Iachimo: The Wager and the Lie
First appears: Act 1, Scene 4
Iachimo bets Posthumus that he can seduce Imogen. When he fails, he hides in a trunk in her bedroom, memorises the details of her room and her body, and uses them to fake the evidence of an affair he never had.
He is Shakespeare's most bureaucratic villain. He does not murder anyone; he gathers data and constructs a convincing lie. His detail-gathering in Imogen's bedroom (counting the arras, noting the chimney-piece, observing the mole on her breast) is almost comic in its precision.
He confesses everything in Act 5. Unlike Iago, he repents. Unlike Edmund, he does not claim the repentance was calculated. The play's romance structure gives him a pardon he probably does not deserve.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“Boldness be my friend! Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!”
Iachimo — Act 1, Scene 6
Themes
Other Characters in Cymbeline
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