E. Ant. There, take it; and much thanks for my good cheer.

Abb. Renowned Duke, vouchfafe to take the pains To go with us into the abbey here,

And hear at large difcourfed all our fortunes;
And all that are affembled in this place,
That by this fympathized one day's error
Have fuffer'd wrong; go, keep us company,
And ye fhall have full fatisfaction.

Twenty-five years have I but gone in travel
Of you my fons; nor, till this present hour,
My heavy burdens are delivered.

The Duke, my husband, and my children both,
And you the calendars of their nativity,

Go to a goffip's feast and gaude with me.
After fo long grief fuch nativity!

Duke. With all my heart, I'll goffip at this feast.

[Exeunt.

Manent the two Antipholis's, and two Dromio's.

S. Dro. Mafter fhall I fetch your ftuff from shipboard?

É. Ant. Dromio, what ftuff of mine haft thou im

bark'd?

S. Dro. Your goods, that lay at hoft, Sir, in the Centaur.

S. Ant. He fpeaks to me; I am your mafter, Dromio. Come, go with us, we'll look to that anon:

Embrace thy brother there, rejoice with him.

[Exeunt Antipholis S. and E. S. Dro. There is a fat friend at your mafter's houfe, That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner.

She now fhall be my fifter, not my wife.

E. Dro. Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother.

I fee by you I am a fweet-face'd youth :
Will you walk in to fee their goffiping?
S. Dro. Not I, Sir, you re my elder.
E. Dro. That's a queftion.

How fhall I try it?

S. Dre.

S. Dro. We'll draw cuts for the fenior.

Till then, lead thou first.

E. Dro. Nay, then thus

[Embracing.

We came into the world, like brother and brother; And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.

:6

SCENE, fometimes in Sicilia, fometimes in Bithynia.

Arch.

ACT I. SCENE I.

An antichamber in Leontes's palace.
Enter Camillo and Archidamus.

F you fhall chance, Camillo, to vifit Bithynia on the like occafion whereon my fervices are now on foot; you fhall fee, as I have faid, great difference betwixt our Bithynia and your Sicilia...

Cam.

The plot taken from the old ftory-book of Doraftus and Faunia. the country here called Bithynia, bath in former cditions been rinted Bohemia. an inland kingdom fituated nearly in the centre of Europe: whereas many of the great incidents of the play turn upon its being a maritime country, of which Polixenes was the King.

Cam. I think this coming fummer the King of Sicilia means to pay Bithynia the vifitation which he justly owes him.

Arch. Wherein our entertainment fhall fname us, we will be juftified in our loves; for, indeed,:

Cam. 'Befeech you

Arch. Verily, I fpeak it in the freedom of my know ledge; we cannot with fuch magnificence-in fo rare I know not what to fay - we will give you sleepy drinks, that your fenfes (unintelligent of our infufficience) may, though they cannot praife us, as little accufe us.

Cam. You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.

Arch. Believe me, I fpeak as my understanding inftructs me, and as mine honefty puts it to utterance.

Cam. Sicilia cannot fhew himself over-kind to Bithynia; they were train'd together in their childhoods; and there rooted between them then fuch an affection, which cannot chufe but branch now. Since their more mature dignities and royal neceffities made feparation of their fociety, their encounters, though not perfonal, have been royally attornied with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embaffies, that they have feem'd to be together, though abfent; fhook hands, as over a vaft; and embrace'd, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heav'ns continue their loves!.

Arch. I think there is not in the world either malice or matter to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort of your young Prince Mamilius: it is a gentleman of the greatest promise that ever came into my note.

Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him: it is a gallant child; one that indeed phyfics the subject,

This is a blunder and an absurdity of which Shakespear in justice ought not to be thought capable: and as he hath turned quite anew the ftory contained in the old paltry book of Deraftus and Faunia, changing most of the main circumstances, and all the names of the perfons; it is probable he removed this impropriety, and placed the fcene in Bibynia, which the ignorance and negligence of the firft tranfcribers or printers might corrupt, and bring back again to Bohemia, by a lefs variation in the letters than they have been guilty of in numberless other places of this work.

makes

makes old hearts fresh: they that went on crutches ere he was born, defire yet their life to fee him a man.

Arch. Would they elfe be content to die?

Cam. Yes, if there were no other excufe why they fhould defire to live.

Arch. If the King had no fon, they would defire to live on crutches till he had one.

SCENE II. Opens to the prefence.

Enter Leontes, Hermione, Mamillius, Polixenes, and

attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the wat'ry ftar hath been (The fhepherd's note *) fince we have left our throne Without a burthen: time as long again

Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks
And yet we should, for perpetuity,

Go hence in debt: and therefore, like a cypher,
Yet standing in rich place, I multiply

With one We thank you, many thousands more
That go before it.

Leo. Stay your thanks a while,

And pay

them when you part.

Pol. Sir, that's to-morrow:

I'm question'd by my fears, of what may chance
Or breed upon our abfence; may there blow
No fneaping winds at home, to make us fay,
"This is put forth too truly." Befides, I have ftay'd
To tire your royalty.

Leo. We are tougher, brother,

Than you can put us to't.

Pol. No longer stay.

Leo. One fev'n-night longer.

Pol. Very footh, to-morrow.

Leo. We'll part the time between's then; and in that

I'll no gain-faying.

Pol. Prefs me not, 'befeech you, fo;

There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' th' world, So foon as your's could win me: fo it fhould now, Were there neceffity in your request, altho'

'Twere needful I deny'd it. My affairs

* i. e. I ufe the thepherd's reckoning.

De