My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools; mistress Has deserved prison, then abound in tears As I come out this action I now go on better grace. Adieu, my lord: I never wish'd to see you sorry; now Is for my I trust I shall. My women, come; you have leave. [Exit Queen, guarded; with Ladies. First Lord. Beseech your highness, call the queen again. Ant. Be certain what you do, sir, lest your justice Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer, Yourself, your queen, your son. First Lord. For her, my lord, I dare my life lay down and will do 't, sir, Ant. If it prove She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her; Than when I feel and see her no farther trust her; For every inch of woman in the world, Ay, every dram of woman's flesh is false, If she be. Leon. Hold your peaces. 118. fools; here a term of tender familiarity. 121. action, lawsuit, trial. 122. for my better grace, to set me in a fairer light. Good my lord,— 120 130 134. I'll keep my stables where I lodge my wife, turn my wife's chamber into a stall,-treat her as I treat my horses and hounds, nay, run in leashes with her myself. Ant. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves: 140 I would land-damn him. Be she honour-flaw'd, I'll geld 'em all; fourteen they shall not see, Should not produce fair issue. Leon. Cease; no more. 150 You smell this business with a sense as cold As is a dead man's nose: but I do see 't and feel't, feel doing thus; and see withal As you The instruments that feel. Ant. If it be so, We need no grave to bury honesty: There's not a grain of it the face to sweeten 141. putter-on, instigator. 143. land-damn. This perplexing word is very possibly a misprint, due to the accidental repetition of the word 'damn' immediately above; the repetition having no stylistic point. Numerous conjectures are recorded by the Camb. edd., e.g. land-damm (Hanmer); laudanum (Farmer); live - damn (Walker); lamback (Collier); Lord, damn (Schmidt). The word has also been regarded as a quibbling variation of landan -a dialectical word still current for the rustic punishment inflicted in various districts upon ⚫slanderers and adulterers'; it What lack I credit? Of the whole dungy earth. Leon. First Lord. I had rather you did lack than I, my lord, Upon this ground; and more it would content me To have her honour true than your suspicion, Be blamed for 't how you might. Leon. Why, what need we Commune with you of this, but rather follow Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative Calls not your counsels, but our natural goodness Or seeming so in skill, cannot or will not Ant. And I wish, my liege, You had only in your silent judgment tried it, Leon. How could that be? Camillo's flight, Either thou art most ignorant by age, Or thou wert born a fool. Added to their familiarity, Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture, Made up to the deed, doth push on this pro- Yet, for a greater confirmation, For in an act of this importance 'twere Most piteous to be wild, I have dispatch'd in post 160 170 180 177. That lack'd sight only, etc., (conjecture) that wanted nothing but ocular evidence to be proof. To sacred Delphos, to Apollo's temple, Leon. Though I am satisfied and need no more Than what I know, yet shall the oracle Give rest to the minds of others, such as he Whose ignorant credulity will not Come up to the truth. So have we thought it good Ant. [Aside] To laughter, as I take it, SCENE II A prison. [Exeunt. Enter PAULINA, a Gentleman, and Attendants. Paul. The keeper of the prison, call to him ; Let him have knowledge who I am. [Exit Gent. Good lady, No court in Europe is too good for thee; Re-enter Gentleman, with the Gaoler. 19 You know me, do you not? Now, good sir, 183. Delphos, Delphi. It is conceived as an island (iii. 1. I), probably through confusion with Delos. Buf in both points Shakespeare was merely follow. ing Greene. 185. stuff'd, adequate. 194. free, accessible to all. 198. raise, rouse, stir up. To lock up honesty and honour from The access of gentle visitors! you, ΤΟ Is 't lawful, pray To see her women? any of them? Emilia ? Gaol. So please you, madam, To put apart these your attendants, I Shall bring Emilia forth. Paul. Withdraw yourselves. Gaol. I pray now, call her. [Exeunt Gentleman and Attendants. I must be present at your conference. [Exit Gaoler. Here's such ado to make no stain a stain As passes colouring. Re-enter Gaoler, with EMILIA. Dear gentlewoman, How fares our gracious lady? Emil. As well as one so great and so forlorn Emil. 20. passes colouring, outdoes all the arts of painting. 20 |