Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to violence, sexual violence, threat of death, and misogyny.

Cloten rants to the two Lords about a game he gambled on and lost, blaming it on bad luck. He recounts how he physically assaulted someone who reprimanded him for swearing. He complains that because of his high position, people are too afraid to fight back properly. Though the Lords have to indulge him, the Second Lord privately notes his disapproval. 

They tell Cloten of Iachimo’s arrival, and he is angry to hear that an apparent friend of Posthumus’s is there. He decides to gamble against Iachimo to win his money back. The Second Lord privately notes his disbelief that Cloten is so stupid when his mother, the Queen, is so clever. He pities Imogen and hopes that she may be reunited with Posthumus.

Imogen stays up reading. Earlier, Iachimo had a large chest delivered to Imogen’s bedchamber. Once she is asleep, he climbs out. In order to pretend he has seduced her, he notes intimate details about the room and about Imogen’s body. He also slips Posthumus’s bracelet off her arm.