I'll no gain-saying.
Pol.
Press me not, 'beseech you, so;
There is no tongue that moves, none, none i'the
world,
So soon as yours, could win me: so it should now,
Were there necessity in your request, although
'Twere needful I denied it. My affairs
Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder,
Were, in your love, a whip to me; my stay,
To you a charge, and trouble: to save both,
Farewell, our brother.
Leon. Tongue-tied, our queen? speak you. Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace, until
You had drawn oaths from him, not to stay. You, sir,
Charge him too coldly: Tell him, you are sure,
All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction
The by-gone day proclaim'd; say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward.
Leon.
Well said, Hermione.
Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong:
But let him say so then, and let him go;
But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,
We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.-
Yet of your royal presence [To Polixenes.] I'll ad
You put me off with limber vows: But I,
With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven
Boldly, Not guilty; the imposition clear'd,
Hereditary ours."
Her.
By this we gather,
You have tripp'd since.
Pol.
O my most sacred lady,
Temptations have since then been born to us: for
In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl;
Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes
Of my young play-fellow.
Her.
Grace to boot!
Of this make no conclusion; lest you say,
Your queen and I are devils: Yet, go on;
The offences we have made you do, we'll answer;
If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not
With any but with us.
Is he won yet?
Her. He'll stay, my lord.
Leon.
At my request, he would not.
Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st
To better purpose.
Her. What? have I twice said well? when was't before?
pr'ythee, tell me: Cram us with praise, and
As fat as tame things: One good deed, dying tongueless,
Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that.
Our praises are our wages: You may ride us,
With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere
With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal;-
My last good was, to entreat his stay;
What was my first? it has an elder sister,
Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace!
Should yet say, Sir, no going. Verily,
You shall not go; a lady's verily is
As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?
Force me to keep you as a prisoner,
Not like a guest; so you shall pay your fees, When you depart, and save your thanks. How say you?
My prisoner? or my guest? by your dread verily, One of them you shall be.
Pol. Your guest then, madam: To be your prisoner, should import offending; Which is for me less easy to commit,
But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you Of my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were boys;
You were pretty lordings" then.
Pol.
We were,
fair queen,
Two lads, that thought there was no more behind,
But such 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
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 pursued that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd
(1) Gests were the names of the stages where the king appointed to lie, during a royal progress. (2) Indeed. (3) Tick. (4) Flimsy. (5) A diminutive of lords.
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Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter,
I am yours for ever.
Her.
It is Grace, indeed.
Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice:
The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;
The other, for some while a friend.
[Giving her hand to Polixenes. Leon. Too hot, too hot: [Aside. To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods. I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances; But not for joy,-not joy.-This entertainment May a free face put on; derive a liberty From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom, And well become the agent: it may, I grant: I But to be paddling palms, and pinching fingers, As now they are; and making practis'd smiles, As in a looking-glass-and then to sigh, as 'twere The mort o'the deer; O, that is entertainment My bosom likes not, nor my brows.-Mamillius, Art thou my boy? Mam. Leon.
We must be neat; not neat, but cleanly, captain : We are yours i'the garden: Shall's attend you
And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf,
Are all call'd, neat.-Still virginalling!
[Observing Polixenes and Hermione.
Upon his palm?-How now, you wanton calf?
Art thou my calf?
Mam.
Yes, if you will, my lord.
Leon. Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots
that I have,2
To be full like me :-yet, they say, we are
Almost as like as eggs; women say so,
That will say any thing: But were they false
As o'er-died blacks, as wind, as waters; false
As dice are to be wish'd, by one that fixes
No bourn3 twixt his and mine; vet were it true
To say this boy were like me.-Come, sir page,
Look on me with your welkin' eye: Sweet villain!
Most dear'st! my collop!-Can thy dam ?-may't
be?
Affection! thy infection stabs the centre:
Thou dost make possible, things not so held,
Communicat'st with dreams;--(How can this
With what's unreal thou coactive art,
Leon. To your own bents dispose you: you'll be
found,
Be you beneath the sky :-I am angling now,
Though you perceive me not how I give line.
