Yet ftanding in rich place, I multiply,

With one we-thank-you, many thousands more

Sir, that's to-morrrow.

6

I am queftion'd by my fears, of what may chance,
Or breed upon our abfence: That may blow
No fneaping winds at home, to make us fay,
This is put forth too truly! 7 Befides, I have stay'd
To tire your royalty.

Leon.

We are tougher, brother,

Than you can put us to❜t.
Poli

No longer stay.

Very footh, to-morrow.

Leon. One feven-night longer.

Pol.

Leon. We'll part the time between's then; and in that I'll no gain-faying.

Pol.

Prefs me not, 'beseech you, fo;
There is no tongue that moves, none, none i'the world,
So foon as yours, could win me: so it should now,
Were there neceffity in your request, although
'Twere needful I deny'd it. My affairs

Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder,
Were, in your love, a whip to me; my stay,

that may blow

No fneaping winds

M 4

Το

Dr. Warburton calls this nonfenfe and Dr. Johnfon tells us it is a Gallicifm. It happens however to be both fenfe and English. That, for Ob! that-is not uncommon. In an old tranflation of the famous Alcoran of the Francifcans: St. Francis obferving the holiness of friar Juniper, faid to the priors, That I had a wood of fuch Junipers !" And, in The Two Noble Kinfmen:

66 -In thy rumination,

"That I poor man might eftfoons come between !"

And fo in other places. This is the conftruction of the paffage in Romeo and Juliet:

That runaway's eyes may wink!"

Which in other refpects Mr. Steevens has rightly interpreted.

-fneaping winds-] Nipping winds. HOLT WHITE.

FARMIR.

7 i. e. to make me fay, I had too good reafon for my fears concerning what might happen in my absence from home. MALONE.

To you a charge, and trouble; to fave both,
Farewel, our brother.

Leon.

Tongue-ty'd, our queen? fpeak you.
Her. I had thought, fir, to have held my peace, until
You had drawn oaths from him, not to ftay. You, fir,
Charge him too coldly: Tell him, you are fure,
All in Bohemia's well: this fatisfaction &

The by-gone day proclaim'd; fay this to him,
He's beat from his beft ward.

Leon.

Well faid, Hermione.

Her. To tell, he longs to fee his fon, were strong:

But let him fay fo then, and let him go;

But let him fwear fo, and he fhall not stay,

We'll thwack him hence with diftaffs.

Yet of your royal prefence [To POLIXENES.] I'll adventure

To borrow of a week. When at Bohemia

You take my lord, I'll give him my commiffion, "
To let him there a month, behind the geft2

Prefix'à

We had fatisfactory accounts yesterday of the state of Bohemia.
JOHNSON.

9 We should read:

·I'll give you my commission,

The verb let, or hinder, which follows, fhows the neceflity of it: for fhe could not fay she would give her husband a commiffion to ler or hinder himfelf. The commiffion is given to Polixenes, to whom she is speaking to let or hinder her husband. WARBURTON.

"I'll give him my licence of abfence, so as to obftruct or retard his departure for a month," &c. To let him, however, may be used as many other reflective verbs are by Shakspeare, for to let or hinder bimfelf: then the meaning will be, I'll give him my permiffion to tarry for a month," &c. Dr. Warburton and the fubfequent editors read, I think, without neceffity, I'll give you my commiffion, &c. MALONE.

2 Mr. Theobald fays: he can neither trace, nor understand the phrase, and therefore thinks it should be juft: But the word geft is right, and fignifies a ftage or journey. In the time of royal progreffes the king's ftages, as we may fee by the journals of them in the herald's office, were called his gets; from the old French word gifte, diverforium. WARBURTON.

Gefts, or rather gifts, from the Fr. gifte, (which fignifies both a bed, and a lodging-place,) were the names of the houfes or towns where the king or prince intended to lie every night during his PROGRESS. They were written in a scroll, and probably each of the royal attendants was furnished with a copy. MALONE.

Prefix'd for his parting: yet, good-deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o'the clock 4 behind
What lady she her lord.-You'll stay ? .

Her. Verily!

No, madam,

I may not, verily,

You put me off with limber vows: But I,

Though you would feek to unfphere the ftars with oaths,
Should yet fay, Sir, no going. Verily,

You fhall not go; a lady's verily is

As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?

Force me to keep you as a prifoner,

Not like a gueft; fo you fhall pay your fees,

When you depart, and fave your thanks. How fay you? My prifoner or my gueft? by your dread verily,

One of them you shall be.

Pol.
Your gueft then, madam :
To be your prifoner, fhould import offending;
Which is for me lefs eafy to commit,

Than you to punish.

