Apart these your attendants, I shall bring
Emilia forth.

Paul.

I pray now, call her.

Withdraw yourselves.

Keep.

[Exeunt Attend.

And, madam,

[Exit Keeper.

I must be present at your conference.

Paul. Well, be it so, pr'ythee.

Here's such ado to make no stain a stain,

As passes coloring.

Re-enter Keeper, with EMILIA.

Dear gentlewoman, how fares our gracious lady?
Emil. As well as one so great, and so forlorn,
May hold together. On her frights and griefs
(Which never tender lady hath borne greater)
She is, something before her time, delivered.
Paul. A boy?

Emil.
A daughter; and a goodly babe,
Lusty, and like to live. The queen receives
Much comfort in't; says, My poor prisoner,

I am innocent as you.

Paul.

I dare be sworn.

These dangerous, unsafe lunes' o' the king! beshrew

them!

He must be told on't, and he shall; the office
Becomes a woman best; I'll take't upon me:
If I prove honey-mouthed, let my tongue blister;
And never to my red-looked anger be

The trumpet any more.-Pray you, Emilia,
Commend my best obedience to the queen;
If she dares trust me with her little babe,
I'll show't the king, and undertake to be
Her advocate to th' loudest. We do not know
How he may soften at the sight o' the child;
The silence often of pure innocence

Persuades, when speaking fails.

1 Lunes. This word has not been found in any other English writer; but it is used in old French for frenzy, lunacy, folly. A similar expression occurs in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1608.

Emil.

Most worthy madam,

Your honor, and your goodness, is so evident,
That your free undertaking cannot miss

A thriving issue; there is no lady living

So meet for this great errand. Please your ladyship
To visit the next room, I'll presently

Acquaint the queen of your most noble offer;
Who, but to-day, hammered of this design;
But durst not tempt a minister of honor,

Lest she should be denied.

Paul.

I'll use that tongue I have.

Tell her, Emilia,

If wit flow from it,

As boldness from my bosom, let it not be doubted

I shall do good.

Emil.

I'll to the queen.

Now be you blest for it!

Please you, come something nearer. Keep. Madam, if't please the queen to send the

babe,

I know not what I shall incur, to pass it,

Having no warrant.

Paul.

You need not fear it, sir.

The child was prisoner to the womb; and is,
By law and process of great nature, thence
Freed and enfranchised: not a party to
The anger of the king; nor guilty of,
If any be, the trespass of the queen.
Keep. I do believe it.

Paul.
Do not you fear; upon
Mine honor, I will stand 'twixt you and danger.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. The same. A Room in the Palace.

Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and other Attendants.

Leon. Nor night, nor day, no rest. It is but weak

ness

To bear the matter thus; mere weakness, if

The cause were not in being;-part o' the cause,

She, the adult'ress;-for the harlot king
Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank
And level of my brain, plot-proof: but she
I can hook to me. Say, that she were gone,
Given to the fire, a moiety of my rest
Might come to me again.
-Who's there?

1 Attend.

Leon. How does the boy?

1 Attend.

My lord! [Advancing.

He took good rest to-night;

'Tis hoped his sickness is discharged.

Leon.

His nobleness!

Conceiving the dishonor of his mother,

To see

He straight declined, drooped, took it deeply;
Fastened and fixed the shame on't in himself;
Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep,
And downright languished.-Leave me solely; 2-go,
See how he fares. [Exit Attend.]-Fie, fie! no
thought of him ;-

The very thought of my revenges that way
Recoil upon me in himself too mighty;
And in his parties, his alliance,-let him be,
Until a time may serve; for present vengeance,
Take it on her. Camillo and Polixenes

Laugh at me; make their pastime at my sorrow.
They should not laugh, if I could reach them; nor
Shall she, within my power.

1 Lord.

Enter PAULINA, with a Child.

You must not enter.

Paul. Nay, rather, good my lords, be second to me. Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas,

Than the queen's life? a gracious, innocent soul;
More free, than he is jealous.

1 Blank and level mean mark and aim, or direction. They are terms

of gunnery.

2 i. e. leave me alone.

3 Free, i. e. as here used, pure, chaste.

Ant.

That's enough.

1 Attend. Madam, he hath not slept to-night; com

manded

None should come at him.

Paul.

I come to bring him sleep.
That creep like shadows by

Not so hot, good sir;

'Tis such as you,

him, and do sigh

At each his needless heavings, such as you
Nourish the cause of his awaking: I

Do come with words as med'cinal as true;
Honest, as either; to purge him of that humor,
That presses him from sleep.

Leon.

What noise there, ho!

Paul. No noise, my lord; but needful conference About some gossips for your highness.

Leon.

How?

Away with that audacious lady. Antigonus,

I charged thee, that she should not come about me; I knew she would.

Ant.

I told her so, my lord,

On your displeasure's peril, and on mine,
She should not visit you.

Leon.

What, canst not rule her?
Paul. From all dishonesty, he can. In this,
(Unless he take the course that you have done,
Commit me, for committing honor,) trust it,
He shall not rule me.

Ant.
Lo you now; you hear!
When she will take the rein, I let her run;
But she'll not stumble.

Paul.

Good my liege, I come,

And, I beseech you, hear me, who profess1
Myself your loyal servant, your physician,
Your most obedient counsellor; yet that dare
Less appear so, in comforting your evils,
Than such as most seem yours;-I say, I come
From your good queen.

1 The old copy has professes.

2 "In comforting your evils." To comfort, in old language, is to aid, to encourage. Evils here mean wicked courses.

Leon.

Good queen!

Paul. Good queen, my lord, good queen: I say,

good queen;

And would by combat make her good, so were I
A man, the worst1 about you.

Leon.

Force her hence.

Paul. Let him, that makes but trifles of his eyes, First hand me on my own accord, I'll off; But, first, I'll do my errand.-The good queenFor she is good-hath brought you forth a daughter; Here 'tis; commends it to your blessing.

Leon.

2

[Laying down the Child. Out!

A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o' door!
A most intelligencing bawd!

Paul.

I am as ignorant in that, as you

Not so.

In so entitling me; and no less honest

Than you are mad; which is enough, I'll warrant,
As this world goes, to pass for honest.

Leon.

Traitors!

Will you not push her out? Give her the bastard.— Thou dotard [To ANTIGONUS.] thou art woman-tired,3

unroosted

By thy dame Partlet here.-Take up the bastard;
Take't up, I say; give't to thy crone.1

Paul.

Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou

Forever

Tak'st up the princess, by that forced 5 baseness

Which he has put upon't!

Leon.

1 i. e. the weakest, or least warlike.

He dreads his wife.

2 "A mankind witch." In Junius's Nomenclator, by Abraham Fleming, 1585, Virago is interpreted "A manly woman, or a mankind woman." Johnson asserts that the phrase is still used in the midland counties for a woman violent, ferocious, and mischievous.

3 i. e. hen-pecked. To tire in falconry is to tear with the beak. Partlet is the name of the hen in the old story of Renard the Fox.

4 A crone was originally a toothless old ewe; and thence became a term of contempt for an old woman.

5 Forced is false; uttered with violence to truth. Baseness for bastardy; we still say base born.