Go to, go to!
[Aside. Observing Polixenes and Hermione. How she holds up the neb, the bill to him! And arms her with the boldness of a wife To her allowing husband! Gone already; Inch-thick, knee-deep; o'er head and ears a fork'd one. 12
[Exeunt Polixenes, Hermione, and attendants. Go, play, boy, play ;-thy mother plays, and I Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue Will hiss me to my grave; contempt and clamour Will be my knell.-Go, play, boy, play ;-There have been,
Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;
And many a man there is, even at this present,
be?)-Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks she has been sluic'd in his absence,
And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by
Sir Smile, his neighbour : nay, there's comfort in't,
Whiles other men have gates; and those gales
open'd,
And fellow'st nothing: Then, 'tis very credent,"
Thou may'st co-join 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?
Her. He something seems unsettled.
Pol.
How, my lord?
What cheer? how is't with you, best brother?
Her.
You look,
As if you held a brow of much distraction:
Are you mov'd, my lord?
Leon.
No, in good earnest.-
How sometimes nature will betray its folly,
Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime
To harder bosoms! Looking on the lines
Of my boy's face, methoughts, I did recoil
Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreech'd,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.
How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This squash, this gentleman :-mine honest friend,
Will you take eggs for money?"
Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight.
Leon. You will? why, happy man be his dole !-
My brother,
Are you so fond of your young prince, as we
Do seem to be of ours?
Pol.
If at home, sir,
He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter:
Now my sworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all;
He makes a July's day short as December;
And, with his varying childness, cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.
Leon.
So stands this squire
Offic'd with me: We two will walk, my lord,
And leave you to your graver steps.-Hermione,
How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's welcome;
Let what is dear in Sicily, be cheap:
Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's
Apparent to my heart.
If you would seek us,
As mine, against their will: Should all despair
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Physic for't there is none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north, and south: Be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly; know it;
It will let in and out the enemy,
With bag and baggage: many a thousand of us
Have the disease, and feel't not.-How now, boy?
Mam. I am like you, they say.
Leon.
Why, that's some comfort.-
What! Camillo there?
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Sicilia is a so-forth: 'Tis far gone,
When I shall gust14 it last.-How came't, Camillo,
That he did stay?
Cam.
At the good queen's entreaty.
Leon. At the queen's, be't: good, should be
pertinent;
But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
By any understanding pate but thine?
For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in
More than the common blocks:-Not noted, is't,
But of the finer natures? by some severals,
Of head-piece extraordinary? lower messes, 15
Perchance, are to this business purblind: say.
Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most under-
stand
Bohemia stays here longer.
(8) May his share of life be a happy one!
(9) Heir apparent, next claimant. (10) Mouth,
(11) Approving. (12) A horned one, a cuckold.
(13) To round in the ear was to tell secretly.
(14) Taste. (15) Inferiors in rank.
The entreaties of your mistress?-satisfy ?-
Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
My chamber-counsels: wherein, priest-like, thou
Hast cleans'd my bosom; I from thee departed
Thy penitent reform'd: but we have been
Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd
Leon. To bide upon't;-Thou art not honest: or,
If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward;
Which hoxes' honesty behind, restraining
From course requir'd: Or else thou must be counted
A servant, grafted in my serious trust,
And therein negligent; or else a fool,
Cam. No, no, my lord.
Leon.
It is; you lie, you lie :
I say, thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee;
Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave,
Or else a hovering temporizer, that
Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil,
Inclining to them both: Were my wife's liver
Infected as her life, she would not live
The running of one glass.'
Cam.
Who does infect her?
Leon. Why he, that wears her like her medal,
hanging
That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake About his neck, Bohemia: Who-if I
And tak'st it all for jest.
