Page images
PDF
EPUB

Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are germane 80 to him, though removed fifty times, shall all come under the hangman; which though it be great pity, yet it is necessary. An old sheepwhistling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer to have his daughter come into grace! Some say, he shall be stoned; but that death is too soft for him, say I: Draw our throne into a sheep-cote! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy. ead thig Clo. Has the old man e'er a son, sir, do you hear, an't like you, sir?

[ocr errors]

Aut. He has a son, who shall be flayed alive; then, 'nointed over with honey, set on the head of a wasps' nest; then stand, till he be three quarters and a dram dead: then recovered again with aquavitae, or some other hot infusion: then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims 81, shall he be set against a brick wall, the sun looking with a southward eye upon him; where he is to behold him, with flies blown to death. But what talk we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be smiled at, their offences being so capital? Tell me (for you seem to be honest plain men what you have to the king: being something gently considered 82, I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your persons to his presence, whisper him in your behalfs; and, if it be in man, besides the king, to effect your suits, here is man shall do it.

[ocr errors]

Clo. He seems to be of great authority: close with him, give him gold; and though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is

gold; show the inside of oft led by the nose with

your purse to the outside of his hand, and no more ado: Remember stoned, and flayed alive.d

80 Germane, related.

81 The hottest day foretold in the almanack.

82 i, e. being handsomely bribed; to consider often signified to reward.

Vol. IV.

5

Shep. An't please you, sir, to undertake the business for us, here is that gold I have: I'll make it as much more; and leave this young man in pawn, till I bring it you. alkalows wan

Aut. After have done what I promised?d wai Shep Ay, sir.lo erlazhy

Aut. Well, give me the moiety:Are you a party in this business? How coefftool

[ocr errors]

Clu. In some sort, sir: but though my case be al pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it. Aut. 0, that's the case of the shepherd's son:Hang him, he'll be made an example.

Clo. Comfort, good comfort: we must to the king, and show our strange sights; he must know, 'tis none of your daughter nor my sister; we are gone else. Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the business is performed; and remain, as he says, your pawn, till it be brought you. Aut. I will trust you. Walk before toward the sea-side; go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you.

[ocr errors]

Clo. We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed, eve

Shep. Let's before, as he bids us; he was provided to do us good. [Exeunt Shepherd and Clown. Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, I see, fortune would not suffer me; she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occasion; gold, and a means to do the prince my master good; which, who knows how that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him; if he think it fit to shore them again, and that the complaint they have to the king concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue, for being so far officious: for I am proof against that title, and what shame else belongs to't: To him I will present them, there may be matter in it.

[Exit.

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

A Room in the Palace of Leontes.

Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, T
As and others. bad adu

Cleo. Sir, you have done enough, and have perform'd

A saintlike s sorrow

: no fault could you make, Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down More penitence, than done trespass: at the last, Do, as the heavens have done; forget your evil! With them, forgive yourself.ashes

Leon. Whilst I remember Her and her virtues, I cannot forget on ella el My blemishes in them; and so still think of A The wrong I did myself: which was so much, That heirless it hath made my kingdom; and Destroy'd the sweet'st companion that e'er man Bred his hopes out of

Paul.

True, too true, my lord:. If, one by one, you wedded all the world, Or, from the all that are, took something good, To make a perfect woman; she, you kill'd, Would be unparallel'd.

I think so.

Kill'd!

Leon. She I kill'd? I did so: but thou strik'st mesoul Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter Upon thy tongue, as in my thought: Now, good now, Say so but seldom.

Cleo. Ap

[ocr errors]

Not at all, good lady: You might have spoken a thousand things that would Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd Your kindness better.da sonde Proin off Paul You are one of of those,

Would have him wed again.

Dion. If you would not so, You pity not the state, nor the remembrance Of his most sovereign dame; consider little,

What dangers, by his highness' fail of issue,.
May drop upon his kingdom, and devour
Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy,
Than to rejoice, the former queen is well1?
What holier, than, for royalty's repair,
For present comfort and for future good,-
To bless the bed of majesty again

With a sweet fellow to't?

Paul.

There is none worthy,

Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods
Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes:
For has not the divine Apollo said,

Is't not the tenour of his oracle,

That king Leontes shall not have an heir,

Till his lost child be found? which, that it shall,
Is all as monstrous to our human reason,
As my Antigonus to break his grave,
And come again to me; who, on my life,
Did perish with the infant. Tis your counsel,
My
lord should to the heavens be contrary,
Oppose against their wills.-Care not for issue:
[To LEONTES.
The crown will find an heir: Great Alexander
Left his to the worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.

Leon.

Good Paulina, Who hast the memory of Hermione,

I know, in honour, O, that ever I

[ocr errors]

Had squar'd me to thy counsel!-then, even now, I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes; Have taken treasure from her lips,

Paul.

And left them

Thou speak'st, truth.

More rich, for what they yielded.
Leon.
No more such wives; therefore, no wife:
: one worse,
And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit

1 i. e. at rest, dead. So in Antony and Cleopatra:-
'Mess. First, madam, he is well.

Cleop. Why, there's more gold; but, sirrah, mark,
We use to say the dead are well.

Again possess her corps; and, on this stage
(Where we offenders now appear), soul-vex'd,
Begin, And why to me??

[blocks in formation]

Had she such power,

She had; and would incense3 me

To murder her I married.
Paul.

I should so:

Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark
Her eye; and tell me, for what dull part in't
You chose her: then I'd shriek, that even your ears
Should rift to hear me; and the words that follow'd
Should be, Remember mine.

Leon.

Stars, stars,

And all eyes else dead coals!-fear thou no wife, I'll have no wife, Paulina.

Paul.

Will you swear Never to marry, but by my free leave?

Leon. Never, Paulina; so be bless'd my spirit! Paul. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.

Cleo. You tempt him over-much.c

Paul.

As like Hermione as is her picture,

Affronts his eye.

Cleo.

Good madam,

Unless another,

The t e.transpo

the anc

2 The old copy reads: "And begin, why to me.'

sition of and was made by Steevens

3 Incense, to instigate or stimulate, was ancient sense of this word; it is rendered in the Latin dictionaries by dare stimulo. So in King Richard III.

Think you, my lord, this little prating York

Was not incensed by his subtle mother?"

4 i. e. split.

5 i. e. meet his eye, or encounter it. Affrontare, Ital, Shakspeare uses this word with the same meaning again in Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 1:

That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia.

And in Cymbeline: Your preparation can affront no less than what you hear of. The word is used in the same sense by Ben Jonson, and even by Dryden. Lodge, in the Preface to his Translation of Seneca, says, 'No soldier is counted valiant that affronteth not his enemie.'

« PreviousContinue »