Page images
PDF
EPUB

Your master quits you: and, for your service, In recompence whereof, he hath marry'd her.
done him,
How with a sportful malice it was follow'd,
So much against the metal of your sex, [To Viola. May rather pluck on laughter than revenge;
So far beneath your foft and tender breeding,
And fince you call'd me mafter for fo long,
Here is my hand; you shall from this time be
Your matter's miftrefs.

Oli. A futer?-you are she.

If that the injuries be justly weigh'd,
That have on both fides past.

Oli. Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee 4?

Clo. Why, "fome are born great, fome atchieve Re-enter Fabian, with Malvolio. "greatness, and fome have greatness thrown upon Duke. Is this the madman? [volio? " them." I was one, fir, in this interlude; one Sir Oli. Ay, my lord, this fame: How now, Mal- Topas, fir; but that's all one:"By the Lord, Mal. Madam, you have done me wrong, no- "fool, I am not mad!"-But do you remember, torious wrong. madam, "Why laugh you at fuch a barren rascal? Oli. Have I, Malvolio? no. [letter:" an you fmile not, he's gagg'd:" And thus the Mal. Lady, you have, Pray you, peruse that whirligig of time brings in his revenges. You must not now deny it is your hand, Write from it, if you can, in hand, or phrafe : Or fay, 'tis not your feal, nor your invention: You can fay none of this: Well, grant it then, And tell me, in the modesty of honour,

Why you have given me fuch clear lights of favour;
Badę me come smiling, and cross-garter'd to you,
To put on yellow stockings, and to frown
Upon Sir Toby, and the lighter people:
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you fuffer'd me to be imprifon'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the prieft,
And made the most notorious geck 2, and gull,
That e'er invention play'd on? tell me why?

Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confefs, much like the character:
But, out of question, 'tis Maria's hand.
And now I do bethink me, it was the
First told me, thou waft mad; then cam'ft in smiling,
And in fuch forms which here were presuppos'd
Upon thee in the letter. Pr'ythee, be content:
This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee;
But, when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
Of thine own caufe.

Fab. Good madam, hear me speak:
And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come,
Taint the condition of this prefent hour,
Which I have wondred at. In hope it shall not,
Most freely I confefs, myself, and Toby,
Set this device against Malvolio here,
Upon fome stubborn and uncourteous parts
We had conceiv'd against him: Maria writ
The letter, at Sir Toby's great importance 3;

Mal, I'll be reveng'd on the whole pack of you. [Exit,

Oli. He hath been most notoriously abus'd.
Duke. Purfue him, and intreat him to a peace:-
He hath not told us of the captain yet;
When that is known, and golden time convents 5,
A folemn combination shall be made

Of our dear fouls: -Mean time, sweet fifter,
We will not part from hence. Cefario, come;
For fo you shall be, while you are a man;
But, when in other habits you are feen,
Orfino's mittress, and his fancy's queen. [Exeunts.
Clown fings.

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With bey, bo, the wind and the rain,

A foolish thing was but a toy,

For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,
With hey, bo, &c.

'Gainst knaves and thieves, men fout their gate,
For the rain, &c.

But when I came, alas! to wίνε,
With bey, bo, &c.

By fwaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain, &c.

But when I came unto my beds,
With bey, bo, &c.

With tofs-pots ftill bad drunken beads,
For the rain, &c.

A great while ago the world begun,
With bey, bo, &c.

But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day. [Exit.

• Meaning, people of less dignity or importance. 2 i. e. fool. 3 Importance is importunement. Baffled in this place means, treated with the greatest ignominy imaginable. 5 i. e. calls us to gether again.

WINTER'S

[blocks in formation]

Satyrs for a dance, Shepherds, Shepherdeffes, Guards, and Attendants.

SCENE, fometimes in Sicilia, Sometimes in Bohemia.

[blocks in formation]

F you shall chance, Camillo, to vifit Bohemia, on the like occafion whereon my fervices are now on foot, you shall fee, as I

Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then fuch an affection, which cannot chuse but branch now. Since their more mature dignities, and royal neceffities, made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attorney'd, with interchange of gifts, letters, loving though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; and

have faid, great difference betwixt our Bohemia embaffies; that they have feem'd to be together, and your Sicilia.