My gracious lord,
I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful;
In every one of these no man is free,
But that his negligence, his folly, fear,
Amongst the infinite doings of the world,
Sometime puts forth: In your affairs, my lord,
If ever I were wilful-negligent,
It was my folly; if industriously
I play'd the fool, it was my negligence,
Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful
To do a thing, where I the issue doubted,
Whereof the execution did cry out
Against the non-performance, 'twas a fear
Which oft affects the wisest: these, my lord,
Are such allow'd infirmities, that honesty
Is never free of. But, 'beseech your grace,
Be plainer with me; let me know my trespass
By its own visage: if I then deny it,
'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 vison so apparent, rumour
Cannot be mute,) or thought (for cogitation
Resides not in that man, that does not think it,)
My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess,
(Or else be impudently negative,
Had servants true about me; that bare eyes
To see alike mine honour as their profits,
Their own particular thrifts,-they would do that
Which should undo more doing: Ay, and thou
His cup-bearer,-whom I from meaner form
Have bench'd, and rear'd to worship; who may'st
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Leon.
'Make't thy question, and go rot.
Dost think, I am so muddy, so unsettled,
To appoint myself in this vexation? sully
The purity and whiteness of my sheets,
Which to preserve is sleep; which being spotted,
Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps?
Give scandal to the blood o' the prince my son,
Who, I do think is mine, and love as mine;
Without ripe moving to't? Would I do this?
Could man so blench?
Cam.
I must believe you, sir;
To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought,) then say, I do; and will fetch off Bohemia for't:
My wife's a hobby-horse; deserves a name
As rank as any flax-wench, that puts to
Before her troth-plight: say it, and justify it.
Cam. I would not be a stander-by, to hear
My sovereign mistress clouded so, without
My present vengeance taken: 'Shrew my heart,
You never spoke what did become you less
Than this which to reiterate, were sin
As deep as that, though true.
Leon.
Is whispering nothing?
Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?
Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career
Of laughter with a sigh? (a note infallible
Of breaking honesty :) horsing foot on foot?
Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift?
Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes
blind
With the pin and web, but theirs, theirs only,
(1) To hox is to hamstring.
(2) Disorders of the eye.
Hour-glass. (4) Hasty,
Provided, that when he's remov'd, your highness
Will take again your queen, as yours at first;
Even for your son's sake; and, thereby, for sealing
The injury of tongues, in courts and kingdoms
Known and allied to yours.
Thou dost advise me,
Even so as I mine own course have set down:
I'll give no blemish to her honour, none.
Cam. My lord,
Go then; and with a countenance as clear
As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia,
And with your queen: I am his cupbearer;
If from me he have wholesome beverage,
Account me not your servant.
Leon.
This is all:
Do't, and thou hast the one half of my heart;
Do't not, thou splitt'st thine own.
Cam.
(5) Maliciously, with effects openly hurtful. (6) i. e. Could any man so start off from pro priety?
Leon. I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd Since I am charg'd in honour, and by him
[Exit. That I think honourable: Therefore, mark my
Cam. O miserable lady -But, for me, What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner Of good Polixenes: and my ground to do't Is the obedience to a master; one, Who, in rebellion with himself, will have All that are his, so too.-To do this deed, Promotion follows: If I could find example Of thousands, that had struck anointed kings, And flourish'd after, I'd not do't: but since Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not one, Let villany itself forswear't. I must Forsake the court: to do't, or no, is certain To me a break-neck. Happy star, reign now! Here comes Bohemia.
This is strange! methinks, My favour here begins to warp. Not speak?Good-day, Camillo. Cam.
Pol. What is the news i'the court?
Cam.
None rare, my lord.
Pol. The king hath on him such a countenance,
As he had lost some province, and a region,
Lov'd as he loves himself: even now I met him
With customary compliment; when he,
Wafting his eyes to the contrary, and falling
A lip of much contempt, speeds from me; and
So leaves me to consider what is breeding,
That changes thus his manners.
Cam. I dare not know, my lord.
Pol. How dare not? do not. Do you know, and dare not
Be intelligent to me? 'Tis thereabouts;
For, to yourself, what you do know, you must;
And cannot say, you dare not. Good Camillo,
Your chang'd complexions are to me a mirror
Which shows me mine chang'd too: for I must be
A party in this alteration, finding
Myself thus alter'd with it.
