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This matter of marrying his king’s daughter, wherein he must be weighed rather by her value than his own, words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter. (1.4.14–17)
Iachimo’s words to his friends contrasts starkly with the praise that we have elsewhere heard about Posthumus. In the play’s opening scene, for instance, two gentlemen discuss how his is a man beyond compare: “I do not think / So fair an outward and such stuff within / Endows a man but he” (1.1.25–27). However, this valuation of Posthumus’s worthiness derives from the fact that Imogen loves him: “his virtue / By her election may be truly read / What kind of man he is” (1.1.57–59). It is precisely this relative valuation that Iachimo contests. When “weighed rather by her value than his own,” Posthumus is undoubtedly overvalued.
Away! I do condemn mine ears that have
So long attended thee. If thou wert honorable,
Thou wouldst have told this tale for virtue, not
For such an end thou seek’st, as base as strange.
Thou wrong’st a gentleman who is as far
From thy report as thou from honor, and
Solicits here a lady that disdains
Thee and the devil alike. (1.6.167–74)
Imogen makes this declaration upon realizing that he’s just trying to trick her into having sex with him. What’s important about this quote is that she sees through his ruse about Posthumus having consorted with prostitutes. That is, her fidelity is robust enough to see through this Italian’s appearances. But though she sees his initial trickery for what it is, she fails to catch his second lie, which relates to the trunk he asks to store in her chamber for the night. Buying into his claim that the trunk is full of valuable jewels, she unwittingly opens herself to his villainy. His theft of her bracelet will then give Iachimo the evidence he needs to deceive Posthumus, which in turn will lead to his despair and his order for Pisanio to kill his apparently unfaithful beloved. Here, improper valuation spirals quickly into a love-crushing and life-threatening situation.
Mine eyes
Were not in fault, for she was beautiful;
Mine ears that heard her flattery; nor my heart,
That thought her like her seeming. It had been vicious
To have mistrusted her. Yet, O my daughter,
That it was folly in me thou mayst say,
And prove it in thy feeling. Heaven mend all. (5.5.75–80)
Upon learning about the Queen’s wicked deceptions, Cymbeline utters these words lamenting his inability to see past his late wife’s alluring facade. He affirms that she was indeed a physical beauty. However, he acknowledges that her equally pretty words were pure “flattery,” which prevented his “heart” from seeing that she was not, in fact, anything like “her seeming.” At this point in the play, it is clear how much of the complicated mayhem we’ve just witnessed stems from the Queen’s wicked conspiracies for power. Yet it’s arguably Cymbeline’s own fault for overvaluing her and allowing her influence to create the social, political, and familial ruptures that now need mending. After all, Imogen saw through her “seeming” from the beginning: “O, / Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant / Can tickle where she wounds!” (1.1.97–99).