Cam. I think, this coming summer, the king embrac'd, as it were, from the ends of opposed

of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the vifitation which he juftly owes him.

Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be justified in our loves: for, indeed, Cam. 'Befeech you,

winds. The heavens continue their loves!

Arch. I think, there is not in the world either malice, or matter, to alter it. You have an unfpeakable comfort of your young prince Mamillius; it is a gentleman of the greatest promife, that ever came into my note.

Arch. Verily, I fpeak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with fuch magnificenceCam. I very well agree with you in the hopes in fo rare-I know not what to fay. We will of him: It is a gallant child; one that, indeed, give you fleepy drinks; that your fenfes, unin- physicks the subject 2, makes old hearts fresh: telligent of our infufficience, may, though they they, that went on crutches ere he was born, decannot praise us, as little accufe us.

Cam. You pay a great deal too dear, for what's given freely.

Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honefty puts it to ut

terance.

Cam. Sicilia cannot shew himself over kind to

fire yet their life, to fee him a man.

Arch. Would they else be content to die?

Cam. Yes; if there were no other excufe why they should defire to live.

Arch. If the king had no fon, they would defire to live on crutches 'till he had one.

[Exeunt.

1 Vaflam is the ancient term for wafle uncultivated land; over a vast, therefore, means at a great and vacant distance from each other. 2 Meaning, has the power of affuaging the fenfe of mifery.

SCENE

SCENE II.

A Room of State.

Enter Leontes, Hermione, Mamillius, Polixenes, Gamillo, and Attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the wat'ry star hath been The shepherd's note, fince we have left our throne Without a burden: time as long again

Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks; And yet we should, for perpetuity,

Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cypher, Yet standing in rich place, I multiply,

With one we thank you, many thousands more That go before it.

Leo. Stay your thanks a while;

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 abfence: That may blow
No fneaping winds at home, to make us fay,
This is put forth too truly! Besides, I have ftay'd
To tire your royalty.

Leo. We are tougher, brother,

Than you can put us to't.

Pol. No longer stay.

Leo. One feven-night longer.
Pol. Very footh, to-morrow.

[that

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

Pol. Press me not, 'beseech you, fo; [world,
There is no tongue that moves; none, none i' the
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,
To you, a charge, and trouble: to fave both,
Farewell, our brother.

Leo. Tongue-ty'd, our qusen? speak you.
Her. I had thought, fir, to have held my peace,

until

You had drawn oaths from him, not to stay. You, fir,
Charge him too coldly: Tell him, you are fure,
All in Bohemia's well this fatisfaction

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

Leo. Well faid, Hermione.

Her. To tell, he longs to fee his son, were strong: But let him say so then, and let him go; But let him swear fo, and he shall not stay, We'll thwack him hence with diftaffs.Yet of your royal prefence I'll adventure

[To Polixenes.

The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
You take my lord, I'll give you my commiffion,
To let him there a month, behind the gest 3
Prefix'd for his parting: yet, good deed 4, Leontes,
I love thee not a jars o' the clock behind

What lady she her lord. You'll stay?

Pol. No, madam.

Her. Nay, but you will? Pol. I may not, verily.

Her. Verily!

You put me off with limber vows: But I, [oaths,
Though you would feek to unfphere the stars with
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 prifoner,

Not like a guest; so you shall pay your fees, [you?
When you depart, and save your thanks. How fay
My prifoner? or my guest? by your dread verily,
One of them you shall be.

Pol. Your guest then, madam:
To be your prifoner, should import offending;
Which is for me less easy to commit,
Than you to punish.

Her. Not your gaoler then,

But your kind hoftess. 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 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 frifk 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 purfu'd that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd
With stronger blood, we should have answer'd

heaven

Boldly, Not guilty; the impofition clear'd, Hereditary ours 7.

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 those unfiedg'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 say,
Your queen and I are devils: Yet, go on;
The offences we have made you do, we'll answer;
If you first finn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you flipp'd not
With any but with us.

Leo. Is he won yet?

Her. He'il stay, my lord.

Leo. At my request, he would not. Hermione, my deareft, thou never spok'st To better purpose.

That is here put for Oh! The meaning is, "Oh, that no sneaping (or checking) winds at home may blow." 2 i. e. hinder or detain. 3 Gel fignifies a flage or journey. In the time of royal progreffes the king's stages, as we may fee by the journals of them in the Heralds Office, were called his gefts; from the old French word gifte, diverforium. 4 i. e. indeed, or in very deed. 5 i. e. a fingle vibration, or ticking, made by the pendulum of a clock. A diminutive of lord. 7 Setting afide original An; bating the umposition from the oficace of our fust parents, we might have boldly protested our

innocence to heaven.

Her.

[blocks in formation]

Leo. Why, that was when
Three crabbed months had four'd themselves to
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clap 2 thyself my love; then didft thou utter,
"I am yours for ever."

Her. It is Grace, indeed

That will fay any thing: But were they false
As o'er-dy'd blacks, as winds, as waters; falfe
As dice are to be wish'd, by one that fixes
No bourn 9 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true
To say, this boy were like me. Come, fir page,
Look on me with your welkin-eye 10: Sweet villain!
Most dear'it! my collop!-Can thy dam? may't
Affection 2! thy intention flabs the center. [be?
Thou dott make poflible things not fo held,
Communicat it with dreams, How can this be?-
With what's unreal; thou coactive art,

And fellow 'it nothing: Then, 'tis very credent 13,
Thou may'ft co-join with fomething; and thou doft;
And that beyond comminion; and I find it,
And that to the infection of my brains,
And hardning of my brows.

Pol. What means Sicilia ?

Her. He fomething feems unfettled.
Pol. How? my lord?

[ther 14?

Leo. What cheer? how is't with you, beft bro-
He. You look,

[twice: As if you held a brow of much distraction:
Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose Are you mov'd, my lord?
The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;
The other, for fome while a friend.

Leo. No, in good earneft.

How fometimes nature will betray its folly,
[Giving ber band to Polixenes. Its tenderness; and make itself a pastime

Leo. Too hot, too hot:
[fide.
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 padling palms, and pinching fingers,
As now they are; and making practis'd smiles,
As in a looking-glass; and then to figh, as 'twere
The mort o'the deer; oh, that is entertainment
My bofom likes not, nor my brows. Mamillius,
Art thou my boy?.

Mam. Ay, my good lord.
Leo. I'fecks?

[thy nofe ?

Why, that's my bawcock 4. What, hait fmutch'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

[Obferving Polixenes and Hermione. Upon his palm ? - How now, you wanton calf? Art thou my calf ?

Mam. Yes, if you will, my lord.

To harder bofoms!-Looking on the lines
Of my boy's face, methoughts, I did recoil
Twenty-three years; and faw myself unbreeched,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Left it should bite its mafter, and so prove,
As ornament oft does, too dangerous.
How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This squash, this gentleman :-Mine honeft friend,
Will you take eggs for money 15 ?

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

Leo. You will? why, happy man be his dole 16 1
My brother,

Are you fo fond of your young prince, as we
Do feem to be of ours ?

Pol. If at home, fir,

He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter;
Now my fworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parafite, my foldier, states-man, all:
He makes a July's day short as December;
And, with his varying childness, cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.

Leo. So ftands this squire

Offic'd with me: We two will walk, my lord,
And leave you to your graver steps.-Hermione,

Leo. Thou want'st a rough pam, and the shoots 7 How thou lov'st us, thew in our brother's welcome;

that I have,

To be full like me:-yet, they fay, we are
Almost as like as eggs; women fay so,

Let what is dear in Sicily, be cheap:
Next to thyfelf, and my young rover, he's
Apparent 47 to my heart.

1 Meaning, to come to the point, or purpose. 2 Alluding to the custom of people clapping the palms of their hands together when they conclude or make a bargain. Hence the phrafe - to clup up a bargain. 3 A lesson upon the horn at the death of the deer. 4 Perhaps derived from beau and coq. We still fay that fuch a one is a jolly cock, a cock of the game. 5 A virginal is a very nall kind of spinnet. 6 Pash is kiss, from paz Spanish. i. e. thou want'st a mouth made rough by a beard to kiss with. 1 Shoots are branches, i. e. horns. Leontes is alluding to the enfigns of cuckoldom. 8 Blacks was the common term for mourning. 9 Bourn is boundary. 10 i. e. blue eye; an eye of the fame colour with the welkin, or sky.i.e. a piece or flice of myself. 12 Affection here means imagination. credible. 14 This line would feem to belong to the preceding spcaker. 15 A proverbial faying, borrowed from the French, and implying, Will you put up affronts? 16 Another proverbial expreffion, meaning, "May his dole or share in lite be to be a happy man." 17 Meaning, next to my heart.

