8 The Rice Institute Pamphlet
Again, we see that Imogen believes no hearsay evil of her
husband, and is not jealous. When Iachimo tells her the lie
that her husband has fallen into unfaithfulness, she replies:
Thou wrong’st a gentleman, who is as far
From thy report as thou from honour.33
Now it is this jealousy which is a great factor in the failure
of many marriages. Robert Burton says that he does not know
whether it exists more in women than in men, but that it
certainly is “more outrageous in women.”31 Tasso, too, recog-
nizes that the ordinary wife can scarcely avoid jealousy,
which is always accompanied by other sorrows, and that then
there is nothing the husband can do to save himself: “Sleepe
thou soundly, shee then thinketh thou art wearied with hau-
ing taken thy pleasure somewhere else: But if thou sleepe
not, then tis because thy minde runneth upon such a wench
or an other.”88
Another feminine virtue concerns the selection of reading
matter. In a work on the education of young gentlewomen,
Giovanni Bruto indicates that the young lady should be most
careful in the choice of her reading; she must read “diners
examples of vettuous [sic] gentlewomen & such as were of
great renoume, which shee shall diligently collect and
gather togither, as well out of the holy scriptures, as other
histories, both of times past and present: . . . and they shall
neuer read of such women of renowme, as Claudia, Portia,
Lucretia, & Octavia, without being stirred vp with a noble
desire to follow their steps.”30 How does Imogen measure up
to this requirement? We know that she reads extensively, for
as she prepares to retire she asks her Lady what time it is,
and upon learning that it is midnight, she says,
I have read three hours then: mine eyes are weak:
Fold down the leaf where I have left.37