Cymbeline

“Not a courtier,

Although they wear their faces to the bent

Of the king’s looks, hath a heart that is not

Glad at the thing they scowl at.”

This quotation introduces the theme of The Relationship Between Appearance and Reality immediately, showing that everyone at court is putting on a front. The use of the word “wear” suggests clothing as a metaphor for a faked expression, foreshadowing the various disguises and obscured identities that occur later in the play. The fact that they go along with “the king’s looks,” meaning his expressions, reveals clues about Cymbeline’s leadership at this moment: He has created an environment in which people are not honest with him. The quote creates an atmosphere of deception and danger, suggesting a court in which outward appearances do not reflect reality, and the king is not governing honorably.

“IMOGEN. […] I chose an eagle,

And did avoid a puttock.”

Imogen’s assertion that Posthumus is an “eagle” symbolizes his nobility. It is fierce and flies high, suggesting his ferocity in battle and his rightful elevation. In Jacobean conceptions of “The Great Chain of Being” (a divinely ordained hierarchy of the universe), the eagle was seen as an elevated bird which only the noblest of people hunted with, outranking other birds of prey. In contrast, Imogen deems