Leon. Stay your thanks awhile; And pay them when you part.

Pol. Sir, that's to-morrow.

I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance,
Or breed upon our absence: That may blow
No sncaping winds at home, to make us say,
This is put forth too truly! Besides, I have stay'd
To tire your royalty.

Leon. We are tougher, brother,

Than you can put us to't.

Pol. No longer stay.

Leon. One seven-night longer.

Pol. Very sooth, to-morrow.

Leon. We'll part the time between's then: and in that

I'll no gainsaying.

Pol. Press me not, 'beseech you, so;

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.
you first sinn'd with us, and that with us

If

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 thence with distaffs.

With any but with us.

Leon. Is he won yet?·

Her. He'll stay, my lord.

Leon. At my request, he would not.

venture

To better purpose.

Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that.
Our praises are our wages: You may ride us,
With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, erc

Her. It is Grace, indeed.[twice: Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose The one for ever earn'd a royal husband; The other, for some while a friend.

[gives her hand to Pol. 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: 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. Ay, my good lord.
Leon. I'fecks?

[thy nose?
Why, that's my bawcock. What, hast smutch'd
They say, it's a copy out of mine. Come, captain,
We must be neat; not neat, but cleanly, captain:
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,

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 bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet 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
Affection! thy intention stabs the centre: [be?
Thou dost make possible, things not so held,
Communicat'st with dreams;-(How can this
With what's unreal thou coactive art, [be?
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 Losoms! 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,

Let it should bite its master, and so prove,

As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.

How like,methought, I then was to this kernci, This quash, this gentleman. Mine houest friend, Will you take eggs for money?

Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight.

Leon. You will? why, happy man be's 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 stauds 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 Let what is dear in Sicily, be cheap; [welcome; Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's Apparent to my heart.

Her. If you would seek us,

[there?

We are yours i'the garden: Shall's attend you 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; observes Polixenes and Herm.
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; [one--
Inch-thick, knee-deep; o'er head and cars a fork'd

[exeunt Polixenes, Hermione, and Attendants. Go, play, boy, play;-tby 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 cre now;
And many a man there is, even at this present,
Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the

arm,

That little thinks she has been sluic'd in 's 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 gutes open'd,

As minc, against their will: Should all despair, That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind Would hang themselves. Physic for't there is It is a bawdy planet, that will strike (none; Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it, From east, west, north, and south: Be it conciuued, 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?

[made

They're here with me already; whispering, round-
Sicilia is a so-forth: 'Tis far gone,
[ing,
When I shall gust 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 But so it is, it is not. Was this taken [pertinent; 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, Perchance, are to this business purblind: say. Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most underBohemia stays here longer. [stand

Leon. Ha?

Cam. Stays here longer.

Leon. Ay, but why?

Cannot be mute,) or thought, (for cogitation
Besides not in that man, that does not think it,)
My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess,
(Or else be impudently negative,

To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought,) then say,
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 check 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 eyos
blind

With the pin and web, but theirs, theirs only,

may be negligent, foolish, and fearful;

In every one of these no man is free.

[drawn,

But that his negligence, his folly, fear,
Amongst the infinite doings of the world,
Sometimes 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,

Why, then the world, and all that's in't, is

nothing;

The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing;
My wife is nothing; nor nothing have these
If this be nothing.
[nothings,

Cam. Good my lord, be cur'd
Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes;
For 'tis most dangerous.

Leon. Say, it be; 'tis truc.

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, About his neck, Bohemia; who-if I [hanging 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 [heaven, Plainly, as heaven sees earth, and earth sces How I am galled,-might'st bespice a cup, To give mine enemy a lasting wink; Which draught to me were cordial.

see

Cam. Sir, my lord,

I could do this; and that with no rash potion,
But with a ling'ring dram, that should not work
Maliciously like poison: But I cannot
Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress,
So sovereignly being honourable.
I have lov'd thee,-

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;

I do; and will fetch off Bohemia for't:
Provided, that when he's removed, 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.

Leon. 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 cup-bearer;
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 split'st thine own.

Cam. I'll do't, my lord.

Leon. I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd me.

[exit.

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 have struck anointed kings,
And flourish'd after, I'd not do't: but since
Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not
one,

Let villainy 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.

Enter Polizenes.

Pol. This is strange! methinks, My favour here begins to warp. Good-day, 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

Cam. Hail, most royal sir!
Fol. 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

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 c'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

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 of 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,
His execution sworn.
[thereon
Give me thy hand;
Be pilot to me, and thy places shall
Still neighbour mine: My ships are ready, and

Pol. I do believe thee:

I saw his heart in his face.

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 eye, make known How he hath drank, he cracks his gorge, his sides,

With violent hefts: I have drank, and seen the spider.

Camillo was his help in this, his pander :-
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 pos-
So easily open?
[terns

1 Lord. By his great authority;
Which often hath no less prevail'd than so,
On your command.

Leon. I know't too well.

[him: