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 mè
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 wel

come;

Let what is dear in Sicily, be cheap :

Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's

Apparent to my heart.

Her.

If you would seek us,

We are yours i' the garden: Shall's attend you

there?

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.

7 Pea-cod.

8 Will you be cajoled.

9 May his lot in life be an happy one!
Heir apparent, next claimant.

She arms her with the boldness of a wife
To her allowing husband! Gone already.

2

[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,
Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks she's false: Should all despair,
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves; but 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?

Cam. Ay, my good lord.

Leon. Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest

man.

[Exit MAMILLIUS.

Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor

hold:

When you cast out, it still came home.

Leon.

Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; made His business more material.

Leon.

Didst note it?

Didst perceive it? —

They're here with me already; whispering, round

ing 3,

Sicilia is a so-forth: 'Tis far gone,

4

When I shall gust it last.
That he did stay?
Cam.

2

How came't, Camillo,

At the good queen's entreaty.

Approving. 3 To round in the ear was to tell secretly. 4 Taste.

Leon. At the queen's, be't: good, should be per

tinent;

'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',
Perchance, are to this business purblind: say.
Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most under-

stand

Bohemia stays here longer.

Leon.

Cam.

Leon. Ay, but why?

Ha?

Stays here longer.

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

Leon.

Satisfy

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-councils: wherein, priest-likę, 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

In that which seems so.

Cam.

Be it forbid, my lord! 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

6

From course requir'd: Or else thou must be counted A servant, grafted in my serious trust,

And therein negligent; or else a fool,

That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn, And tak'st it all for jest.

Cam.

My gracious lord,

I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful;

Inferiors in rank.

VOL. IV.

6 To hox is to hamstring....

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 vision 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,

To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought,) then
My wife's a woman that deserves a name
Too rank to mention: 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.

say,

Leon. Is whispering nothing? Is leaning cheek to cheek? stopping the career Of laughter with a sigh? (a note infallible

Of breaking honesty :) wishing clocks more swift? Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes blind

With the pin and web', but theirs, theirs only,
That would unseen be wicked? is this nothing?
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 no-
things,

If this be nothing.

Cam.

Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes;

For 'tis most dangerous.

Leon.

Good my lord, be cur'd

Say, it be; 'tis true.

It is; you

lie, you

lie:

Cam. No, no, my lord.

Leon.
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

About his neck, Bohemia: Who - if I

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

see

- -

Plainly, as heaven sees earth, and earth sees heaven,
How I am galled, thou might'st bespice a cup,
To give mine enemy a lasting wink;
Which draught to me were cordial.
Cam.

Sir, my lord, I could do this; and that with no rash potion,

7 Disorders of the eye.

8 Hasty.