13 i. e.

Her.

Her. If you would feek us, [there? More than the common blocks:-Not noted, is't, We are yours i' the garden: Shall's attend you But of the finer natures? by fome severals, Leo. To your own bents difpose you: you'll Of head-piece extraordinary? lower messes 6, be found,

[blocks in formation]

[Exeunt Polixenes, Hermione, and attendants.
To her allowing husband! Gone already; [one.-
Inch-thick, knee-deep! o'er head and ears a fork'd
Go, play, boy, play;-thy mother plays, and I
Play too; but so disgrac'da 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,
Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks she hath been fluic'd in his absence,
And his pond fifh'd by his next neighbour, by

Sir Smile, his neighbour: nay, there's comfort in't,
Whiles other men have gates; and those gates
open'd,

As mine, against their will: Should all defpair,
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Phyfick for't there is none;
It isa bawdy planet, that will ftrike

Where'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From eaft, weft, north, and fouth: 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 fay.

Leo. Why, that's fome comfort.

What? Camillo there?

Cam. Ay, my good lord.

Perchance, are to this business purblind: fay.
Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most under-
[ftand

Bohemia stays here longer.

Leo. Ha?

Cam. Stays here longer.

Leo. Ay, but why?

Cam. To fatisfy your highness, and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress.

Leo. Satisfy

The entreaties of your mistress ?-fatisfy?-
Let that fuffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
My chamber-councils: wherein, prieft-like, thou
Haft cleans'd my bofom; I from thee departed
Thy penitent reform'd: but we have been
Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd
In that which feems fo.

Cam. Be it forbid, my lord!

Leo. To bide upon't;-Thou art not honeft: or,
If thou inclin'ft that way, thou art a coward;
Which hoxes 7 honesty behind, reftraining [counted
From course requir'd: Or else thou must be
A fervant, grafted in my ferious truft,
And therein negligent; or elfe a fool;
That feeft a game play'd home, the rich stake
And tak'it it all for jest.

Cam. My gracious lord,

[drawn,

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 induttriously

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,

Lro. Go, play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest | Whereof the execution did cry out

man.

[Exit Mamillius. Camillo, this great fir will yet stay longer.

Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor hold;
When you caft out, it ftill came home 2.
Leo. Didft note it?

Cam. He would not stay at your petitions;

His business more material 3.

Leo. Didft perceive it ?

made

[ing 4.

They're here with me already; whispering, roand-
Sicilia is a fo-forth: 'Tis far gone,

When I shall guft 5 it latt. How came't, Camillo,
That he did stay?

Cam. At the good queen's entreaty.

[tinent;

Against the non-performance, 'twas a fear
Which oft infects the wifest: these, my lord,
Are fuch allow'd infirmities, that honesty
Is never free of. But, beseech your grace,
Be plainer with me; let me know my trefpats
By its own visage: if I then deny it,
'Tis none of mine.

Leo. Have not you feen, Camillo,

(But that's past doubt you have: or your eye-glafs
Is thicker than acuckold's horn) or heard,
For, to a vifion to apparent, rumour
Cannot be mute) or thought, (for cogitation
Refides not in that man, that does not think it)

Leo. At the queen's, be't: good, thould be per- My wife is flippery? If thou wilt, confefs;

Bat so it is, it is not. Was this taken

By any understanding pate but thine?

For thy conceit is foaking, will draw in

Or elfe be impudently negative,

To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought: Then say,
My wife's a hobby-horse; deserves a name

That is, a horned one; a cuckold. 2 Meaning, the anchor would not take hold. 3 More urgent and important, 4 i. c. rounding in the ear (whispering, or telling fecretly) a phrafe in ufe at that time. S i. e. tafte it. 6 Mes is a contraction of mister, an appellation ufed by the Scot Lower mefles, therefore, are graduates of a lower form. The speaker is now inentioning gradations of understanding, and not of rank. 7 To hox is to ham-string. 7 Meaning, that the att was not neceffary to be done.

As

« PreviousContinue »