To be full 18 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-dyed blacks 19, 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 20

eye: Sweet villain! Most dear'st! my collop21! —Can thy dam ?—may't

be?
Affection! thy intention stabs the centre 22 :
Thou dost make possible, things not so held;
Communicat’st with dreams;—(How can this be ?)—
With what's unreal thou coactive art,
And fellow'st nothing: Then, 'tis very credent -3,
Thou may’st cojoin 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?

18 i. e. entirely.
19 i.e. old faded stuffs of other colours dyed black.

20 Welkin is blue, i.e. the colour of the welkin or sky. Tooke says, a rolling eye, from the Saxon wealcan, volvere; but the sense in which Shakspeare always uses the word is against him. 21 In King Henry VI. Part 1. we have

God knows, thou art a collop of my flesh.' It is given as a proverbial phrase in Heywood's Epigrams, 1566.

• For I have heard saie it is a deere collup

That is cut out of th' owne flesh.' 22 Affection here means imagination. Intention is earnest consideration, eager attention. It is this vehemence of mind which affects Leontes, by making him conjure up unreal causes of disquiet; and thus, in the poet's language, stabs him to the centre.'

23 Credent, credible. VOL. IV.

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 bosoms ! Looking on the lines
Of my boy's face, methought I did recoil
Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreech'd,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
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 squash24, 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 dole26_

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 stands this squire Offic'd with me: We two will walk, my lord,

25?

24 i. e. an immature pea-pod. In Twelfth Night we have :

• As a squash before it is a peascod, &c. 25 • Will you take eggs for money?' A proverbial phrase for will you suffer yourself to be cajoled or imposed upon ?'

26 i. e. may happiness be his portion! See Merry Wives of Windsor and Taming of the Shrew. So in Ray's Proverbs, p. 136, ed. 1737, 'happy man, happy dole, or happy man by his dole.'

And leave you to your graver steps.--Hermione,
How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's welcome;
Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap:
Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's
Apparent 27 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.
How she holds up the neb 28, the bill to him!
And arms her with the boldness of a wife
To her allowing 29 husband! Gone already!
Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a fork'd

30 one

[Exeunt Por. Her. 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 has been sluic'd in his 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 gates open'd, As mine, against their will : Should all despair, That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind Would hang themselves. Physick for’t there is none; It is a bawdy planet, that will strike

Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north, and south: 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 say.
Leon.

Why, that's some comfort.What! Camillo there?

Cam. Ay, my good lord.
Leon. Go play, Mamillius; thou’rt an honest

[Exit MA

AMILLIUS. 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 31. Leon.

Didst note it? Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; made His business more material 32. Leon.

Didst perceive it?They're here with me already 33 : whispering, round

man.

ing 34

Sicilia is a so-forth: 'Tis far gone,
When I shall gust 35 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 per

36

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 understand
Bohemia stays here longer.
Leon.

Ha?
Cam.

Stays here longer. Leon. Ay, but why?

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, priestlike, 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 37 honesty behind, restraining
From course requir’d: Or else thou must be counted
A servant, grafted in my serious trust,
And therein negligent; or else a fool,

36 Messes is here put for degrees, conditions. The company at great tables were divided according to their rank into higher and lower messes. Those of lower condition sitting below the great standing salt in the centre of the table. Sometimes the messes were served at different tables, and seem to have been arranged into fours, whence the word came to express four in vulgar speech—' a messe (vulgairement) le nombre de quatre.'--Sherwood's Dict. 1632. 37 To hox is to hamstring, the proper word is to hough.