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Love Tokens
In act 1, the couple at the play’s center exchanges love tokens: Imogen gives Posthumus a ring, and Posthumus gives Imogen a bracelet. Most obviously, these love tokens are symbols of mutual commitment and devotion. Rings have long served this symbolic purpose in Western marriages. Bracelets are admittedly less common as symbols of matrimony. However, like a ring, a bracelet is a closed loop: an unbroken circle that suggests an unbreakable and eternal commitment. In addition to being symbols of spiritual love, these love tokens also function as signs of chastity. After all, the lovers exchange them at the moment of their parting, indicating a commitment to remain chaste for each other’s sake. This point becomes salient later in the play, when Posthumus inadvertently reveals that he and Imogen never consummated their marriage sexually. At this stage in the play, Iachimo has already traveled to Britain and returned with Imogen’s bracelet, transforming this token from a sign of love and chastity to a symbol of sexual betrayal. The ring Imogen gave Posthumus undergoes a parallel symbolic transformation when Iachimo wins it in his wager. Thus, in the play’s final scene, when the disguised Imogen sees it on Iachimo’s finger, she believes that Posthumus must be dead, and their commitment dissolved.
“Meanest Garment”
When Cloten attempts to seduce Imogen in act 2, she rejects him in no uncertain terms: “[Posthumus’s] mean’st garment / That ever hath but clipped his body is dearer / In my respect than all the hairs above thee” (2.3.152–54). Imogen’s harsh words shock and offend the foolish Cloten, who spends the rest of the scene replaying this moment of rejection: “‘His garment?’ Now the devil— . . . ‘His garment?’ . . . ‘His meanest garment?’ . . . I’ll be revenged! ‘His meanest garment?’ Well” (2.3.156, 158, 172, 180). Cloten’s fixation on the phrase “meanest garment” transforms it into a metaphor of rejection and humiliation. However, Cloten’s fixation also marks the beginning of a horrific ploy in which this symbol of Imogen’s rejection will become a material reality. That is, he plans to ambush Posthumus and Imogen, kill his rival, then rape the object of his desire while wearing her dead lover’s “meanest garment.” In this context, Imogen’s phrase becomes a symbol of Cloten’s vengeance and lust. But Cloten’s plan goes comically awry. Dressed up in clothing Posthumus left behind, he dies in an encounter with Guiderius after a botched attempt at identifying his princely status: “Thou villain base, / Know’st me not by my clothes?” (4.2.102–103). In the end, then, the “meanest garment” symbolizes Cloten’s foolishness.
Jupiter
Strewn throughout Cymbeline are constant appeals, prayers, and references to Jupiter and Jove—two alternate names for the Roman god of thunder. Virtually every character in the play at some point calls out to this figure, a fact that seemingly calls the god down from the sky in act 5, scene 4. This bizarre scene involves the god descending from the sky on an eagle to deliver a tablet inscribed with a riddling oracle, the decipherment of which will secure Posthumus’s future—and the future of Britain. Jupiter’s appearance in the play is mystifying and complexly symbolic. For one thing, as a Roman god, it stands to reason that his presence would signify Roman dominance over Britain. The Soothsayer indicates as much when he references “Jove’s bird, the Roman eagle” (4.2.424) as an omen of “success to the Roman host” (428). Yet Jupiter’s oracle ultimately resolves in Britain’s favor, which is borne out by the fact that the British forces win the war. In this way, Jupiter symbolizes not Roman but British dominance—a symbolic valence that suggestively echoes King James I, who described himself as a Roman king who ruled like a god. As the mythical king of the gods, and thus the ultimate divine authority, Jupiter symbolically confers his power onto Britain’s absolute monarch.
