SOURCE: "Imogen's Wounded Chastity," in Essays in Theatre / Études Théâtrales, Vol. 12, No. 1, November, 1993, pp. 51-61.

In the essay below, Bamford compares the plot and role of Imogen to the classical legend of Lucretia.

In act 2, scene 2 of Cymbeline—for many viewers no doubt one of the most memorable moments in the play—Iachimo emerges from a trunk and moves toward the sleeping Imogen. As he does so he compares himself to the ravisher of the legendary Lucretia: "Our Tarquin thus / did softly press the rushes, ere he waken'd / the chastity he wounded" (2.2.12-14).¹ The allusion is significant: it points to an analogy between Imogen and Lucretia that goes far beyond their common vulnerability to a sexual predator.

The story of Lucretia—the Roman wife whose suicide liberated her nation—was widely known in the period and exercised a powerful influence on Jacobean drama. Heywood's adaptation of Livy...