With violent hefts3. I have drunk, and seen the

spider.

Camillo was his help in this, his pander.

There is a plot against my life, my crown:

All's true that is mistrusted :-that false villain,
Whom I employ'd, was pre-employ'd by him.
He has discover'd my design, and I

Remain a pinch'd thing; yea, a very trick

For them to play at will'.-How came the posterns
So easily open?

1 Lord.

By his great authority;

Which often hath no less prevail'd than so,

On your command.

Leon.

I know't too well.

Give me the boy. [To HERMIONE.] I am glad, you did

not nurse him:

Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you

Have too much blood in him.

Her.

What is this? sport?

Leon. Bear the boy hence; he shall not come about

her.

Away with him; and let her sport herself

With that she's big with, for 'tis Polixenes
Has made thee swell thus.

Her.

But I'd say he had not,

And, I'll be sworn, you would believe my saying,
Howe'er you lean to the nayward.

Leon.
You, my lords,
Look on her, mark her well; be but about
To say, "she is a goodly lady," and

The justice of your hearts will thereto add,
""Tis pity she's not honest, honourable:"

3 With violent HEFTS.] i. e. hearings.

4 For them to play at will.] Heath's explanation is, that Leontes means that he remains "a puppet for them to move and actuate as they please." This is probably the correct interpretation of the passage; and, as Mr. Barron Field observes to me, puppets are still moved and played by pinching them between the finger and thumb.

Praise her but for this her without-door form,

(Which, on my faith, deserves high speech) and straight
The shrug, the hum, or ha (these petty brands,
That calumny doth use,-O, I am out !—
That mercy does, for calumny will sear

Virtue itself) these shrugs, these hums, and ha's,
When you have said "she's goodly," come between,
Ere you can say "she's honest." But be't known,
From him that has most cause to grieve it should be,
She's an adult'ress.

Her.

Should a villain say so,

The most replenish'd villain in the world,
He were as much more villain: you, my lord,
Do but mistake.

Leon.
You have mistook, my lady,
Polixenes for Leontes. O, thou thing!
Which I'll not call a creature of thy place,
Lest barbarism, making me the precedent,
Should a like language use to all degrees,
And mannerly distinguishment leave out
Betwixt the prince and beggar!--I have said
She's an adult'ress; I have said with whom:
More, she's a traitor; and Camillo is
A federary with her, and one that knows
What she should shame to know herself,
But with her most vile principal, that she's
A bed-swerver, even as bad as those

That vulgars give bold'st titles; ay, and privy
To this their late escape.

Her.

No, by my life,

Privy to none of this. How will this grieve you,

and Camillo is

A federary with her,] A "federary" means, of course, a confederate; but it may be reasonably doubted whether it is not a misprint for feodary, a word Shakespeare uses in "Measure for Measure," (see Vol. ii. p. 45,) and again in “Cymbeline,” A. iii. sc. 2, “ Art thou a feodary for this act?" Malone truly states that "there is no such word as federary;” and Steevens calls it “a word of our author's coinage ;" but it is more likely to be a word of the printer's corrupting, though not corrected in the later folios.

When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that
You thus have publish'd me? Gentle
Gentle my lord,
You scarce can right me throughly then, to say
You did mistake.

In those foundations which I build upon,
The centre is not big enough to bear

A school-boy's top.-Away with her to prison!
Ile, who shall speak for her, is afar off guilty,
But that he speaks.

Her.

There's some ill planet reigns:

I must be patient, till the heavens look

With an aspect more favourable.-Good my lords,
I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
Commonly are, the want of which vain dew,

Perchance, shall dry your pities; but I have
That honourable grief lodg'd here, which burns
Worse than tears drown. Beseech you all, my lords,
With thoughts so qualified as your charities

Shall best instruct you, measure me ;—and so
The king's will be perform'd.

Leon.

Shall I be heard?

[To the Guards.

