first effect produced on her by her husband's letter
is conveyed to the fancy by the exclamation of Pisanio, who is gazing on
her as she reads.--

What shall I need to draw my sword? The paper
Has cut her throat already! No, 'tis slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword!

And in her first exclamations we trace, besides astonishment and
anguish, and the acute sense of the injustice inflicted on her, a flash
of indignant spirit, which we do not find in Desdemona or Hermione

False to his bed!--What is it to be false?
To lie in watch there, and to think of him?
To weep 'twixt clock and clock? If sleep charge nature,
To break it with a fearful dream of him,
And cry myself awake?--that's false to his bed,
Is it?

This is followed by that affecting lamentation over the falsehood and
injustice of her husband, in which she betrays no atom of jealousy or
wounded self-love, but observes in the extremity of her anguish, that
after _his_ lapse from truth, "all good seeming would be discredited,"
and she then resigns herself to his will with the most entire
submission.

In the original story, Zinevra prevails on the servant to spare her, by
her exclamations and entreaties for mercy. "The lady, seeing the
poniard, and hearing those words, exclaimed in terror, 'Alas! have pity
on me for the love of Heaven! do not become the slayer of one who never
offended thee, only to pleasure another. God, who knows all things,
knows that I have never done that which could merit such a reward from
my husband's hand.'"

Now let us turn to Shakspeare. Imogen says,--

Come, fellow, be thou honest;
Do thou thy master's bidding: when thou seest him,
A little witness my obedience. Look!
I draw the sword myself; take it, and hit
The innocent mansion of my love, my heart.
Fear not; 'tis empty of all things but grief:
Thy master is not there, who was, indeed,
The riches of it. Do his bidding; strike!

The devoted attachment of Pisanio to his royal mistress, all through the
piece, is one of those side touches by which Shakspeare knew how to give
additional effect to his characters.

Cloten is odious;[61] but we must not overlook the peculiar fitness and
propriety of his character, in connection with that of Imogen. He is
precisely the kind of man who would be most intolerable to such a woman.
He is a fool,--so is Slender, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek: but the folly