absent
10. The duration of fixed exchange rate regimes
11. The name is absent
12. The name is absent
13. Spatial patterns in intermunicipal Danish commuting
14. Perfect Regular Equilibrium
15. Developing vocational practice in the jewelry sector through the incubation of a new ‘project-object’
16. Social Balance Theory
17. The name is absent
18. Text of a letter
19. WP 1 - The first part-time economy in the world. Does it work?
20. Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding and its determinants in first 6 months of life: A prospective study