Most dearest! my collop!'-can thy dam?-May't be? Affection! thy intention stabs the centre;2 Thou dost make possible, things not so held; And fellow'st nothing. Then, 'tis very credent,3 Thou mayst conjoin with something; and thou dost; (And that beyond commission, and I find it ;) And that to the infection of my brains, And hardening of my brows. Pol. What means Sicilia ? How, my lord? Her. He something seems unsettled. Pol. What cheer? How is't with Her. As if you held How is't with you, best brother? held a brow of much distraction. Are you moved, my lord? You look Leon. 4 How like, methought, I then was to this kernel, Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight. 1 In King Henry VI. Part I. we have "God knows thou art a collop of my flesh." 2 Affection here means imagination. Intention is earnest consideration, eager attention. It is this vehemence of mind which affects Leontes, by making him conjure up unreal causes of disquiet; and thus, in the Poet's language, "stabs him to the centre." 3 Credent, credible. 4 i. e. an immature pea-pod. 5 "Will you take eggs for money?" A proverbial phrase for "Will you suffer yourself to be cajoled or imposed upon? Leon. You will? why, happy man be his dole!1 My brother, Are you so fond of your young prince, as we Do seem to be of ours? Pol. Leon. Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's 2 Apparent to my heart. Her. We are yours i'the garden. If you would seek us, Shall's attend you there? Leon. To your own bents dispose you: you'll be found, Be you beneath the sky;-I am angling now, [Aside. Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE. one.4 [Exeunt PoL., HER., and Attendants. Go, play, boy, play;―thy mother plays, and I Play too; but so disgraced a part, whose issue 1 i. e. may happiness be his portion ! 2 Heir apparent, next claimant. 3 i. e. mouth. 4 i. e. a horned one. Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now; And many a man there is, even at this present, Sir Smile, his neighbor. Nay, there's comfort in't, Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it, It will let in and out the enemy, With bag and baggage. Many a thousand of us Leon. What! Camillo there? Why, that's some comfort.— Cam. Ay, my good lord. Leon. Go play, Mamillius: thou'rt an honest man.— [Exit MAMILLIus. Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer. 1 Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor hold; When you cast out, it still came home.1 Leon. Didst note it? Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; made His business more material.2 Leon. Didst perceive it?— They're here with me already:3 whispering, round ing,1 Sicilia is a so-forth.5 'Tis far gone, 1 "It still came home," a nautical term, meaning, "the anchor would not take hold." 2 The more you requested him to stay, the more urgent he represented that business to be which summoned him away. 3 Not Polixenes and Hermione, but casual observers. 4 To round in the ear was to tell secretly, to whisper. 5 A so-forth, a phrase apparently employed to avoid the utterance of an opprobrious one. So, so, is sometimes used in a similar manner. When I shall gust1 it last.-How came 't, Camillo, Cam. tinent; At the good queen's entreaty. queen's, be't: good, should be per But so it is, it is not. Was this taken 2 Leon. Cam. Leon. Ay, but why? Ha? Stays here longer. Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress. Leon. The entreaties of your mistress? Satisfy -Satisfy?— Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo, With all the nearest things to my heart, as well My chamber-councils; wherein, priestlike, thou Hast cleansed my bosom; I from thee departed Thy penitent reformed; but we have been Deceived in thy integrity, deceived In that which seems so. Cam. Be it forbid, my lord! Leon. To bide upon't: Thou art not honest; or, If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward; 3 Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining From course required; or else thou must be counted A servant, grafted in my serious trust, And therein negligent; or else a fool, That seest a game played home, the rich stake drawn And tak❜st it all for jest. 1 i. e. taste it:-"ille domus sciet ultimus.".........Juv. Sat. x. 2 Messes is here put for degrees, conditions. 3 To hox is to hamstring: the proper word is to hough. VOL. III. 3 Cam. My gracious lord, I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful; In every one of these no man is free, It was my folly; if industriously I played the fool, it was my negligence, Against the non-performance,1 'twas a fear "Tis none of mine. Leon. Have not you seen, Camillo, (But that's past doubt: you have; or your eye-glass Is thicker than a cuckold's horn ;) or heard, (For, to a vision so apparent, rumor Cannot be mute,) or thought,—(for cogitation To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought,) then say, Cam. I would not be a stander-by to hear 1 This is expressed obscurely, but seems to mean "the execution of which (when done) cried out against the non-performance of it before." 2 Leontes means to say, "Have you not thought that my wife is slippery? (for cogitation resides not in the man that does not think my wife is slippery.") The four latter words, though disjoined from the word think by the necessity of a parenthesis, are evidently to be connected in construction with it. |