Her.

Not your gaoler then,

But your kind hoftefs. Come, I'll question you
my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were boys;
You were pretty lordings 5 then.

Of

Pol.

We were, fair queen,

But

Two lads, that thought there was no more behind,

3

M 5

-yet, good-deed,] fignifies indeed, in very deed, as Shakspeare in another place expreffes it. Good deed is ufed in the fame fenfe by the * Earl of Surry, Sir John Hayward, and Gafcoigne.

Dr. Warburton would read-good beed,-meaning-take good heed.

STEEVENS.

The fecond folio reads-good beed, which, I believe, is right.

TYRWHITT.

A jar is, I believe, a fingle repetition of the no fe made by the pendulum of a clock; what children call the ticking of it. STEEVENS. A jar perhaps means a minute, for I do not fuppofe that the ancient clocks ticked or noticed the feconds. TOLLET.

To jar certainly means to tick, as in T. Heywood's Troia Brittannica, cant. IV. ft. 107; edit. 1609." He bears no waking-clocke, nor watch to jarre." HOLT WHITE.

This diminutive of lord is often ufed by Chaucer. STEEVENS.

But fuch a day to-morrow as to-day,

And to be boy eternal.

Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o'the two?

Pol. We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk i'the fun, And bleat the one at the other: what we chang'd, Was innocence for innocence; we knew not The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd That any did: Had we purfued that life, And our weak fpirits ne'er been higher rear'd With ftronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven Boldly, Not guilty; the impofition clear'd,

Hereditary ours.6

Her.

By this we gather,

You have tripp'd fince.

Pol.

O my moft facred lady,
Temptations have fince then been born to us for
In thofe unfledg'd days was my wife a girl;
Your precious felf had then not cross'd the eyes
Of my young play-fellow.

Her.

Grace to boot!

Of this make no conclufion; left you fay,7
Your queen and I are devils: Yet, go on;
The offences we have made you do, we'll anfwer;
If you firft finn'd with us, and that with us

You

6 i. e. fetting afide original fin; bating the impofition from the offence of our firft parents, we might have boldly protefted our innocence to heaven. WARBURTON.

7 Polixenes had said, that fince the time of childhood and innocence, temptations bad grown to them; for that, in that interval, the two queens were become women. To each part of this obfervation the queen answers in order. To that of temptation the replies, Grace to boot! i. e. though temptations have grown up, yet I hope grace too has kept pace with them. Grace to boot, was a proverbial expreffion on thefe occafions. To the other part, the replies, as for our tempting you, pray take heed you draw no conclufion from thence, for that would be making your queen and me devils, &c. WARBURTON.

This explanation may be right; but I have no great faith in the exiftence of fuch a proverbial expreffion. STEEVENS.

She calls for Heaven's grace, to purify and vindicate her own character, and that of the wife of Polixenes, which might feem to be fullied by a fpecies of argument that made them appear to have led their husbands into temptation. MALONE.

B-"Our come" – or "head out" in within sener bettin than heat accomplish" _ "beaten track" _ iss

You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not

ит

151

Her. What have I twice faid well? when was't before?
I pr'ythee, tell me : Cram us with praife, and make us
As fat as tame things: One good deed, dying tonguelefs,
Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that.

Our praises are our wages: You may ride us,
With one foft kifs, a thousand furlongs, ere

With fpur we heat an acre. But to the goal; & beat? mß

My laft good deed was, to entreat his stay;

What was my firft? it has an elder fifter,

Or I mistake you : O, would her name were Grace!
But once before I fpoke to the purpose: When?
Nay, let me have't; I long.

Leon.

Why, that was when
Three crabbed months had four'd themselves to death,
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,

And clap thyfelf my love; 9 then didst thou utter,

I am yours for ever.

M 6

Her.

8. Thus this paffage has been always printed; whence it appears, that the editors did not take the poet's conceit. They imagined that, But to th goal, meant, but to come to the purpose; but the fenfe is different, and plain enough when the line is pointed thus:

-ere

With Spur we beat an acre, but to the goal.

i.e. good ufage will win us to any thing; but, with ill, we ftep fhort,
even there where both our intereft and our inclination would otherwise
have carried us. WARBURTON.

I have followed the old copy, the pointing of which appears to afford as
apt a meaning as that produced by the change recommended by Dr.
Warburton. STEEVENS.

9 She open'd her hand, to clap the palm of it into his, as people do when they confirm a bargain. Hence the phrafe-to clap up a bargain ile, make one with no other ceremony than the junction of hands. & Leontes must have been absent or inattentive to a conversation on a serliguet he appeared so much interested in.

STEEVENS
This