Which puts some of us in distemper; but
I cannot name the disease; and it is caught
Of you that yet are well.
Pol.
How! caught of me?
Make me not sighted like the basilisk:
I have look'd on thousands, who have sped the better
By my regard, but kill'd none so. Camillo,-
As you are certainly a gentleman; thereto
Clerk-like, experienc'd, which no less adorns
Our gentry, than our parents' noble names,
In whose success' we are gentle,-I beseech you,
If you know aught which does behove my know-
ledge
Thereof to be inform❜d, imprison it not
In ignorant concealment.
Which must be even as swiftly follow'd, as
I mean to utter it; or both yourself and me
Cry, lost, and so good-night.
Pol.
On, good Camillo.
Cam. I am appointed Him to murder you.'
Pol. By whom, Camillo ?
Cam. He thinks, nay, with all confidence he
As he had seen't, or been an instrument
To vice you to't,-that you have touch'd his queen
Forbiddenly.
Pol.
O, then my best blood turn
To an infected jelly; and my name
Be yok'd with his, that did betray the best!
Turn then my freshest reputation to
A savour, that may strike the dullest nostril
Where I arrive; and my approach be shunn'd,
Nay, hated too, worse than the great'st infection
That e'er was heard, or read!
Cam.
Swear his thought over
By each particular star in heaven, and
By all their influences, you may as well
Forbid the sea for to obey the moon,
As or, by oath, remove, or counsel, shake
The fabric of his folly; whose foundation
Is pil'd upon his faith, and will continue
The standing of his body.
Pol.
How should this grow?
Cam. I know not: but, I am sure, 'tis safer to
Avoid what's grown, than question how 'tis born.
If therefore you dare trust my honesty,-
That lies enclosed in this trunk, which you
Shall bear along impawn'd,-away to-night.
Your followers I will whisper to the business;
And will, by twos, and threes, at several posterns,
Clear them o' the city: For myself, I'll put
My fortunes to your service, which are here
By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain;
For, by the honour of my parents, I
Have utter'd truth: which if you seek to prove,
I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer
Than one condemn'd by the king's own mouth,
thereon His execution sworn.
I saw his heart in his face. Give me thy hand;
Be pilot to me, and thy places shall
Still neighbour mine: My ships are ready, and
My people did expect my hence departure"
Two days ago.-This jealousy
Is for a precious creature: as she's rare,
Must it be great; and, as his person's mighty,
Must it be violent; and as he does conceive
He is dishonour'd by a man which ever
Profess'd to him, why, his revenges must
In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me:
Good expedition be my friend, and comfort
The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing
Of his ill-ta'en suspicion! Come, Camillo ;
I will respect thee as a father, if
Thou bear'st my life off hence: Let us avoid.
Cam. It is in mine authority, to command
The keys of all the posterns: Please your highness
To take the urgent bour: come, sir, away.
(3) i. e. I am the person appointed, &c. (4) Draw. (5) Settled belief.
With violent hefts:-I have drank, and seen the spider. SCENE I.-The same. Enter Hermione, Ma- Camillo was his help in this, his pander :millius, and Ladies.
Saw I men scour so on their way: I ey'd them
Even to their ships.
Leon.
How bless'd am I
In my just censure? in my true opinion?—
Alack, for lesser knowledge! How accurs'd,
In being so blest!-There may be in the cup
A spider' steep'd, and one may drink; depart,
And yet partake no venom; for his knowledge
Is not infected: but if one present
The abhorr'd ingredient to his eve, make known
How he hath drank, he cracks his gorge, his sides,
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?
By his great authority;
Which often hath no less prevail'd than so,
On your command.
Give me the boy; 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 :
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:-Ó, I am out,
That mercy docs; 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 it known,
From him that has most cause to grieve it should be,
She's an adultress.
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 adultress; 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 titles; ay, and privy
To this their late escape.
No, by my life, Privy to none of this: How will this grieve yon, When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that You thus have publish'd me? Gentle my lord, You scarce can right me throughly then, to say You did mistake.
No, no; if I mistake
In those foundations which I build upon,
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