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Allegory
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Act 1, Scene 6
Explanation and Analysis—Like Diana's Priest:
Attempting to seduce Imogen in fulfillment of his wager with Posthumus, Iachimo uses a simile that alludes to the Roman goddess Diana:
Should he make me
Live, like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets,
Whiles he is vaulting variable ramps,
In your despite, upon your purse? Revenge it.
I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure,
More noble than that runagate to your bed,
And will continue fast to your affection,
Still close as sure.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Tereus and Philomela:
After sneaking into Imogen’s bedroom by hiding in a chest, Iachimo makes close observations about her body in order to deceive Posthumus into believing that he has slept with her, thereby winning their bet by cheating. In this scene, Shakespeare alludes to the myth of Tereus and Philomela. Watching Imogen as she sleeps, Iachimo notes that:
Unlock with LitCharts A+She hath been reading late
The tale of Tereus; here the leaf’s turned down
Where Philomel gave up. I have enough.
To th’ trunk again, and shut the spring of it.
Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning
May bare the raven’s eye. I lodge in fear.
Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Lucrece and Tarquin:
Though Iachimo fails to seduce Imogen and is therefore at risk of losing his wager with Posthumus (and, in the process, a good deal of money), he finds a way to cheat, hiding himself in a chest that has been carried up to Imogen’s room so that he can take careful notes about her body and bedroom as “proof” that he slept with her. As he exits the chest, he alludes to various figures from Roman history and mythology while describing his nefarious actions:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The crickets sing, and man’s o’erlabored sense
Repairs itself by rest. Our Tarquin thus
Did softly press the rushes ere he wakened
The chastity he wounded.—Cytherea,
How bravely thou becom’st thy bed, fresh lily,
And whiter than the sheets.—That I might touch!
But kiss, one kiss! Rubies unparagoned,
How dearly they do ’t.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Lawyer to Me:
After failing to woo Imogen with music, Cloten considers a more underhanded strategy. Planning to bribe one of Imogen’s female attendants, he uses a legal metaphor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I know her women are about her.
What If I do line one of their hands? ’Tis gold
Which buys admittance—oft it doth—yea, and makes
Diana’s rangers false themselves, yield up
Their deer to th’ stand o’ th’ stealer; and ’tis gold
Which makes the true man killed and saves the thief,
Nay, sometime hangs both thief and true man.
What Can it not do and undo? I will make
One of her women lawyer to me, for
I yet not understand the case myself.
By your leave.
Act 2, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Chaste Dian Bathing:
Hoping to prove that he truly did spend the night in Imogen’s bedchamber, Iachimo uses hyperbole, allusion, and metaphor when describing the carvings on Imogen’s chimney with rich detail:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The chimney
Is south the chamber, and the chimney-piece
Chaste Dian bathing: never saw I figures
So likely to report themselves: the cutter
Was as another nature, dumb; outwent her,
Motion and breath left out.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Proud Cleopatra:
Although Iachimo failed to seduce Imogen, therefore losing his bet with Posthumus, Iachimo decides to cheat, sneaking into her bedchamber and making close observations of the furnishings to strengthen this claim that he slept with her. In recounting his tall tale to Posthumus, Iachimo employs rich imagery in his descriptions of Imogen’s bedchamber:
Unlock with LitCharts A+First, her bedchamber—
Where I confess I slept not, but profess
Had that was well worth watching—it was hanged
With tapestry of silk and silver, the story
Proud Cleopatra when she met her Roman
And Cydnus swelled above the banks, or for
The press of boats or pride. A piece of work
So bravely done, so rich, that it did strive
In workmanship and value, which I wondered
Could be so rarely and exactly wrought
Since the true life on ’t was—
Explanation and Analysis—Julius Caesar:
Chatting with Philario, his Roman host, Posthumus alludes to Julius Caesar while predicting a war between Britain and Rome:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I do believe,
Statist though I am none nor like to be,
That this will prove a war; and you shall hear
The legion now in Gallia sooner landed
In our not-fearing Britain than have tidings
Of any penny tribute paid. Our countrymen
Are men more ordered than when Julius Caesar
Smiled at their lack of skill but found their courage
Worthy his frowning at. Their discipline,
Now wingèd with their courages, will make known
To their approvers they are people such
That mend upon the world.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Counterfeit:
After Iachimo provides seemingly solid evidence that he was successful in his attempt to seduce Imogen, Posthumus uses metaphors and allusions to express his disillusionment with Imogen in particular but also with women generally:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Is there no way for men to be but women
Must be half-workers? We are all bastards;
And that most venerable man which I
Did call my father, was I know not where
When I was stamp'd; some coiner with his tools
Made me a counterfeit: yet my mother seem'd
The Dian of that time so doth my wife
The nonpareil of this. O, vengeance, vengeance!
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Neptune's Park:
Encouraging her husband, King Cymbeline, to deny the annual tribute to Rome even at the risk of war, the Queen uses a number of allusions and a simile to strengthen her argument for severing diplomatic relations with the powerful foreign empire:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Remember, sir, my liege,
The kings your ancestors, together with
The natural bravery of your isle, which stands
As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in
With rocks unscalable and roaring waters,
With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats,
But suck them up to the topmast. A kind of conquest
Caesar made here; but made not here his brag
Of 'Came' and 'saw' and 'overcame: ' with shame—
That first that ever touch'd him—he was carried
From off our coast, twice beaten; and his shipping—
Poor ignorant baubles!— upon our terrible seas,
Like egg-shells.
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—His Martial Thigh:
After Imogen drinks what she believes is a medicinal potion, she falls into a deep sleep, as she has actually consumed a sleeping potion. Guiderius and Arviragus believe that their new companion has died, and they lay her to rest next to the headless corpse of Cloten, who was slain by the brothers earlier while wearing Posthumus’s clothing. When she wakes up, Imogen looks at Cloten’s body and, misidentifying it as the body of her husband, makes a series of allusions to classical mythology in order to express her sorrow:
Unlock with LitCharts A+If there be
Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity
As a wren's eye, fear'd gods, a part of it!
The dream's here still: even when I wake, it is
Without me, as within me; not imagined, felt.
A headless man! The garments of Posthumus!
I know the shape of's leg: this is his hand;
His foot Mercurial; his Martial thigh;
The brawns of Hercules: but his Jovial face
Murder in heaven?—How!—'Tis gone. Pisanio,
All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks,
And mine to boot, be darted on thee!