Her. Who is't, that goes with me?-Beseech your

highness,

My women may be with me; for, you see,

My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools;

There is no cause: when you shall know, your mis

tress

Has deserv'd prison, then abound in tears,

As I come out this action, I now go on,
Is for my better grace.-Adieu, my lord:

6

No; if I mistake] Malone and Steevens, taking upon them to improve Shakespeare's versification, printed "No, no; if I mistake." How can we be at all sure, that our great poet did not mean to leave the line syllabically incomplete, for the sake of the emphasis to be placed upon the single "no," which, with a pause after it, would amply make up the time? Even the second folio makes no change.

I never wish'd to see you sorry; now,

I trust, I shall.—My women, come; you have leave. Leon. Go, do our bidding: hence!

[Exeunt Queen and Ladies. 1 Lord. Beseech your highness, call the queen again.

Ant. Be certain what you do, sir, lest your justice Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer, Yourself, your queen, your son.

1 Lord.

For her, my lord,
I dare my life lay down, and will do't, sir,

Please you t' accept it, that the queen is spotless
I' the eyes of heaven, and to you: I mean,

In this which you accuse her.

Ant.

If it prove

She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where

I lodge my wife'; I'll go in couples with her;
Than when I feel, and see her, no further trust her;
For every inch of woman in the world,

Ay, every dram of woman's flesh, is false,

If she be.

Leon.

1 Lord.

Hold your peaces!

Good my lord,

Ant. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves.

You are abus'd, and by some putter-on,

That will be damn'd for't; would I knew the villain, I would land-damn him3. Be she honour-flaw'd,

I lodge my wife ;] The meaning is not very clear, unless we take "stable" in its etymological sense from stabulum, a standing-place, abode, or habitation. In that case, Antigonus only says that he will take care never to allow his wife to dwell in any place where he is not. The Rev. Mr. Barry recommends this interpretation to me; but if so, we ought to read “stables" in the singular.

* I would LAND-DAMN him.] This word seems inexplicable; and all the learned ink the commentators have spent upon it has been merely wasted. Dr. Farmer's suggestion of laudanum him comes nearest to the sound, perhaps, but seems quite as far from the sense as any of the other conjectures. The word "lamback" occurs in various writers, and means to beat; but it can hardly have been mistaken by the printer, and it would not be forcible enough for Anti

I have three daughters; the eldest is eleven,

The second, and the third, nine, and some five";
If this prove true, they'll pay for't: by mine honour,
I'll geld them all fourteen they shall not see,
To bring false generations: they are co-heirs,
And I had rather glib myself, than they
Should not produce fair issue.

Leon.

Cease! no more.

You smell this business with a sense as cold

As is a dead man's nose; but I do see't, and feel't,
As you feel doing thus, and see withal

The instruments that feel'.

Ant.

If it be so,

We need no grave to bury honesty:

There's not a grain of it the face to sweeten
Of the whole dungy earth.

Leon.

What lack I credit?

1 Lord. I had rather you did lack, than I, my lord, Upon this ground; and more it would content me To have her honour true, than your suspicion, Be blam'd for't how you might.

Leon.

Why, what need we

Commune with you of this, but rather follow
Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative
Calls not your counsels, but our natural goodness
Imparts this; which, if you (or stupified,

Or seeming so in skill) cannot, or will not,
Relish a truth like us, inform yourselves,

We need no more of your advice: the matter,

gonus' state of mind. We meet with "lamback" in the unique drama of “The rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune," 1589 :

"Heare you, sirra: you are no devill: mas, and I wist you were,

I would lamback the devill out of you, for all your geare."

Again, in Munday and Chettle's "Death of Robert Earl of Huntington," 1601 : "And with this dagger lustily lambacked."

9 The second, and the third, nine, and some five ;] i. e. the second nine, and the third some five.

The instruments that feel.] Leontes, at these words, must be supposed to take hold of Antigonus. "The instruments that feel" are of course his fingers.